VII. MASTAMHO

VII. MASTAMHOTHE INFORMANTThis story of the institution of culture differs from most of the preceding in that it is a pure myth unaccompanied by songs. It was told to me at the University's Museum of Anthropology, then in San Francisco, between November 16 and 24, 1903, by Jo Nelson, also called Baby's Head in Mohave; with Jack Jones the interpreter as usual.Jo Nelson, aged about sixty, is pictured in Handbook of California Indians, plate 64, top right, and in our frontispiece. Like many Mohave, he was interested in travel and in new lands and peoples. He had visited widely among Indian tribes both east and west of the Mohave and had asked questions both abroad and at home. He gave me, on the whole, the best information which I secured from the Mohave about other tribes, and which has been published in part in the Handbook, though considerable detail remains unpublished. Jo Nelson was in many ways an ideal informant for matters of fact. His memory was excellent both for what he had seen and heard. His mind was orderly, his procedure methodical. He distinguished between hearsay and actual observation; and he would exhaust one topic before proceeding to the next. These same qualities show in his myth as presented here.CONTENT OF THE MYTHThe narrative may be described as dealing essentially with the institution of culture by Mastamho, the second of the two great myth heroes of the Mohave. The story assumes the cosmogony as such as already known. I obtained one such Mohave account of the origin of the world. This has been abstracted in the Handbook, pages 770-771, and also in the American Journal of Folklore, 19:314-316, 1906. That was one of the first narratives which I recorded from this tribe, and its quality and my rendition are not of the best; but it is confirmed by innumerable allusions to world origins in other Mohave myths and in their discussions of their culture.The present Mastamho narrative begins after Matavilya is dead, and its first chapter, so to speak (A:1-6) deals with the disposal of his body. Thereafter the tale is concerned with the planning, trials, and execution of his plans by Mastamho, especially with reference to the way of living of the Mohave, but first for the desert tribes nearest them (B:7-19). Essentially Mastamho thinks of what will be good for one or more of these tribes, causes it to come into existence, and then explains it to the people or has them practice it. One long section (C:20-35) is devoted to the institution of night and sleep, to the building of houses and shade roofs, and the setting aside of playing fields. The relation of sections like this to the remainder will be clearer by reference to the outline of the whole narrative given a few paragraphs below. The total story is so prolix that this summary will be useful as a conspectus for orientation.Another section (D:36-42) is devoted to the making of the wild plants which spring up either of themselves, or through being planted, in the bottoms of the Mohave valley immediately upon the recession of the annual overflow. The Mohave distinguish between wild food plants which grow of themselves but are harvested, wild food plants which are sown, and domesticated food plants such as maize and beans. The second group, in other words, are cultivated plants which also grow spontaneously in the Colorado bottoms, but probably grow in denser stands if sown. They were apparently seed-bearing plants which were particularly adapted to rapid growth in the summer heat following the June inundation; and this fact may have contributed to their not having been diffused to other environments. At any rate, it is to be noted that the narrator gave considerably more space to the institution of these wild and "tame-wild" plants than to strictly agricultural ones.By the time he comes to the latter, it is near the end of Mastamho's career and the episode seems hurried (H:76-78). Pottery is mentioned first and agriculture second; which may be an accident, but I suspect that it reflects a Mohave attitude. At any rate, it is clear that they strongly associate pottery and agriculture, which is not surprising in view of the absence or underdevelopment of both among many of the tribes to the west, north, and east. That the telling of the story in this section was hurried, or perhaps shortened by fatigue, is indicated by the fact that, strictly speaking, the instituting of neither art is described, but they are taken for granted and then Mastamho teaches the people the names of vessels and plants. This creation by naming may pass as a shorthand explanation, but it is not in the narrator's usual methodical manner.There is a section, as might be expected, on hawks and warfare (F:59-69), this being a subject the Mohave never tire of. It is men who dream of hawks that become successful fighters and renowned war leaders.A rather unusual section deals with Mastamho's trial-and-error attempts to teach the names for tribes, objects, and the numeral count (E:43-58). Here the device is to begin with distortions of the Mohave words which, however, the taught fail or refuse to learn. The distortions are something on the order of Pig Latin or the languages which groups of children sometimes concoct. This sort of attempt is not commonly found among North American Indians, and the techniques of distortion have therefore been analyzed in a separate discussion appended to the tale itself. On account of its fixed sequence, thenumeral count perhaps lends itself best to word plays of this sort. In not a few languages, including Mohave, succeeding numerals partly rhyme. This feature has been further developed in the artificial counts. The whole process is somewhat akin to the occasional instances of the count in a foreign language being parodied by substitution of somewhat like-sounding names in the speaker's language, a device with which obscene or other humorous effects can easily be attained.A fair question would be how much of Mohave culture is accounted for in all this narrative of institution. A fair answer would seem to be: most of the more conspicuous, concrete features of the culture, houses and their parts, weapons, utensils, food plants. This omits certain items from what we are wont to call material culture, such as clothing, cradles, and the like. But the technological and economic deficiencies of the Colorado River Yuman culture are so definite that the omissions are perhaps in the minority.Having done his work, Mastamho goes off and turns into the bald eagle (J:82-84). This is spoken of as "dying" or "leaving his body." He is said to have become "crazy," which probably means without sense, knowing nothing, without human consciousness.There follows a long supplement, making about a quarter of the total story (K-N:85-102), which tells of the institution of sex, courtship, and marriage under the leadership of a man and a woman to whom Mastamho has delegated this task and who at its conclusion turn the people with them into birds and themselves become, respectively, the curve-billed thrasher and the mockingbird. The guess may be hazarded that Mastamho is to the Mohave too heroic a figure to be credited with undertaking the institution of these practices in person. At that, the treatment is restrained and, from the native point of view, thoroughly decent, though the emphasis is on festivals, playfields, and courtship.SCHEMATIC OUTLINEMain Narrative: Mastamho's InstitutingA. Mastamho Disposes of Dead Matavilya:1-61. Matavilya's death and pyre at Ha'avulypo2. Coyote seeks fire3. Fly and the cremation4. Coyote's theft of the heart5. Covering of the ashes6. Coyote abandoned, homelessB. Avikwame, River, Desert Land and Foods Made:7-197. Mastamho promises to teach8. Arrival at Avikwame9. White-spring made for the Chemehuevi10. Colorado River, fish, and ducks made at Hatasaṭa for the Mohave11. Matavilya's ashes washed away12. Boat tilted to widen valley13. Avikwame mountain made from mud14. Other mountains made15. Four seed foods made for the Chemehuevi16. Four plant foods made for the Walapai17. Planning for the Yavapai18. Foods and water made for the Yavapai19. Languages given to Chemehuevi, Walapai, YavapaiC. House, Shade, Sleep, and Playground:20-3520. Planning a shade roof21. Ant makes dry ground22. Two insects dig postholes23. Shade built24. House planned25. House built26. Door made27. Insect helpers given names28. Sunset named29. House entered30-32. Night; Future nights; Sleep33. Day coming34. Playground made at Miakwa'orve35. More in timeD. Wild Seeds Planted:36-4236. Planning to plant37. Scaup Duck plants four wild seeds in overflow38. You will understand later39. Planning for more planting40. Frog told to be ready to plant41. Frog told what wild seeds to plant42. Return to AvikwameE. Counting, Directions, Tribal Names:43-5843. Preparation for the next night44-46. First, second, third counts taught47. Final count taught48. Fingers made on hand49. First direction names taught50. Final direction names taught51. Mispronounced tribal names52. Walapai and Yavapai tribes named53. Chemehuevi named54. Yuma and Kamia named55. Mohave named56. Told to stay a while57. Doctors will dream of this58. Mastamho takes new nameF. Hawks and War:59-6959-62. Four hawks given names and war power63. Practice trial64. Weapons to be made65. Cremation of warriors66. Dreamers of journey will be runners67. Eagle unintelligent; to dream of him unlucky68. Crane ugly; to dream of him unlucky69. Hawks will wear morning star in fightG. Thrasher, Mockingbird, and Mastamho's Dream Names:70-7570. Gnatcatcher to be rich: women will dream of71. Tšoaikwatakwe in cottonwoods: women also dream of72. Thrasher and Mockingbird-to-be named73-75. Three new names of MastamhoH. Pottery and Farmed Food Instituted:76-7876. Pottery vessels each given two names77. Planted foods named78. Chutaha singing with basketI. Thrasher and Mockingbird Delegated to Teach:79-8179. Thrasher and Mockingbird appointed to teach play and sex80. Avikwame named81. What Thrasher and Mockingbird are to do and beJ. Mastamho's Transformation into Bald Eagle:82-8482. Turns into Bald Eagle at Avikutaparve83. Floats downriver to Hokusave84. Flies south to sea, is crazy (unknowing)Supplement: Thrasher and Mockingbird Institute Sex LifeK. Courtship Instituted at Miakwa'orve:85-9285. Thrasher and Mockingbird face people on playground at Miakwa'orve86. Tortoise chosen to be approached87-90. Sparrowhawk, Quail, Ah'akwasilye, Oriole rejected91. Blue Heron accepted by Tortoise92. Dove arrives: loose women dream of herL. Transformation of Water and Valley Birds:93-9793. All go downriver to Hokusave94. Noses of racers pierced there95. Yahalyetaka's nose pierced with difficulty96. Racers become water birds97. Some others become valley birdsM. Mountain Birds Transformed at Rattlesnake's Playfield:98-10198. Rest led back to Miakwa'orve99. Thrasher and Mockingbird at Rattlesnake's Playground teach venereal cure100. More songs for this101. At Three-Mountains, Thrasher, Mockingbird, and rest turn to mountain birdsN. Leftover Straggler Reaches the Sea:102102. Hakutatkole, left for pošoik sickness, goes south to sea and becomes a birdQUALITY OF THE NARRATIVESo much for the content of the narrative: now as to its form. First of all, although the story is not accompanied by songs, it is developed according to the same pattern as the song-cycle myths. Moreover, the informant was just as insistent as the majority of narrators that he got his knowledge through dreaming.However, the approach in the telling is less formally decorative and more rational than in other narratives. There is actually less story, in the sense of there being a minimum of events, a maximum of explanation. The account is therefore bald and didactic. One sees the narrator throughout aiming to be clear even at the cost of repetition or prolixity.In fact, repetition is deliberately indulged in as part of the didactic style. Mastamho talks to himself of what he will do, then perhaps tells the people that he will do it, then goes and does it; after which, he may explain to them what he has done. Or he will have them try the innovation, in which case it may be four times before they learn, or before he finds the correct manner.Accordingly, the pace throughout is tantalizingly slow. The story could have been condensed by me, but its characteristic manner and style would thereby have been completely discarded. There are constant references to "This will be, but it is not yet." Such antitheses seem to serve both emphasis and clarity. For instance, paragraph62, "If people dream of you, they will kill enemies; if people dream of being in darkness, they will not kill them." Or again, paragraph70, "I will not let you go to a distance: I want you to stay in this country." Balances of this sort constitute a distinct stylistic manner, rudimentary though the devices may be from a literary point of view.The Mastamho account contains certain minor inconsistencies, but they are not inconsistencies of identity or kinship of person, or