Part 6

"Oh, daylight, come quickly; be here right away! I am almost cut in two I am so dry. Oh, daylight, come quickly!" groaned Hubit.

No one mentioned another Hlahi. So Olelbis talked on,--

"All the people said that Kopus was a good Hlahi. That is why I got him; but he is not a good Hlahi for water. Now we will get Sanihas Yupchi, the archer of daylight, who lives in the farthest east, he is the son of Sanihas. He is small, but he is a great Hlahi. Lutchi, you must go now for Sanihas Yupchi. Here are one hundred yellowhammer-wing arrows for him, all red, and many others."

Lutchi went to the east end of the sweat-house, danced a little, sprang onto the sweat-house, danced a little more, and then whizzed away through the air. Lutchi travelled all day and all night, reached the place about daylight next morning, and said to Sanihas,--

"Olelbis sent me here to ask your son to come and hlaha for him. He sends you all these five hundred arrows made of kewit reed and one hundred yellowhammer-wing arrows to come and hlaha."

"You must go," said Sanihas to her son, "and I will follow you. Olelbis is a yapaitu himself; he ought to know where that woman is,--he thinks that he knows everything; but you go and hlaha, and hear what your yapaitu tells you."

Sanihas Yupchi started, and was at the sweat-house in Olelpanti next morning just as the sun was rising. He went into the sweat-house, and Olelbis gave him many things.

"Give me tobacco," said Sanihas Yupchi. "I am going to hlaha."

Olelbis gave him a pipe with tobacco; he smoked it out and was not possessed. Olelbis gave him another pipeful, and he smoked it out, but was not possessed. He smoked out ten pipefuls, and then people said,--

"I am afraid that the yapaitu will not come to him."

He smoked twenty more pipefuls, still he was not possessed; then twenty more, did not hlaha.

"He is no Hlahi," cried people on all sides; "if he were, the yapaitu would have come to him long ago."

"The yapaitu he is waiting for does not live near this sweat-house; he is very far away," said Toko. "Give him more tobacco."

They gave him five pipefuls, then four, then one more,--sixty in all; after that a yapaitu came to him.

"The yapaitu has come," said Olelbis. "I want you to look everywhere and learn all you can; my children are nearly dead from lack of water; you must tell where Mem Loimis is."

Sanihas Yupchi began to sing, and he said, "I will have the spirit dance to-night; the two Tsudi girls may sing for me."

He danced twenty nights and days without saying a word,--danced twenty days and nights more. The two Tsudi girls sang all the time. Then Sanihas Yupchi sat down, said nothing; he had found out nothing.

Again he danced five days and nights, then four days and nights, then one day and one night more. After that he sat down and said,--

"I am going to speak. The place of which I am going to tell is a long way from here, but I am going to talk and let you hear what I say. Did any one see which way this woman Mem Loimis went?"

One person answered: "She went west a short distance to get something. That was the last seen of her."

"Was anything the matter with that woman?" asked Sanihas Yupchi. "Does any one know?"

"Yes," said Olelbis, "she was with child."

"Well, while she was out, a man came to her and took her away with him, took her far north and then east beyond the first Kolchiken Topi, where the sky comes down, where the horizon is; he took her to the place where he lives, and he lives in Waiti Kahi Pui Hlut. His name is Kahit, and after he took her home they lived pleasantly together till her child was born. Kahit did not claim that child as his. After a while Mem Loimis grew angry at Kahit, left her child with him, and went eastward, went to the other side of the second horizon. She stayed there awhile, and gave birth to two sons, children of Kahit. Then she went farther east to a third horizon, went to the other side of that, stayed there, is living there now. The boy that was born when she lived with Kahit was Sotchet. Sotchet's father was Olelbis. When the child grew up a little, Kahit said to him: 'Your father lives in Olelpanti.'"

Sanihas Yupchi told all this, and said to Wokwuk and Kut, the two sons of Olelbis,--

"Your mother has gone a long way from here. Mem Loimis is far from you. She is very far east. If I were at home, I could go to her quickly, but I am here. Now you must go and see your mother. In the far east you have two brothers, Kahit's sons. When you have passed three Kolchiken Topis, three horizons, you will see them, and they will know you. The way to your mother and brothers is long. That is what my yapaitu says to me--my yapaitu is the Winishuyat of Patkilis."

Sanihas Yupchi was Tsaroki Sakahl, a great person.

