TRUHOHI YOKUTS. THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD
Told by a Tachi Yokuts.

Far in the south was a mountain. It was the only land. Everything else was
water. The eagle was the chief. The people had nothing to eat. They were eating the
earth and it was nearly gone. Then Coyote said: "Can we not obtain earth? Can
we not make mountains?" The eagle said: "I do not know how." Coyote said:
"There is a man that we will ask." Then they got the magpie. The eagle said: "Can we
obtain earth?" The magpie said: "Yes." "Where?" "Right below us." Then all the
ducks dived and tried to bring up the earth. Some were gone half a day. They
could not reach the bottom and died and floated up. The eagle said: "When you
reach the ground take hold of it and bite it, and fill your nose and ears." For
six days they dived and found nothing. There was only one more to go down, the
mudhen. Then the eagle said: "Now you go. Let us see if you can find the earth."
The mudhen said: "Good." Then it dived. It was gone for a day and a night. In
the morning it came up. It was dead. They looked it over. It had earth in its
nails, its cars, and its nose. Then they made the earth from this ground. They
mixed it with chiyu seeds and from this they made the earth.

After six days the eagle said to the wolf: "Now go around." Then the wolf went
where the Sierra Nevada now is and around to the west and came back along
where the Coast Range is. The eagle said: "Do not touch it for six days. Let it dry
first." All the people said: "Very well, we will let it become dry." But soon
Coyote said: "I will try it. It is getting hard now." He traveled along where
the Sierras are. That is why these are rough and broken now. It is from his
running over the soft earth. Then he turned west and went back along the Coast
Range. That is why there are mountains there also. Coyote made it so.

Now the eagle sent out the prairie falcon and the raven (Khotoi). He told them:
"Go around the world and see if the earth is hard yet." Then the prairie
falcon went north along the Sierra Nevada and Khotoi went north along the Coast
Range. Each came back the way he had gone. Now at first the Sierra Nevada was not
so high as the Coast Range. When the two returned the eagle said: "How is the
earth? Is it hard?" "Yes," they said. Then the prairie falcon said "Look at my
mountains. They are the highest," but Khotoi said: "No, mine are higher." The
prairie falcon said: "No, your, do not amount to anything. They are low." Then the
eagle and Coyote sent the people to different places. They said: "You go to
that place with your people. You go to that spring." So they sent them off, and
the people went to the different places where they are now. They were still
animals, but they became people. For a little while after they had all gone the
eagle and Coyote stayed there. Then Coyote said: "Where will you go?" The eagle
said: "I am thinking about it. I think I will go up." Coyote said: "Where shall I
live?" The eagle said: "Here." But Coyote said: "No, I will go with you." The
eagle told him: "No, you must stay here. You will have to look after this place
here." So they talked for six days. Then the eagle took all his things.
"Goodby," he said, "I am going." Then he went. Coyote looked up. He said: "I am going
too." "You have no wings. You cannot," said the eagle. "I will go," said
Coyote, and he went. Now they are together in the sky above.

TRUHOHI YOKUTS. THE THEFT OF FIRE

Told by a Tachi Yokuts.

There was no fire. It was very cold. Then the eagle told the roadrunner and the
fox to go out. These two were good runners. Coyote said: "Let the crow go. He
is good at looking about." The eagle said: "They are better;" but he let the
crow go. Then Coyote said: "I am going too," though the eagle wanted him to stay.
Then the eagle told the crow: "Start early. If you see fire anywhere tell us."
Late in the day the crow saw fire in the west. He came back and said: "They
have fire there." Then the eagle sent out the roadrunner and the fox. Coyote and
the crow went with them. They went directly north along the Coast Range.
Before, when the crow had gone alone, he first went eastward and then north and then
to the west and back south. Now Coyote said: "Wait until the sun is down. Then
we will steal it. They agreed. Now it was dark in the west. Then Coyote said:
"Now they are all asleep." The crow said: "We will not all go there. Let one who
can jump well take the fire. You, fox, go." Coyote said: "I will go too. I am
a good jumper too." The crow said: "No, we will be killed." But Coyote said:
"No, we are all good runners. And I will take the fire. Even if you come with me
it is I who will take the fire." Then they came to one end of the village.
"Here is good fire," they said. They took fire, and put it in a net-sack. Then
Coyote told them: "Run ahead. I am going to kill this little one." "No, do not,"
said the fox. "Yes, I will," said Coyote. Then the fox and the others went ahead.
Coyote took the child, threw it in the fire, and killed it. Then he leaped out
of the house and ran. It was another coyote who was living there. He called
out: "Take care! Someone has come!" Now as the fire-stealers ran, their path was
the San Joaquin river. The fog ( ?), gumun, and a duck, wolwul, pursued them.
Coyote jumped from side to side and the pursuers ran here and there after him.
That is why the river is crooked. They kept on running southward. Then Coyote
reached his sweat-house. He entered and closed it. They could not catch him. He
had the fire inside. He had succeeded in taking it away from them. Then in the
morning they made fire there. From that day they had fire and were well off.