of topography, as in the Cane narrative; nor are they due to sloppiness of telling, as in the Coyote stories. The chief inconsistencies noted are the fact that Mastamho keeps saying that he will teach the people everything in four nights before his transformation into the bald eagle, but then actually is six nights doing it; and similarly he at first separates the people into four future tribes—three in the desert and the Mohave—but then later there are six, the River Kamia and Yuma suddenly appearing with the Mohave. These discrepancies should not be charged too seriously against the narrator's care and precision. The story is an exceedingly long one. He told it at intervals during nine days. Part of my time was tied to University duties, so that there would be whole days of interruption. While I made no detailed record, I assume that we spent at least four working days in the telling and Englishing. This would mean a minimum of two days, or say twelve to fifteen hours, of Mohave narration by the informant, distributed over more than a week. Few people could follow one thread of telling so long as this with so few discrepancies.MAIN NARRATIVE: MASTAMHO'S INSTITUTING.A. Mastamho Disposes of Dead Matavilya: 1-61. Matavilya's death and pyre at Ha'avulypo.—Matavilya died at Ha'avulypo.[1]I did not see him when he was sick, but dreamed of him and saw him only when he died; others know of his sickness. When he died in the house,[2]they carried him west of the door. Now Mastamho was a boy about so high (about ten-year size). They asked: "What shall we do with him?" Then Mastamho told them: "Burn him. When people die I want you to burn them. That is what I wish. Now I want you, Badger,[3]to dig a hole; and I want this man, Raccoon,[4]to bring wood." Then after a time these two men came back into the house and said: "We have dug a hole and the wood is ready." Now there were many people there in the house when they said that, but not one of them spoke a word. Then Mastamho asked them: "Have you fire?" But Badger and Raccoon said: "No."[1]Near Mathakeva, Cottonwood Island, on the Arizona side of the Colorado.[2]The door of which of course faced south.[3]Mahwa.[4]Nammaθa.2. Coyote seeks fire.—Now Coyote—θara-veyo-ve, Mastamho called him, but the Mohave call him Hukθara—said: "I am sorry because Matavilya died: I want fire and will bring it. I will go to Fire-Mountain:[5]I know there is fire there and will get it." So he started westward. He was gone a longtime. Mastamho waited and all the others waited. Then Mastamho said: "I do not want it to become day, for Matavilya to be lying here in the light. Let it remain night." Now they were all still waiting for Coyote, but he did not return: he was still traveling west.[5]Avi-'a'auva.3. Fly and the cremation.—Then θilyahmo, Fly, a woman—for there were only people then, and no animals—who had been sitting west of the door, went outside, pulled up dead arrowweeds, came back indoors, broke the sticks up, and dropped them into two or three small piles; for she wanted to try to make fire. Then she plucked off a strand of her willow-bark dress and rubbed it fine into tinder. Then she twirled a stick in her hands, and with this and the shredded bark she made fire, as she sat in the corner of the house by the west side of the door. Then she carried it into the middle of the house, saying: "Here is fire." Now that they had fire, Badger and Raccoon carried Matavilya outdoors and laid him down on their pile of wood. All who had been in the house went out with them. Then Badger and Raccoon returned into the house and brought out the fire. Lighting the pile of wood at the north end, they went one along each side of it, setting fire to it, until they met at the south end. There they stood. Then everyone cried, Badger and Raccoon with the rest.4. Coyote's theft of the heart.—Now when Coyote arrived at Fire-Mountain, he looked back and saw the burning at Ha'avulypo. Then he did not even stop to take the fire, but ran back at once. When he arrived, he found the people all standing around the pyre. He said: "Matavilya is dead and I do not know anything. How am I to? He told me nothing." He ran around and around the circle of people who were standing and crying for Matavilya. He cried too. Now Mastamho was standing on a higher place to the north, looking at Coyote. Though he was only a boy, he was thinking about him. He thought: "I know what he wants: he is not really sorry." What Coyote wanted was to jump over the ring of people, to seize Matavilya's heart and run away with it: that is why he was trying to come near the fire. But the people, standing close together, would not let him. Now they were all tall; but Badger and Raccoon were both short. Then Coyote jumped: he succeeded in leaping over their two heads, and he got to the fire. But Mastamho said: "Did I not know it? That is Coyote's way: he has no sense. When a person really mourns he does not take away the heart of the dead. But now Coyote will go away: I do not want him here. And I do not want him ever to know anything. I want you who are standing here to know something, and I will do many things for you. But let him go off and be Coyote. He will always be without a home in the mountains. If you see him you will kill him, because he knows nothing." After Coyote had seized Matavilya's heart, he ran southwestward, beyond Avikwame to Amaṭa-hotave. There he stopped and looked south. But the heart was still too hot to hold; so he dropped it, turned around, and held his mouth open towards the north to let the wind cool it.[6]Then as the heart lay on the ground and cooled, Coyote ate it.[6]Mathak, north, means windward.5. Covering of the ashes.—Now Coyote thought: "I will go to Aksam-kusaveve and tell Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye." So he went to Aksam-kusaveve and told Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye: "Matavilya has died: go to see him: I am announcing it everywhere." Then Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye went to Ha'avulypo. When he found where Matavilya had been burned, he thought: "What shall I do with these?" So he rolled himself over the ashes. No one had covered Matavilya's ashes and it was that which Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye did not like to see exposed; that is why he covered them with sand by rolling over them. Then he returned to Aksam-kusaveve.6. Coyote abandoned, homeless.