Sacred Texts  Native American  California  Index  Previous  Next 

p. 317

XLI.

Formula of Medicine for Going Among Rattlesnakes. 1

p. 318

While at Tcexōltcwediñ Yīmantūwiñyai felt dissatisfied with something. "How will the people live?" he thought. He started out and walked up along the Klamath. When the sun went down, rattlesnakes which had wings flew about. He looked about as he went along and thought, "What kind of medicine shall I make?" He saw a bush of Philadephus 1 standing there. He broke off a shoot, made rings around it, and used it for a cane. "When I come to Lōknasaûndiñ, that lies ahead of me," he thought, "I will whip the air with it." When he came out into the prairie at Lōknasaûndiñ he whipped about himself with the cane. He found nothing there. He had killed them all immediately. "This is the way it will happen," he thought. " if any one takes my cane along. He will go through dangerous places if he carries my cane, and he will not see rattlesnakes."


Footnotes

317:1 Told at Hupa, October 1902, by McCann.

318:1 Philadephus Lewisii.


Next: XLII. Formula of a Deer Medicine