TRUHOHI YOKUTS. THE ORIGIN OF DEATH

Told by a Tachi Yokuts.

There were two insects, Shoyo and Kokwiteit.  C-oyo, nearly Shroyo; the t's in
Kokwiteit are palatal, approaching ch. Kokwiteit resembles the word for raven
in other dialects.] The latter was a chief. He, did not want many people to
live. He gathered the people and said: "We will go. I do not know where. We must go
somewhere. It will fill up. It is best if we make it that medicine-men will
kill people. Then there will be a great ceremony for the dead." Coyote liked
that. The others did not like it. Coyote said: "When a chief or one of his family
dies we will go to his village. We will have a great gathering. We will dance
and enjoy ourselves." Then the people liked the idea. But it was Kokwiteit who
was the cause. So now, here in this world, if one meets a kokwiteit in the road,
people say: "There will be too many; let us kill him." So they kill him. Shoyo
did not want people to die, but Kokwiteit made it that they do.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE OWNERS OF THE SUN

In the Tachi territory in the Coast Range is a circle of large rocks. These are
certain people who had the sun. They kept it in the middle of the circle, just
above their heads. Coyote and the eagle took it away from them. Then they
became ashamed and turned to stone. If one speaks to them now, they still answer;
but it is hard to reach that place, for they do not like to be seen by anyone,
and when one approaches it he meets wind and rain.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE RACE OF THE ANTELOPE AND DEER

The antelope and the deer were together. The antelope said: "I can beat you
running." The deer said: "I think not." The antelope said: "Well, let us try." The
deer said: "We shall run for six days," and the antelope agreed. The deer
said: "Let us go south and run northward." Then they went far to the south "across
the ocean" (or Tulare Lake), in order to run northward to the end of the world.
The antelope said: "This will be my path on the west here. You take the path
on the east." The deer agreed. Then they started. Their path was the milky way.
On the side where the antelope ran there is a wide path; on the other side
there are patches. That is where the deer jumped. The antelope had said: "If I win,
all this will be my country and you will have to bide in the brush." The deer
said: "Very well, and if I win it will be the same for me." Then they ran and
the antelope won. So now he has the plains to live in, but the deer hides in the
brush.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE PLEIADES

The Pleiades were five girls and a flea, baakil. The girls sang and played all
night in the sky. The flea constantly went with them. They did not like the
other men that came to them; they liked only him. They did not like the other men
that came to them ran away, but the flea went with them. And they let him marry
them. He married all five. Now he turned into a flea, and in summer became
sick with the itch. The girls did not like him any longer. They said: "Let us run
away. Where shall we go?" Then they agreed to go east together. "When shall we
go?" they said. "As soon as he sleeps." Now the flea slept and the five got up
and went off. After they were far away the flea woke up and thought: "Where are
my wives?" He found that they had gone away.

He thought: "Where shall I go?" He went east. At last he came in sight of them,
just before he reached the ocean. He said: "I will catch you." They said: "He
is coming. Let us go on." They ran on again. Then one asked: "Do you see him
again!" Another said: "Yes, he is near." Then they said: "Let us go up into the
air. Then he cannot come with us." Then they went up. But the man rose, too.
That is why there are five stars close together now in the Pleiades and one at the
side. That one is he, the flea.