—Now Coyote too came back to Ha'avulypo. No one was there now, for Mastamho had taken the people away to Kwaparvete, a short distance southward. He had seen Coyote coming and had thought: "I do not want to tell him what I know: I want him to be foolish and know nothing: I do not want him to hear what I say. I will let him go. He will be the only one like that, the one I call Coyote. He will not know his own home: he will want to run about the desert and do what is bad. If someone is not at home, Coyote will go there; but if a person is in his house, he will not come; and if anyone sees him, he will run off."B. Avikwame, River, Desert Land and Foods Made: 7-197. Mastamho promises to teach.—Now Mastamho said: "There is no house here, and no shade roof.[7]I have not made everything as yet; it will take time to do that. I know you are hot or cold, and hungry, and without houses; but I will provide everything. The sun and the night have not yet been made, but I will make them; and I will tell you what to eat. Then you will know how to live."[7]Ramada, arbor.8. Arrival at Avikwame.—Now they went downriver to Avikwame. There was no mountain there then; the land was level. Mastamho said: "Now we have come to this place and I will do something for you. I want you to learn how to make pottery, and then to know what food is good to eat. You will learn how to know day and night. And you will not be hungry nor thirsty. When you are cold, you will know it[8]and will make a fire, and will have a house to live in. And so when you are hungry you will eat, and when you are thirsty you will drink. I will make mortars, metates, cooking pots, drinking cups, and water jars. I will tell you all about those things. When Matavilya died, you were ignorant, but I thought and knew. Therefore I will do these thingsthat I say; only I cannot do them now, at once. It will take a long time yet to do them." Now Mastamho had no one to help him, no one to join with him in talking. He was alone: while there were many people there, they did not speak. Then he thought: "After I have done other things for them, I will give them names." Now the people did not sleep, but constantly stood, or sometimes sat, and when the sun went down Mastamho talked to them. For four nights he spoke to them.[8]"At that time they felt neither cold nor hunger, but walked on and on."9. White-spring made for the Chemehuevi.—On the fourth morning he said: "Now I am old enough. I will go west. I will not go far, I will take only four steps, but I will do something for you." He was intending to make a spring. So as soon as the sun had risen, he walked four steps west to Aha-kwi-nyamasave.[9]He put his weight on the ground, thinking: "Let me see if it is hard." As he stepped on it, he found that it was soft, like mud. So he went toward the north four steps. There he stood, stretched out his hand backward, and had in it a stick of sandbar willow, a forearm long.[10]This stick he set into the ground. When he pulled it out, water came with it. Then he put his foot against the water as it flowed out, and pushed earth over it, until there was only a small stream. Then he returned. When he was again at Avikwame, he said: "If I had been so sorry for my father[11]that I had immediately turned myself into a bird, you would now know nothing. But I want to do everything for you: I want to make things for you. I call you Hamakhava, Mohave. Now I have made a spring in the west: I will give that to the Chemehuevi. Those sitting here on the west side will be the Chemehuevi. Now I will stay here four days and then I will go north to Hatasaṭa."[9]"White-water (spring)."[10]Magically obtaining things by reaching out for them is a frequent incident in Mohave and other Yuman tradition.[11]Nakutk, my father. Other accounts, perhaps less influenced by Christianity, make Mastamho the younger brother of Matavilya. The narrator subsequently added: Mastamho said: "Matavilya is my father. I was born at night. Then he said to me: 'I give you a name. I call you Tinyam-humare, night-child.'" After Matavilya died, Mastamho no longer liked to hear this name and called himself Mastamho.10. Colorado River, fish, and ducks made at Hatasaṭa for the Mohave.—After four days he went to Hatasaṭa. From there he went west a short distance to Hivθikevutatše. He said: "They are not named, but I will give these names to these two places. I will not go farther but return." He had with him the stick he had got at Aha-kwi-nyamasave, was using it as an old man uses a cane. So he came back to Hatasaṭa, and there he set the stick into the ground. When he drew it out, water came with it. With his foot, he pushed earth over it, thinking: "What beings shall I let issue with the water, animals that will be useful for the Mohave?" Four times he allowed water to come and stopped it again. The first time Atši-mikulye[12]emerged. The next time Atši-yonyene[13]swam out, and the third time, Atši-hane.[14]The fourth time Atši-tšehnap, also called Atši-tšeheθilye,[15]came out. Mastamho thought: "I will give these to the Mohave." Next Av'akwaθpine[16]came out, and then Puk-havasu.[17]Then there came Hanemo.[18]Then Hanyewilye, the mudhen, emerged. As each came out, fish and ducks, he did not let them go, but kept them there. He made only a little water, enough to hold them. Whenever he left his stick plunged into the ground, the water did not issue; but when he drew it out, the water and the fish and the birds came out. When he had finished making the fish and the ducks, he said: "These are for the Mohave, but they do not yet know how to catch them. I will teach them."[12]A small edible fish with few bones. Atši is fish.[13]A similar but larger fish, Colorado salmon.[14]A large fish.[15]A small, yellow, humped fish.[16]The scaup (?) duck.[17]"Beads-blue," that is, blue or green necklace. Probably the mallard duck.[18]Hanemo is the name commonly used for ducks generically. It is also the specific name of the pintail or wood duck. The four ducks mentioned here reappear with other water birds in par.96.11. Matavilya's ashes washed away.—Then he drew out his stick entirely, and the water came unrestrained, with the fish and ducks in it, and flowed southward.[19]Mastamho ran ahead of it on the west bank, to Ha'avulypo where Matavilya had been burned. There he set his stick into the center of the ashes, for he did not like to see them and wanted the water to wash them out. He called to the water, and it ran where he held his stick, and the ashes were washed away. So they were gone, and the river flowed through the place where they had been.

