Chapter IX: Section I: is moderately long and describes the journey home, but now (3)

5. The two Deer stood looking westward. Then they faced south, east, and north.[13] They wanted to know the land, and where the sun and the night came from. Now they knew that, for the male was wise. He said: "There is the sun. It is going down." But the female said: "No, the wind and the clouds are taking it away. And there is no place for it to go to; perhaps there are only mountains, perhaps only sea there. Perhaps it will go behind the mountains, or descend into the fog at the sea." Then they both looked toward the east, and the male said: "Here darkness is coming. When it comes it will bring the stars and the moon in the sky. Then we will know which way to go east." (4 songs.)

[13] Anti-clockwise circuit, starting in the west.

6. Now the two deer started eastward. They came to Hoalye-keδsokyave.[14] Jaguar and Mountain Lion had given them good eyes: They could see well. Now they said: "Everything is finished, but it is dark. Do you hear a noise? When it is dark there is always a noise. Every one sleeps except two, Tinyam-hwarehware[15] and Tonaθaqwataye.[16] They are the ones that make noise at night." (8 songs.)

[14] Said to be now a railroad station in the San Bernardino
mountains, perhaps Summit. Hoalye are yellow pines.

[15] An insect living in willows, and with wings like willow
leaves. Its night call is hwar hwar hwar. It exercises the
Mohave imagination.

[16] Unidentified.

7. From there they started again, going eastward. When they came to Avi-kitšekilyke,[17] they said: "This is what they have given us: I know it: it is grass that they gave us." They did not eat it yet. They were to eat it soon. (4 songs.)

[17] North or west of Calico, which is not far from Barstow. The
route is eastward through the Mohave desert.

8. From there, starting on again, they said: "Now the night is over. It is nearly daylight." They went eastward until they came to Ava-sa'ore.[18] There they stood and rested and looked about. They looked up at the sky and saw the star called Hamuse-anyam-kuv'a, the morning star.[19] They said: "I see it. It is there. All will be able to see it. The sun is in the middle of the sky, and we are at the middle of the earth." (4 songs.)

[18] A mountain east or northeast of Calico. An old Indian
trail, from before the coming of the whites, used to pass there.

[19] "Star-day-walk." The sun follows it, and it is visible in
the middle of the sky at midday.

9. Starting from there, they went east until they came to Aha-kwi-'ihore.[20] There they saw much grass, but said nothing about it; they did not eat it yet. They only said: "We are at Aha-kwi-'ihore: from here we will go on again." (3 songs.)

[20] "Sandbar willow water"; a mountain north of Blake. Soldiers
were once stationed there on account of the Chemehuevi or
Paiute.

10. Not far to the north from where they were are the New York Mountains. They said: "That is the place Jaguar and Mountain Lion told us of: they called it Avi-waθa; it is not far away." They went there and stood and looked. "It is a large (range of) mountain; everything grows on it, and is green and looks good. It is the greatest mountain. It has a great name and is the first of all." (3 songs.)

11. They started again, going eastward. Coming to Hukθara-tš-huerve,[21] they did not stop there, but went on eastward. At Apurui-kutokopa[21a] and Avi-kwinya'ora they also did not stop, but went on. When they came to Avi-kwi-nyamaθave,[22] they stopped. (3 songs.)

[21], [21a] Hukθara is coyote; apurui, hapurui, a pottery water
jar.

[22] "Yellow-mountains," in the middle of a valley, north of
Ibex and visible from it.

12. Starting again, they saw Avikwame.[23] They went northward to Avi-tšierqe,[24] without resting there, and continued to Kwanakwetšeθkyeve.[25] There they said: "I know this place: it is Kwanakwetšeθkyeve: now Avikwame is near. Grass and everything grows about that mountain; it smells good; the wind from the north brings the odor." Starting again, when they saw the grass, they jumped about as deer do, and ran here and there; but they did not yet eat. They came to Aha-mavara, to Amaṭ-qatšeqatše, and to Kwatulye-ha,[26] but went by without stopping. They came to Amaṭ-mehwave-'auve and to Hatom-kwiθike.[27] Then they said: "This is the place: this is Avikwame; now we are at Avikwame. This is what they gave us, this grass here. Everything growing about is what they told us of." (3 songs.)

[23] Dead or Newberry mountain, in the southern tip of Nevada;
with Ha'avulypo, the Mohave myth focus.

[24] "Excrement-mountain"; in a valley.

[25] In a valley southwest of Newberry mountain, probably Piute
valley.

[26] Kwa'tulye is a species of lizard. Ha, aha, is water, but
"lizard-water," "lizard-spring," should be Aha-kwatulye or
Kwatulye-nye-'aha. The word perhaps means "water-lizard."

[27] A whitish region south of Avikwame, near the Colorado.

13. Then, standing there at Avikwame, they said: "Now I will tell about my body: of my legs, my tail, my ears, my horns, and everything. Sometimes my horns change: they itch, and I rub them against rocks or trees. Then I grow new horns and the old ones are seen lying cast off on the ground. Sometimes I rub myself and my hair comes off." Now there were bushes there, a huelye bush to the east and a tanyika bush to the west. The male Deer said: "I will stick my horns into these bushes and pry them off. I will leave them here at Avikwame and go elsewhere." (14 songs.)

14. Then they started southward. They came to δokupita-toδompove and Ihore-kutšupetpa,[28] but did not stop. When they came to Avi-kutaparve,[29] still farther south, they wanted to cross the river. It was sundown. They crossed to the eastern side at Iδô-kuva'īre, Kwilyeθki, and Avi-tutara.[30] As they crossed, the female came out of the river onto the bank with difficulty. She said, "I nearly drowned." But the male said: "Of course; I am a man, but I too almost drowned." (7 songs.)

