
     
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS

  

IN

  

AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

 

       	Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 69-186, Pls. 16-19

      	June 27, 1908

     
  

  

THE RELIGION OF THE LUISENO INDIANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

  

BY

  

CONSTANCE GODDARD DUBOIS

  

BERKELEY

  

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

  

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS

  

DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

  

[1908]

Scanned, proofed and formatted by John Bruno Hare at sacred-texts.com, April 2008. This text is in the public domain in the US because it was published prior to 1923.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 69]

  

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS

  

IN

  

AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

 

       	Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 69-186, Pls. 16-19

      	June 27, 1908

     
   

THE RELIGION OF THE LUISENO INDIANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

  

BY

  

CONSTANCE GODDARD DUBOIS.

  

CONTENTS.

         	 

      	PAGE

     
     	Editor's Note

      	<page 70>

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Introduction

      	<page 73>

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Initiation Ceremonies

      	 

     
     	   The Toloache Ceremony

      	<page 77>

     
     	   Wanawut, the Sacred Net

      	<page 85>

     
     	   The Sand Painting

      	<page 87>

     
     	   The Ant Ordeal

      	<page 91>

     
     	   The Chungichnish Ceremony of Unish Matakish

      	<page 92>

     
     	   Wukunish, the Girl's Ceremony

      	<page 93>

     
     	   Sacred Chungichnish Objects

      	<page 97>

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Mourning Ceremonies

      	 

     
     	   The Image Ceremony

      	<page 100>

     
     	   The Notish Ceremony

      	<page 103>

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Ceremonial Songs

      	<page 105>

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Myths

      	<page 128>

     
     	   Luiseno Creation, Third Version

      	<page 128>

     
     	   Luiseno Creation, Fourth Version

      	<page 138>

     
     	   Origin of the Notish Mourning Ceremony

      	<page 148>

     
     	   A Chungichnish Story

      	<page 150>

     
     	   Nahachish

      	<page 151>

     
     	   The Spirit Wife

      	<page 153>

     
     	   The Dance of the Spirits

      	<page 154>

     
     	   The Spring behind the Cemetery

      	<page 155>

     
     	   The Walking Tamyush

      	<page 156>

     
     	   How Coyote killed the Frog

      	<page 156>

     
     	   The Flood

      	<page 157>

     
     	[p. 70]

      	 

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Traditional Knowledge

      	 

     
     	   Ancestral Landmarks and Descent of Songs

      	<page 158>

     
     	   Clans or Traditional Groups

      	<page 160>

     
     	   Star Lore and Calendar

      	<page 162>

     
     	   The Origin of Music

      	<page 166>

     
     	 

      	 

     
     	Appendix I. By C. G. DuBois. Games, Arts, and Industries of the Dieguenos   and Luisenos

      	<page 167>

     
     	Appendix II. By A. L. Kroeber. Notes on the Luisenos

      	<page 174>

     
   
      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

EDITOR'S NOTE.

Miss Constance Goddard DuBois, the author of the present publication, is well known for her literary work dealing with Southern California. Of recent years she has earned distinction for her accounts of the myths and ceremonies of the Diegueno Mission Indians of this region, which have been published in several anthropological journals. In the summer of 1906 Miss DuBois spent some weeks in San Diego county, in field studies with the Luiseno Indians. This work she carried on under the Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California, which Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst's generosity has made it possible for the Department of Anthropology of the University of California to conduct. In the present paper Miss DuBois reports the results of this study, adding certain information acquired during her previous visits to the Mission Indians.

Of the tribes formerly attached to the Franciscan missions of California the Luiseno and Diegueno are the only ones to survive in any numbers. Inasmuch as they have been fully under European influence for more than a hundred years, and as for nearly two generations they lived under a direct and enforced Christian discipline, it is as surprising as it is gratifying that so much of their own inner life still remains as Miss DuBois has been able to show in this paper, and that at least the memory of their old life continues unaffected by civilization. But it need hardly be said that the best of this information is all contained in the minds of a few of the old men, and that with their passing it also will disappear forever.

The Luiseno and Diegueno languages are distinct, forming part respectively of the great Uto-Aztekan and Yuman families; but the two tribes are physically similar, and share in common

[p. 71]

the majority of their customs, arts, and beliefs. The terms Diegueno and Luiseno originally referred to the Indians of San Diego and San Luis Rey missions, irrespective of their native affiliations; but they have come to be the customary names of tribes, or more exactly, of two groups of people each speaking a common dialect.

Miss DuBois introduces her account of the religion of the Luiseno with a discussion of the beliefs and practices centering about the divine being Chungichnish, the central figure in Luiseno religious worship. Under the name of Chinigchinich this character has furnished the title for the missionary Boscana's account of the closely related neighboring Indians of mission San Juan Capistrano, by far the most illuminating and valuable account of the Indians of California that the world owes to the mission period. Miss DuBois's Luiseno informants state that the Chungichnish worship came to them from the coast and from the north; and that they in turn transmitted it to the Diegueno. There seems every reason for believing this statement; and although it is necessarily uncertain to what extent any uncorroborated tradition of an uncivilized people can be accepted as historically true, the interest and value of such traditions is clearly as great to those who may be skeptically inclined on general grounds, as to those who, for good reasons in particular cases, take them more nearly at face value.