This story of the institution of culture differs from most of the preceding in that it is a pure myth unaccompanied by songs. It was told to me at the University's Museum of Anthropology, then in San Francisco, between November 16 and 24, 1903, by Jo Nelson, also called Baby's Head in Mohave; with Jack Jones the interpreter as usual.

Jo Nelson, aged about sixty, is pictured in Handbook of California Indians, plate 64, top right, and in our frontispiece. Like many Mohave, he was interested in travel and in new lands and peoples. He had visited widely among Indian tribes both east and west of the Mohave and had asked questions both abroad and at home. He gave me, on the whole, the best information which I secured from the Mohave about other tribes, and which has been published in part in the Handbook, though considerable detail remains unpublished. Jo Nelson was in many ways an ideal informant for matters of fact. His memory was excellent both for what he had seen and heard. His mind was orderly, his procedure methodical. He distinguished between hearsay and actual observation; and he would exhaust one topic before proceeding to the next. These same qualities show in his myth as presented here.

The narrative may be described as dealing essentially with the institution of culture by Mastamho, the second of the two great myth heroes of the Mohave. The story assumes the cosmogony as such as already known. I obtained one such Mohave account of the origin of the world. This has been abstracted in the Handbook, pages 770-771, and also in the American Journal of Folklore, 19:314-316, 1906. That was one of the first narratives which I recorded from this tribe, and its quality and my rendition are not of the best; but it is confirmed by innumerable allusions to world origins in other Mohave myths and in their discussions of their culture.

The present Mastamho narrative begins after Matavilya is dead, and its first chapter, so to speak (A:1-6) deals with the disposal of his body. Thereafter the tale is concerned with the planning, trials, and execution of his plans by Mastamho, especially with reference to the way of living of the Mohave, but first for the desert tribes nearest them (B:7-19). Essentially Mastamho thinks of what will be good for one or more of these tribes, causes it to come into existence, and then explains it to the people or has them practice it. One long section (C:20-35) is devoted to the institution of night and sleep, to the building of houses and shade roofs, and the setting aside of playing fields. The relation of sections like this to the remainder will be clearer by reference to the outline of the whole narrative given a few paragraphs below. The total story is so prolix that this summary will be useful as a conspectus for orientation.

Another section (D:36-42) is devoted to the making of the wild plants which spring up either of themselves, or through being planted, in the bottoms of the Mohave valley immediately upon the recession of the annual overflow. The Mohave distinguish between wild food plants which grow of themselves but are harvested, wild food plants which are sown, and domesticated food plants such as maize and beans. The second group, in other words, are cultivated plants which also grow spontaneously in the Colorado bottoms, but probably grow in denser stands if sown. They were apparently seed-bearing plants which were particularly adapted to rapid growth in the summer heat following the June inundation; and this fact may have contributed to their not having been diffused to other environments. At any rate, it is to be noted that the narrator gave considerably more space to the institution of these wild and "tame-wild" plants than to strictly agricultural ones.

By the time he comes to the latter, it is near the end of Mastamho's career and the episode seems hurried (H:76-78). Pottery is mentioned first and agriculture second; which may be an accident, but I suspect that it reflects a Mohave attitude. At any rate, it is clear that they strongly associate pottery and agriculture, which is not surprising in view of the absence or underdevelopment of both among many of the tribes to the west, north, and east. That the telling of the story in this section was hurried, or perhaps shortened by fatigue, is indicated by the fact that, strictly speaking, the instituting of neither art is described, but they are taken for granted and then Mastamho teaches the people the names of vessels and plants. This creation by naming may pass as a shorthand explanation, but it is not in the narrator's usual methodical manner.

There is a section, as might be expected, on hawks and warfare (F:59-69), this being a subject the Mohave never tire of. It is men who dream of hawks that become successful fighters and renowned war leaders.

A rather unusual section deals with Mastamho's trial-and-error attempts to teach the names for tribes, objects, and the numeral count (E:43-58). Here the device is to begin with distortions of the Mohave words which, however, the taught fail or refuse to learn. The distortions are something on the order of Pig Latin or the languages which groups of children sometimes concoct. This sort of attempt is not commonly found among North American Indians, and the techniques of distortion have therefore been analyzed in a separate discussion appended to the tale itself. On account of its fixed sequence, thenumeral count perhaps lends itself best to word plays of this sort. In not a few languages, including Mohave, succeeding numerals partly rhyme. This feature has been further developed in the artificial counts. The whole process is somewhat akin to the occasional instances of the count in a foreign language being parodied by substitution of somewhat like-sounding names in the speaker's language, a device with which obscene or other humorous effects can easily be attained.

A fair question would be how much of Mohave culture is accounted for in all this narrative of institution. A fair answer would seem to be: most of the more conspicuous, concrete features of the culture, houses and their parts, weapons, utensils, food plants. This omits certain items from what we are wont to call material culture, such as clothing, cradles, and the like. But the technological and economic deficiencies of the Colorado River Yuman culture are so definite that the omissions are perhaps in the minority.

Having done his work, Mastamho goes off and turns into the bald eagle (J:82-84). This is spoken of as "dying" or "leaving his body." He is said to have become "crazy," which probably means without sense, knowing nothing, without human consciousness.