[28] Lekupi'ta or δokupita, owls; toδompove, looking at one
another; ihore, sandbar willow. Both places are on the Nevada
side of the river, above Fort Mohave. The Deer are traveling
south now.

[29] Or Avi-kwataparve; on the west bank of the river, south of
the last mentioned.

[30] The three names are considered as applying to one place,
not far above Fort Mohave across the river from it. Iδô means
the black willow.

15. They said: "Now we know where we will go. We know where the darkness comes from. It comes from the east." They went southeastward, past Yamasave-kwohave and Aqwer-tunyive, to Qara'erva. There they stopped and said: "We call this place Qara'erva;[31] everyone will always call it so." (1 song.)

[31] A frequently mentioned place.

16. Starting again, they went southward. At Selye'aya-kumitše[32] they met Muulye, Antelopes. They saw ten or twelve of them. There were only the two Deer. The Antelope stood at a distance and then ran off. The Deer said: "I know you. You cannot climb up rough places. You can only ascend to the mesa by following up a wash. You belong to Muulye-mat'are.[33] That is the place that has been given you by Jaguar and Mountain Lion." Now the Antelope went westward to Porepore-kutšeim, while the Deer stood at Selye'aya-kumitše. (3 songs.)

[32] One mile inland (east) from Fort Mohave. Selye'aya is sand.

[33] "Antelope-playground." A place on the mesa. See note 36
below.

17. They went on southward. When they came to Kamahnulya, they stood, looked east, and saw two Wildcats[34] coming down the wash at that place. "Someone is coming," they said. They saw them carrying rats and rabbits in their belts and fastened to a string around their shoulders. When they came near, they saw that they had their tails drawn between their legs because they were afraid. The Deer said: "I know you: you are Wildcats; you hunt. When you kill rats and rabbits, you eat them raw; you do not cook them." Then the Wildcats went into the brush without looking at them. (2 songs.)

[34] Nume.

18. Starting again, the Deer came to Aqaq-nyiva.[35] (3 songs.)

[35] "Raven's-house?" The place is on a line between the town of
Needles and the sharp peak called Boundary Cone or Avi-veskwi.

19. Going on, they reached Nyiketate and Selye'aya-itšierqe and Muulye-mat'are.[36] They said: "This is the place: this is where Antelope belongs. That is what I spoke of." (4 songs.)

[36] Approximately one place. It is east of Fort Mohave, north
of Avi-veskwi, and marked by an exposure of whitish sand at the
foot of the mesa. Selye'aya-itšierqe is "excrement-sand," but a
different place from that previously so named (note 24).

20. As they stood there, they saw Avi-veskwi.[37] They said: "We will not go there, but look at it from here." It was midnight now. (1 song.)

[37] Boundary Cone, an unusually sharp peak between the Black
Mountain range and Mohave valley.

21. They went on until they came near Ikumnau-tšumi, Aha-kwi-nyamasave, and Hatoδike.[38] They stood at the foot of the mesa below these places. Jaguar and Mountain Lion caused them to stop there. The male said: "This night is bad; it is not an ordinary night." But the female said: "Yes, it is usual; you will see. It is dark, and the stars are bright, it is cold, and there is a little breeze. Can you not feel it? It is cool. It is just an ordinary night." (2 songs.)

[38] All three are visible from the town of Needles.
Ikumnau-tšumi is at the brink of the plateau that forms the
eastern edge of the valley. Aha-kwi-nyamasave ("white water") is
a large whitish depression--one of the four places at which Frog
emerged after causing Matavilya's death. Hatoδike is a blackish
ridge below this.

22. Then they folded their legs and laid their jaws on the gravel. Jaguar saw that; he saw them lying there, though he was far in the west. Now the male heard what (Jaguar) said and got up. He said: "It is a bad night; I have dreamed bad. I think I shall not live long." Waking the female, he said: "I will tell you what I have dreamed: I dreamed bad. I know what will happen. There are four mountains which Numeta and Hatekulye named. They are large mountains, Avi-waθa, Avi-kwame, Amaṭ-ke-hoalye, and Avi-melyehweke.[39] They said: 'When you have come to Avi-waθa and to Avi-kwame and have crossed the river, you will come to a bad place.' Now we have arrived here and I have had bad dreams. We will go on, and on another mountain I shall die. It is night and the stars are flying. They told us about that too. They said: 'The stars will fly[40] and will seem to fall and strike your body.' That is how it is: I shall die; I shall be a ghost."[41] (9 songs.)

[39] Respectively, New York Mountains, Dead (Newberry) Mountain,
Walapai Mountains in Arizona, and (Avi-melyehweke) a large peak
or range in Arizona. This last is said to be not far from the
river, east of Parker; but several ranges converge toward the
river here, pointing westward and northwestward.

[40] A meteor, Hamuse-'amai-kuvuhwere, is an omen of the death
of a prominent man.

[41] Nyaveδi.

23. They went on from there until they came to Maθkweha and Tšamokwilye-kwiδauve, but passed by. They came to Aha-kuvilye[42] and followed up the wash from there until they reached the mesa. Then they said: "I will give this place a name: I call it Avi-kwaθanye.[43] All will know that." (1 song.)[44]

[42] There is a spring at Aha-kuvilye, "stinking water."

[43] Kwaθanye is a small lizard. Avi-kwaθanye appears from the
town of Needles as a blue peak the summit of which is visible
over the plateau that bounds Mohave valley on the east.

