50. MAGIC FORMULAS OF THE HUPA INDIANS1

By P. E. GODDARD

More powerful than any herb were the words recited over it before its use. These words are not prayers but accounts of a former cure. The repeating of the words has power to cure again. It is not necessary for the unclean person to go to the ends of the world that he may become pure. It is sufficient that the priest tell how one went. The spirit of the person follows the words of the priest which he does not even comprehend. Equally powerful are evil wishes. To curse a man was a serious offence, because the words themselves had power to harm. . .

...

These formulas may be thought to exert their power in one or all of three ways. The spirit of the reciter may be viewed as undergoing the journey and hardships undergone by the originator of the medicine and in a vicarious manner meriting favor; the good-will of the originator of the medicine may be aroused by the recital of his deeds; or the very words themselves may be thought to have the power of self-fulfillment. ...

FORMULA OF MEDICINE FOR CHILDBIRTH

He came to the middle of the world where two maidens were living. He smoked himself all day. When the sun went down they came out to look at him. The next day they were pregnant. Their brothers went into the sweathouse after him. They were going to cut the girls open and then kill him. "Wait," said Yimantuwiñyai, "I will make medicine. Give me a cup." "Make the medicine right here," they said. Right there in the house he made it of ashes. Then he hung up the straps of the carrying baskets. He put some of the medicine in the mouth of one of them and rubbed some of it across her abdomen. When he turned around he heard a baby cry. When he had done the same to the other he turned again and heard another baby cry. "This way it will be with those who know my medicine.'. . .

1 From pages 88, 93, 279, 315-316, 318 of P. E. Goddard, "Life and Culture of the Hupa" and "Hupa Texts, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, volume 1, 1903, 1904. The Hupa live in northwestern California.

FORMULA OF MEDICINE FOR GOING IN DANGEROUS PLACES WITH A CANOE

Snipe lived across to the south. His canoe was very narrow. It was so shallow it did not come above his ankle. "I am going in it, " he thought. "How is it going to be?" he thought. He took the paddles out of the house and went down to the river. He got into his canoe and then he got out again. He turned the canoe around. He placed it with the stern toward the land. "Indians are going to come into existence,'' he thought. "They will think about me with this." He held it with the stern toward the land, headed this way across the river and down stream. "There must not be many,' "he thought, "who will say of me, 'That one I hear did this way.' Then he went into the canoe, beat on the stern with the paddle, and sang. When he started across, his canoe grew up higher, and floated with him over the world. The boat did not mind the water. It floated with him over this body of water which lies around the world. He sang a song as he went along. It floated back with him across to the south. "It will do that way with the man who knows my medicine," he thought. "Even if he goes into a bad place, if he thinks about me, this way the water will not trouble his boat.” ...

FORMULA OF MEDICINE FOR GOING AMONG RATTLESNAKES

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

51. THE CREATION ACCORDING TO THE MAORI OF

NEW ZEALAND1

By SIR GEORGE GREY

Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors; they sprang from the vast heaven that exists above us, and from the earth which lies beneath us. According to the traditions of our race, Rangi, and Papa, or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which in the beginning all things originated. Darkness then rested upon the heaven and upon the earth, and they still both clave together, for they had not yet been rent apart; and the children they had begotten were ever thinking amongst themselves what might be the difference between darkness and light; they knew that beings had multiplied and increased, and yet light had never broken upon them, but it ever continued dark. Hence these sayings are found in our ancient religious services: "There was darkness from the first division of time, unto the tenth, to the hundredth, to the thousandth," that is, for a vast space of time; and these divisions of time were as beings, and were each termed a Po; and on their account there was as yet no world with its bright light, but darkness only for the beings which existed.

At last the beings who had been begotten by Heaven and Earth, worn out by the continued darkness, consulted amongst themselves, saying: "Let us now determine what we should do with Rangi and Papa, whether It would be better to slay them or to rend them apart." Then spoke Tumatauenga, the fiercest of the children of Heaven and Earth: "It is well, let us slay them."

Then spake Tane-mahuta, the father of forests and of all things that inhabit them, or that are constructed from trees: "Nay, not so. It is better to rend them apart, and to let the heaven stand far above us, and the earth lie under our feet. Let the sky become as a stranger to us, but the earth remain close to us as our nursing mother.''

The brothers all consented to this proposal, with the exception of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms, and he, fearing that his kingdom was about to be overthrown, grieved greatly at the thought of his parents being torn apart. Five of the brothers willingly consented to the separation of their parents, but one of them would not agree to it. 'Reprinted from Sir George Grey, Polynesian Mythology (London, 1855), pages 1-41.

Hence, also, these sayings of old are found in our prayers: "Darkness, darkness, light, light, the seeking, the searching, in chaos, in chaos"; these signified the way in which the offspring of heaven and earth sought for some mode of dealing with their parents, so that human beings might increase and live.

