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SELECTED AND EDITED BY
RICHARD ERDOES
AND ALFO NSO ORTIZ
PA NTHEON BOOKS
N E W Y O R K
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Copyright© 1984 by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Pub-
lished in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of
Random House, Inc., New
York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of
Canada Limited, Toronto.
Originally published in hardcover by Pantheon Books, a
division of Random House, Inc.,
in 1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
American Indian myths and legends.
(Pantheon fairy tale & folklore library)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.

1. Indians of North America-Legends. 2. Indians
of North America-Religion and mythology. I. Erdoes,
Richard. II. Ortiz, Alfonso, 1939- III. Series.
E98.F6A47 1984 389.2'08997 84-42669
ISBN 0-394-74018-1 (Pbk.)
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for
permission to reprint or adapt
from previously published material. In the case of adaptation,
the authors may have
retitled the tales.
"Origin of the Gnawing Beaver" and "The Flood," adapted from
Ha'ida Myths Illus-
trated in Argillite Carvings, edited by Marius Barbeau, Bulletin
no. 127, Anthropo-
logical Series no. 32 (Ottawa, 1953), pp. 52-56 and 184-185. By
permission of the
National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada.
"How Coyote Got His Cunning" and "The Coming of Thunder"
from California
Indian Nights Entertainments by E. W. Gifford. Copyright ©
1930 by the Arthur H.
Clark Company. By permission of the Arthur H. Clark
Company.
"Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch," "Coyote Gets Rich Off the
White Men," "Coyote
Steals Sun's Tobacco," and "Turkey Makes the Corn and Coyote
Plants It" from
"Tales of the White Mountain Apache" by Grenville Goodwin in
Memoirs of the
American Folklore Society, vol. 33. Copyright© 1939 by the
American Folklore Society.

By permission of the American Folklore Society.
"Always-Living-at-the-Coast," "Coyote and the Mallard Ducks,"
and "Coyote Takes
Water from the Frog People" from Giving Birth to Thunder,
Sleeping with His Daughter
by Barry Holstun Lopez. Copyright© 1977 by Barry Holstun
Lopez. By permission of
the author and Andrews & McMeel, Inc., Fairway, Kansas.
"Apache Chief Punishes His Wife" from "Taos Tales" by Elsie
Clews Parsons in
Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, vol. 34. Copyright
© 1940 by the American
Folklore Society. By permission of the American Folklore
Society.
"A Legend of Multnomah Falls," "Creation of the Animal
People," "Creation of the
Yakima World," "People Brought in a Basket," "Kulshan and
His Two Wives," "When
Grizzlies Walked Upright," "Pushing Up the Sky," "The Elk
Spirit of Lost Lake," and
"Playing a Trick on the Moon" from Indian Legends of the
Pacific Northwest by Ella
E. Clark. Copyright © 1953 by the Regents of the University of
California. By per-
mission of the University of California Press.
"The Buffalo Go" from American Indian Mythology by Alice
Marriott and Carol K.
Rachlin (Thomas Y. Crowell Co.). Copyright© 1968 by Alice
Marriott and Carol K.
Rachlin. By permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
TYPOGRAPHY AND BINDING DESIGN BY SUSAN

MITCHELL
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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•
CREATION OF THE
ANIMAL PEOPLE
•
[OKANOGAN]
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The earth was once a human being: Old One made her out of a
woman.
"You will be the mother of all people," he said.
Earth is alive yet, but she has been changed. The soil is her
Resh, the
rocks are her bones, the wind is her breath, trees and grass are
her hair.
She lives spread out, and we live on her. When she moves, we
have an

earthquake.
After taking the woman and changing her to earth, Old One
gathered
some of her Resh and rolled it into balls, as people do with mud
or clay.
He made the first group of these balls into the ancients, the
beings of
the early world.
The ancients were people, yet also animals. In form some
looked
human while some walked on all fours like animals. Some could
Hy like
birds; others could swim like fishes. All had the gift of speech,
as well as
greater powers and cunning than either animals or people. But
deer were
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never among the ancients; they were always animals, even as
they are
today.
Besides the ancients, real people and real animals lived on the
earth
at that time. Old One made the people out of the last balls of
mud he
took from the earth. He rolled them over and over, shaped them
like
Indians, and blew on them to bring them alive. They were so
ignorant
that they were the most helpless of all the creatures Old One
had made.
Old One made people and animals into males and females so
that they
might breed and multiply. Thus all living things came from the
earth.
When we look around, we see part of our mother everywhere.
The difficulty with the early world was that most of the ancients
were
selfish and some were monsters, and there was much trouble
among
them. They were also very stupid in some ways. Though they
knew
they had to hunt in order to live, they did not know which
creatures
were deer and which were people, and sometimes they ate
people by

mistake.
At last Old One said, "There will soon be no people if I let
things
go on like this." So he sent Coyote to kill all the monsters and
other evil
beings among the ancients and teach the Indians how to do
things.
And Coyote began to travel on the earth, teaching the Indians,
making
life easier and better for them, and performing many wonderful
deeds.
-Reported by Ella Clark in the 1950s .
•
STONE BOY
•
[ BRULE sroux]
Depending on the individual storyteller, the Sioux legend of
Stone
Boy takes many different forms. The following version from the
Cheyenne River Reservation was heard by Henry Crow Dog
around
I 9 Io, when he was a child listening to the storytellers at the
campfore.
•
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Back in the great days of the Indians, a maiden and her five
brothers
lived together. People in those times had to look for food; it
was their
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,---
main occupation. So while the sister cooked and made clothes,
the
brothers spent their days hunting.
It happened once that this family moved their tipi to the bottom
of
a canyon. It was a strange, silent place, but there was water in a
creek
and the hunting was good. The canyon was cool in the summer
and
shielded from wind in the winter. Still, when the brothers went
out
hunting, the girl was always waiting for them. Waiting and
listening,
she heard noises. Often she thought they were footsteps, but
when she
looked outside, no one was there.
Then one evening, only four of the five brothers came back

from
hunting. They and the sister stayed awake all night, wondering
what
could have happened to the other. The next day when the men
went
hunting, only three returned. Again they and the sister stayed
awake
wondering. The next evening only two came home, and they and
the
girl were afraid.
In those early days the Indians had no sacred ceremonies or
prayers
to guide them, so it was hard for the maiden and her two
brothers to
watch through the night in that ghostly place. Again the
brothers went
out in the morning, and only a single one returned at night. Now
the
girl cried and begged him to stay home. But they had to eat, and
so in
the morning her last and youngest brother, whom she loved best
of all,
went out to hunt. Like the others, he did not come back. Now no
one
would bring the maiden food or water, or protect her.
Weeping, the girl left the canyon and climbed to the top of a
hill.
She wanted to die, but did not know how to. Then she saw a
round
pebble lying on the ground. Thinking that it would kill her, she
picked
it up and swallowed it.
With peace in her heart the maiden went back to the tipi. She

drank
some water and felt a stirring inside her, as if the rock were
telling her
not to worry. She was comforted, though she could not sleep for
missing
her brothers.
The next day she had nothing left to eat except some pemmican
and
berries. She meant to eat them arid drink water from the creek,
but she
found she wasn't hungry. She felt as if she had been to a feast,
and
walked around singing to herself. The following day she was
happy in
a way she had never been before.
On the fourth day that the girl had been alone, she felt pain.
"Now
the end comes," she thought. "Now I die." She didn't mind; but
instead
of dying, she gave birth to a little boy.
"What will I do with this child?" she wondered. "How did it
come?
It must be that stone I swallowed."
The child was strong, with shining eyes. Though the girl felt
weak
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16
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for a while, she had to keep going to care for the new life, her
son. She
named him Iyan Hokshi, Stone Boy, and wrapped him in her
brothers'
clothes. Day after day he grew, ten times faster than ordinary
infants,
and with a more perfect body .
The mother knew that her baby had great powers. One day when
he
was playing outside the tipi, he made a bow and arrows, all on
his own.
Looking at his Hint arrowhead, the mother wondered how he
had done
it. "Maybe he knows that he was a stone and I swallowed him,"
she
thought. "He must have a rock nature."
The baby grew so fast that he was soon walking. His hair
became
long, and as he matured his mother became afraid that she
would lose
him as she had lost her brothers. She cried often, and though he
dil not

ask why, he seemed to know .
Very soon he was big enough to go hunting, and when she saw
this,
his mother wept more than ever. Stone Boy come into the tipi.
"Mother,
don't cry," he said.
"You used to have five uncles," she said. "But they went out
hunting.
One after another, they did not come back." And she told him
about
his birth, how she had gone to the top of the hill and swallowed
a stone,
and how she had felt something moving inside her.
"I know," he said. "And I am going to look for your brothers,
my
uncles."
"But if you don't return," she sobbed, "what will I do?"
"I will come back," he told her. "I will come back with my
uncles .
Stay in the tipi until I do."
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17
So the next morning Iyan Hokshi started walking and watching.
He

kept on till dusk, when he found a good place to sleep. He
wandered
for four days, and on the evening of the fourth day he smelled
smoke.
Iyan Hokshi, this Stone Boy, he followed the smell. It led him
to a tipi
with smoke coming from its smoke hole.
This tipi was ugly and ramshackle. Inside Iyan Hokshi could see
an
old woman who was ugly too. She watched him pass and,
calling him
over, invited him to eat and, stay the night.
Stone Boy went into the tipi, though he was uneasy in his mind,
and
a little timid. He looked around and saw five big bundles,
propped up
on end, leaning against the tipi wall. And he wondered.
The old woman was cooking some meat. When it was done he
ate it,
though it didn't taste good. Later she fixed a dirty old buffalo
robe for
him to sleep on, but he sensed danger and felt wide awake.
"I have a backache," the woman said. "Before you go to sleep, I
wish
you would rub it for me by walking up and down my back. I am
old and
alone, and I have nobody to help with my pain."
She lay down, and Stone Boy began walking on her back. As he
did,
he felt something sticking up under her buckskin robe,
something sharp

like a knife or a needle or the point of a spear. "Maybe she used
this
sharp tool to kill my uncles," he thought. "Maybe she put poison
from
a snake on its point. Yes, that must be so."
Iyan Hokshi, having pondered, jumped high in the air, as high
as he
could, and came down on that old woman's back with a crash.
He jumped
and jumped until he was exhausted and the hag was lying dead
with
a broken back.
Then Iyan Hokshi walked over to the big bundles, which were
wrapped in animal hides and lashed together with rawhide
thongs. He
unwrapped them and found five men, dead and dried like jerked
meat,
hardly human-looking. "These must be my uncles," he thought,
but he
didn't know how to bring them back to life.
Outside the ugly tipi was a heap of rocks, round gray stones. He
found
that they were talking and that he could understand them. "Iyan
Hokshi,
Stone Boy, you are one of us, you come from us, you come from
Tunka,
you come from Iyan. Listen; pay attention."
Following their instructions, he built a little dome-like hut out
of bent
willow sticks. He covered it with the old woman's buffalo robes
and put
the five dead, dried-up humans inside. Out in the open he built a