[44] The words of the song are: iny-amaṭ Avi-kwaθanye vi'emk,
My-land Lizard-mountain go.

From there they went east. They went down into the valley and crossed to the mountains called Ahta-katarapa[45] and Hanemo-nye-ha.[46] There they stood; then went upward, onto the mesa. There they saw tracks. The male said: "I know these tracks. They are the tracks of Yellow Jaguar and Yellow Mountain Lion.[47] It is they. They traveled here by the wind and by the clouds. We cannot see them, but they are above us in the canyon or perhaps in the mountain and they can see us." The female said: "You see tracks, but they are not new. They have been there a long time; they were here when the earth was made." The male said: "No, they have been here two days or three days.[48] You will see." The female said again: "No, they have been here a long time, ever since the ground was still moist and they walked on it." But the male said: "No, you will find out. They have seen us; they are watching us now." It was on the Walapai (Hualpai) Mountains[49] that they saw the tracks and stood and talked like this. (11 songs.)

[45] Ahta is cane.

[46] Hanemo'nye-ha is "duck's water." There is a small stream
here.

[47] Yellow is -yamaθave. These are said to be their full names.

[48] It is only two nights since the deer were made.

[49] Amaṭ-ke-hoalye, "yellow pine country." See note 39.

24. They went on eastward. Jaguar and Mountain Lion had indeed gone before them; the Deer followed. They did not see Jaguar and Mountain Lion, but they saw what they had done, pulling out trees by the roots and breaking large rocks, so that the Deer could follow them. The male said: "See, they have pulled up trees, and broken stones and rolled them about." Then after a time they saw no more tracks: Jaguar and Mountain Lion had made the wind blow so that the footprints were effaced. The Deer went on nevertheless. When Jaguar and Mountain Lion came to Hoalye-ketekururve,[50] Jaguar, the older brother, sat down on the west side, Mountain Lion, the younger, on the east. The two Deer did not know they were sitting here, and came on until they were between them. Jaguar, in taking up his bow and arrow, made a slight noise, the Deer heard it, and he did not shoot. But Mountain Lion shot and hit the male. Deer said: "They have failed: they did not shoot me in the right place; they shot up into the sky, and the arrow only dropped on me. I was struck, but I have no pain." Then both Deer ran off eastward. (9 songs.)

[50] East of the Walapai mountains. This would be in or near the
Big Sandy Wash, still in Walapai country, but not far from
Yavapai territory.

25. Jaguar and Mountain Lion still sat there. Jaguar said: "Go: follow; kill them." So Mountain Lion went, and his older brother followed. They did not see the tracks of the Deer, but they followed them. They went up on the mesa. Jaguar said to his younger brother: "Keep on: follow; do not stop. I want to teach the people here, the Walapai and Yavapai, to hunt. Some among them will dream and then they will be deer hunters. Do not stop. We could kill them here, but I do not want that. We will wait until we come to Amaṭ-ahwaṭ-kutšinakwe and Amaṭ-ahwat-kw-iδau;[51] then we will kill them. When we kill them there, there will be blood on the rocks: I want to name those places for that."

[51] Amaṭa, land, place; ahwaṭa, blood, red; iδau, have, hold.

26. Then when they came to Amaṭ-ahwaṭ-kutšinakwe and Amaṭ-axwaṭ-kw-iδau, the male Deer had fallen down dead. Now Mountain Lion stood to the east of him, Jaguar on the west. Jaguar said: "You know why I have pursued him. I want only the skin and horns and sinew. You can have the meat: I do not want it." But Mountain Lion said: "No, we will divide it. I want the right horn. I too want some of the things you want." Then Jaguar said: "I wanted to divide it, but you did not want to. Well, you can have it all." And he went off to the side and stood there.[52] So he had none of it. He went away to the north, to Amaṭ-ke-hoalye, the Walapai Mountains. But Mountain Lion stood by the Deer and tore his body open with his claws. He put his hand inside and took out the heart. Then he went north, holding that. He did not take meat or skin or sinew or horns. He left them and he went to Ahta-kwatmenve.[53] (8 songs by Jaguar and Mountain Lion.)

[52] An older-younger brother quarrel typical of the myths,
usually with the younger having his way.

[53] East of Kingman, below Hackberry, in the heart of Walapai
territory.

The female Deer went on to Avi-melyehweke.[54]

[54] One of the four mountains mentioned above, which Deer said
were named to him by Jaguar and Mountain Lion (note 39).

VI. COYOTE

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE RECORDING

This group of narratives was told chiefly by an old woman of the clan which names its daughters Māha. Her more specific name was Mah-tšitnyumêve. She was a doctor for eyes that had been made sore from being struck by mesquite leaves or by a rushlike plant called hatelypo. In curing, she breathed against the palm of her hand held near her mouth, then laid the hand on the eye. She got this power from Coyote in her dream, as told in this story. She had a son called Lahoka, who was also a doctor, for the sickness caused by contact with foreign tribes. He was alleged to have also the power to make people sick, and at the time I knew his mother, he had gone from Needles to live at the reservation in Parker because of this accusation of witchcraft.

I secured the Coyote material from Mah-tšitnyumêve near Needles on March 22, 1903, as the result of an endeavor to learn more about the place of Coyote in Mohave mythology. Coyote is always mentioned in connection with the death of Matavilya, as in the beginning of the Mastamho myth (VII, 1-6), but beyond that there were mostly allusions only. This old lady said she had dreamed a Coyote story which she was ready to tell. It proved that she told it very badly. She did not pursue a consistent thread and she left contradictions which remained unresolved after questioning. The fault is undoubtedly hers, not my interpreter's, for Jack Jones was by this time well trained. She said nothing of songs belonging to the story, and I failed to enter in my notes whether I asked her.