So, also, these sayings of old time, "The multitude, the length," signified the multitude of the thoughts of the children of Heaven and Earth, and the length of time they considered whether they should slay their parents, that human beings might be called into existence; for it was in this manner that they talked and consulted amongst themselves. But at length, their plans having been agreed on, lo, Rongo-ma-tane, the god and father of the cultivated food of man, rises up, that he may rend apart the heavens and the earth; he struggles, but he rends them not apart. Lo, next, Tangaroa, the god and father of fish and reptiles, rises up, that he may rend apart the heavens and the earth; he also struggles, but he rends them not apart. Lo, next, Haumia-tikitiki, the god and father of the food of man which springs without cultivation, rises up and struggles, but ineffectually. Lo, then, Tu-matauenga, the god and father of fierce human beings, rises up and struggles, but he, too, fails in his efforts. Then at last, slowly uprises Tane-mahuta, the god and father of forests, of birds, and of insects, and he struggles with his parents; in vain he strives to rend them apart with his hands and arms. Lo, he pauses: his head is now firmly planted on his mother the earth, his feet he raises up and rests against his father the skies, he strains his back and limbs with mighty effort. Now are rent apart Rangi and Papa, and with cries and groans of woe they shriek aloud: "Wherefore slay you thus your parents? Why commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay us, as to rend your parents apart?" But Tane-mahuta pauses not, he regards not their shrieks and cries; far, far beneath him he presses down the earth; far, far above him he thrusts up the sky.

Hence these sayings of olden times: "It was the fierce thrusting of Tane which tore the heaven from the earth, so that they were rent apart, and darkness was made manifest, and so was the light."'

No sooner was heaven rent from earth than the multitude of human beings were discovered whom they had begotten, and who had hitherto lain concealed between the bodies of Rangi and Papa.

Then, also, there arose in the breast of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the god and father of winds and storms, a fierce desire to wage war with his brothers, because they had rent apart their common parents. He from the first had refused to consent to his mother being torn from her lord and children; it was his brothers alone that wished for this separation, and desired that Papa-tu-a-nuku, or the Earth alone, should be left as a parent for them.

The god of hurricanes and storms dreads also that the world should become too fair and beautiful, so he rises, follows his father to the realm above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the boundless skies; there he hides and clings, and nestling in this place of rest he consults long with his parent, and as the vast Heaven listens to the suggestions of Tawhiri-ma-tea, thoughts and plans are formed in his breast, and Tawhirima-tea also understands what he should do. Then by himself and the vast Heaven were begotten his numerous brood, and they rapidly increased and grew. Tawhiri-ma-tea despatches one of them to the westward, and one to the southward, and one to the eastward, and one to the northward; and he gives corresponding names to himself and to his progeny, the mighty winds.

He next sends forth fierce squalls, whirlwinds, dense clouds, massy clouds, dark clouds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds, clouds which precede hurricanes, clouds of fiery black, clouds reflecting glowing red light, clouds wildly drifting from all quarters and wildly bursting, clouds of thunder storms, and clouds hurriedly flying. In the midst of these Tawhiri-ma-tea himself sweeps wildly on. Alas! Alas! then rages the fierce hurricane; and whilst Tane-mahuta and his gigantic forests still stand, unconscious and unsuspecting, the last of the breath of the mouth of Tawhiri-ma-tea smites them, the gigantic trees are snapt off right in the middle; alas! alas! they are rent to atoms, dashed to the earth, with boughs and branches torn and scattered, and lying on the earth, trees and branches all alike left for the insect, for the grub, and for loathsome rottenness.

From the forests and their inhabitants Tawhiri-ma-tea next swoops down upon the seas, and lashes in his wrath the ocean. Ah! ah! waves steep as cliffs arise, whose summits are so lofty that to look from them would make the beholder giddy; these soon eddy in whirlpools, and Tangaroa, the god of ocean, and father of all that dwell therein, flies affrighted through his seas; but before he fled, his children consulted together how they might secure their safety, for Tangaroa had begotten Punga, and he had begotten two children, Ika-tere, the father of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi, or Tu-te-wanawana, the father of reptiles.

When Tangaroa fled for safety to the ocean, then Tu-te-wehiwehi and Ika-tere, and their children, disputed together as to what they should do to escape from the storms, and Tu-te-wehiwehi and his party cried aloud: "Let us fly inland;" but Ika-tere and his party cried aloud: "Let us fly to the sea." Some would not obey one order, some would not obey the other, and they escaped in two parties: the party of Tu-te-wehiwehi, or the reptiles, hid themselves ashore; the party of Punga rushed to the This is what, in our ancient religious services, is called the separation of Tawhiri-ma-tea.

sea.