There follows a long supplement, making about a quarter of the total story (K-N:85-102), which tells of the institution of sex, courtship, and marriage under the leadership of a man and a woman to whom Mastamho has delegated this task and who at its conclusion turn the people with them into birds and themselves become, respectively, the curve-billed thrasher and the mockingbird. The guess may be hazarded that Mastamho is to the Mohave too heroic a figure to be credited with undertaking the institution of these practices in person. At that, the treatment is restrained and, from the native point of view, thoroughly decent, though the emphasis is on festivals, playfields, and courtship.

A. Mastamho Disposes of Dead Matavilya:1-6

1. Matavilya's death and pyre at Ha'avulypo2. Coyote seeks fire3. Fly and the cremation4. Coyote's theft of the heart5. Covering of the ashes6. Coyote abandoned, homeless

B. Avikwame, River, Desert Land and Foods Made:7-19

7. Mastamho promises to teach8. Arrival at Avikwame9. White-spring made for the Chemehuevi10. Colorado River, fish, and ducks made at Hatasaṭa for the Mohave11. Matavilya's ashes washed away12. Boat tilted to widen valley13. Avikwame mountain made from mud14. Other mountains made15. Four seed foods made for the Chemehuevi16. Four plant foods made for the Walapai17. Planning for the Yavapai18. Foods and water made for the Yavapai19. Languages given to Chemehuevi, Walapai, Yavapai

C. House, Shade, Sleep, and Playground:20-35

20. Planning a shade roof21. Ant makes dry ground22. Two insects dig postholes23. Shade built24. House planned25. House built26. Door made27. Insect helpers given names28. Sunset named29. House entered30-32. Night; Future nights; Sleep33. Day coming34. Playground made at Miakwa'orve35. More in time

D. Wild Seeds Planted:36-42

36. Planning to plant37. Scaup Duck plants four wild seeds in overflow38. You will understand later39. Planning for more planting40. Frog told to be ready to plant41. Frog told what wild seeds to plant42. Return to Avikwame

E. Counting, Directions, Tribal Names:43-58

43. Preparation for the next night44-46. First, second, third counts taught47. Final count taught48. Fingers made on hand49. First direction names taught50. Final direction names taught51. Mispronounced tribal names52. Walapai and Yavapai tribes named53. Chemehuevi named54. Yuma and Kamia named55. Mohave named56. Told to stay a while57. Doctors will dream of this58. Mastamho takes new name

F. Hawks and War:59-69

59-62. Four hawks given names and war power63. Practice trial64. Weapons to be made65. Cremation of warriors66. Dreamers of journey will be runners67. Eagle unintelligent; to dream of him unlucky68. Crane ugly; to dream of him unlucky69. Hawks will wear morning star in fight

G. Thrasher, Mockingbird, and Mastamho's Dream Names:70-75

70. Gnatcatcher to be rich: women will dream of71. Tšoaikwatakwe in cottonwoods: women also dream of72. Thrasher and Mockingbird-to-be named73-75. Three new names of Mastamho

H. Pottery and Farmed Food Instituted:76-78

76. Pottery vessels each given two names77. Planted foods named78. Chutaha singing with basket

I. Thrasher and Mockingbird Delegated to Teach:79-81

79. Thrasher and Mockingbird appointed to teach play and sex80. Avikwame named81. What Thrasher and Mockingbird are to do and be

J. Mastamho's Transformation into Bald Eagle:82-84

82. Turns into Bald Eagle at Avikutaparve83. Floats downriver to Hokusave84. Flies south to sea, is crazy (unknowing)

K. Courtship Instituted at Miakwa'orve:85-92

85. Thrasher and Mockingbird face people on playground at Miakwa'orve86. Tortoise chosen to be approached87-90. Sparrowhawk, Quail, Ah'akwasilye, Oriole rejected91. Blue Heron accepted by Tortoise92. Dove arrives: loose women dream of her

L. Transformation of Water and Valley Birds:93-97

93. All go downriver to Hokusave94. Noses of racers pierced there95. Yahalyetaka's nose pierced with difficulty96. Racers become water birds97. Some others become valley birds

M. Mountain Birds Transformed at Rattlesnake's Playfield:98-101

98. Rest led back to Miakwa'orve99. Thrasher and Mockingbird at Rattlesnake's Playground teach venereal cure100. More songs for this101. At Three-Mountains, Thrasher, Mockingbird, and rest turn to mountain birds

N. Leftover Straggler Reaches the Sea:102

102. Hakutatkole, left for pošoik sickness, goes south to sea and becomes a bird

So much for the content of the narrative: now as to its form. First of all, although the story is not accompanied by songs, it is developed according to the same pattern as the song-cycle myths. Moreover, the informant was just as insistent as the majority of narrators that he got his knowledge through dreaming.

However, the approach in the telling is less formally decorative and more rational than in other narratives. There is actually less story, in the sense of there being a minimum of events, a maximum of explanation. The account is therefore bald and didactic. One sees the narrator throughout aiming to be clear even at the cost of repetition or prolixity.

In fact, repetition is deliberately indulged in as part of the didactic style. Mastamho talks to himself of what he will do, then perhaps tells the people that he will do it, then goes and does it; after which, he may explain to them what he has done. Or he will have them try the innovation, in which case it may be four times before they learn, or before he finds the correct manner.

Accordingly, the pace throughout is tantalizingly slow. The story could have been condensed by me, but its characteristic manner and style would thereby have been completely discarded. There are constant references to "This will be, but it is not yet." Such antitheses seem to serve both emphasis and clarity. For instance, paragraph62, "If people dream of you, they will kill enemies; if people dream of being in darkness, they will not kill them." Or again, paragraph70, "I will not let you go to a distance: I want you to stay in this country." Balances of this sort constitute a distinct stylistic manner, rudimentary though the devices may be from a literary point of view.

