munatAlkni. xciii 



the two latter alluding to rumblings below the earth's surface. lu the song 

 192; 3 the term luimula should be changed to t'liiimola, temula, ivas covered 

 with haze or mist, a phenomenon often producing malarial and other fevers, 

 and therefore regarded by these Indians as of bad augury. Other passages 

 mentioning the Earth, personified or not, are quoted in Dictionary, p. 123; 

 in one of these, K'mukamtch is threatening to " whirl the earth around" in 

 a dance, and probably this song forms part of some mythic story. (Texts, 

 pg. 192; 9.) 



munatIlkni. 



Besides the Earth there is another chthonic deity known to the Kla- 

 math people, Munatalkni or the Genius of the Underworld. I have met his 

 name in one story only, which is that of the creation and first sojourn 

 of the people around Wood River, l)etween Fort Klamath and the Upper 

 Klamath Lake. English-speaking Indians readily identify him with our 

 devil; Init no wicked or immoral qualities are ascribed to him, as morals 

 enter into the religious ideas of the hunter tribes but sporadically. There 

 is something of the aboriginal in him, and he is also called Lemunakni, the 

 signification of both names being analogous. 



He appears in the following tale: When K'mukamtch created this 

 world, he made one man, and one woman intended to be the man's sister. 

 The creator placed them in a garden (hashuash) studded with trees produc- 

 ing sweet fruits and built a house for them. The adjoining stable con- 

 tained domestic animals for tlieir use. All this was upon the prairie 

 Avatered by Wood River. Man and woman were both blind, and had to 

 remain so until the fruits would be ripe. K'mukamtch told them he would 

 visit them on a Sunday and would knock at the top of their house. Should 

 anybody knock at the door, the knocks would be those of Munatalkni and 

 they nuist not open, ilunatalkni came and knocked at the door, informing 

 them that the fruits were ripe and that he brought them all kinds of berries. 

 The woman said to the man: "Open the door, K'mukamtch is here!" but 

 the man said: "Don't open; it is not K'mukamtch who stands at the door!" 

 The woman opened; Munatalkni put one sweet berry in her mouth and she 

 tasted it. He was wearing a long lieail-dress of feathers tied to the top of 

 his hair, his eiTiblem as conjurer, and this string of feathers was so long as 