Wokwuk and Kut, the two sons of Olelbis by Mem Loimis, went away east. Patkilis's Winishuyat, the yapaitu of Sanihas Yupchi, said that he would go and help them till they had passed the second horizon. They did not see him. He was invisible.

They travelled one day, came to the first horizon, and passed that; then travelled a second day, reached the second horizon, and passed that. The yapaitu, Patkilis's Winishuyat, told them then how to pass the third horizon, and, having given every useful direction, went back to Sanihas Yupchi.

Sanihas Yupchi was waiting all this time in Olelpanti. Olelbis's elder son, Wokwuk, had tied the hair on top of his head with a young grapevine and thrust a chirtchihas bone through it--his father had given him this bone at starting. With this bone he was to raise the sky. He put it under the edge of the sky and raised it. When he and his brother had passed through, the sky came down with a terrible noise. When they had passed the third sky, they could see far east. Everything was nice there and looked clear, just as it does here at daylight when all is bright and beautiful. After going a short distance they saw two boys coming toward them. Soon the four met.

"Hello, brothers!" called out the other two.

"Who are you?" asked Wokwuk. "How do you know that we are your brothers?"

"We know because our mother talks about you always. She told us this morning that we must go out and play to-day. 'Perhaps you will see your brothers,' said she to us; 'perhaps they will come, we do not know.' You have come, and now we will go to our mother."

When they reached the house, on the third evening, the two sons of Olelbis stood by the door while Kahit's two sons ran in and said: "Mother, our brothers have come!"

Mem Loimis was lying at the east end of the house. She was lying on a mem terek, water buckskin; her blanket was a mem nikahl, a water blanket.

"Well, tell them to come in."

The brothers went in. Mem Loimis rose and said,--

"Oh, my sons, I think of you always. I live far away from where you do, and you have travelled a long road to find me." She spread the mem terek on the ground, and said: "Sit down here and rest."

"My mother," said the elder son of Olelbis, "my brother is very dry. We have had no water in Olelpanti for many years. Did you think that we could live without water?"

"I could not help your loss. What could I do?" said Mem Loimis. "I was stolen away and carried far north, and from there I came to this place; but your father is my husband. He knows everything; he can make anything, do anything, see everything, but he did not know that I was here. You shall have water, my children; water in plenty."

She held a basket to her breast then and took water from it, as a nursing mother would take milk, filled the basket, and gave it to the boys. She gave them plenty to eat, too, and said,--

"You boys are all my children. You are sons of Mem Loimis. I am here now; but if there should be disturbance, if trouble were to rise, my husband Kahit would come and take me away. He told me so. Some day my husband Olelbis will know his son in the north who is living with Kahit. Some day my husband Olelbis will think of me; he may want me to come to him, he may wish to see me."

Wokwuk and Kut stayed five days with their mother, then one day, and after that one day more. Sanihas Yupchi, who was dancing and chanting in Olelpanti continually, said after the boys had gone:

"Get me a suhi kilo" (a striped basket).

Olelbis got him the suhi kilo, a little basket about two inches around, and very small inside. Sanihas Yupchi put it in the middle of the sweat-house. Nine days more passed, and Sanihas Yupchi was dancing all the time.

That morning Mem Loimis said to Kut, the youngest son of Olelbis,--

"Your uncle Mem Hui, an old man, who lives at the first horizon west of Olelpanti, is dry. He is thirsting for water. Take water to him. Your elder brother will stay here with me while you are gone."

Sanihas Yupchi had danced fifty-nine days. On the sixtieth evening Mem Loimis gave Kut a basketful of water for his uncle in the west.

"Go," said she, "straight west to where the old man lives. When you have reached Mem Hui with the water, I will go and see my son Sotchet in the north. I hear him cry all the time. He is dry. I will carry him water."

She gave Kut, in a net bag before he started, ten gambling sticks cut from grapevine. She tied the bag around his neck, and said,--

"Son of Mem Loimis, you will be a bola heris; you will be a great gambler."

Kut was a very quick traveller, and could go in one night as far as his brother in many nights and days. He started. There were holes in the bottom of the basket, and as he went over the sky, high above the top of Olelpanti Hlut, the water dropped and dropped through the holes in the basket, and just before morning one drop fell from the basket which Kut was carrying, and dropped into the basket which Sanihas Yupchi had placed in the middle of the sweat-house at Olelpanti.

No one saw the water come, but in the morning the little basket was full; the one drop filled it.