I do not know how far the narrator's deficiencies were the result of her being a woman. She was my only Mohave woman informant on matters of myth and religion. I suspect she was unaccustomed to narrating and therefore inexpert at it. A number of people were listening in, some probably members of the household and others casual visitors. Several of these, including a man older than the narrator and one younger, protested when she concluded her main narrative (given as "A" below). They declared that she had told not a Coyote narrative, but a (private) dream, and that it was not the sort of thing to tell. Their disapproval seemed fairly strong. After this controversy had subsided, she resumed and told the briefer section given as "B," but this again evoked protest from an old man who was listening, who said it was not a genuine Coyote story, but a dream about killing people. All the Mohave listeners seemed to take for granted that Mah-tšitnyumêve had dreamed what she alleged. Their objection was to her dreaming the wrong sort of thing.

Possibly these protests had their effect, or the old lady ran out of what she had dreamed, because she then dropped into telling conventional Coyote tale episodes such as are told children--"C, D, E." These in turn stimulated the interpreter into telling several that he had heard--"F, G, H."

THE TALES

_A: Dreamed_

Coyote was a person like these Indians. There were two Coyote brothers,[1] little boys.[2] They started going from this country.[3] They had bows and arrows, and as they went along they shot at a mark, betting their arrows. They would throw up a bundle of arrowweeds to shoot at. The older won all the younger brother's arrows. Then he took one, wiped it on his anus, shot it up into a cottonwood tree, and said: "Will you go get it for yourself?" The little boy said: "No," and cried because the arrow was soiled. So he was going to leave that place and, crying, went north to θawêve, a place on Cottonwood Island. Now I was following him.[4] When he got to θawêve, I did not see him any longer, so I came back to this country here. Then I dreamed of him again at Avi-hamoka, near Tehachapi.

[1] She later denied that they were brothers. See footnote 6.

[2] The heroes as little boys is a favorite Mohave motif.

[3] "This country," namely, Mohave valley, were the informant's
words. Most informants specify a named place.

[4] This is pattern again: the narrator is present at the
myth-happening through having dreamed it.

The older Coyote was called θarra-veyo,[5] the younger Patša-karrawa. They were not brothers.[6]

[5] A name recorded elsewhere for Coyote. The first two
syllables occur in the most common name, Huk-θara.

[6] Contradicting the former statement. See footnote 1.

At Avi-kwa'ahāθa, a mountain beyond Phoenix in Arizona, there lived an old man called Patak-sata. This is a name of Coyote. With him at the same place there lived a man called Hipahipa.[7] There were many people there at Avi-kwa'ahāθa, among them a woman called Qwāqāqta.[8]

[7] Hipahipa is a personage, or at least a name, that recurs in
other tales: see Handbook, p. 772. The word definitely refers to
Coyote: Hipa is the name given to all their daughters by members
of those lineages whose totemic reference is Coyote.

[8] The informant said the name Qwāqāqta refers to the crow or
raven, aqāqa; which sounds like an improvised etymology.--The
woman's relation to the people at Avi-kwa'ahāθa is not clear.
She may have been a Mohave who was married among Easterners.

Now there was war between the Mohave and those people. On that day Qwāqāqta bore a boy baby. Then these people[9] won, burned all the houses and food and blankets and broke the dishes. They threw the newly born child into the brush, but did not succeed in killing it. Then they set fire to the brush, but the boy baby made it rain and did not burn.

[9] My notes say "these people," which probably means the
Mohave, but might refer to the people at Avi-kwa'ahāθa.

Then the old woman, his father's mother, ha'auk,[10] found him and made a roof shade and a cradle for him and hung him up off the ground so nothing could touch him while she went out to look for inyeinye seeds for food.

[10] Father's mother is namau-(k). Ha'auk seems really to denote
the reciprocal of father's mother, namely, woman's son's child,
usually given as a'avak. This would fit in with my suggested
explanation of the grandmother being an Easterner and the boy
being born among the eastern tribe, although his mother was a
Mohave. In answer to a question who the boy's father was, the
informant said she did not know, except that he was a Coyote.

She was gone all day. The baby was intelligent and after she was gone, he made black balls (vanyeilk) from his own breath by magic. Before long many quail came to where he was hung up, and he snapped or filliped (harrêmk) the balls at them and killed them. Then he piled the birds into a heap and went back into his cradle.[11]

[11] The supernaturally precocious hero, who kills game from his
cradle and then climbs back to it, is told of in other tales of
Yuman tribes.

When his grandmother came, she said: "Who brought them here? Who did it? I am an old woman and I surely like to eat meat, but I did not think that someone would bring them under my shade roof." She was very angry and began to curse who did it. She said: "Kweva-namaue-napaue."[12]

[12] "That is how Indian women say son-of-a-bitch," the
interpreter explained. The cursing consists of stringing
together the names of three grandparents, who are presumably
dead, and allusion to whom is therefore the height of shocking
offense. The three terms are: (na)-kweu-(k), mother's father;
namau-(k), father's mother; napau-(k), father's father.

The boy grew up. Then they returned to this country,[13] he and his grandmother. The Mohave Indians went to Phoenix to fight the people at Avi-kwa'ahāθa, and he went along. Patša-karrawa was his name.[14]

[13] "This country" can only mean Mohave valley. It is not clear
why they should be "returning" if the old woman belonged to a
tribe on the Gila River and the boy was born there, as suggested
in note 10. The whole story is involved in minor obscurities of
telling.

