Indian myths are valuable as literature in direct proportion to the fidelity to the old-style Indian linguistic form in which they are told. The only proper method of recording mythology is to obtain the services of a good mythologist and then take it down syllable by syllable. Phoebe Maddux, Indian name 'Imk^dnva'^n, meaning WildSunflowerGreens Gatherer, 65-year-old full-blooded Indian woman of the Karuk tribe of Northwest California, forms not only Karuk as it is spoken and told, but Karuk- literature, which when its syllables are analyzed and the excellent strength and balance of the elements appreciated, corresponds well with the literature of any Language.
The Karuk, whose name means "upper river" to the Native Americans, holds a portion of the central Klamath Stream that most closely resembles the Columbia River of any California stream. With customs akin to those of the lower-water Indians, the Yuruk, and the somewhat more inaccessible Hupa, and with a language on the other hand distantly related to that of the upper-water Indians, the Shasta, neither of these relations impressed the Karuk as the white explorer, and they regarded themselves as something entirely sui generis, that tribe which held them in the midst of the world, and which strictly followed the mandates of the Ikxareyavs, the Indians who are. Every minute detail of nature was apt to be explained by myth. J Compare the wonderful story of the little acorn cups which were the girls' hats of different kinds of acorns when they came through the sky.
Snake crawling towards the river with only the top of the baby basket sticking out of its mouth to tellof hisa\vf uldeed. Two girls come to apply for marriage to the rich and gay Spring Salmon, but another man. And last on the list we have the touching story of how two Katimin girls visited the distant Indian sky, piloted by Katimin.
Phoebe Maddux and other Indians who have helped to obtain and prepare these myths, and to.
PHONETIC KEY
VOWELS Unnasalized vowels
CONSONANTS Laryngeal
The Acorn Maidens
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 107
- The Long Snake at SaPvdfi
Then he thought, "What a beautiful egg." He had long heard what a Longsnake egg looked like, that it was the kind that was. And the woman lived in the house, she lived there with that snake, and the baby too. Then one morning the little girl slept, she slept in the baby basket, and the woman thought: "I'll go get water."
Immediately there seemed to be a noise, she had not yet returned, she was coming back near the bottom of the house. Then a terrible noise was heard as he was thrown into the river, on the slope of SaPvdr. She thought, "Maybe [the child] fell into the river again." He made a loud noise as he jumped in.
HARRINGTON] KARTJK INDIAN MYTHS 11
How THE Girl Got Even With the Man Who Made Fun at
How THE Girl Got Even with the Man Who Made Fun at
She held her fire again as she returned to the slope; she carried it in her bowl basket.
Two Brothers Go Target Shooting
Puxay vura kiinic kintcuphfi'n- nicap, takunPahdraji^m pamita'I-n kinippe'rat: "Pu'6'k 'icrive'c^p 'uhkiri-pux." Pumit k6*tcrrkhara 'Aftaram, pe'tcivtcane'DPanam-mahatc. Then he said: "I have already heard that anyone will become rich if he wants to, by bathing in a lake, in the lake of the place where a person eats." After 10 nights he was so ashamed, he was crying, he was so ashamed. Then he said, he went into the living room, and then he said, "We're going to go far, we're going to go swimming down a long slope, I don't care if we do.
Then he said: "You must be guarding for me." They got nothing but acorns. Then, when they got to the top of the ridge, below the slope, the lake lay. Then, when it was nearly five in the morning, then early in the morning when one could see for the first time, he went to look at the edge of the lake.
The water had risen again before he got there. Then he went to get the acorn soup, the younger brother took, he went to get the acorn soup at his campsite. Then they were still traveling not so far, when there was a white deer standing there.
Then they did this when they traveled a little farther homeward, they killed all kinds of birds, the western pileated woodpecker, the California woodpecker, the California condor, the southern bald eagle, all kinds of birds they killed, all kinds mountain birds 34;You fellows must not intend to shoot here without the woodpecker's headscarf." Two deerskin garments which they brought when they came home. the birds [hawks].