big
£.re. He set the rocks right in the flames, picked up the old
woman, and
threw her in to bum up.
After the rocks glowed red-hot, Stone Boy found a deer antler
and
used it to carry them one by one into the little hut he had made.
He
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picked up the old woman's water bag, a buffalo bladder

decorated with
quillwork, and filled it with water. He drew its rawhide tie tight
and
took it inside too. Then he placed the dried humans around him
in a
circle.
Iyan Hokshi closed the entrance of his little lodge with a flap of
buffalo
robe, so that no air could escape or enter. Pouring water from
the bag
over them, he thanked the rocks, saying, "You brought me
here." Four
times he poured the water; four times he opened the flap and
closed it .
Always he spoke to the rocks and they to him. As he poured, the
little
lodge filled with steam so that he could see nothing but the
white mist
in the darkness. When he poured water a second time, he sensed
a stir-
ring. When he poured the third time, he began to sing. And
when he
poured the fourth time, those dead, dried-up things also began
to sing
and talk.
"I believe they have come to life," thought Iyan Hokshi, the
Stone
Boy. "Now I want to see my uncles."
He opened the flap for the last time, watching the steam flow
out and
rise into the sky as a feathery cloud. The bonfire and the
moonlight both
shone into the little sweat lodge, and by their light he saw five

good-
looking young men sitting inside. He said, "Hou, lekshi, you
must be my
uncles." They smiled and laughed, happy to be alive again.
Iyan Hokshi said, "This is what my mother-your sister-wanted.
This is what she wished for."
He also told them: "The rock saved me, and now it has saved
you.
Iyan, Tunka-rock-Tunka, Iyan. Tunkashila, the Grandfather
Spirit,
we will learn to worship. This little lodge, these rocks, the
water, the
fire-these are sacred, these we will use from now on as we have
done
here for the first time: for purification, for life, for wichosani,
for health.
All this has been given to us so that we may live. We shall be a
tribe."
-Told by Henry Crow Dog, February 26, 1968, at Rosebud,
South Dakota, and recorded by Richard Erdoes.
Henry Crow Dog is a full-blooded Sioux elder with a majestic
face, craggy as the
Black Hills themselves. He is the grandson of the famous Crow
Dog, a chief,
warrior, and leader of the Ghost Dancers. The first Crow Dog
once voluntarily
drove I 5 o miles to his own hanging for killing his rival, Chief
Spotted Tail, only

to be freed on orders of the Supreme Court, which ruled that
federal law had no
jurisdiction on an Indian reservation.
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on
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ght,
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sud-
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ake
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•
CREATION OF FIRST MAN

AND FIRST WOMAN
•
[NAVAJO]
The ~rst people came up through three worlds and settled in the
fourth world. They had been driven from each successive world
be-
cause they had quarreled with one another and committed
adultery.
In previous worlds they found no other people like themselves,
hut
in the fourth world they found the Kisani or Pueblo people.
The surf ace of the fourth world was mixed black and white, and
the sky was mostly blue and black. There were no sim, no
moon, no
stars, hut there were four great snow-covered peaks on the
horizon
in each of the cardinal directions.
•
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IIIIIIIIJIIJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII •
Late in the autumn they heard in the east the distant sound of a
great
voice calling. They listened and waited, and soon heard the
voi~e nearer

and louder than before. Once more they listened and heard it
louder
still, very near. A moment later four mysterious beings
appeared. These
were White Body, god of this world; Blue Body, the sprinkler;
Yellow
Body; and Black Body, the god of fire.
Using signs but without speaking, the gods tried to instruct the
people,
but they were not understood. When the gods had gone, the
people dis-
cussed their mysterious visit and tried without success to figure
out the
signs. The gods appeared on four days in succession and
attempted to
communicate through signs, but their efforts came to nothing.
On the fourth day when the other gods departed, Black Body
remained
behind and spoke to the people in their own language: "You do
not seem
to understand our signs, so I must tell you what they mean. We
want to
make people who look more like us. You have bodies like ours,
but you
have the teeth, the feet, and the claws of beasts and insects. The
new
humans will have hands and feet like ours. Also, you are
unclean; you
smell bad. We will come back in twelve days. Be clean when we
return."
On the morning of the twelfth day the people washed
themselves well.
Then the woman dried their skin with yellow cornmeal, the men

with
white cornmeal. Soon they heard the distant call, shouted four
times, of
the approaching gods. When the gods appeared, Blue Body and
Black
-
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39
Body each carried a sacred buckskin. White Body carried two
ears of
corn, one yellow, one white, each covered completely with
grains.
The gods laid one buckskin on the ground with the head to the
west,
and on this they placed the two ears of corn with their tips to
the east.
Over the corn they spread the other buckskin with its head to
the east.
Under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle; under
the
yellow ear the feather of a yellow eagle. Then they told the
people to
stand back and allow the wind to enter. Between the skins the
white
wind blew from the east and the yellow wind from the west.
While the
wind was blowing, eight of the gods, the Mirage People, came
and

walked around the objects on the ground four times. As they
walked,
the eagle feathers, whose tips protruded from the buckskins,
were seen
to move. When the .Mirage People had finished their walk, the
upper
buckskin was lifted. The ears of corn had disappeared; a man
and a
woman lay in their place.
The white ear of corn had become the man, the yellow ear the
woman,
First Man and First Woman. It was the wind that gave them life,
and it
is the wind that comes out of our mouths now that gives us life.
When
this ceases to blow, we die.
The gods had the people build an enclosure of brushwood, and
when
it was finished, First Man and First Woman went in. The gods
told
them, "Live together now as husband and wife."
At the end of four days, First Woman bore hermaphrodite twins.
In
four more days she gave birth to a boy and a girl, who grew to
maturity
in four days and lived with one another as husband and wife. In
all,
First Man and First Woman had five pairs of twins, and all
except the
first became couples who had children.
In four days after the last twins were born, the gods came again
and

took First Man and First Woman away to the eastern mountain,
dwel-
ling place of the gods. The couple stayed there for four days,
and when
they returned, all their children were taken to the eastern
mountain for
four days. The gods may have taught them the awful secrets of
witch-
craft. Witches always use masks, and after they returned, they
would
occasionally put on masks and pray for the good things they
needed-
abundant rain and abundant crops.
Witches also marry people who are too closely related to them,
which
is what First Man and First Woman's children had done. After
they
had been to the eastern mountain, however, the brothers and
sisters
separated. Keeping their first marriages secret, the brothers now
married
women of the Mirage People and the sisters married men of the
Mirage People. But they never told anyone, even their new
families.
the mysteries they had learned from the gods. Every four days
the
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:
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:",,-o ears of
~ains.
:o the west,
to the east.
· :o the east.
- under the
· ~ people to
_5 the white
, -bile the
- .::ame and
~-:::- walked,
c v.-ere seen
k_ :he upper
::-ian and a
~--:e YOman,
life. and it
- ::£e. When
..:_ .md when
.e gods told
-·:c. nvins. In
- :c maturity
?.-::e. In all,
·: except the
,c :cgain and
-:::3(n. dwel-
5. ~nd when
-::mtain for

:s of witch-
~-:.e- ,vould
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:=em. which
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~nd sisters
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davs the
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women bore children, who grew to maturity in four days, then
married,
and in their turn had children every four days. In this way many
children of First Man and First Woman filled the land with
people.
'
-Based on a legend reported by Washington Matthews
in r897.
It is very common in origin stories around the world for the first
people to be
hermaphrodites or bisexuals. Religious scholars have been
trying for years to find
an explanation, but have not yet succeeded.

•
HOW MEN AND WOMEN
GOT TOGETHER
•
[BLOOD-PIEGAN]
•
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lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll111 •
Old Man had made the world and everything on it. He had done
every-
thing well, except that he had put the men in one place and the
women
in another, quite a distance away. So they lived separately for a
while.
Men and women did everything in exactly the same way. Both
had
buffalo jumps-steep cliffs over which they chased buffalo herds
so that
the animals fell to their death at the foot of the cliff. Then both
the men
and the women butchered the dead animals. This meat was their
only
food; they had not yet discovered other things that were good to
eat.
After a while the men learned how to make bows and arrows.
The
women learned how to tan buffalo hides and make tipis and
beautiful
robes decorated with porcupine quills.

One day Old Man said to himself: "I think I did everything well,
but
I made one bad mistake, putting women and men in different
places.
There's no joy or pleasure in that. Men and women are different:
from
each other, and these different things must be made to unite so
that
there will be more people. I must make men mate with women. I
will
put some pleasure, some good feeling into it; otherwise the men
won't
be keen to do what is necessary. I myself must set an example."
Old Man went over to where the women were living. He
traveled for
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four days and four nights before he saw the women in their
camp. He
was hiding behind some trees, watching. He said to himself:
"Ho, what
a good life they're having! They have these fine tipis made of
tanned
buffalo hide, while we men have only brush shelters or raw,
stinking,
green hides to cover us. And look what fine clothes they wear,
while we

have to go around with a few pelts around our loins! Really, I
made a
mistake putting the women so far away from us. They must live
with us
and make fine tents and beautiful clothes for us also. I'll go
back and
ask the other men how they feel about this."
So Old Man went back to his camp and told the men what he
had
seen. When they heard about all the useful and beautiful things
the
women had, the men said: "Let's go over there and get together
with
these different human beings."
"It's not only those things that are worth having," said Old Man.
"There's something else-a very pleasurable thing I plan on
creating."
Now, while this was going on in the men's camp, the chief of
the
women's village had discovered the tracks Old Man had made
while
prowling around. She sent a young woman to follow them and
report
back. The young woman arrived near the men's camp, hid
herself, and
watched for a short while. Then she hurried back to the women
as fast
as she could and told everybody: "There's a camp over there
with human
beings living in it. They seem different from us, taller and
stronger. Oh,
sisters, these beings live very well, better than us. They have a
thing

shooting sharp sticks, and with these they kill many kinds of
game-
food that we don't have. They are never hungry."
When they heard this, all the women said: "How we wish that
these
strange human beings would come here and kill all kinds of
food for us!"
When the women were finishing their meeting, the men were
already
over the hill toward them. The women looked at the men and
saw how
shabbily dressed they were, with just a little bit of rawhide
around their
loins. They looked at the men's matted hair, smelled the strong
smell
coming from their unwashed bodies. They looked at their dirty
skin.
They said to each other: "These beings called men don't know
how to
live. They have no proper clothes. They're dirty; they smell. We
don't
want people like these." The woman chief hurled a rock at Old
Man,
shouting: "Go away!" Then all the women threw rocks and
shouted
"G I" o away.
Old Man said: "It was no mistake putting these creatures far
away
from us. Women are dangerous. I shouldn't have created them."
Then
Old Man and all the men went back to their own place.
After the men left, the woman chief had second thoughts.
"These

poor men," she said, "they don't know any better, but we could
teach
lllll[llllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllflllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllflllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!Jlllllll
lllllllllllllllflllllllllllllllllllllllllll
42
......, .:L:":.
'iit =•,.: ~
l~c:ev
• DI:..
":""1e: =k.
. He
·hat
nned
king,
·ie we
ade a
":h us
· and
had
: the
e-
away

