Sacred Texts Native American California Index Previous Next
A body of water came into existence here to the southeast of us. The deer frequent that water in bands. From the east the does come and stand in the water all night. Here to the southeast from us the deer come down the hill. They go into the water and stand. The water covers their ankles, but soon, when the dawn has come, their droolings have filled the pond.
After the dawn comes, deer yet gray come from the northeast in bands and go among the Lōdaitc. They go into the water. From the ocean's border at the north, black deer come and go into the water. From the ocean's edge to the south the white deer come and go into the water.
Dentalia crawl in their armpits. The pond is filled with their spit. In the morning one side of the pond is full of dentalia's spit. As far as the water reaches, the dentalia crawl.
She always thinks, "It is dentalia's spit I have bathed in. Whoever eats the food which I leave, his body will be liked in this manner." 1
She charred a shelled acorn, the next morning, and marked a cross with it on her right arm. "This way it will be," she
thought. "He will hunt deer without harm if he does eat what I leave. Anyhow she will go into the house," she thought. "He, who eats what I leave, will kill deer the same as ever," she thought. "This way it will be. She will ask me for the water. She will pick out the stones and make a pond. She will think about the pond which lies southeast from here. The miñkilen will rub herself with it. Her body will become another one."
310:1 Told at Hupa, December 1901, by Emma Lewis.
The night of the eighth day after the beginning of the menstrual period the woman makes a small pool by the river. After repeating the formula she bathes, throwing the water over her right shoulder and then over her left, repeating the operation once. The next morning she makes a cross on her arms half way between the elbow and the shoulder with a burned acorn. After this has been done she may return to the xonta with the rest of the family.
312:1 If the water which consists of the saliva of deer and dentalia likes his body he will, of course, have luck in hunting and gambling.