[14] The baby is now supposed to be grown up. His name
identifies him with the younger of the two Coyotes with whom the
first paragraph deals. It would seem that the bulk of the story
ought to precede in time, the first paragraph really being the
end of the story; but the two sections are given in the order in
which the informant told them.

Now he went ahead of the others, like a leader, to spy them out and see where the houses were. On the desert he found his mother. She was a slave there. He said to her: "Do not tell them when you go back home that I met you here. Take these birds and rabbits with you, but do not tell that I gave them to you. Say that you found them." She had on her back her pack basket.[15] Into this she put the game he gave her. He entered it too. He said: "Let me get into your basket. I will make myself into a bird so that they will not know me. Carry me back, but do not tell who I am. You may tell them tomorrow."

[15] The kūpo is the peculiar pack basket of the Mohave, which
consists of two crossed sticks bent into U-shape and wound
around with string spaced an inch or so apart.

So she returned and gave the rabbits and birds to the people. They wanted to know where she got them, but she would not tell. Then Patak-sata said: "Let me look at them. I think Patša-karrawa killed these." He knew it right, but she would not admit it. In the morning she said: "I have another bird in my basket, a dove." Then Patak-sata said: "Let me see it." She gave it to him. "That is not a dove," he said, "I know it. Patša-karrawa made himself into this. I can tell a dove by its bill. And when you see a dove, it shakes its head. This does not." Soon after, on that day, the Mohave arrived and attacked. While the fight was going on, Qwāqāqta stood on the roof and sang as follows:

iθauwe
ahwe-kanām abroad-tell
haθo'ilya to the sea

Then she sang:

hunapnap butterfly
mat-utšavek he made himself
mat-apui killed
meθkemewê-mote he cannot be
sumatš-ahôtem he dreamed well

Then the Mohave killed all the people at Avi-kwa'ahāθa, and took Patša-karrawa's mother as a slave and brought her back to this country. Then she said: "Where there is war, notify other tribes and then gather: my son is wise and cannot be beaten."

Now he and his mother were poor and had nothing to eat. There was much food here among the people, but no one gave them anything to eat.[16] Then he took his mother and went west with her to Avi-hamoka.[17] There they lived.

[16] The withholding of food is entirely unmotivated by the
narrator. Perhaps it is because they were Easterners and
foreigners.

[17] This is the place near Tehachapi mentioned at the end of
the first paragraph, where the informant dreamed of him.
Subsequently, when she was asked to give more information about
this dreaming, she said that Coyote had a man's shape; but she
now stated that it was at Ha'avulypo, at the rear of the house
there, that she dreamed of him. Her dream was of the time before
"Matavilya was born." (Perhaps a slip of my pencil for
Mastamho?)

_B: Dreamed_

This country was full of coyotes. Then we became Mohaves, human beings: the coyotes turned into people. There is a place called Hukθara-ny-enyêve, a small mountain south of Mukiampeve, Needles Peak.[18] There is where Kwayū[19] lived, at Hukθara-ny-enyêve: he belonged to this country. Whenever he saw a child, he seized it, stuck it under his belt, and took it home. There he would put them into a hole in the rock, pound them up, and eat them. Sometimes he ate them raw, sometimes he roasted them in the fire. All the people were afraid of him.

[18] Mukiampeve is the standard form of the name; Okiampeve is
what the informant was understood as saying.

[19] Kwayū means a meteor or fireball, usually conceived of as a
monster or man-eater. He recurs in the Cane story.

Now the Crayfish, Hal(y)kutāṭa,[20] killed Kwayū. He was little, but when he became angry, he made himself into a big man. So all the people were saved. If Crayfish had not killed him, Kwayū would have eaten everyone up. After killing him, Crayfish took him far south to the ocean where he lived and ate him up. So there was no more Kwayū in this land here.

[20] Hal(y)kutāta was described as a "bug" as long as a finger,
with long legs, a back like a scorpion, living in the water in
sloughs, but not in the river: it must be a crayfish.

Kwayū was Coyote.[21]

[21] This statement is in line with the name of the place where
he lived, as given two paragraphs before.

_Children's Stories_

_C_

Coyote was hunting, but killed nothing. Then he took deer excrement, planted them like seeds, and built a brush fence around. In four days the deer had grown as big as dogs: then he ate them.

_D_

When Coyote was hungry, he ate his children. "My daughter, climb this tree," he said. When she had climbed up, he piled brush around the tree and set fire to it. The girl fell down and into the fire and he ate her.

Stories like this are not dreamed, but are heard from other people and are told to children.

_E_

One Coyote said to another, "Let us set fire all around to this patch of thick brush. I think there must be deer, rats, and rabbits in it which we cannot get at. But if we set fire to the brush all around, they will burn up and we can just pick them up and eat them." Then they set fire to the patch, but one Coyote went inside first and stood in the middle. When the fire came near him, he had a song which would make him sink into the ground to his ankle. His second song would make him sink in to the middle of his calf (or the middle of his body); the third, to his knee (or neck). And with the fourth song he would be completely under the ground so the fire could not touch him. Now when the flames began to come near him, he sang his song: hilyhavek kerropsim, enter descend. But he did not begin to sink into the ground. He sang again and still did not penetrate. By the time he had sung his fourth song, the fire reached him and he burned up.

_More Stories for Children_

_F_

[The following three episodes are not from informant Mah-tšitnyumêve, but are from the interpreter, whose recollection of them she stimulated. He had heard them told by a young man called Mekupuru-'ukyêve. They are recognized as stories for children.]

Coyote went out and met Quail. Quail said to him: "Pluck my feathers and then send me to your wife to cook me." Coyote plucked him and Quail came to Coyote's old woman and said: "He says you are to cook your sandals."