The Mastamho account contains certain minor inconsistencies, but they are not inconsistencies of identity or kinship of person, or of topography, as in the Cane narrative; nor are they due to sloppiness of telling, as in the Coyote stories. The chief inconsistencies noted are the fact that Mastamho keeps saying that he will teach the people everything in four nights before his transformation into the bald eagle, but then actually is six nights doing it; and similarly he at first separates the people into four future tribes—three in the desert and the Mohave—but then later there are six, the River Kamia and Yuma suddenly appearing with the Mohave. These discrepancies should not be charged too seriously against the narrator's care and precision. The story is an exceedingly long one. He told it at intervals during nine days. Part of my time was tied to University duties, so that there would be whole days of interruption. While I made no detailed record, I assume that we spent at least four working days in the telling and Englishing. This would mean a minimum of two days, or say twelve to fifteen hours, of Mohave narration by the informant, distributed over more than a week. Few people could follow one thread of telling so long as this with so few discrepancies.

1. Matavilya's death and pyre at Ha'avulypo.—Matavilya died at Ha'avulypo.[1]I did not see him when he was sick, but dreamed of him and saw him only when he died; others know of his sickness. When he died in the house,[2]they carried him west of the door. Now Mastamho was a boy about so high (about ten-year size). They asked: "What shall we do with him?" Then Mastamho told them: "Burn him. When people die I want you to burn them. That is what I wish. Now I want you, Badger,[3]to dig a hole; and I want this man, Raccoon,[4]to bring wood." Then after a time these two men came back into the house and said: "We have dug a hole and the wood is ready." Now there were many people there in the house when they said that, but not one of them spoke a word. Then Mastamho asked them: "Have you fire?" But Badger and Raccoon said: "No."

[1]Near Mathakeva, Cottonwood Island, on the Arizona side of the Colorado.

[2]The door of which of course faced south.

[3]Mahwa.

[4]Nammaθa.

2. Coyote seeks fire.—Now Coyote—θara-veyo-ve, Mastamho called him, but the Mohave call him Hukθara—said: "I am sorry because Matavilya died: I want fire and will bring it. I will go to Fire-Mountain:[5]I know there is fire there and will get it." So he started westward. He was gone a longtime. Mastamho waited and all the others waited. Then Mastamho said: "I do not want it to become day, for Matavilya to be lying here in the light. Let it remain night." Now they were all still waiting for Coyote, but he did not return: he was still traveling west.

[5]Avi-'a'auva.

3. Fly and the cremation.—Then θilyahmo, Fly, a woman—for there were only people then, and no animals—who had been sitting west of the door, went outside, pulled up dead arrowweeds, came back indoors, broke the sticks up, and dropped them into two or three small piles; for she wanted to try to make fire. Then she plucked off a strand of her willow-bark dress and rubbed it fine into tinder. Then she twirled a stick in her hands, and with this and the shredded bark she made fire, as she sat in the corner of the house by the west side of the door. Then she carried it into the middle of the house, saying: "Here is fire." Now that they had fire, Badger and Raccoon carried Matavilya outdoors and laid him down on their pile of wood. All who had been in the house went out with them. Then Badger and Raccoon returned into the house and brought out the fire. Lighting the pile of wood at the north end, they went one along each side of it, setting fire to it, until they met at the south end. There they stood. Then everyone cried, Badger and Raccoon with the rest.

4. Coyote's theft of the heart.—Now when Coyote arrived at Fire-Mountain, he looked back and saw the burning at Ha'avulypo. Then he did not even stop to take the fire, but ran back at once. When he arrived, he found the people all standing around the pyre. He said: "Matavilya is dead and I do not know anything. How am I to? He told me nothing." He ran around and around the circle of people who were standing and crying for Matavilya. He cried too. Now Mastamho was standing on a higher place to the north, looking at Coyote. Though he was only a boy, he was thinking about him. He thought: "I know what he wants: he is not really sorry." What Coyote wanted was to jump over the ring of people, to seize Matavilya's heart and run away with it: that is why he was trying to come near the fire. But the people, standing close together, would not let him. Now they were all tall; but Badger and Raccoon were both short. Then Coyote jumped: he succeeded in leaping over their two heads, and he got to the fire. But Mastamho said: "Did I not know it? That is Coyote's way: he has no sense. When a person really mourns he does not take away the heart of the dead. But now Coyote will go away: I do not want him here. And I do not want him ever to know anything. I want you who are standing here to know something, and I will do many things for you. But let him go off and be Coyote. He will always be without a home in the mountains. If you see him you will kill him, because he knows nothing." After Coyote had seized Matavilya's heart, he ran southwestward, beyond Avikwame to Amaṭa-hotave. There he stopped and looked south. But the heart was still too hot to hold; so he dropped it, turned around, and held his mouth open towards the north to let the wind cool it.[6]Then as the heart lay on the ground and cooled, Coyote ate it.

[6]Mathak, north, means windward.

5. Covering of the ashes.—Now Coyote thought: "I will go to Aksam-kusaveve and tell Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye." So he went to Aksam-kusaveve and told Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye: "Matavilya has died: go to see him: I am announcing it everywhere." Then Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye went to Ha'avulypo. When he found where Matavilya had been burned, he thought: "What shall I do with these?" So he rolled himself over the ashes. No one had covered Matavilya's ashes and it was that which Hame'ulye-kwitše-iδulye did not like to see exposed; that is why he covered them with sand by rolling over them. Then he returned to Aksam-kusaveve.