The Yaudanchi have a myth about the Pleiades. They say that they were girls
who rose to the sky. One was pregnant and could not rise. She turned to a rock.
One or more stars near them are young men who followed them.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE WOLF AND THE CRANE

The wolf constantly hunted, but never gave his wife and two boys any meat. Once
in the morning He went hunting. Then his wife, the crane, ran off. He returned
and found her gone. He followed her. He was angry and wanted to kill her. He
saw her and tried to shoot her, but she was high up in the air. Slowly she
settled and at last lit far off. Then he shot and hit her. He went to her. With her
bill she tried to stab him. He used an arrow to ward off her blows, and tried
to stab her. Then she pierced his breast and knocked him down. She stabbed him
again and again, until she killed him. Then she went off with her boys. They
turned into stars in the sky. She is in advance; her two boys are following her.
They are called yibish, the three stars of Orion.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE BALD EAGLE AND THE PRAIRIE FALCON

At a mountain southwest from the north end of Tulare Lake the ground is red and
white. There the bald eagle, owik, lived. He used to take away men's wives. If
they became angry he killed them. The prairie falcon, limik, lived farther
north in the Coast Range with the Tachi. The eagle took away his wife. Then the
prairie falcon pursued him. He fought him. He broke his head with a rock and
killed him. The bald eagle's brains and blood turned the ground white and red.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE THUNDER TWINS

All the land in the plains north of Tulare Lake where the Tachi lived in summer
was burned bare. Nothing was growing there, no seeds and no tule. The people
were starving. In the mountains to the west, where the Tachi lived in winter,
there were two little boys, twins. They were covered with sores and stank.
Whenever they had finished eating, their father whipped them out of the house. They
came back crying, but their parents took no pity on them. Only their grandmother
took care of them Now the chief of the people in the plains said to his
people: "Go about the land and see if you cannot find food. We will move wherever
anything is growing." Then runners went southwestward. There they found a high
mountain and near it a little lake, which is now dry. There were tule roots and
seeds to be had there and the people moved there. Now the father and mother of
the two boys abandoned them. But their grandmother stayed with them and cried
over them. For two years they lived in this way. Sometimes the old woman found a
few tule roots, and with these she fed the boys and they grew. Now, when they
were two years older, they no longer wanted to eat anything. They turned into
thunders. At a high mountain west of the north end of the lake is a spring. There
the boys went and there they are living now. They told their grandmother:
"Grandmother, next month we shall have many fish from that water." Then in a month
the spring was full of fish. They caught them and dried them. The boys did not
eat any of them, for they had turned into supernatural beings.

Now their mother's brother, who had gone away with their parents, came back,
bringing the boys a little food. Then they shot him. They nearly killed him, but
cured him again. He told them: "When your father and your mother come, kill
them." Then he went back with the fish which they had given him. When he returned,
he told the people: "They are well off now. They have much to eat." Then the
boys' father and mother went there with other people. The boys shot at them and
killed their parents and those that went with them. Next day those of the
people who had not yet gone, said: "Perhaps they were given many fish and that is
why they did not come back last night." But their mother's brother told them why
they should not go to that place. So the remainder of the people stayed where
they were and were not killed. The mountain where the thunder twins live is
called chenhali.

TACHI YOKUTS. THE VISIT TO THE DEAD

A Tachi had a fine wife who died and was buried. Her husband went to her grave
and dug a hole near it. There he stayed watching, not eating, not using only
tobacco. After two nights he saw that she came up, brushed the earth off herself,
and started to go to the island of the dead. The man tried to seize her but
could not hold her. She went southeast and he followed her. Whenever he tried to
hold her she escaped. He kept trying to seize her, however, and delayed her. At
daybreak she stopped. He stayed there, but could not see her. When it began to
be dark the woman got up again and went on. She turned westward and crossed
Tulare Lake (or its inlet). At daybreak the man again tried to seize her but
could not hold her.