Then
ese
teach
";[[111111111
r
them. We could make clothes for them. Instead of shaming
them, maybe
we could get them to come back if we dress as poorly as they
do, just
with a piece of hide or fur around our waist.
And in the men's camp, Old Man said: "Maybe we (should try to
meet these women creatures once more. Yes, we should give it
another
chance. See what I did on the sly." He opened his traveling
bundle in
which he kept his jerk meat and other supplies, and out of it
took a
resplendent white buckskin outfit. "I managed to steal this when
those
women weren't looking. It's too small for me, but I'll add on a
little
buffalo hide here and a little bear fur there, and put a shield
over here,
where it doesn't come together over my belly. And I'll make
myself a
feather headdress and paint my face. Then maybe this woman
chief
will look at me with new eyes. Let me go alone to speak with
the women
creatures first. You stay back a little and hide until I have
straightened
things out."

So Old Man dressed up as best he could. He even purified
himself
in a sweat bath which he thought up for this purpose. He looked
at his
reflection in the lake waters and exclaimed: "Oh, how beautiful
I am!
I never knew I was that good-looking! Now that woman chief
will surely
like me."
Then Old Man led the way back to the women's camp. There
was
one woman on the lookout, and even though the men were
staying back
in hiding, she saw them coming. Then she spotted Old Man
standing
alone on a hilltop overlooking the camp. She hurried to tell the
woman
chief, who was butchering with most of the other women at the
buffalo
jump. For this job they wore their poorest outfits: just pieces of
rawhide
with a hole for the head, or maybe only a strap of rawhide
around the
waist. What little they had on was stiff with blood and reeked of
freshly
slaughtered carcasses. Even their faces and hands were streaked
with
blood.
"We'll meet these men just as we are," said the woman chief.
"They
will appreciate our being dressed like them."
So the woman chief went up to the hill on which Old Man was

standing, and the other women followed her. When he saw the
woman
chief standing there in her butchering clothes, her skinning flint
knife
still in her hand, her hair matted and unkempt, he exclaimed:
"Hah!
Hrumph! This woman chief is ugly. She's dressed in rags
covered with
blood. She stinks. I want nothing to do with a creature like this.
And
those other women are just like her. No, I made no mistake
putting
these beings far away from us men!" And having said this, he
turned
around and went back the way he had come, with all his men
following
him.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111m111
111
43
i
"It seems we can't do anything right," said the woman chief.
"What-
ever it is, those male beings misunderstand it. But I still think
we shoulc
unite with them. I think they have something we haven't got,
and we

have something they haven't got, and these things must come
together.
We'll try one last time to get them to understand us. Let's make
our-
selves beautiful."
The women went into the river and bathed. They washed and
combec
their hair, braided it, and attached hair strings of bone pipes and
she[
beads. They put on their finest robes of well-tanned, dazzling
white
doeskin covered with wonderful designs of porcupine quills
more color-
ful than the rainbow. They placed bone and shell chokers
around thei:
necks and shell bracelets around their wrists. On their feet they
pu:
fully quilled moccasins. Finally the women painted their cheeks
witl:-_
sacred red face paint. Thus wonderfully decked out, they started
on their
journey to the men's camp.
In the village of the male creatures, Old Man was cross and ill-
humored. Nothing pleased him. Nothing he ate tasted good. He
slep:
fitfully. He got angry over nothing. And so it was with all the
men. ''I
don't know what's the matter," said Old Man. "I wish women
were
beautiful instead of ugly, sweet-smelling instead of malodorous,
good-
tempered instead of corning at us with stones or bloody knives
in their
hands."

"vVe wish it too," said all the other men.
Then a lookout came running, telling Old Man: "The women
being~
are marching over here to our camp. Probably they're coming to
kill us.
Quick everybody, get your bows and arrows!"
"No, wait!" said Old Man. "Quick! Go to the river. Clean
yourselves
Anoint and rub your bodies with fat. Arrange your hair
pleasingly.
Smoke yourselves up with cedar. Put on your best fur garments.
Pain:
your faces with sacred red color. Put bright feathers on your
heads.·
Old Man himself dressed in the quilled robe stolen from the
women's
camp which he had made into a war shirt. He wore his great
chief's
headdress. He put on his necklace of bear claws. Thus arrayed,
the mer_
assembled at the entrance of their camp, awaiting the women's
coming.
The women came. They were singing. Their white quilled robes
dazzled the men's eyes. Their bodies were fragrant with the
good smeI:
of sweet grass. Their cheeks shone with sacred red face paint.
Old Man exclaimed: "Why, these women beings are beautiful!
They
delight my eyes! Their singing is wonderfully pleasing to my
ears. Thei.::
bodies are sweet-smelling and alluring!"

"They make our hearts leap," said the other men.
111111111rr111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
1111n111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111m111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
44
"I'll go talk to their woman chief," said Old Man. "I'll fix things
up
-;r.::h her."
The woman chief in the meantime remarked to the other women:
(
-1Yhy, these men beings are really not as uncouth as we
thought. Their
:2.;•,T1ess is a sort of strength. The sight of their arm muscles
pleases my
=~icS. The sound of their deep voices thrills my ears. They are
not al-
=·gether bad, these men."
Old Man went up to the woman chief and said, "Let's you and I
go
;:meplace and talk."
·Yes, let's do that," answered the woman chief. They went
some-
=~2.ce. The woman chief looked at Old Man and liked what she
saw.
,)ld :.1an looked at the woman chief and his heart pounded with

joy.
'let's try one thing that has never been tried before," he said to
the
-;..-:,man chief.
"I always like to try out new, useful things," she answered.
··:.Iaybe one should lie down, trying this," said Old Man.
":.Iaybe one should," agreed the woman chief. They lay down.
_..fter a while Old Man said: "This is surely the most
wonderful thing
:::2.r ever happened to me. I couldn't ever imagine such a
wonderful
. . " =-:ng.
·'And I," said the woman chief, "I never dreamed I could feel so
good.
T-iis is much better, even, than eating buffalo tongues. It's too
good to
:x properly described."
"Let's go and tell the others about it," said Old Man.
-hen Old Man and the woman chief got back to the camp, they
::und nobody there. All the male creatures and the women
beings had
~:eady paired off and gone someplace, each pair to their own
spot.
T-iey didn't need to be told about this new thing; they had
already
::und out.
nen the men and women came back from wherever they had
gone,
::::ey were smiling. Their eyes were smiling. Their mouths were
smiling,

:::eir whole bodies were smiling, so it seemed.
Then the women moved in with the men. They brought all their
:_=::_:_ngs, all their skills to the men's village. Then the
women quilled and
==::med for the men. Then the men hunted for the women. Then
there
-;n.s love. Then there was happiness. Then there was marriage.
Then
::::.ere were children.
-Based on four fragments dating from 1883 to r9ro.
(...___ __
fflnm;::1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
45
of the soapwood plant for the initiation and then spoke to them
all:
··From now on, wear the costumes I have made for you. You are
rain
gods, created to call the rain when you dance before my people.
They
will worship you for all time." And after she had instructed each
of the
gods and given each his costume and a prayer, she told them
that they
,rnuld have a sacred chamber in each of the four mountains.
And so
everything was as it should be.

-Based on a legend reported by C. Daryll Forde in 1930,
and on various oral accounts.
The Hopis tell this as the tale of Bahana, the lost White Brother,
replacing the
oisters with brothers throughout. This version from Acoma
shows Spanish in~uence
:n the mention of "sin," a concept unknown on this continent
until after Columbus;
:he role of the snake in tempting N ao-tsiti may also be colored
by knowledge of the
3ible.
•
EARTH MAKING
•
[CHEROKEE]
The Cherokee are one of the very few Indian tribes who
conceive
of the sun as female. This version is unusual for the Cherokee
be-
cause it refers to Sun as "he."
•
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111 •

Earth is Boating on the waters like a big island, hanging from
four raw-
::ide ropes fastened at the top of the sacred four directions. The
ropes
~e tied to the ceiling of the sky, which is made of hard rock
crystal.
When the ropes break, this world will come tumbling down, and
all
==.ing things will fall with it and die. Then everything will be
as if the
e1rth had never existed, for water will cover it. Maybe the white
man
.rill bring this about.
Vell, in the beginning also, water covered everything. Though
living
c::eatures existed, their. home was up there, above the rainbow,
and it
amlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll[
(
was crowded. "We are all jammed together," the animals said.
"We need
more room." Wondering what was under the water, they sent
Water
Beetle to look around.
Water Beetle skimmed over the surface but couldn't find any
solid
footing, so he dived down to the bottom and brought up a little

dab of
soft mud. Magically the mud spread out in the four directions
and be-
came this island we are living on-this earth. Someone Powerful
then
fastened it to the sky ceiling with cords.
In the beginning the earth was Hat, soft, and moist. All the
animals
were eager to live on it, and they kept sending down birds to see
if the
mud had dried and hardened enough to take their weight. But
the birds
all Hew back and said that there was still no spot they could
perch on.
Then the animals sent Grandfather Buzzard down. He Hew very
close
and saw that the earth was still soft, but when he glided low
over what
would become Cherokee country, he found that the mud was
getting
harder. By that time Buzzard was tired and dragging. When he
Happed
his wings down, they made a valley where they touched the
earth; when
he swept them up, they made a mountain. The animals watching
from
above the rainbow said, "If he keeps on, there will be only
mountains,''
and they made him come back. That's why we have so many
mountains
in Cherokee land.
At last the earth was hard and dry enough, and the animals
descended.