"He is crazy."

"That's what he said. 'Cook your sandals!' Tell her that, he said."

"What for?"

"You have a pair, have you not?"

"Yes."

"Then you are to cook them."

So she started to cook her sandals. Meanwhile Quail lay down outside under the shade roof. After a while Coyote came home.

"What are you cooking?" he asked her.

"What you sent me word to."

"What did I tell you?"

"To cook my sandals."

"Who was it said so?"

"Quail."

"Where is he?"

"Outside in the shade."

Quail was lying there laughing. When Coyote came running up, he fled till he came to a slough. There he sat quietly on a tree. When Coyote arrived, he saw his reflection in the water, thought it was Quail, jumped in to seize him, and drowned. Then his old woman came too, tried to pull him out, but fell in and drowned also.

_G_

Coyote was visiting Beaver, his friend. Beaver had nothing to eat, but he had four or five children, so he killed them, cooked them, and gave them to Coyote to eat. But he warned him: "Do not throw away any of the bones. Lay them aside." When they had eaten, Beaver took the bones, threw them in the water, and they turned into living beavers again.

Then after a while Beaver came to visit Coyote. Coyote had no food, so he killed his young ones and cooked them. "Do not throw away the bones, but put them carefully aside," he warned him. Then after the meal, he threw the bones into water. But no young coyotes came out, and the bones were gone.

_H_

When Coyote visited Beaver, he had no food. Beaver took his bow, shot up in the air, the arrow fell down and entered his rectum. Beaver turned it around and then pulled it out with fat on the end. This he cooked and fed to Coyote. This he did for four days then Coyote went home.

Beaver came to see Coyote. Being without food, Coyote took his bow, shot up in the air, the arrow came down, hit him in the rectum--but he fell down dead.

VII. MASTAMHO

THE INFORMANT

This story of the institution of culture differs from most of the preceding in that it is a pure myth unaccompanied by songs. It was told to me at the University's Museum of Anthropology, then in San Francisco, between November 16 and 24, 1903, by Jo Nelson, also called Baby's Head in Mohave; with Jack Jones the interpreter as usual.

Jo Nelson, aged about sixty, is pictured in Handbook of California Indians, plate 64, top right, and in our frontispiece. Like many Mohave, he was interested in travel and in new lands and peoples. He had visited widely among Indian tribes both east and west of the Mohave and had asked questions both abroad and at home. He gave me, on the whole, the best information which I secured from the Mohave about other tribes, and which has been published in part in the Handbook, though considerable detail remains unpublished. Jo Nelson was in many ways an ideal informant for matters of fact. His memory was excellent both for what he had seen and heard. His mind was orderly, his procedure methodical. He distinguished between hearsay and actual observation; and he would exhaust one topic before proceeding to the next. These same qualities show in his myth as presented here.

CONTENT OF THE MYTH

The narrative may be described as dealing essentially with the institution of culture by Mastamho, the second of the two great myth heroes of the Mohave. The story assumes the cosmogony as such as already known. I obtained one such Mohave account of the origin of the world. This has been abstracted in the Handbook, pages 770-771, and also in the American Journal of Folklore, 19:314-316, 1906. That was one of the first narratives which I recorded from this tribe, and its quality and my rendition are not of the best; but it is confirmed by innumerable allusions to world origins in other Mohave myths and in their discussions of their culture.

The present Mastamho narrative begins after Matavilya is dead, and its first chapter, so to speak (A:1-6) deals with the disposal of his body. Thereafter the tale is concerned with the planning, trials, and execution of his plans by Mastamho, especially with reference to the way of living of the Mohave, but first for the desert tribes nearest them (B:7-19). Essentially Mastamho thinks of what will be good for one or more of these tribes, causes it to come into existence, and then explains it to the people or has them practice it. One long section (C:20-35) is devoted to the institution of night and sleep, to the building of houses and shade roofs, and the setting aside of playing fields. The relation of sections like this to the remainder will be clearer by reference to the outline of the whole narrative given a few paragraphs below. The total story is so prolix that this summary will be useful as a conspectus for orientation.

Another section (D:36-42) is devoted to the making of the wild plants which spring up either of themselves, or through being planted, in the bottoms of the Mohave valley immediately upon the recession of the annual overflow. The Mohave distinguish between wild food plants which grow of themselves but are harvested, wild food plants which are sown, and domesticated food plants such as maize and beans. The second group, in other words, are cultivated plants which also grow spontaneously in the Colorado bottoms, but probably grow in denser stands if sown. They were apparently seed-bearing plants which were particularly adapted to rapid growth in the summer heat following the June inundation; and this fact may have contributed to their not having been diffused to other environments. At any rate, it is to be noted that the narrator gave considerably more space to the institution of these wild and "tame-wild" plants than to strictly agricultural ones.

By the time he comes to the latter, it is near the end of Mastamho's career and the episode seems hurried (H:76-78). Pottery is mentioned first and agriculture second; which may be an accident, but I suspect that it reflects a Mohave attitude. At any rate, it is clear that they strongly associate pottery and agriculture, which is not surprising in view of the absence or underdevelopment of both among many of the tribes to the west, north, and east. That the telling of the story in this section was hurried, or perhaps shortened by fatigue, is indicated by the fact that, strictly speaking, the instituting of neither art is described, but they are taken for granted and then Mastamho teaches the people the names of vessels and plants. This creation by naming may pass as a shorthand explanation, but it is not in the narrator's usual methodical manner.

There is a section, as might be expected, on hawks and warfare (F:59-69), this being a subject the Mohave never tire of. It is men who dream of hawks that become successful fighters and renowned war leaders.

