Mythology and Folklore Fall 2020

In the beginning, God made the earth and the sea. He inhabited the sea with numerous types of fish and the land with various types of animals, including humans. As you know, Adam was the first human, then there was Eve. What eventually happened to them is a different story, but for now, they were still perfect. One day, God told Adam that He wanted to rank the animals by power to assert man's dominance over the four-legged creatures. Adam agreed and asked God how he wanted to do so. God commanded Adam, with the help of Eve, to give the largest bone to the most powerful animal and the smallest bone to the weakest animal, along with every animal in between.  Adam and Eve did as they were told and fetched bones of all different sizes. God then announced to all the animals that the bone ceremony would take place in the morning. It was a first come, first serve basis, so the first to show up would get the largest bow, and so on. All the animals decided to get a good nights' sleep so...

Origin of the Sierra Nevadas and Coast Range: nothing but water in world Tulare Lake present day=pole standing out of water--Hawk and Crow perched there fight over standing on perch and prey on fish created Duck, who died with mud in mouth--used to make mountains Hawk made east range, Crow made west--met at Mt. Shasta--crows=larger Hawk accused crow of stealing--chewed tobacco to make him wise--turned mountains around and put range where crows was--Sierra Nevada Range is larger than Coast Range Legend of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La (El Capitan): 2 boys living in valley--went to swim went to shore and got on boulder by water--fell asleep boulder grew every day and lifted boys beyond tribe=lost council of animals rescued boys from top of rock by leaping--only worm was able to creep up side to reach top got boys down safely--rock="Tutokanula"=measuring worm How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors: bluebird was very ugly color knew of lake where no river flowed in/out--bathed 4x every m...

The Great Fire/Origin of Light: man wanted to marry 2 women but they didn't want to man went north, made a tule boat, then set world on fire--escaped by boat fire burned very very fast and burned everything Old Coyote saw the fire so he tried to put it out by taking honey-dew and spitting it on the fire became very thirsty but no water--took Indian sugar and made water again no light--animals and birds ran but always bumped into each other Hawk and Coyote tired of darkness--Coyote made ball of tule reeds with flint and Hawk took ball and sent it around the world nights were still dark, so made another one, but the reeds were damp--so moon not as bright as sun The Fable of the Animals: Kareya made world--made fishes in water and animals on land, then man first, animals were equal in power--no food source Kareya ordered meeting to rank power man on top--made bows and arrows to give longest to most powerful animal and shortest to least powerful Coyote wanted power so he pretended to s...