When the people saw them coming, behold, they were filling with all kinds of woodpecker scalps and all kinds of skins. Then they said, "They have come to challenge you two fellows to gamble with Indian cards with them." They would not believe that they had come back from a long journey. Another would say, "I can beat him." He would pack his things [his stakes] there, at the brothers' house, at Aftaram.
HARRINGTON] KARUK INDIAN MYTHS 19 there are all extinct. They all died off, they were all rich people
Bluejay Doctors Chipmunk
The way she did it then was that she put ashes on her blanket, just put ashes on, so that they would think she had been sick for a long time, whenever she heard someone come in.
HARRINGTON] KARUK INDIAN MYTHS 21 Song by the Bluejay
Two Girls Apply for Marriage with Spring Salmon
The dwelling houses of these two men were just down the river from Spring Salmon's dwelling, in the same row. This row of houses lay where John Pepper's hogpen is now, in the down-river part of. Tcimaxmaykuntcu'pha', axmay kunprp: "Y^'hseh, akkdray pananildninna'sitc u'afice"nnatihe'®r) *^ Yaxa PuxS'kkitc muv?i'hk''am xas liksa'pku'.
Two Girls Apply for Marriage with Spring Salmon Ukni. They were living there
It was that he had gone to another place to get that tulle mat, to another residence, to Spring Salmon's residence. Thenallat once shouted outside, “PacificNighthawk, come and clean the wooden slab. Oh, stay here. They shouted at me, they said to me, 'Come and divide it.' Only then will they do that.
Then suddenly Thera was talking, suddenly someone said: 'Ah, who was bothering my pets.
Coyote Attends a Flower Dance at Orleans
HAEHINGTONJ KA.RUK INDIAN MYTHS 25
- Coyote Attends a Flower Dance at Orleans Ulmi
- Coyote and Lizard Ordain Details About Childbirth and Babies
- How Western Yellow-Bellied Racer was Transformed
- How Western Yellow-Bellied Racer Was Transformed Ukni. They were living [there]
- Bluejay and Bullhead Doctor Redfish
Yakiin Tcrmu'tc 'upa'nnik: "Naj; yd'sPara muyusittanatc niy-tcaxtca'xtilie'^c." 'Ikmahdtcra;^m pakuntcu'phina-tihanik, yd'sPdra tcim u'lnnfcrihe'^c, va; k^ri pakuntci'phinna'tihanik. And someone said, 'They should cut a woman open, they should take the baby out of her belly. How quickly he will lose his wife, even if he paid so much for her.' Then they all said, 'What will he [the baby] be like?
34; If it grows further, the mother will die." There will be herbal medicine. And it [the baby] is still small, they [the lizards] tell it when it sleeps, when the baby dreams something sometimes that. Lizard has it said, "I will trouble Human's little baby." They talked in the tracksuit, that Human was coming, they talked about it.
Then he thought, "Let me do a little bit of work on this fine stone, it looks so nice." Then he just did a little bit of work on it.
HARRINGTON] KARUK INDIAN MYTHS 29 Song by the Bullhead
Two Katimin Maidens Visit the Indian Heaven
These youths were likewise brought up, well and secretly; few were to be seen, but they spent their time in hunting, practicing dances, and other rich people's occupations. The old Indians told the younger ones not to cry in the evening or at night; that no one ever died from feeling bad about dead people and that these two girls. An old expression was that this bone marrow, which is well lubricated all over the body, makes the traveler feel as if he had bones in him, he ceases to be tired.
Piiyava kari k^ukkuj^m p6'ffi'pha passufPiruhapu', kukku;^m va;_ kdri tce'mydtcva pakunpuyaharahiti', p6"ffi-pha pasufPirCihapu'. 34; They sat on the ground and each had his flint holding blade crossed on his thighs, waiting for the song to begin, The Indians have the pretty belief that A'ikren, when he leaves his home on top of Sugarloaf Mountain, migrates to the Indian Heav-.
The Indians have often referred to this experience of the girls to represent the day-like impression made by long visits from home on their return, just as we say, “a visit seems. This is supposed to be a reviving food, anointing that would revive a dead person around the mouth.
HARRINGTON] KARUK INDIAN MYTHS 33
Two Katimin Maidens Visit the Indian Heaven They were living there at Yuxtuyrup, two youths. Nobody saw