They couldn't see very well because they had no sun or moon,
and
someone said, "Let's grab Sun from up there behind the
rainbow! Let's
get him down too!" Pulling Sun down, they told him, "Here's a
road for
you," and showed him the way to go-from east to west.
Now they had light, but it was much too hot, because Sun was
too
close to the earth. The crawfish had his back sticking out of a
stream,
and Sun burned it red. His meat was spoiled forever, and the
people
still won't eat crawfish.
Everyone asked the sorcerers, the shamans, to put Sun higher.
They
pushed him up as high as a man, but it was still too hot. So they
pushed
him farther, but it wasn't far enough. They tried four times, and
when
they had Sun up to the height of four men, he was just hot
enough.
Everyone was satisfied, so they left him there.
Before making humans, Someone Powerful had created plants
and ani-
mals and had told them to stay awake and watch for seven days
and sever.
nights. (This is just what young men do today when they fast
anc:
prepare for a ceremony.) But most of the plants and animals
couldn':
manage it; some fell asleep after one day, some after two days,
some

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
:
106
~ ,22.ken b:,- :~_...:::-~
'"T.:-:.e rock is ok. :...- -:,
.11r ::-2.5:.··
T.::e;- stretched th:: ,-'---
~-e need
t Water
animals
see if the
the birds
perch on.
wry close
.-er what
c5 getting
e flapped
d1; when
jng from
,untains,"
escended.
oon, and

bo,Y! Let's
2 road for
1::1.er. They
·~ey pushec
. 2nd vrher.
ot enougt.
_:sand ar.:-
,s and seYt=-
• e- fast 2::-.~
;ls coulc::-. :
·~~r,!11n111r1::t~
after three. Among the animals, only the owl and the mountain
lion were
still awake after seven days and nights. That's why they were
given the
gift of seeing in the dark so that they can hunt at night.
Among the trees and other plants, only the cedar, pine, holly,
and
laurel wer still awake on the eighth morning. Someone Powerful
said to
them: "Because you watched and kept awake as you had been
told, you
will not lose your hair in the winter." So these plants stay green
all the
time.
After creating plants and animals, Someone Powerful made a
man and
his sister. The man poked her with a fish and told her to give

birth. After
seven days she had a baby, and after seven more days she had
another,
and every seven days another came. The humans increased so
quickly
that Someone Powerful, thinking there would soon be no more
room on
this earth, arranged things so that a woman could have only one
child
every year. And that's how it was.
::"Jow, there is still another world under the one we live on.
You can
reach it by going down a spring, a water hole; but you need
underworld
people to be your scouts and guide you. The world under our
earth is
exactly like ours, except that it's winter down there when it's
summer
up here. We can see that easily, because spring water is warmer
than
the air in winter and cooler than the air in summer.
-Told at a Cherokee treaty council meeting in
New York City, 1975 .
•
THE EARTH DRAGON
•
[ NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST]
•
llllllllll!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII •

Before this world was formed, there was another world with a
sky made
flt sandstone rock. Two gods, Thunder and Nagaicho, saw that
old sky
laei..rig shaken by thunder.
-The rock is old," they said. "We'll fix it by stretching it above,
far to
~ east."
They stretched the sandstone, walking on the sky to do it, and
under
~
r 1r· ;;r ·"·· .... ;::;_ • .... ,,,, · · 'A#' -- -~- ~"'~· _.5_;'----:. • · ·
- -= .... _ ·
',r~;;~"':. /'"":'r..~· wef1L-:--CHOSEN COL.l;;ToN; FRO~
G;~D SOURC;s. W~LL . . , . . - .
PRESENTED FOR USE EITHER AS AN INTRODUCTION
TO·THE STUDY OF MYTHOL~~y OR
AS A CONVENIENT REFER~NCE' WORK AND REFRESHER
OF MEMORY." .
. ""7 JOSEPH CAMPBEl.:i..
)
,

HarperOne
For Herb
PRIMAL MYTHS: Creation Myths Around the World.
Copyright © 1979 by Barbara C.
Sproul. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. For information
address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York,
NY 10007.
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HarperCollins ®, ~ ®, and HarperOne Th< are trademarks of
HarperCollins Publishers.
FIRST HARPERCOLLINS EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1991
Designed by Paul Quin
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sproul, Barbara C.
Primal myths.
Bibliography

Includes index.
1. Creation-Comparative studies. I. Tide.
BL325.C7S68 1979
291.2 78-4429
ISBN: 978-0-06-067501-l
15 16 17 18 RRD(H) 40 39 38
PREFACE 1x
INTRODUCTIO"
ONE AFRICAN MYTI
Bushman: Cap
Hottentot: Tl:e
Barotse: God R
Yao: The Chan
Swahili: Mak.::1
Bushongo: B~rn
Bulu: How Z2.:i
and the God
Ngombe: The (
How the E2.:1
Nandi: When C

Dogon: The f:J
Man de: The C 1
Krachi: The Sc:
Fon: The G::-e2.1
TWO NEAR EASTER:
Ancient Egyptiar: I
Theology frorr. 11.
History of the C1
Myth of Ptah ==-~
The Repulsir:g j
Incantation fr;::::1
Sumerian, Babyk::-_.:.1
The Enuma L.s.l
.::-.;-erial city c:::.:-:
· �� Cpper-Ci.:z:
" ·::-y our king .:. - :
-... ere given t::-.-::
<· .y;er those of : - :

0 c xen origir:.:.
T:-.ere existed :::-
..:e with the k::-.;
e :,:, be conside�:::
: Indeed, it w2.> :.
c::':erence bet,e-:·
.. .:: ':)ove had be::·
::-.a.le element .. -".
c:·.:ded in this,.,:.
c:stricts.
:.::.::s the tasks t::-:.
e :a.ught them::- .:
0: .:onnected n2: _ ·
. ·,.. ear today. T �:
e.::.·;e wool and c :--
1;.;:,jects everytr.::-;
Jf the numerc _
::nmediately i�:
earth of the m2.�-
:· displayed tr.e ·
i:-. houses, grou;:-::
2.::d they came ·
them. After 5

:xissessed arrr.:::
c.:i;ne of their o,., -
,,.: bludgeons.
:.:-st king, we sh.:.
:::e river which-_,:
:::e west, as far 2.
.1:- as the QueqL::·
·,illages built, t::-:
::,:· our city whic:-
:::e great, illust,.·
:::ards] took frc
.e here during r:--:
.:.re descended. ::-
EIGHT VERSIONS OF THE CREATION LEGEND 305
the same way that all of us, all your relatives, are. I am unable
to say exactly at
11ihat date the Sun sent his first children down to earth,
because that demands
calculation that is beyond my memory; let us say that it was at
least four hun-
dred years ago. Our Inca's name was Manco Capac and our Coya
Mama, Occlo
Huaco. They were brother and sister, as I explained to you
before, the children of
the Moon and the Sun.

"I believe now that I have answered all your questions and, in
order not to
make you weep, I have held' back from my own eyes the tears of
blood wrung
from my heart by sorrow at the spectacle of our Inca's downfall
and our lost Em-
pire."
-Darcilaso de la Vega. The Incas. Alain Gheerbrant, ed., Maria
Jolas, trans. New York: Avon
Books, 1964, pp. 43-47.
YARURO
( ____
Eight Versions of the Creation
Legend The Yaruros live along the Rio Capanaparo in
Venezuela and
worship a mother goddess, Kuma, the consort or mother of the
sun and source and
establisher of all. Kuma came into being with her brothers
Puana (the water ser-
pent) and ltciai (the jaguar), who created water and earth
respectively and who
still serve as identifications of the two exogamous matrilineal
moieties into which
Y aruro society is divided.
Only the shamans among the Yaruros can contact Kuma now
and visit her land
of giants (a heaven in which perfect, huge forms of every
creatures exist eternally)
in the west. With a pole set up in front of him, the shaman
enters a trance and de-
scribes his soul's journey while people dance around him, men

in one direction and
women in another.
These eight short versions of the Yaruro myth show interesting
variations (and
structural similarities) within the central themes of creation, the
descent of the
culture hero, and the emergence of the people.
I
At first there was nothing. Then Puana the Snake, who came
first,
created the world and everything in it, including the river
courses, ex-
cept the water. ltciai the Jaguar created the water. Kuma was the
first person to
people the land. Then the other people were created. Then came
India Rosa from
the east. The Guahibos were created last. That is the reason that
they live in the
forest.
Horses and cattle were given to the Yaruros. However, they
were so large
that the Yaruros were afraid to mount them. The "Racionales"
were not afraid,
and so the horses were given to them.
The sun travels in a canoe from east to west. At night it goes to
Kuma's
land. The stars are her children and they wander about at night.
The moon,
which is a sister to the sun, travels in a boat.

t:-: :1es], erect-
a:·:er planting
bc2.st. the pig,
·:. the turkey,
. :he "taqua-
c-.:.d. the frog,
·,,idow [red-
~-.,.:. the barn
e:-:ly. the ant,
::1.e sparrow,
:-e are in the
,:,:-: when Our
2.nimals were
::1e duck, the
:o seize. The
~rform their
·,. like that of
r-:ng is neces-
;-erformance]
c. :he skyrock-
e, [ than their
e older broth-
.:Jstumes and
c, you. Excuse
:·2., away. You

