MAKING THE MOUNTAINS
ONE summer Massea went across the mountains east of the rancheria to the big valley beyond. He went to make a visit and to get some good wood from which to make bows, for the best wood for bows grew only on the mountains which were farther to the east.
When he came back, all the Indians were lying around the campfire after supper.
“Tell us what you saw, father,” said Docas.
“I saw great mountains beyond the big valley.”
“Bigger mountains than ours?” asked Docas.
“Yes, mountains so high that it is always winter on their tops,” answered Massea.
“I don’t see how the mountains ever came to be so big,” said Heema.
“Shall I tell you a story about how the mountains were made? I heard one over there,” said Massea.
“Yes! Yes!” cried the children.
“Once upon a time there was nothing in the world but water. Where Tulare Lake now is, there was a pole standing up out of the water, and on it sat a hawk and a crow. First one of them would sit on it awhile, then the other would take his turn. Thus they sat on the pole above the water for a long, long time.”
“How long?” asked Docas.
“A great many times as long as you are years old,” answered Massea. “At last they grew tired of living all alone, so they made some birds. They made the birds that live on fish, such as the kingfisher, the duck, and the eagle. Among them was a very small duck. This duck dived down to the bottom of the water and came up with its beak full of mud. When it came to the top it died; then it lay floating on the water.
“The hawk and the crow then gathered the mud from the duck’s mouth.”
“What did they do with it?” asked Alachu.
“Keep still, Alachu, and let father tell the story,” said Docas.
“They began to make the mountains. They began away south. We call the place Tehachapi Pass now. The hawk made the eastern range, and the crow made the western. Little by little, as they dropped in bit after bit of the earth, the mountains grew. By and by they rose above the water. Finally the hawk and the crow met in the north at Mount Shasta. When they compared their mountains, the eastern range was much smaller than the western.
“Then the hawk said to the crow, ‘You have played a joke on me. You have taken some of the earth out of my bill. That is why your mountains are larger.’
“It was so, and the crow laughed in his claws. The hawk did not know what to do, but at last he got an Indian weed and chewed it. This weed made him very wise, so he took hold of the mountains and slipped them round in a circle. He put the range he had made in place of the other. That is why the mountains east of the big valley are now larger than our Coast Range.”