6. Coyote abandoned, homeless.—Now Coyote too came back to Ha'avulypo. No one was there now, for Mastamho had taken the people away to Kwaparvete, a short distance southward. He had seen Coyote coming and had thought: "I do not want to tell him what I know: I want him to be foolish and know nothing: I do not want him to hear what I say. I will let him go. He will be the only one like that, the one I call Coyote. He will not know his own home: he will want to run about the desert and do what is bad. If someone is not at home, Coyote will go there; but if a person is in his house, he will not come; and if anyone sees him, he will run off."

7. Mastamho promises to teach.—Now Mastamho said: "There is no house here, and no shade roof.[7]I have not made everything as yet; it will take time to do that. I know you are hot or cold, and hungry, and without houses; but I will provide everything. The sun and the night have not yet been made, but I will make them; and I will tell you what to eat. Then you will know how to live."

[7]Ramada, arbor.

8. Arrival at Avikwame.—Now they went downriver to Avikwame. There was no mountain there then; the land was level. Mastamho said: "Now we have come to this place and I will do something for you. I want you to learn how to make pottery, and then to know what food is good to eat. You will learn how to know day and night. And you will not be hungry nor thirsty. When you are cold, you will know it[8]and will make a fire, and will have a house to live in. And so when you are hungry you will eat, and when you are thirsty you will drink. I will make mortars, metates, cooking pots, drinking cups, and water jars. I will tell you all about those things. When Matavilya died, you were ignorant, but I thought and knew. Therefore I will do these thingsthat I say; only I cannot do them now, at once. It will take a long time yet to do them." Now Mastamho had no one to help him, no one to join with him in talking. He was alone: while there were many people there, they did not speak. Then he thought: "After I have done other things for them, I will give them names." Now the people did not sleep, but constantly stood, or sometimes sat, and when the sun went down Mastamho talked to them. For four nights he spoke to them.

[8]"At that time they felt neither cold nor hunger, but walked on and on."

9. White-spring made for the Chemehuevi.—On the fourth morning he said: "Now I am old enough. I will go west. I will not go far, I will take only four steps, but I will do something for you." He was intending to make a spring. So as soon as the sun had risen, he walked four steps west to Aha-kwi-nyamasave.[9]He put his weight on the ground, thinking: "Let me see if it is hard." As he stepped on it, he found that it was soft, like mud. So he went toward the north four steps. There he stood, stretched out his hand backward, and had in it a stick of sandbar willow, a forearm long.[10]This stick he set into the ground. When he pulled it out, water came with it. Then he put his foot against the water as it flowed out, and pushed earth over it, until there was only a small stream. Then he returned. When he was again at Avikwame, he said: "If I had been so sorry for my father[11]that I had immediately turned myself into a bird, you would now know nothing. But I want to do everything for you: I want to make things for you. I call you Hamakhava, Mohave. Now I have made a spring in the west: I will give that to the Chemehuevi. Those sitting here on the west side will be the Chemehuevi. Now I will stay here four days and then I will go north to Hatasaṭa."

[9]"White-water (spring)."

[10]Magically obtaining things by reaching out for them is a frequent incident in Mohave and other Yuman tradition.

[11]Nakutk, my father. Other accounts, perhaps less influenced by Christianity, make Mastamho the younger brother of Matavilya. The narrator subsequently added: Mastamho said: "Matavilya is my father. I was born at night. Then he said to me: 'I give you a name. I call you Tinyam-humare, night-child.'" After Matavilya died, Mastamho no longer liked to hear this name and called himself Mastamho.

10. Colorado River, fish, and ducks made at Hatasaṭa for the Mohave.—After four days he went to Hatasaṭa. From there he went west a short distance to Hivθikevutatše. He said: "They are not named, but I will give these names to these two places. I will not go farther but return." He had with him the stick he had got at Aha-kwi-nyamasave, was using it as an old man uses a cane. So he came back to Hatasaṭa, and there he set the stick into the ground. When he drew it out, water came with it. With his foot, he pushed earth over it, thinking: "What beings shall I let issue with the water, animals that will be useful for the Mohave?" Four times he allowed water to come and stopped it again. The first time Atši-mikulye[12]emerged. The next time Atši-yonyene[13]swam out, and the third time, Atši-hane.[14]The fourth time Atši-tšehnap, also called Atši-tšeheθilye,[15]came out. Mastamho thought: "I will give these to the Mohave." Next Av'akwaθpine[16]came out, and then Puk-havasu.[17]Then there came Hanemo.[18]Then Hanyewilye, the mudhen, emerged. As each came out, fish and ducks, he did not let them go, but kept them there. He made only a little water, enough to hold them. Whenever he left his stick plunged into the ground, the water did not issue; but when he drew it out, the water and the fish and the birds came out. When he had finished making the fish and the ducks, he said: "These are for the Mohave, but they do not yet know how to catch them. I will teach them."

[12]A small edible fish with few bones. Atši is fish.

[13]A similar but larger fish, Colorado salmon.

[14]A large fish.

[15]A small, yellow, humped fish.

[16]The scaup (?) duck.

[17]"Beads-blue," that is, blue or green necklace. Probably the mallard duck.

[18]Hanemo is the name commonly used for ducks generically. It is also the specific name of the pintail or wood duck. The four ducks mentioned here reappear with other water birds in par.96.

11. Matavilya's ashes washed away.—Then he drew out his stick entirely, and the water came unrestrained, with the fish and ducks in it, and flowed southward.[19]Mastamho ran ahead of it on the west bank, to Ha'avulypo where Matavilya had been burned. There he set his stick into the center of the ashes, for he did not like to see them and wanted the water to wash them out. He called to the water, and it ran where he held his stick, and the ashes were washed away. So they were gone, and the river flowed through the place where they had been.

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