Miss DuBois' account of Luiseno symbolism, as embodied especially in the wanawut or rope-figure, and in the ground-painting, is of special interest on account of the slight development of symbolic religious expression heretofore discovered among the California Indians. It is significant that the Luiseno ground-paintings are of a comparatively simple geometrical character, recalling basketry patterns, and that they indicate the existence of objects rather than that they attempt to picture their form, or supposed appearance, even in a conventional style of representation. It seems uncertain whether these paintings are to be regarded as historically the result of the same cultural influences that gave a similar form of expression to the Pueblo and Navaho Indians. The geographically intervening Yuman tribes on the Colorado river show no trace of any equivalent practice.

[p. 72]

Almost all the ceremonies of the Luiseno are either commemorative of the dead, or serve to initiate boys and girls into the condition of tribal and religious manhood and womanhood. The principal initiation of boys is the toloache ceremony, in which the central figure is the drinking of a stupefying decoction of jimsonweed, Spanish toloache.

The two new versions of the Luiseno creation given by Miss DuBois are fuller and more esoteric than any previously obtained among the Mission Indians. The succession of births or existences, some of them psychic, evidences an unusual point of view for an American people, and is reminiscent of Oceanic and Asiatic ways of thought. Supplemented by Boscana's two accounts of the creation at San Juan Capistrano, and by the Luiseno and Diegueno versions previously collected by Miss DuBois and others, these two valuable myths give an adequate conception of the Mission Indians' beliefs concerning the origin of things.

In 1904 the editor had occasion to make a short stay among the Luiseno of Rincon, Pauma, and Pala, in the course of which certain information was acquired on the subjects here studied by Miss DuBois. While far less complete than the results of Miss DuBois, this information was independently gathered, and confirms her conclusions on a number of points. It has therefore been added in an appendix.

It is a source of regret that an expression of obligation in which Miss DuBois would join the editor can no longer be made. Mr. P. S. Sparkman of Valley Center, known for his long and patient study of the Luiseno language, was kind enough to examine and report on all Luiseno terms occurring in this paper. By his permission his valuable renderings, translations, and comments on these terms have been given in footnotes signed S, in all cases where they add anything to Miss DuBois's use of the words. Soon after the completion of this labor of love, Mr. Sparkman met an untimely end. It is a source of satisfaction that his notes in this work may at least serve in some degree as a monument of his intelligent, careful, and persevering study of the Luiseno language.

A. L. KROEBER.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 73]

  

THE RELIGION OF THE LUISENO INDIANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

  

INTRODUCTION.

In offering the results of several years research work among the Mission Indians, I have purposely avoided any attempt to give to the material collected either a technically scientific or a literary form; my object being to put into the hands of those who may care to use them the documents of the case, as it were, as nearly at first hand as possible.

The bare statement of a fact or rendering of a myth may be sufficient where all the premises are known; but the Mission Indians have been long unknown or misunderstood. Only fragments of the past remain, and in their elucidation the character of the narrator plays an important part. The personal form of narrative has therefore often been employed. This is purely a matter of convenience and should be accepted as such. The words of the interpreter are used whenever possible in literal form, his rendering being faithfully given.

The obscurity of the subject has made it difficult to obtain a complete understanding of matters which in the old days were held too sacred for communication; the veil of secrecy cast over the Chungichnish worship, as noted by Boscana, having persisted to the present day. That absolute correctness has been reached is not to be maintained; but no pains have been spared in attempting this; and it is hoped that if mistakes exist, they may be corrected by later investigation.

The two most important tribal remnants among the Mission Indians today are the Luisenos, whom I have studied chiefly at La Jolla and Potrero in the mountains, [*1] and the Dieguenos, at Mesa Grande, Campo, and Manzanita.



[p. 74]

Superficial observers, founding their opinion upon Baegert's unfriendly estimate of the Lower Californian Indians, and also upon the external conditions of the Mission Indians, the native simplicity and poverty of their life, have classed them extremely low in the ethnic scale. It has even been stated that they were the lowest type of humanity on the face of the earth.

Nothing could be more erroneous than these sweeping generalities based upon the vaguest premises. Acquaintance with Luiseno mythology reveals a loftiness of conception, a power of definition and of abstract thought, which must give these people claim to a place among the dominant minds of the primitive race. On the other hand the Dieguenos show in their myths a certain consistency in the narrative, a power of sustained invention, a dramatic instinct, as it were, which makes them supreme as storytellers. The Cuyahomarr myth is an important survival of this type.

It would be difficult to account for the blending of these two distinct mythologies into one religious ritual if historical evidence did not assist in explaining the fact.

Fortunately it is possible to trace the origin and progress of an Indian propaganda unique in this, that it occurred comparatively late in time, and was carried on under the very eyes of the Spanish and Mexican priests by their Christian converts, whose zeal for their ancient religion may have been increased by the example of missionary effort shown on their behalf by the white men.