"Now," said Sanihas Yupchi, "I have worked as Hlahi all this time, and that drop of water is all that I can get. You see it in the basket."

The little basket in Olelbis's house that the one drop filled stood there, and Olelbis said,--

"Now you are dry, all you people in this sweat-house. You are thirsty, you are anxious for water. Here is one drop of water. We do not know who will drink first; but there is an old man on the west side of the sweat-house crying all the time, crying night and day, for water. Let him come and look at it." He meant Hubit.

Hubit stood up, came, looked at the basket and said: "What good is this to me? There is only a drop there. It will do me no good."

"Drink what there is; you talk so much about water," replied all the others, "that you would better drink."

"That drop can do no good to any one."

"Well, take a taste, anyhow," said Olelbis; "it will not hurt you."

"I don't want a taste, I want a drink," answered Hubit.

"Take a drink, then," said Olelbis.

Hubit began to drink. He drank and drank, took his belt off about the middle of the forenoon, put his head on the edge of the basket and drank from morning till midday, drank till two men had to carry him away from the water and lay him down at the upper end of the sweat-house.

Though Hubit drank half a day, the water in the basket was no less.

Kiriu Herit drank next. He drank long, but did not lower the water. After him Sutunut drank till he was satisfied; then Moihas drank all he wanted.

"Let all come and drink. When each has enough, let him stand aside," said Olelbis.

Tsararok drank, and then Kuntihle drank; then Hus and Tsurat; after them the old women, Pakchuso Pokaila, the grandmothers of Olelbis, drank; then Toko; then Kopus drank. But the people murmured, saying,--

"Kopus is no Hlahi; he ought not to have any of our water. He is only good for acorns."

The two Tsudi girls, who had sung so long, drank very heartily.

Lutchi lived outside, east of the sweat-house; they called him to drink. He took one sip and went out. Lutchi never liked water.

Now Sanihas Yupchi, who had brought the water, drank of it; and last of all, Olelbis.

When all were satisfied, and Toko had gone back and lain down in his place north of the sweat-house, the basket was put near him; and ever after Toko had water in abundance, and so had every one.

There was plenty of water ever after in Olelpanti for all uses; but if Sanihas Yupchi had not brought it, all might have perished for want of water.

"I will go home now," said Sanihas Yupchi, after he had drunk. He wished well to every one and went away.

When Kut was carrying the basket westward, every drop that fell made a spring,--wherever a drop fell a spring appeared.

NORWAN

This myth, which recalls the Helen of Troy tale, is extremely interesting both as regards personages and structure. At present I shall make but few remarks, and those relating only to personages. Hluyuk Tikimit, quivering porcupine, known here as Norwan, is the cause of the first war in the world. The porcupine in American mythology is always connected with sunlight, so far as my researches go, and Norwan is connected with daylight, for she dances all day, never stops while there is light. Her title of Bastepomas, food-giving, is also significant, and would help to show that she is that warm, dancing air which we see close to the earth in fine weather, and which is requisite for plant growth. We have another "light" person in this myth, Sanihas, who is light in a generic sense, daylight generally and everywhere. The root Sa in Sanihas is identical with Sa in Sas, the Wintu word for "sun." Sa means "light" and Sas "for light," _i. e._ for the purpose of giving light. Sanihas is the light which is given.

In Bastepomas, the title given by Olelbis to Norwan, the first syllable ba means "to eat," bas means "for to eat" or food, tep means "to give," and tepomas "she who gives;" the whole word means "she who gives food."

Chulup Win Herit, the great chief, the white, pointed stone who lives on the bed of the great eastern water, the ocean, the husband of Sanihas, has a counterpart in Tithonos, the husband of Eos or Aurora, in classic mythology. Both had beautiful wives, and were visited by them nightly in the bed of the ocean. Chulup's tragedy is somewhat greater, for he is caught by Wai Karili and pounded into bits near the present Mt. Shasta, while Tithonos is only changed into a cricket. Eos, the Latin Aurora, was considered as the whole day by most poets, and Sanihas in Wintu mythology is the whole day, all the light that Sas gives.

There was a reason why Norwan preferred Tede Wiu to Norbis, but we can only infer it at present. The present Wiu bird is brown, and has no significance in this connection, but there was a red Wiu, the bird into which the Tede Wiu who fought with Norbis was changed. That he was a person who might be preferred by Norwan, herself a special form of light, is evident when we consider the immense importance in European tradition of the robin-redbreast and of the red-headed woodpecker among Indians.

