Creation Myths of Primitive America. Jeremiah Curtin

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      She put her hand toward the south, and on it came humus koriluli (a plant with beautiful blossoms). She took it with roots, stem, and blossoms and made a long narrow mat, the stem and roots all woven together inside and the blossoms outside. “Here, grandson,” said she, “put this around the top of the house and bind the trees with it firmly.”

      He did this. The binding was beautiful and very fragrant. He wrapped it around the trees where they came together at the top of the house inside.

      The two old women made four very large mats now, one for each side of the house. They wove first a mat of yosoü (a plant about a foot high, which has no branches and only a cluster of red flowers at the top). When they had finished it they told Olelbis to put it on the north side of the house.

      “Now, my grandmothers,” said Olelbis, “I want a cover for the east side.”

      “My grandson,” said each, “we are sorry that you are alone, sorry that you have no one to help you in building this house. Now take this mat and put it on the east side.”

      They gave him a mat made of the same plant that was used for a binding to hold the top of the house.

      “I want a cover now for the south side.”

       The old women put their hands to the east, and a plant came to them a foot high with white blossoms, of very sweet odor. A great deal of this plant came, and they made a mat of it. They put all the blossoms outside. The mat covered the south side.

      “Now, how shall I cover the west side?”

      “We have the covering here already, made of kin-tekchi-luli” (a plant with blue and white blossoms).

      They put that mat on the west side, the blossoms turned outward.

      The old women gave him all kinds of beautiful plants now, and flowers to form a great bank around the bottom of the sweat-house. All kinds of flowers that are in the world now were gathered around the foot of that sweat-house, an enormous bank of them; every beautiful color and every sweet odor in the world was there.

      When they went into the sweat-house, the perfume was delightful. The two old women said then:

      “All people to come in the world below will talk of this house, and call it Olelpanti Hlut when they tell about it and praise the house on high.”

      Olelbis said: “I want to lay something lengthwise on each side of the door. What shall I get?”

      The two said: “We will get sau” (acorn bread made in a great round roll like a tree-trunk).

      They got sau, and put a roll at each side of the door; these rolls were put there for people to sit on.

      Olelbis walked around, looked at everything, and said—

      “I want this house to grow, to be wide and high, to be large enough for all who will ever come to it.”

      Then the house began to extend and grow wider and higher, and it became wonderful in size and in splendor. Just as daylight was coming the house was finished and ready. It stood there in the morning dawn, a mountain of beautiful flowers and oak-tree branches; all the colors of the world were on it, outside and inside. The tree in the middle was far above the top of the house, and filled with acorns; a few of them had fallen on every side.

      That sweat-house was placed there to last forever, the largest and most beautiful building in the world, above or below. Nothing like it will ever be built again.

      “Now, my grandson,” said the old women, “the house is built and finished. All the people in the world will like this house. They will talk about it and speak well of it always. This house will last forever, and these flowers will bloom forever; the roots from which they grow can never die.”

      The world fire began on the morning after the sweat-house was finished. During the fire they could see nothing of the world below but flames and smoke. Olelbis did not like this.

      “Grandson,” said the old women, “we will tell you what to do to put out that terrible wakpohas. There is a very old man, Kahit Kiemila, and he lives far north toward the east, outside the first sky. He stays there in one little place; he is all alone, and always in the same place. Tell him what to do, and he will do it. If you don’t like the fire and smoke down below, tell the old man to turn his face toward you, to come this way and to bring with him Mem Loimis. He sits with his head between his hands and his face to the north, and never looks up. The place where he sits is called Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom.”

      The first person who came to Olelbis on the day of the fire was Kiriu Herit. He came about daylight.

      “You have finished the sweat-house, my nephew,” said he.

      “I have,” said Olelbis, “but we are going to have trouble, and do you, my uncle, go up on the west side of the sweat-house, look around everywhere, and tell me what you see.”

      Kiriu went to the top of the house and looked. Soon another man came and said, “My brother, you have finished the sweat-house.”

      “Yes,” said Olelbis, “and do you, my brother, go up on the east side of the house, stand there, and call to Kahit.”

      This was Lutchi Herit. Two more came and saluted Olelbis. “Go into the sweat-house,” said he. These were the two brothers, Tilichi. A fifth person came, Kuntihle, and then a sixth, Sutunut, a great person. Lutchi kept darting around, looking toward the north and calling: “Kahit cannot take me! Kahit cannot take me!” Kahit was getting angry by this time, and thinking to turn and look at Lutchi, for though far away, he heard the noise of his darting and his calling. “That old Kahit may come out, but he cannot catch me!” called Lutchi, as he darted around, always watching the north.

      Now Olelbis called Lutchi and Sutunut, and said: “You, Lutchi, go north, pry up the sky and prop it; here is a sky pole and a sky prop.” Turning to Sutunut, he plucked a feather from each of his wings and said: “Go to Kahit in Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom; tell him to come south with Mem Loimis. She lives not far from him. Her house is in the ground. And tell him to blow his whistle with all his breath. Put these two feathers on his cheeks just in front of his ears.”

      Lutchi went quickly. No one could travel as fast as he. He reached the sky on the north, raised and propped it. Sutunut gave the message to Kahit, who raised his head from between his hands slowly and turned toward the south. Sutunut put the feathers in his cheeks then, as Olelbis had commanded.

      One person, Sotchet, who lived just south of Kahit, spoke up now and said—

      “Go ahead, Kahit. I am in a hurry to see my father, Olelbis. I will follow you. I am drinking my mother’s milk.” (He was doing that to bring great water.) His mother was Mem Loimis.

      “Come with me, Mem Loimis,” said Kahit to Sotchet’s mother. “When I start, go ahead a little. I will help you forward.”

      Olelbis was watching, and thought, “Kahit is ready to start, and Mem Loimis is with him.”

      Olelbis made then an oak paddle, and hurled it to where Sotchet was. Sotchet caught the paddle, made a tail of it, put it on, and went plashing along through the water. Not far from Kahit lived an old woman, Yoholmit Pokaila. She made a basket of white willow, and finished it just as Mem СКАЧАТЬ