She stayed in that place during the day. The man remained in the same place,
but again he could not see her. There was a good trail there, and he could see
the footprints of his dead friends and relatives. In the evening his wife got up
again and went on. They came to a river which flows westward toward San Luis
Obispo, the river of the Tulamni (the description fits the Santa Maria, but the
Tulamni are in the Tulare drainage, on and about Buena Vista lake). There the
man caught up with his wife and there they stayed all day. He still had had
nothing to eat. In the evening she went on again, now northward. Then somewhere to
the west of the Tachi country he caught up with her once more and they spent the
day there. In the evening the woman got up and they went on northward, across
the San Joaquin river, to the north or east of it. Again he overtook his wife.
Then she said: "What are you going to do? I am nothing now. How can you get my
body back? Do you think you shall be able to do it?" He said: "I think so." She
said: "I think not. I am going to a different kind of a place now."

From daybreak on that man stayed there. In the evening the woman started once
more and went down along the river, but he overtook her again. She did not talk
to him. Then they stayed all day, and at night went on again. Now they were
close to the island of the dead. It was joined to the land by a rising and falling
bridge called ch'eleli. Under this bridge a river ran swiftly. The dead passed
over this. When they were on the bridge, a bird suddenly fluttered up beside
them and frightened them. Many fell off into the river, where they turned into
fish. Now the chief of the dead said: "Somebody has come." They told him: "There
are two. One of them is alive; he stinks." The chief said: "Do not let him
cross." When the woman came on the island, he asked her: "You have a companion?"
and she told him: "Yes, my husband." He asked her: "Is he coming here?" She
said: "I do not know. He is alive." They asked the man: "Do you want to come to
this country?" He said: "Yes." Then they told him: "Wait. I will see the chief."
They told the chief: "He says that he wants to come to this country. We think he
does not tell the truth." "Well, let him come across." Now they intended to
frighten him off the bridge. They said: "Come on. The chief says you can cross."
Then the bird (kacha) flew up and tried to scare him, but did not make him fall
off the bridge into the water. So they brought him before the chief. The chief
said: "This is a bad country. You should not have come. We have only your
wife's soul (ilit). She has left her bones with her body. I do not think we can
give her back to you." In the evening they danced. It was a round dance and they
shouted. The chief said to the man: "Look at your wife in the middle of the
crowd.

To-morrow you will see no one." Now the man stayed there three days. Then the
chief said to some of the people: "Bring that woman. her husband wants to talk
to her." They brought the woman to him. He asked her: ''Is this your husband?"
She said: "Yes." He asked her: "Do you think you will go back to him?" She said:
"I do not think so. What do you wish?" The chief said: "I think not. You must
stay here. You cannot go back. You are worthless now." Then He said to the man:
"Do you want to sleep with your wife?" He said: "Yes, for a while. I want to
sleep with her and talk with her." Then he was allowed to sleep with her that
night and they talked together. At daybreak the woman was vanished and he was
sleeping next to a fallen oak. The chief said to him: "Get up. It is late." He
opened his eyes and saw an oak instead of his wife. The chief said: "You see that
we cannot make your wife as she was. She is no good now. It is best that you go
back. You have a good country there." But the man said: "No, I will stay." The
chief told him: "No, do not. Come back here whenever you like, but go back
now." Nevertheless the man stayed there six days. Then he said: "I am going back."
Then in the morning he started to go home. The chief told him: "When you
arrive, hide yourself. Then after six days emerge and make a dance." Now the man
returned. He told his parents: "Make me a small house. In six days I will come out
and dance." Now he stayed there five days. Then his friends began to know that
he had come back. "Our relative has come back," they all said. Now the man was
in too much of a hurry. After five days he came out. In the evening he began
to dance and danced all night, telling what he saw. In the morning, when he had
stopped dancing, he went to bathe. Then a rattlesnake bit him. He died. So he
went back to the island. He is there now. It is through him that the people know
how it is there. Every two days the island becomes full. Then the chief
gathers the people. "You must swim," he says. The people stop dancing and bathe. Then
the bird frightens them, and some turn to fish, and some to ducks; only a few
come out of the water again as people. In this way room is made when the island
is too full. The name of the chief there is Kandjidji.