That Norwan, food-giving light on the earth, was worth fighting for, is evident.

PERSONAGES

After each name is given that of the beast, bird, or thing into which the personage was changed subsequently.

=Bisus=, mink; =Boki=, sturgeon; =Búlibok=, a small nighthawk; =Chali Dokos=, obsidian; =Chati Wai Halina=, pine-nut bug; =Chir Chuma=, sucker; =Cho=, blackbird; =Chuchu=, dog; =Chulup Win=, a pointed rock; =Chutuhl=, a small bird that goes in flocks; =Dokos=, flint; =Dokos Hilit=, flint fly; =Hamam=, the longest black feather in the tail of the black vulture; =Hau=, red fox; =Hawt=, eel; =Héssiha=, tomtit; =Hlihli=, acorn; =Hluyuk Tikimit=, quivering porcupine; =Ho=, polecat; =Hokohas=, mud turtle; =Hus=, turkey buzzard; =Kahi Buli Pokaila=, wind mountain old woman; =Kahit=, wind; =Kaisus=, gray squirrel; =Kar=, blue heron; =Karili=, coon; =Katsi=, chicken hawk; =Kaukau=, white heron; =Kawas=, basket; =Keli=, flint from which knives are made; =Kichi Not=, a kind of arrow; =Kíchuna=, a small bird that frequents rocks; =Kilichepis=, ----; =Kiri Hubit=, a kind of wasp; =Kobalus=, a shell; =Koip=, a small bird which calls "koip"; =Kopus=, a small night-owl; =Kot=, diver; =Kóyumus=, a flint of mixed colors; =Kukupiwit=, crooked breast; =Nomdal Lenas=, streaks in the west; =Nomel Hiwili=, a bird with white-tipped wings which comes down with a buzz very quickly; =Nom Sowiwi=, ----; =Nom Toposloni=, west fir bark; =Norbis=, dwelling or sitting in the south; =Nórhara Chepmis=, heavy south wind with rain; =Norpatsas=, southern fire sparks; =Norwan=, ----; =Notudui Ulumus=, he stoops and picks up stones; =Pai Homhoma=, he buzzes in the manzanita; =Patkilis=, jack rabbit; =Puiké Tsumu=, a deep red flint; =Saiai Not=, hollow arrow; =Saias=, white flint; =Sánihas=, daylight; =Sau=, acorn bread; =Sawe=, mixed white and blue flint; =Sedit=, coyote; =Séhinom Chábutu=, chicken hawk; =Serin Dólite=, small bumble-bee; =Siriwit=, whirlwind; =Sútunut=, black eagle; =Tede Wiu=, a small brown bird about as large as an English sparrow; =Tenek Not=, a kind of arrow; =Tidok=, ant; =Tsánteris=, a kind of shell; =Tsotso tokos=, a small very adhesive burr; =Tsudi=, mouse; =Tsuini=, a kind of small fish; =Tubuk=, ----; =Tuichi kelis=, feathered head net; =Wai Charatawa=, ----; =Waida Werris=, polar star; =Wainom Yola=, northwestern snow; =Wai Hau=, northern red fox; =Wai Not=, northern arrow; =Wik=, small night hawk; =Wai Karili=, northern coon; =Wul Wuhl=, linnet; =Yípokus=, black fox.

* * * * *

At a place east of Pas Puisono a woman came up out of the earth. Her name was Hluyuk Tikimit. She had another name, Pom Norwanen Pitchen. We call her also Norwan.

She appeared before the present Wintu people came out of the ground, at Tsarau Heril.

"I am in this world now," said Norwan to herself. "I will look around everywhere to see from what places people are coming."

She lived alone in her sweat-house, which was called Norwan Buli Hlut, remained in the house and danced during daylight.

Olelbis looked down at this woman and said,--

"This is my sister, who has come up before the new people on earth. I don't know what she will do yet."

When Olelbis was building his sweat-house in Olelpanti, he cut a piece from a white-oak tree, and this piece rolled down outside the sky to the lower world, where it became a people in Nor Puiken, in the southeast, and that people were there before the present Wintus came out of the ground at Tsarau Heril.

"My dear sister has come up before the Wintus, and will be with them hereafter," said Olelbis. "I have not settled yet how her work is to be, have not made her ready for it."