A rather unusual section deals with Mastamho's trial-and-error attempts to teach the names for tribes, objects, and the numeral count (E:43-58). Here the device is to begin with distortions of the Mohave words which, however, the taught fail or refuse to learn. The distortions are something on the order of Pig Latin or the languages which groups of children sometimes concoct. This sort of attempt is not commonly found among North American Indians, and the techniques of distortion have therefore been analyzed in a separate discussion appended to the tale itself. On account of its fixed sequence, the numeral count perhaps lends itself best to word plays of this sort. In not a few languages, including Mohave, succeeding numerals partly rhyme. This feature has been further developed in the artificial counts. The whole process is somewhat akin to the occasional instances of the count in a foreign language being parodied by substitution of somewhat like-sounding names in the speaker's language, a device with which obscene or other humorous effects can easily be attained.

A fair question would be how much of Mohave culture is accounted for in all this narrative of institution. A fair answer would seem to be: most of the more conspicuous, concrete features of the culture, houses and their parts, weapons, utensils, food plants. This omits certain items from what we are wont to call material culture, such as clothing, cradles, and the like. But the technological and economic deficiencies of the Colorado River Yuman culture are so definite that the omissions are perhaps in the minority.

Having done his work, Mastamho goes off and turns into the bald eagle (J:82-84). This is spoken of as "dying" or "leaving his body." He is said to have become "crazy," which probably means without sense, knowing nothing, without human consciousness.

There follows a long supplement, making about a quarter of the total story (K-N:85-102), which tells of the institution of sex, courtship, and marriage under the leadership of a man and a woman to whom Mastamho has delegated this task and who at its conclusion turn the people with them into birds and themselves become, respectively, the curve-billed thrasher and the mockingbird. The guess may be hazarded that Mastamho is to the Mohave too heroic a figure to be credited with undertaking the institution of these practices in person. At that, the treatment is restrained and, from the native point of view, thoroughly decent, though the emphasis is on festivals, playfields, and courtship.

SCHEMATIC OUTLINE

_Main Narrative: Mastamho's Instituting_

A. Mastamho Disposes of Dead Matavilya: 1-6

1. Matavilya's death and pyre at Ha'avulypo
2. Coyote seeks fire
3. Fly and the cremation
4. Coyote's theft of the heart
5. Covering of the ashes
6. Coyote abandoned, homeless

B. Avikwame, River, Desert Land and Foods Made: 7-19

7. Mastamho promises to teach
8. Arrival at Avikwame
9. White-spring made for the Chemehuevi
10. Colorado River, fish, and ducks made at Hatasaṭa for the Mohave
11. Matavilya's ashes washed away
12. Boat tilted to widen valley
13. Avikwame mountain made from mud
14. Other mountains made
15. Four seed foods made for the Chemehuevi
16. Four plant foods made for the Walapai
17. Planning for the Yavapai
18. Foods and water made for the Yavapai
19. Languages given to Chemehuevi, Walapai, Yavapai

C. House, Shade, Sleep, and Playground: 20-35

20. Planning a shade roof
21. Ant makes dry ground
22. Two insects dig postholes
23. Shade built
24. House planned
25. House built
26. Door made
27. Insect helpers given names
28. Sunset named
29. House entered
30-32. Night; Future nights; Sleep
33. Day coming
34. Playground made at Miakwa'orve
35. More in time

D. Wild Seeds Planted: 36-42

36. Planning to plant
37. Scaup Duck plants four wild seeds in overflow
38. You will understand later
39. Planning for more planting
40. Frog told to be ready to plant
41. Frog told what wild seeds to plant
42. Return to Avikwame

E. Counting, Directions, Tribal Names: 43-58

43. Preparation for the next night
44-46. First, second, third counts taught
47. Final count taught
48. Fingers made on hand
49. First direction names taught
50. Final direction names taught
51. Mispronounced tribal names
52. Walapai and Yavapai tribes named
53. Chemehuevi named
54. Yuma and Kamia named
55. Mohave named
56. Told to stay a while
57. Doctors will dream of this
58. Mastamho takes new name

F. Hawks and War: 59-69

59-62. Four hawks given names and war power
63. Practice trial
64. Weapons to be made
65. Cremation of warriors
66. Dreamers of journey will be runners
67. Eagle unintelligent; to dream of him unlucky
68. Crane ugly; to dream of him unlucky
69. Hawks will wear morning star in fight

G. Thrasher, Mockingbird, and Mastamho's Dream Names: 70-75

70. Gnatcatcher to be rich: women will dream of
71. Tšoaikwatakwe in cottonwoods: women also dream of
72. Thrasher and Mockingbird-to-be named
73-75. Three new names of Mastamho

H. Pottery and Farmed Food Instituted: 76-78

76. Pottery vessels each given two names
77. Planted foods named
78. Chutaha singing with basket

I. Thrasher and Mockingbird Delegated to Teach: 79-81

79. Thrasher and Mockingbird appointed to teach play and sex
80. Avikwame named
81. What Thrasher and Mockingbird are to do and be

J. Mastamho's Transformation into Bald Eagle: 82-84

82. Turns into Bald Eagle at Avikutaparve
83. Floats downriver to Hokusave
84. Flies south to sea, is crazy (unknowing)

_Supplement: Thrasher and Mockingbird Institute Sex Life_

K. Courtship Instituted at Miakwa'orve: 85-92

85. Thrasher and Mockingbird face people on playground at
Miakwa'orve
86. Tortoise chosen to be approached
87-90. Sparrowhawk, Quail, Ah'akwasilye, Oriole rejected
91. Blue Heron accepted by Tortoise
92. Dove arrives: loose women dream of her