:-oad, there is
g:i: I will show
e,y great tree .
..:.d already as-
.g ·ery far up .
.:. t the base of
ti:ey should re-
::im. Then he
see them."
·ome animals.
l
ORDERING THE ·.,. = ~ -= :
"Liar," she said. "These cannot be they. They of whom you
speak are.:.:-.. :-:-.~ •
She questioned [the animals]. "Is it you?" They shook the tree
ir. :--::: .
[They could not talk now because they were animals.] Then
some refuse fei: ::-.
her eye, and [in anger] she commanded that they should remain
like animals for
all time .
"Now you will eat the fruit of the tree," [she ordered]. "You do
not wish
to be good."
Then the kings [of the Jews] gathered together against Our
Father God.
They ran after him; he ran away. [On the way] there was a man

working.
"What are you doing?" [asked God]. "What are you planting?"
"I am planting some stones."
"Within three days these stones will become very large," [said
God].
"Some men are following me; if they question you, do not tell
them that I passed
by."
"There was one who passed by when I was planting my stones
sixty days
ago," [ the man told the kings]. From there they followed God,
with machete,
with weapon, with lance. "Until we have killed him," said the
kings.
There was another man planting beans [on the route over which
God was
fleeing]. Our Father God asked, "What are you doing?"
"I am planting a little of my beans."
"Within three days your beans will be dry," [ God told him].
"There are
some men following me; if they question you, don't tell them
anything."
"There was one who passed by when I was planting my beans
about sixty
days ago," he told them [the kings].
He [God] now walked very little. The kings seized him and
killed him.
Then, when they had finished killing him, they, the kings,

nailed him to the cross,
opening his arms and putting nails through them. Then they
went away .
He [God] placed a ladder on the cross and went away by means
of this
ladder. He arrived in heaven. Then began the light in the seat of
heaven, the cock
crowed, the beasts and the cattle howled. The world [that God
formed] became
clear, and then the sun lit up and the kings were burned.
-Morris Siegel. "The Creation Myth and Acculturation in
Acatan, Guatemala." Journal of Ameri-
can Folklore, 1943, 56, 121-124. Philadelphia: American
Folklore Society. <::::::::::::::::::
INCA
Ordering the world The great Inca Empire succeeded a
long series of prehistoric Peruvian cultures when it came to
prominence c. 1200
A.D. and became powerful enough to take over neighboring
tribes by force c. 1440.
When Pizarro conquered the Inca in 1553, he found an Empire
stretching from
Quito, Ecuador, to the Rio Maule in Chile. It was a highly
organized and disci-
plined socialist society, capable of monumental building
projects, an extraordinary
road system, and even a messenger service that could cover 150
miles a day. The
upper class worshipped a high god with no name, who was most
commonly re-
ferred to by one of his titles ("Wiraqoca" to the Inca,
"Viracocha" to the Span-

302 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN MYTHS
ish). Perceived as the ground of being, the source of all power,
this personification
of the Holy had neither special function nor particular cult, and
popular religious
attention was therefore focused on his more immanent servants,
the gods and god-
desses of the sun, thunder, moon, sea, and the huacas, local
sacred places and
things.
This myth was recounted by one of the last Incas to Garcilaso
de la Vega, the
son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador, around
1556 when he was a
young man. It later became part of The Royal Commentaries
Garcilaso wrote
about the history of Peru. Appropriate to a culture so highly
organized, the myth
recalls the primitive animalistic state of people before "our
father Sun" sent two
of his children by the moon goddess to earth. The young Inca
(emperor) and his
sister-bride moved about until they found a place where they
could easily plunge
the golden rod their father had given them (that is, in
mythological language, un-
til they could find a place where Earth was properly receptive to
sun's fertiliza-
tion; or, in agricultural language, until they could find rich soil
and good climate.)
There they stopped, organized all the local people, and
eventually ruled an empire

of such size and power it could reach out and conquer others.
The social order was
essential to the empire's success: cities were divided into upper
and lower halves;
men and women were instructed in appropriate tasks. Thus the
myth proclaims
the divinity of all rulers descending from the first Inca and their
divine sanction of
the basic social structure.
"AT ONE TIME, all the land you see about you was nothing but
moun-
J-... tains and desolate cliffs. The people lived like wild beasts,
with nei-
ther order nor religion, neither villages nor houses, neither
fields nor clothing, for
they had no knowledge of their wool or cotton. Brought together
haphazardly in
groups of two and three, they lived in grottoes and caves and,
like wild game, fed
upon grass and roots, wild fruits, and even human flesh. They
covered their na-
kedness with the bark and leaves of trees, or with the skins of
animals. Some even
went unclothed. And as for women, they possessed none who
were recognized as
their very own.
"Seeing the condition they were in, our father the Sun was
ashamed for
them, and he decided to send one of his sons and one of his
daughters from heav-
en to earth, in order that they might teach men to adore him and
acknowledge
him as their god; to obey his laws and precepts as every

reasonable creature must
do; to build houses and assemble together in villages; to till the
soil, sow the seed,
raise cattle, and enjoy the fruits of their labors like human
beings.
"Our father the Sun set his two children down at a place eighty
leagues
from here, on Lake Titicaca, and he gave them a rod of gold, a
little shorter than
a man's arm and two fingers in thickness.
"'Go where you will,' he said to them, 'and whenever you stop to
eat or to
sleep, plunge this rod into the earth. At the spot where, with one
single thrust, it
disappears entirely, there you must establish and hold your
court. And the peo-
ples whom you will have brought under your sway shall be
maintained by you in
a state of justice and reason, with piety, mercy, and mildness.
" 'To the entire world,' added our father the Sun, 'I give my
light and my
T
brilliance; I give me
and their cattle tom
der to have a better
my example. Do um
loved children; for I
cease to live like wile
who accept our law
"Having thus

missed them. They t
each day to thrust ti
shelter about seven (
it and that is why thi
of Morning. Later. h
village take pride i:1
Inca and his bride. o
nothing but wild. m,
"The first hal
called Huanacauri. ,
not only did it sink
turned to his sister-t
" 'Our father
ley, to settle here an
mine, to call togethe,
we might teach ther:
"Now they le
spot being the first t
uncle said, "that we
perpetually adored ;
The prince set out fo
all whom they met t!:
ers and benefactors ;
and feed themseh'es
"The savages
much at what they s
were both arrayed ii
our father the Sun.
way we, their desceni
gion seen anything :
worshiped our ances
kings. The news cf :1

a great gathering of
ready to follow them
"Our soverei~
of persons, ordering
-
•
•
1-
•
'~
lie
•
Iii:
is
F
• ..
I.
Ill:
•
It
• .-
•
i-..
ir
I[ ..

•
•
D
•
l
ORDERI:-S:G -:-:--:::: ,:, : : -= :
brilliance; I give men warmth when they are cold; I cause the:~
:':e:.:, : :
and their cattle to multiply; each day that passes I go all around
the ·. 2~-= _:- : ~-
der to have a better knowledge of men's needs and to satisfy
these needs: ,-2::::-.-
my example. Do unto all of them as a merciful father would do
unto his well-be-
loved children; for I have sent you on earth for the good of men,
that they might
cease to live like wild animals. You shall be the kings and lords
of all the peoples
who accept our law and our rule.'
"Having thus declared his will to his two children, our father
the Sun dis-
missed them. They then left Lake Titicaca and walked
northwards, trying vainly
each day to thrust their rod of gold into the earth. And so they
came to a little
shelter about seven or eight leagues from here. Day was
breaking when they left
it and that is why the Inca called this spot Caparec Tempu,
which means: the Inn
of Morning. Later, he filled it with people and, to this day, the
inhabitants of that

village take pride in this name that comes from our first king.
From there, the
Inca and his bride, our queen, entered into Cuzco valley which,
at that time, was
nothing but wild, mountainous country .
"The first halt they made in this valley," my uncle said, "was at
a place
called Huanacauri, a half-day's walk from here. There they tried
their rod and
not only did it sink into the earth, but it disappeared entirely.
Then our Inca
turned to his sister-bride:
" 'Our father the Sun,' he said, 'has commanded us to remain in
this val-
ley, to settle here and make it our home. You then go your way,
and I shall go
mine, to call together and assemble the inhabitants of these
regions, in order that
we might teach them good, as we have been ordered to do.'
"Now they left the hill of Huanacauri, each going his own way;
and this
spot being the first to have been trod on by their feet, you will
understand," my
uncle said, "that we built a temple there, so that our father the
Sun should be
perpetually adored in recognition of the signal favor he showed
us on that day.
The prince set out for the north and the princess for the south.
They explained to
all whom they met that their father the Sun had sent them on
earth to be the rul-
ers and benefactors of this country, to teach them all how to
live, how to clothe

and feed themselves like men, instead of like animals.
"The savages to whom they spoke these promising words
marveled as
much at what they saw as at what they heard: for the Inca and
his sister-bride
were both arrayed in garments and ornaments that had been
given to them by
our father the Sun, and both of them had ears that were pierced
and open the
way we, their descendants, wear ours today. Never had the
inhabitants of this re-
gion seen anything like it; therefore, they believed all that was
told them, they
worshiped our ancestors as the children of the Sun, and obeyed
them as their
kings. The news cf this wonderful event began to spread from
place to place and
a great gathering of men and women was soon assembled about
the two Incas,
ready to follow them wherever they might lead.
"Our sovereigns then distributed the necessary tasks amongst
this crowd
of persons, ordering some to go seek food for all, whilst others,
following their
-- 1
-------
ORDERING THE WORLD 303
brilliance; I give men warmth when they are cold; I cause their

fields to fructify
and their cattle to multiply; each day that passes I go all around
the world in or-
der to have a better knowledge of men's needs and to satisfy
these needs: follow
my example. Do unto all of them as a merciful father would do
unto his well-be-
loved children; for I have sent you on earth for the good of men,
that they might
cease to live like wild animals. You shall be the kings and lords
of all the peoples
who accept our law and our rule.'
"Having thus declared his will to his two children, our father
the Sun dis-
missed them. They then left Lake Titicaca and walked
northwards, trying vainly
each day to thrust their rod of gold into the earth. And so they
came to a little
shelter about seven or eight leagues from here. Day was
breaking when they left
it and that is why the Inca called this spot Caparec Tempu,
which means: the Inn
of Morning. Later, he filled it with people and, to this day, the
inhabitants of that
village take pride in this name that comes from our first king.
From there, the
Inca and his bride, our queen, entered into Cuzco valley which,
at that time, was
nothing but wild, mountainous country.
"The first halt they made in this valley," my uncle said, "was at
a place
called Huanacauri, a half-day's walk from here. There they tried
their rod and
not only did it sink into the earth, but it disappeared entirely.