He put his hand toward the southeast then, and took yósoü (a plant that has a red blossom). He gave this plant to Norwan, and said,--

"Take this, my sister, and when you dance use it as a staff. It will have a blossom on the top which will be blooming always."

He reached southeast to the same place, took a small bird, plucked a feather from each wing, gave the feathers to Norwan, and said,--

"My sister, thrust these through your hair, just above your forehead, one on each side. These feathers will begin to sing in the morning early; you will know by them at what time you must begin to dance."

He stretched his hand again to the southeast, and took buri luli, which is a little red blossom that grows in spring on a plant about a foot high. He gave the blossoms to Norwan and said,--

"Roll this in your hands, crush it, put the juice on your face, and make your cheeks red."

Olelbis turned then to his grandmothers, who were standing near by, and asked if they had acorns.

"We have," said they. "We have plenty."

Olelbis took a handful, gave them to his sister, and said,--

"When you shell these acorns, rub them between your palms and hold your hands open; blow the dust which scatters; you will see it rise high into the trees, and acorns will come on them."

It was on the first morning after she had come to Norwan Buli that Olelbis gave Norwan the staff, feathers, blossoms, and acorns. On the second morning very early the feathers began to sing; then flocks of birds of their kind came flying toward the sweat-house, and Norwan heard a voice far up in the sky calling to her, and saying,--

"My brother's daughter, you have come upon earth before the Wintu people, and are dancing. When you dance you must not look toward the west, nor the north, nor the south, but turn your face and look toward Hlihli Pui Hlutton in the southeast, the place from which your staff and your paint came."

While this man was talking, Norwan looked up and saw him sitting with one leg crossed upon the other. He was holding a handful of white-oak acorns in his hand, and was sitting over the door of the sweat-house in Olelpanti. It was Kar Kiemila.

"Now, my brother," said Olelbis to Hessiha, who lived with him in Olelpanti, "I think it is best for you to go down to our sister and stay with her. Live with her always. When your feathers drop away or are pulled off hereafter, they will become like you, and there will be hessihas on the earth everywhere. Our sister will tell you what to do. You will stay with her, never leave her. The people will call our sister Bastepomas, because she is the food-giving woman. When you see anything, let her know; when you hear anything, tell her; when you want to do anything, ask leave of her."

Hessiha went down to live with his sister. Next day he saw a woman coming from the east and going west. He told Norwan, and she said,--

"Watch which way she goes, my brother. Perhaps she will come to us here."

He watched. She came straight to Norwan Buli.

"My younger sister," said she to Norwan, "I came out in the east, but I don't like to live there. I have left that place, and am going far away to the west. In the evening look westward, a little after sunset, you will see a red, yellow, and white person, Nomdal Lenas Loimis. I am she. I shall look nice. That is the kind of person that I am. I shall live in the west always, and you will see me there as streaks of colored light. I will turn my face to the east every evening on pleasant days, and all the Wintu people will say when they see me, 'Winis Nomdal Lenas Loimis'" (look at Nomdal Lenas Loimis).

"Very well," said Norwan, "I am glad to hear what you say, my elder sister."

Nomdal Lenas went off to the west. She was an immensely large woman with a big face, her hair was cut across her forehead, and this made it look beautiful. She was the first woman in the world who cut her hair in that fashion. Her face was painted in streaks of red, yellow, and white.

Next morning Hessiha saw another woman coming from the east. She stopped at Norwan Buli, and said,--

"My younger sister, we came upon this earth at the same time, before the Wintu people. I am going to the west a little distance. I came out in the east, but I did not like the place there. I am going to Bohem Buli. I will stay there and live on the north side of the mountain. I will be a mountain woman. My name is Kukupiwit Pokte."

She went to Bohem Buli.

Norwan danced always during daylight, never stopped in the daytime, never rested till evening.

Norbis Kiemila, the white oak which rolled to the southeast, looked toward the northwest and saw Norwan. "I see my wife on this earth," said he.

One evening Hessiha and Norwan were in the sweat-house, and Hessiha said,--

"My sister, I have heard news to-day from Norbis Kiemila. He says that you are to be his wife."

She said nothing, and Hessiha talked on: "My sister, I heard a man say that he would come to see you. He lives at Sonomyai--he is Sedit, Sedit of Sonomyai."

"My brother," said Norwan, "what are you telling me?"

"I am telling you, my sister, what I have heard. Sedit is coming."

"Why does he come? I don't like him. He has a bad breath."

Next morning Norwan rose and began to dance.