L. Transformation of Water and Valley Birds: 93-97

93. All go downriver to Hokusave
94. Noses of racers pierced there
95. Yahalyetaka's nose pierced with difficulty
96. Racers become water birds
97. Some others become valley birds

M. Mountain Birds Transformed at Rattlesnake's Playfield: 98-101

98. Rest led back to Miakwa'orve
99. Thrasher and Mockingbird at Rattlesnake's Playground teach
venereal cure
100. More songs for this
101. At Three-Mountains, Thrasher, Mockingbird, and rest turn to
mountain birds

N. Leftover Straggler Reaches the Sea: 102

102. Hakutatkole, left for pošoik sickness, goes south to sea and
becomes a bird

QUALITY OF THE NARRATIVE

So much for the content of the narrative: now as to its form. First of all, although the story is not accompanied by songs, it is developed according to the same pattern as the song-cycle myths. Moreover, the informant was just as insistent as the majority of narrators that he got his knowledge through dreaming.

However, the approach in the telling is less formally decorative and more rational than in other narratives. There is actually less story, in the sense of there being a minimum of events, a maximum of explanation. The account is therefore bald and didactic. One sees the narrator throughout aiming to be clear even at the cost of repetition or prolixity.

In fact, repetition is deliberately indulged in as part of the didactic style. Mastamho talks to himself of what he will do, then perhaps tells the people that he will do it, then goes and does it; after which, he may explain to them what he has done. Or he will have them try the innovation, in which case it may be four times before they learn, or before he finds the correct manner.

Accordingly, the pace throughout is tantalizingly slow. The story could have been condensed by me, but its characteristic manner and style would thereby have been completely discarded. There are constant references to "This will be, but it is not yet." Such antitheses seem to serve both emphasis and clarity. For instance, paragraph 62, "If people dream of you, they will kill enemies; if people dream of being in darkness, they will not kill them." Or again, paragraph 70, "I will not let you go to a distance: I want you to stay in this country." Balances of this sort constitute a distinct stylistic manner, rudimentary though the devices may be from a literary point of view.

The Mastamho account contains certain minor inconsistencies, but they are not inconsistencies of identity or kinship of person, or of topography, as in the Cane narrative; nor are they due to sloppiness of telling, as in the Coyote stories. The chief inconsistencies noted are the fact that Mastamho keeps saying that he will teach the people everything in four nights before his transformation into the bald eagle, but then actually is six nights doing it; and similarly he at first separates the people into four future tribes--three in the desert and the Mohave--but then later there are six, the River Kamia and Yuma suddenly appearing with the Mohave. These discrepancies should not be charged too seriously against the narrator's care and precision. The story is an exceedingly long one. He told it at intervals during nine days. Part of my time was tied to University duties, so that there would be whole days of interruption. While I made no detailed record, I assume that we spent at least four working days in the telling and Englishing. This would mean a minimum of two days, or say twelve to fifteen hours, of Mohave narration by the informant, distributed over more than a week. Few people could follow one thread of telling so long as this with so few discrepancies.

MAIN NARRATIVE: MASTAMHO'S INSTITUTING.

_A. Mastamho Disposes of Dead Matavilya: 1-6_

1. Matavilya's death and pyre at Ha'avulypo.--Matavilya died at Ha'avulypo.[1] I did not see him when he was sick, but dreamed of him and saw him only when he died; others know of his sickness. When he died in the house,[2] they carried him west of the door. Now Mastamho was a boy about so high (about ten-year size). They asked: "What shall we do with him?" Then Mastamho told them: "Burn him. When people die I want you to burn them. That is what I wish. Now I want you, Badger,[3] to dig a hole; and I want this man, Raccoon,[4] to bring wood." Then after a time these two men came back into the house and said: "We have dug a hole and the wood is ready." Now there were many people there in the house when they said that, but not one of them spoke a word. Then Mastamho asked them: "Have you fire?" But Badger and Raccoon said: "No."

[1] Near Mathakeva, Cottonwood Island, on the Arizona side of
the Colorado.

[2] The door of which of course faced south.

[3] Mahwa.

[4] Nammaθa.

2. Coyote seeks fire.--Now Coyote--θara-veyo-ve, Mastamho called him, but the Mohave call him Hukθara--said: "I am sorry because Matavilya died: I want fire and will bring it. I will go to Fire-Mountain:[5] I know there is fire there and will get it." So he started westward. He was gone a long time. Mastamho waited and all the others waited. Then Mastamho said: "I do not want it to become day, for Matavilya to be lying here in the light. Let it remain night." Now they were all still waiting for Coyote, but he did not return: he was still traveling west.

[5] Avi-'a'auva.

3. Fly and the cremation.--Then θilyahmo, Fly, a woman--for there were only people then, and no animals--who had been sitting west of the door, went outside, pulled up dead arrowweeds, came back indoors, broke the sticks up, and dropped them into two or three small piles; for she wanted to try to make fire. Then she plucked off a strand of her willow-bark dress and rubbed it fine into tinder. Then she twirled a stick in her hands, and with this and the shredded bark she made fire, as she sat in the corner of the house by the west side of the door. Then she carried it into the middle of the house, saying: "Here is fire." Now that they had fire, Badger and Raccoon carried Matavilya outdoors and laid him down on their pile of wood. All who had been in the house went out with them. Then Badger and Raccoon returned into the house and brought out the fire. Lighting the pile of wood at the north end, they went one along each side of it, setting fire to it, until they met at the south end. There they stood. Then everyone cried, Badger and Raccoon with the rest.