Then our Inca
turned to his sister-bride:
" 'Our father the Sun,' he said, 'has commanded us to remain in
this val-
ley, to settle here and make it our home. You then go your way,
and I shall go
mine, to call together and assemble the inhabitants of these
regions, in order that
we might teach them good, as we have been ordered to do.'
"Now they left the hill of Huanacauri, each going his own way;
and this
spot being the first to have been trod on by their feet, you will
understand," my
uncle said, "that we built a temple there, so that our father the
Sun should be
perpetually adored in recognition of the signal favor he showed
us on that day.
The prince set out for the north and the princess for the south.
They explained to
all whom they met that their father the Sun had sent them on
earth to be the rul-
ers and benefactors of this country, to teach them all how to
live, how to clothe
and feed themselves like men, instead of like animals.
"The savages to whom they spoke these promising words
marveled as
much at what they saw as at what they heard: for the Inca and
his sister-bride
were both arrayed in garments and ornaments that had been
given to them by
our father the Sun, and both of them had ears that were pierced
and open the
way we, their descendants, wear ours today. Never had the

inhabitants of this re-
gion seen anything like it; therefore, they believed all that was
told them, they
worshiped our ancestors as the children of the Sun, and obeyed
them as their
kings. The news cf this wonderful event began to spread from
place to place and
a great gathering of men and women was soon assembled about
the two Incas,
ready to follow them wherever they might lead.
"Our sovereigns then distributed the necessary tasks amongst
this crowd
of persons, ordering some to go seek food for all, whilst others,
following their
instructions, were to begin to build huts and houses. Thus our
imperial city came
into existence, and was divided into two halves: Hanan-Cuzco,
or Upper-Cuzco.
and Hurin-Cuzco, or Lower-Cuzco. Hanan-Cuzco was founded
by our king and
Hurin-Cuzco by our queen, and that is why the two parts were
given these
names, without the inhabitants of one possessing any superiority
over those of the
other, but simply to recall the fact that certain of them had been
originally
brought together by the king, and certain others by the queen.
There existed only
one single difference between them, a difference in accordance
with the king's

desire, and that was, that the inhabitants of Upper-Cuzco were
to be considered
as the elder, and those of Lower-Cuzco as the younger brothers.
Indeed, it was as
it is in the case of a living body, in which there always exists a
difference between
the right and the left hands, for the reason that those from above
had beer,
brought together by the male, and those from below by the
female element. AL
the cities and all the villages in our Empire were subsequently
divided in this wa:
into upper and lower lineages, as well as into upper and lower
districts.
"While peopling the city, our Inca taught the male Indians the
tasks tha:
were to be theirs, such as selecting seeds and tilling the soil. He
taught them ho',
to make hoes, how to irrigate their fields by means of canals
that connected natu-
ral streams, and even to make these same shoes that we still
wear today. Tht
queen, meanwhile, was teaching the women how to spin and
weave wool and cot-
ton, how to make clothing, as well as other domestic tasks.
"In short, our sovereigns, the Inca king, who was master of the
men, anc
Queen Coya, who was mistress of the women, taught their
subjects everythin~
that had to do with human living.
"The first subjects of the Inca were soon well aware of the
numerov
benefits they derived from their new situation and they went

immediately int
the mountains to proclaim to all their neighbors the arrival on
earth of the ma~-
velous children of the Sun. In proof of their statements, they
displayed the:~
clothing and their foodstuffs, explaining that now they lived in
houses, groupe:
together in villages. Soon, the savages began to marvel, too, and
they came i~
droves to join the Inca and his sister, remaining to serve and
obey them. Afters:
or seven years, they had become so numerous that the Inca
possessed arme_
troops for his defense and for subjugating those who did not
come of their O, -
accord. He had taught them to make bows, lances, arrows, and
bludgeons.
"In order to shorten this account of the exploits of our first
king, we sh2-
say simply that he extended his rule towards the east as far as
the river which :
call Paucartampu, that he conquered eight leagues of land to the
west, as far ~
the great Apurimac river, and nine leagues to the south, as far
as the Queqi.::
sana. In this latter direction, he had more than one hundred
villages built, tc,
most important of which contained a hundred homes.
"Such then," my uncle concluded, "were the beginnings of our
city whic'
today, as you can see, is rich and populous; such were those of
the great, illust~
ous Empire that your father and his companions [i.e., the
Spaniards] took frc

us; and such were our first Incas, our first kings, those who
came here during t'.
first centuries of the world and from whom all our other kings
are descended .. -
' '1 I',
EIG
the same way that all of us.
what date the Sun sent his
alculation that is beyond r
tired years ago. Our Inca's i
Huaco. They were brother a
"I believe now that I
make you weep, I have he!,
from my heart by sorrow at
;:ire."
-{;arcilaso de la Vega. The Inc;;
lo.xs, 1964, pp. 43-47.
YARURO
Eight Versii
Legend The
worship a mother godde
establisher of all. Kum2.
pent) and ltciai (the j2.,
still serve as identifica t:,
Yaruro society is divide
Only the shamans aIT.
of giants (a heaven in-.,]
in the west. With a pole
scribes his soul's journe:,

women in another.
These eight short ve~;
structural similarities) ,
culture hero, and the e:1
I At first there wa1 created the world
-,C the water. ltciai the Jag1
. pipie the land. Then the oth;
1 • east. The Guahibos were ,
'-.:St.
Horses and cattle were
. .. the Yaruros were afraid
; • so the horses were given
The sun travels in a c2
; ...... The stars are her child
'.111ich is a sister to the sun, tr
".":2.l city came
L pper-Cuzco.
:, Jur king and
-:-e given these
, e"." those of the
bce:1 originally
"."e existed only
... :th the king's
c· ·:ie considered
.ceed, it was as
e,ence between

::,.ove had been
:e element. All
.ced in this way
s:ricts.
s the tasks that
·.:ght them how
.::0nnected natu-
e2.r today. The
·e wool and cot-
,:.~- the men, and
;ects everything
~ the numerous
.. :nediately into
=:-th of the mar-
displayed their
::ouses, grouped
.d they came in
:hem. After six
~ssessed armed
::ce of their own
·::,iudgeons.
st king, we shall
e river which we
e west, as far as
2.s the Queque-
:llages built, the
:· our city which,
he great, illustri-

:.1rds] took from
!";ere during the
..:."."e descended, in
t
EIGHT VERSIONS OF THE CREATIO:,.; LEGE"-= : • :
the same way that all of us, all your relatives, are. I am unable
to say ex.a.:: .•.
what date the Sun sent his first children down to earth, because
that demancs
calculation that is beyond my memory; let us say that it was at
least four hun-
dred years ago. Our Inca's name was Manco Capac and our Coya
Mama, Occlo
Huaco. They were brother and sister, as I explained to you
before, the children of
"I believe now that I have answered all your questions and, in
order not to
make you weep, I have held back from my own eyes the tears of
blood wrung
from my heart by sorrow at the spectacle of our Inca's downfall
and our lost Em-
pire."
-Garcilaso de la Vega. The Incas. Alain Gheerbrant, ed., Maria
Jolas, trans. New York: Avon
Books, 1964, pp. 43-47.
YARURO
Eight Versions of the Creation
Legend The Yaruros live along the Rio Capanaparo in

Venezuela and
worship a mother goddess, Kuma, the consort or mother of the
sun and source and
establisher of all. Kuma came into being with her brothers
Puana (the water ser-
pent) and Itciai (the jaguar), who created water and earth
respectively and who
still serve as identifications of the two exogamous matrilineal
moieties into which
Yaruro society is divided.
Only the shamans among the Yaruros can contact Kuma now
and visit her land
of giants (a heaven in which perfect, huge forms of every
creatures exist eternally)
in the west. With a pole set up in front of him, the shaman
enters a trance and de-
scribes his soul's journey while people dance around him, men
in one direction and
women in another.
These eight short versions of the Yaruro myth show interesting
variations (and
structural similarities) within the central themes of creation, the
descent of the
culture hero, and the emergence of the people.
I At first there was nothing. Then Puana the Snake, who came
first, created the world and everything in it, including the river
courses, ex-
cept the water. Itciai the Jaguar created the water. Kuma was
the first person to
people the land. Then the other people were created. Then came
India Rosa from
the east. The Guahibos were created last. That is the reason that
they live in the

forest.
Horses and cattle were given to the Y aruros. However, they
were so large
that the Yaruros were afraid to mount them. The "Racionales"
were not afraid,
and so the horses were given to them.
The sun travels in a canoe from east to west. At night it goes to
Kuma's
land. The stars are her children and they wander about at night.
The moon,
which is a sister to the sun, travels in a boat.
.:.i:::a lance and
::er over with
~:~ _-uhu what
2:-nents and to
::e would find
:-.s of the dove.
::-unk of a fal-
:::s call. N antu
, s,ing through
.:.ding straight
__ .:,st entreating
t::2: she did not
tc· escape. Thus
. Jved one and
:.:.::.choly condi-

: .:ry. ·'Aishiru.
:-. .::.d transpired.
g::t out Unush:
'.' sons born of
. A:·ter this had
:::s sons. They
ge black clouds
ced with great
oi.;gh the sky.
.::.::.p of thunder
<: of lightning
:e;y a powerfu:
· :::ient of war.
:: so much tha:
·,::: sides, going
g them to figh:
:. So successfu:
.iJns. this being
g:-oup, secretly
..; 2ny manhooc
::::ost would be·
, of :iika, some
2.:-.d you will be·
·,ar.
: :hat had beer.
.:.:id sought ou:
l
THE PEOPLE CLIMBED OUT 313

Ahimbi, accusing him of being responsible for all the trouble
because of his con-
duct with Mika. Seizing him, they brought him to the Pongo
Manseriche. Here
Etsa took the trunk of a hollow chonta palm and thrust Ahimbi
in it. Then Etsa,
blowing upon the chonta tube after the fashion of a blowgun,
turned it slowly
while so doing. As he did so, Ahimbi slowly came forth from
the other end in the
form of Pangi, the boa. After he had emerged completely from
the chonta log,
Etsa bound him up and placed him under the waters of the
Pongo Manseriche.
The boiling, turbulent waters of this narrow gorge are brought
about by Ahim-
bi's titanic efforts to free himself from his bonds.
After this punishment had befallen him Ahimbi desired that his
sons
should have peace, so he thrashed his tail and sprayed water
into the air, forming
the rainbow, as a sign to Etsa to be compassionate and release
his bonds in order
that he might restore peace among the warring factions. Masata,
however, saw
the rainbow and ingeniously placed clouds and rain in the way
so that Ahimbi's
signal would not be seen by Etsa, and thus bring about an end to
the fighting .
Whenever Ahimbi attempts his signal, he has always been
thwarted thus far by
Masata, who has obscured the rainbow with rain and mists.
Having successfully prevented this threat of peace, Masata once

more
started visiting each of the tribes, hurling out his slogan, "Make
war! Make
war!" Chingaso, however, feeling sorry for the plight of Ahimbi
and desiring to
see peace brought about, went down to the Pongo Manseriche in
a canoe with the
intention of releasing him. Ahimbi, however, thrashing about in
his rage, did not
recognize her. He overturned her canoe and ate her, thus ending
his best oppor-
tunity for freedom.
Thus ends the Nuhifio of the Jivaros.
-M. M. Sterling. "The Nuhiiio or Earth Story of the Jivaros,"
U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 117 (Historical and Ethnographical Material of the
Jivaros Indians). Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1938, pp. 124-129
MUNDURUCU
The People Climbed Out Like many Indians of the
Amazon Basin in Brazil, the Mundurucu have come to identify
their creating cul-
ture hero with the Christian supreme god and thereby to elevate
him to a position
of equal prominence. In this earlier myth, however, Karusakaibo
is still rather
earthbound and immanent: with the help of an armadillo, he
discovers people liv-
ing in the womb of the earth and, like a midwife, begins to
deliver them. Then the
rope (symbolizing both the axis mundi and the umbilical cord)
breaks, and half of
the people remain in the earth as "ancestors." Thus the cycle of

being emerging
out of not-being at birth and eventually returning to it at death
is established.
KARUSAKAIBO had made the world but had not created men.
One day Daiiru, the armadillo, offended the creator and was
forced to take
refuge in a hole in the ground. Karusakaibo blew into the hole
and stamped his
C
foot on the earth. Daiiru was blown out of the hole by the rush
of air. He report-
ed that people were living in the earth. He and Karusakaibo
made a cotton rope
and lowered it into the hole. The people began to climb out.
When half of them
had emerged, the rope broke and half remained underground,
where they still
live. The sun passes through their country from west to east
when it is night on
the earth; the moon shines there when the earth has moonless
nights.
-Donald Horton, "The Mundurucu." U.S. Bureau of American
Ethnology Bulletin 143 (Handbook
of South American Indians) Vol. 3, The Tropical Forest Tribes.
Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1948, p. 281.
AU

WULAMBA
The Origii
tralian myths speak
heroes of the begini
northeastern Arnhe:
drous Djanggawul b
creative, who wande:
tors of the Aborigine
the dua moiety ( the
the Wulamba: then,
symbolic of the phaL
dered the land, rem
Wulamba, everythin1
uals. In all of these a
as is related in some
cred paraphernelia u
ions. This presumpti
here it is symbolized
brother.
The great and eas)
annually; women an<
unborn babies, while
nally the women and
of the Djanggawul si
selves the roles of the
taining the still sacre
IN THE BEGIN:".T and trees. The
other creatures; and upon

The Origin of Japan and her People
When heaven and earth began, three deities came into
being, The Spirit Master of
the Center of Heaven, The August Wondrously Producing Spirit,
and the Divine
Wondrously Producing Ancestor. These three were invisible.
The earth was young
then, and land floated like oil, and from it reed shoots sprouted.
From these reeds
came two more deities. After them, five or six pairs of deities
came into being, and the
last of these were Izanagi and Izanami, whose names mean "The
Male Who Invites"
and "The Female who Invites".
The first five deities commanded Izanagi and Izanami to
make and solidify the
land of Japan, and they gave the young pair a jeweled spear.
Standing on the Floating
Bridge of Heaven, they dipped it in the ocean brine and stirred.
They pulled out the
spear, and the brine that dripped of it formed an island to which
they descended. On
this island they built a palace for their wedding and a great
column to the heavens.
Izanami examined her body and found that one place had
not grown, and she told
this to Izanagi, who replied that his body was well-formed but
that one place had
grown to excess. He proposed that he place his excess in her
place that was not
complete and that in doing so they would make new land. They
agreed to walk around

the pillar and meet behind it to do this. When they arrive behind
the pillar, she greeted
him by saying "What a fine young man", and he responded by
greeting her with
"What a fine young woman". They procreated and gave birth to
a leech-child, which
they put in a basket and let float away. Then they gave birth to a
floating island, which
likewise they did not recognize as one of their children.
Disappointed by their failures in procreation, they returned
to Heaven and
consulted the deities there. The deities explained that the cause
of their difficulties
was that the female had spoken first when they met to procreate.
Izanagi and Izanami
returned to their island and again met behind the heavenly
pillar. When they met, he
said, "What a fine young woman," and she said "What a fine
young man". They mated
and gave birth to the eight main islands of Japan and six minor
islands. Then they
gave birth to a variety of deities to inhabit those islands,
including the sea deity, the
deity of the sea-straits, and the deities of the rivers, winds,
trees, and mountains. Last,
Izanami gave birth to the fire deity, and her genitals were so
burned that she died.
Izanagi grieved over Izanami, and a deity was born from his
tears. Distraught after
burying Izanami, he used his long sword to behead his son, the
deity of fire, whose
birth had killed Izanami. From the blood on the sword came
three deities of rocks, two
deities of fire, and one of water, all of which are needed to

make a sword. Eight more
deities arose from the body of Izanagi and Izanami's slain son.
Izanagi still longed for Izanami, and he went to the
underworld in search of her.
Finding her in the darkness, he called to her and asked her to
come back to the land of
the living with him. She promised him that she would go ask the
gods of the
underworld, but she begged him to not look at her as she did so.
She was gone long,
however, and eventually he broke off the end of a comb in his
hair and set it afire for a
light. He found her body with maggots consuming it, and these
maggots were the
eight deities of thunder. Ashamed to be seen in this condition,
Izanami chased Izanagi
out of the underworld. First she sent the thunder deities after
him, and then she herself
pursued him. At last he grasped a huge rock and used it to close
the passage to the
underworld. Enraged, she shouted to him that she would each
day strangle one
thousand people of Japan. He responded that if she did so, he
would each day cause
fifteen hundred Japanese people to be born. This is why fifteen
hundred children are
born each day and one thousand people die each day.
Izanagi returned to his home and bathed to purify himself
after this terrible
experience. As he disrobed, new deities arose from his clothing,
and more arose from
the water as he bathed. Three of these were ancestors of

Japanese families. The last of
the deities was a son, Susa-nš-wo, who became the deity of the
sea. He was eventually
exiled to earth for his behavior in the heavens, but he and his
sister, the Goddess of
the Sun, parented eight deities. Among these was the ancestor
of Yamato family that
ruled Japan, and two others were ancestors of nineteen of its
highest families.
When the deities had pacified the land, the Goddess of the
Sun dispatched Japan's
first ruler from the heavens to the earth. Descending from the
Floating Bridge of
Heaven to the mountain tops, he built his palace. Eventually he
met a beautiful young
woman, Princess Brilliant Blossoms, and asked her to marry
him. She deferred to her
father's judgment, and her father gave him both Princess
Brilliant Blossoms and her
older sister, Princess Long as the Rocks. The new emperor
refused the older sister,
however, because of her ugliness. When the father heard this, he
explained that he had
offered Princess Long as the Rocks because her children would
have lived eternally.
Instead, the children of Princess Brilliant Blossoms were
mortal, which is why the
emperors have never had long lives.
Princess Brilliant Blossoms was soon with child, so soon
that the emperor could
hardly believe that she bore his children. To prove herself, she
built a palace and shut
herself in it and set fire to it, knowing as he did that the
children of anyone but the

emperor could not survive the flames. Amidst the flames she
gave birth to three
deities, and ultimately their descendants were the imperial
family of Japan.
Donald L. Philippi, trans., 1969, Kojiki: Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 655 p.,
and Joseph M. Campbell, 1962, The Masks of God: Oriental
Mythology: New York,
Viking Press, 561 p.
The Origin of Japan and her People
This story is a synthesis of three stories from classical Chinese
mythologiy. The stories come
from The Classic of Mountains and Seas, an anthology of
stories collected in the first century
B.C. that were nearly as ancient then as the anthology seems to
us today.
Pan Gu and Nü Wa
Long, long ago, when heaven and earth were still one, the
entire universe was
contained in an egg-shaped cloud. All the matter of the universe
swirled chaotically in
that egg. Deep within the swirling matter was Pan Gu, a huge
giant who grew in the

chaos. For 18,000 years he developed and slept in the egg.
Finally one day he awoke
and stretched, and the egg broke to release the matter of the
universe. The lighter
purer elements drifted upwards to make the sky and heavens,
and the heavier impure
elements settled downwards to make the earth.
In the midst of this new world, Pan Gu worried that heaven
and earth might mix
again; so he resolved to hold them apart, with the heavens on
his head and the earth
under his feet. As the two continued to separate, Pan Gu grew to
hold them apart. For
18,000 years he continued to grow, until the heavens were
30,000 miles above the
earth. For much longer he continued to hold the two apart,
fearing the retun of the
chaos of his youth. Finally he realized they were stable, and
soon after that he died.
With the immense giant's death, the earth took on new
character. His arms and
legs became the four directions and the moutains. His blood
became the rivers, and his
sweat became the rain and dew. His voice became the thunder,
and his breath became
the winds. His hair became the grass, and his veins became the
roads and paths. His
teeth and bones became the minerals and rocks, and his flesh
became the soil of the
fields. Up above, his left eye became the sun, and his right eye
became the moon.
Thus in death, as in life, Pan Gu made the world as it is today.
Many centuries later, there was a goddess named Nü Wa

who roamed this wild
world that Pan Gu had left behind, and she became lonely in her
solitude. Stopping by
a pond to rest, she saw her reflection and realized that there was
nothing like herself in
the world. She resolved to make something like herself for
company.
From the edge of the pond she took some mud and shaped it
in the form of a
human being. At first her creation was lifeless, and she set it
down. It took life as soon
as it touched the soil, however, and soon the human was
dancing and celebrating its
new life. Pleased with her creation, Nü Wa made more of them,
and soon her
loneliness disappeared in the crowd of little humans around her.
For two days she
made them, and still she wanted to make more. Finally she
pulled down a long vine
and dragged it through the mud, and then she swung the vine
through the air. Droplets
of mud flew everywhere and, when they fell, they became more
humans that were
nearly as perfect as the ones she had made by hand. Soon she
had spread humans over
the whole world. The ones she made by hand became the
aristocrats, and the ones she
made with the vine became the poor common people.
Even then, Nü Wa realized that her work was incomplete,
because as her creations
died she would have to make more. She solved this problem by

dividing the humans
into male and female, so that they could reproduce and save her
from having to make
new humans to break her solitude.
Many years later, Pan Gu's greatest fear came true. The
heavens collapsed so that
there were holes in the sky, and the earth cracked, letting water
rush from below to
flood the earth. At other places, fire sprang forth from the earth,
and everywhere wild
beasts emerged from the forests to prey on the people. Nü Wa
drove the beasts back
and healed the earth. To fix the sky, she took stones of many
colors from the river and
built a fire in which she melted them. She used the molten rock
to patch the holes in
the sky, and she used the four legs of a giant turtle to support
the sky again. Exhausted
by her labors, she soon lay down to die and, like Pan Gu, from
her body came many
more features to adorn the world that she had restored.
Jan Walls and Yvonne Walls (translators and editors), 1984,
Classical Chinese
Myths: Hong Kong, Joint Publishing Company, 135 p.
(BL1825.C48 1984)
Pan Gu and Nü Wa

PRIMAL
MYTHS
Creation Myths
around
the World
Barbara C. Sproul
HarperOne
An Imprint ofHarperCollinsPublishers
'J»
HarperOne
For Herb
PRIMAL MYTHS: Creation Myths Around the World.
Copyright © 1979 by Barbara C.
Sproul. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. For information
address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York,
NY 10007.
HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational,
business, or sales promotional
use. For information please e-mail the Special Markets
Department at [email protected]
collins.com.

HarperCollins Web site: http://WVvw.harpercollins.com
HarperCollins®, :11 ®, and HarperOne™ are trademarks of
HarperCollins Publishers.
FIRST HARPERCOLLINS EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1991
Designed by Paul Quin
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sproul, Barbara C.
Primal myths.
Bibliography
Includes index.
1. Creation-Comparative studies. I. Title.
BL325.C7S68 1979
291.2 78-4429
ISBN: 978-0-06-067501-1
15 16 17 18 RRD(H) 40 39 38
Pl
~
O:"-E .4i
•
~

-
{THS
in the steps of him who shines forth on the horizon,
reat Seat. He joined with the court and associated
:ah, the lord of years.
,e in the land in the "House of the Sovereign" on the
he had reached. His son Horus appeared as King of
.s King of Lower Egypt, in the embrace of his father
ds who were in front of him and who were behind
ian Mortuary Texts, Myths, and Tales." In James B. Pritchard
~elating to the Old Testament. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
Univer-
History of the Creation of the
Gods and of the World One of the very early cult cen-
ters in Egypt, Heliopolis produced a cosmology that envisioned
Atum ("the com-
plete one") rising up out of the primeval watery chaos and
producing the world.
By the time of the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400 B.c.), Atum had
become closely identi-
fied with the sun god Re (or Ra, as it is spelled in this
translation), and his emer-
gence out of the water was associated with the rising of the sun
and the dispelling
of chaotic darkness.
In this "Book of the knowing the evolutions of Re," Neb-er-
tcher (Lord-to-the-
Limit and one of the forms of the sun god) arises from the
waters (Nu) in the as-
pect of Khepera ("he who comes into existence"). Neither
heaven nor earth, nor

plants nor animals, existed then, and Khepera was alone.
Becoming conscious of
his intent, the god "laid a foundation in Maa" (in what is
straight and true; that
is, according to a careful and just plan). And then, to create all
things, in semian-
drogynous fashion he masturbated (or "had union with his
clenched hand and
joined himself in an embrace with his shadow" [his feminine
element)) and
poured his seed into his mouth (which functions here as a sort
of womb). Thus fer-
tilized, he spit forth his son Shu (god of air and the principle of
life) and his
daughter Tefnut (goddess of moisture and the principle of world
order). Speaking
through his "father," Khepera notes that in "double henti
periods" (technically,
120 years, but used figuratively here to mean a long time) one
god had become
three.
Atum (or Re or Khepera or Neb-er-tcher-the names all refer to
the same god
in this context) had only one eye at first, and this capacity to
see and judge was
depicted as somewhat independent of him. When the great god
wept with joy on
uniting himself with his two created parts, Shu and Tefnut, his
eye raged to find
that he had been supplanted by another. To placate it, Neb-er-
tcher put it in his
forehead and gave it power to rule over all creation.
A splurge of creativity ensued. Men and women had already
been made from

Neb-er-tcher's tears, and now he came forth in the forms of
plants and animals.
His offspring Shu and Tefnut (air and moisture) gave birth to
Seb and Nut (earth
and sky), and these in turn produced the four gods Osiris,
Horus, Set (Seth), and
Isis.
HISTORY OF THE CREATION OF THE GODS AND OF THE
WORLD 81
~~
NVWV
~~ ~~~J]
L) oJi
Q I Q I
Shat enti rekh kheperu nu Ra
The Book of knowing the evolutions of Ra,
r~~ ~~ ~!1! ,;::::::;, Bi Ji <::> <::> ~~
sekher A.pep tchettu N eb-er-tcher tchet-f
[ and] of over- Apep. The words of N eb-er-tcher [which] he
throwing spake
~~ ~::JJ ~ ~J] D ~::JJ @
em-khet kheper - f nuk pu kheper
after he had come into being. lam he who came into being

~ ~::~JJ ~::Ji ~:: ~<>I ~,
em Kheperd lcheper-nd kheper kheperu
in the form of I was ( or, became) the creator of what came into
Khepera, being,
~:: ~<>I ,;::::::;,~~ ~::JJ #.._ I I ~, Q 11
kheper kheperu neb em-khet kheper-d asht
the creator of what came into all; after my coming into many
being being
~~~Ji! ~~ ~ ~ Ji
....JL-
N'NW
kheperu em per em re-a an
[ were J the things which
came into being
coming forth from my mouth. Not
~~~
....JL-
~:: I··~
....JL-
~~~'~ MMM NW"N',
kheper pet an lcheper ta c;,n qemam
existed heaven, not existed earth, not had been created

82 NEAR EASTERN MYTHS
1..._1==.fl:
J.1°"o I ]1
satat
the things of the earth,
(i.e., plants)
~ ~ lJ1l.
,=,,{ o I I I
tcheffet
and creeping
things
thes - nd dm - sen em
~j1~
em bet
in place
Nu
~~t~
pui
that;
I raised up them from out of Nu (i.e., the primeval abyss
of water)
~++::@.~. -'I- ~~f1f j 0 t~T MN,V'. lc:J

em enen dn qem-nd bet a~a-nd
from a state of Not found I a place I could stand
inactivity.
?~Ji
khut-nd em dmi
wherein. I worked a charm upon (or, with)
dbt-d
my heart.
~w M,V,M ~ ~ Jj """""" ~ ~] ~ ! "C7 JI <2>- & 0
senti-nd em Maa dri-nd dru nebt
I laid a foundation in Ma.a [and] I made attribute every.
~ -1..- ~ DO .!'~••D lf ~ [email protected] -It-I~~ --1)
""""""
DO~ NVWVI
ua-k[ ud] dn dshesh-nd em Shu dn
I was alone, [for] not had I spit in the form of Shu, not
0 /'NV.M
~ ~~JJ -A- ;:: ~~~ ,l'~••D ~ ~~ MNN',
tef-nd em Te/nut dn kheper ki
had I emitted Tefnut, * not existed another
* I.e., I had not sent forth from my body the emanation which
took the form

of Shu, nor the moisture which took the form of Tefnut.
ar
who"'
t
z
[and]
in·
e,
from
a·
k
the tl
C&IlH
em
with
my1
':::::::
'i :::::::
I se01
l

WORLD 83
dri-nef henii-d senti-nd em dbt-d tches-d
who worked with me. I made a foundation in my heart my own,
(or, by means ofmy own will)
~:: ~ ;~~JI! 9 ;~jJJ! a Ill
kheper iisht kheperu nu kheperu
[ and] there came the multitudes which came of the things
which
into being of things into being came into being
~ ~~~JI! 0 mr l ~ I
em kheperu nu mesu em
from out of the things which came of births, from out of
into being
~~~JJ! 0 mri r,~, ~~JI~ fD~~iJJ I
kheperu nu mesu-sen dnuk pu hat-a
the things which of
came into being
tl;i.eir births. I, even I, had union
~ ~DJ} Q~Q~~~
MNW
~ ~
em khefa-d

with my clenched hand,
11 ajJ}
khaibit-d
my shadow,
~~l"D li
dshesh-nd
kher-nd
I poured seed
em Shu
tatadt-nd em
I joined myself in an with
embrace
~ ~Ji ~~Ji
em re-a tches-d
into my mouth my own,
tefnet-nd
I sent forth issue in the form of Shu, I sent forth moisture
~ ~})C)~ ~ ~~jJjj ooo~Jj r~:,r:~,
""""""

.==.~
em 'f afnut an dtef-d Nii
in the form of Saith my father Nu,
Tefnut.
maat-d em-sa-sen tcher
my eye behind them, because
<>j ~~ ;::JJ
er-a em-lchet lcheper-d
from me after I became
!JenlJ,enti
for double henti
period;
~ i Ji
em nete1·
from god
D <>j Ji ;::T ~~ @
pu er-a kheper-nd em ta
sat et-sen
" They make to
be weak
uau-sen

they proceeded
~ i Ji 111 ---lJ
uii neter lchemt
one gods three,
0 {~! NWVV,
pen (iiiii
that is from out of [ and after J I came m earth this. Were raised
up
myself, into being
~~ ~~Ji ~ 0 ~ """-- 0 C) ~ ,~:::Ji
aref Shu 'f'iifnut em enenu
therefore Shu [ and] Tafnut in the inert watery mass
~Ji
un-sen ami - f an-sen na 11iaat-d
wherein they were, brought they to me my eye
~;: r~I
em l.:liet-sen
in their train.
~;:
em-khet
After
~::

dref
therefore
sam-nd
I had united
--ll I..£
0 Q.:~
iit-d
my members
WORLD 85
= ~ m=r'i 9 r-I I I I ~:: <=:> j I = I. ~~
rem-na IJ,er-sen kheper reth pit em
I wept over them, [ and] came into men and from
=~~! c::J = ./'J
per
being women
em maat-d kharu-s remit
the tears [ which J came forth from my eye, [ and] it raged
0

er-a em lchet i-s qemi-s ari-na ket
against me after it came [ and] found [that] I had made another
em ast-s tebi-s em khut dru-nci
in its place. [I] endowed it with the power I had made.
( or, splendour) which
selchenti dref dst-s em !Jrci-ci em-lchet
Having made to approach therefore its place in my face,
afterwards
~ D <:::::>
I lI MMN
® ~I
<:::::> I ~~~ ~~
dref !Jeq-s ta pen er tcher. f kher
therefore it ruleth earth this to its whole extent. Fall
~~;Ir~, [email protected][email protected],1r,r~,
en at-sen
their moments (or, seasons)
9~r ~~~r
thet-s cimi-s
with what it hath in it.
taken possession of
du uabu-sen

upon their plants,
tebiti-nci
I endowed it
c::J -
<j;> & ~ [email protected],,,!
per-nd em uabu
I came forth from (or, in the plants,
the form of)
::t �ba � �::
�
��r�. o I I I C, C,
tchefjet nebt lcheper nebt am-sen
creeping things all, [ and] things which all [ are J in them.
came into being
5. r=
Ooo1i)
ilnl �
� <:) � 1111' I �
mesu dn Shu 'fiifnut �enii
[Seb] and

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