Lucario Cuevish, who will be referred to later on as one of the most important informants used, was born at San Luis Rey, and was still living there at the time of the Mexican-American war. He remembers that when the mountain people went down to the Mission from the Potrero and La Jolla region, being under the charge and surveillance of its priest, they were "given toloache," that is, initiated according to ancient rite, by the Indians there. [*2] After the padres left, the mountain Indians stayed at the Mission for some time. Padre Antonio is the one he remembers as being in charge, and he allowed the Indians to keep up their religious dances. The padres never objected to this. The Indians



[p. 75]

who could not talk Spanish were allowed to pray in Indian in the church; but they kept up the old dances outside. [*3]

The Chungichnish belief, with its ceremonial and ritual, came originally from the north, say the Luisenos, and was brought from there to the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente. From these islands,--both to be seen on a clear day from the mountains of the mainland, it was brought to San Juan Capistrano; from Capistrano to San Luis Rey; and from there they brought the ceremonies and "gave toloache" in all the upland Luiseno places, such as Rincon, Potrero, Yapiche, and La Jolla, and carried the ritual to the Dieguenos of Mesa Grande and Santa Ysabel. [*4]

The Luisenos say that the Dieguenos of Mesa Grande originally had no songs of their own for certain rituals, but that they sing the Luiseno songs in such religious ceremonials as the eagle dance and the dance with the eagle feather skirt. These were taught to them as part of the Chungichnish ceremonial, together with the new style of dancing which came to the mountains from the coast. On the other side of the Mission of San Juan Capistrano there was a large Indian village, and from  the Chungichnish worship was brought to San Luis Rey. San Luis Rey taught Pala; Pala taught Pauma; Pauma taught Potrero; Potrero gave it to La Jolla with the songs and the present manner of dancing. This new manner is full of gestures and violent motions, while the old style of dancing, still to be seen among the Dieguenos of Manzanita, was performed in a quiet and restrained manner, consisting simply in bending and swaying the body, and moving and stamping the feet in varied measure according to the rhythm of the songs.

This took place perhaps a hundred and twenty years ago. The grandfather of the informant Salvador told Salvador's father





[p. 76]

that when Potrero came to teach these ceremonies and to "give toloache" to La Jolla, the toloache bowl would hold a quart or more, and all who drank became crazy and nearly died; and the La Jolla people were frightened, fearing their sons were going to die, and they nearly had a fight with the Potrero people. The La Jolla people in turn went later to Warner's Ranch and taught the Indians there, the so-called Cupenos, [*5] these ceremonies and dances and gave them toloache; and then went further and taught the Mesa Grande Indians and those of Santa Ysabel, both Diegueno.

All this, then, represents a genuine missionary movement in a primitive Indian religion. Its success was due to the fact that the religion of Chungichnish had every requisite of a conquering faith. It had a distinct and difficult rule of life requiring obedience, fasting, and self-sacrifice.

It had the sanction of fear. No alien faith has ever been imposed without this; but where Christian and Mohammedan invoked hell-fire, the worshipper of Chungichnish invoked the avengers of the hill, the stinging weeds, the rattlesnake and the bear, who injure by bodily harm those disobedient to the faith.

It had an imposing and picturesque ritual. And above all it had the seal of an inviolable secrecy, so alluring at all times to the human mind.

Boscana says of these Indians: "A veil is cast over all their religious observances, and the mystery with which they are performed seems to perpetuate respect for them, and to preserve an ascendancy over the people." How great were this respect and fear I know well from repeated experience. A century of allegiance to the Catholic faith barely suffices to give the old men courage to reveal the sacred mysteries of the ancient religion. [*6]

The most important of these Chungichnish rites was the toloache ceremony, as initiatory to the rest.









Footnotes

^73:1 These places must not be confounded with La Jolla on the coast, and Potrero near the Mexican line.

^74:2 See the account of the Toloache ceremony given below.

^75:3 This tolerance of the Catholic church makes it preeminent in mission work; at the same time it is not likely that any of the fathers except Boscana fully realized the significance of the Indian dances.

^75:4 Venegas's account of the Indians of Lower California contains much that might have been written about these Indians. Their religious ceremonials which are constantly misunderstood by the priests, the mode of living and manner of dress, the training of boys, the rules of the "hechiceros" (medicine-men), the sacred objects such as the feather band described below, the reverence paid to the raven, all this,--especially as relating to the most northern Indians of the peninsula and those of the southern Santa Barbara islands,--shows a close connection between Lower California and what is now Southern California.

^76:5 The people of the village of Kupa or Gupa, speaking the Agua Caliente dialect, about equally distinct from Cahuilla and Luiseno.--Ed.

^76:6 One of my story-tellers was about to sing with great reluctance some songs descended to him from his father, when an apparition of Chaup or Takwish, the electric fire-ball or meteor, in broad daylight, so terrified him as an omen that he refused to reveal anything further.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 77]

  

INITIATION CEREMONIES.

  

THE TOLOACHE CEREMONY. [*7]

The jimson-weed, Datura meteloides, in Spanish toloache, Luiseno naktamush, [*7a]  [*8] is one of the most imposing plants of Southern California. Its gigantic bluish-white bell-shaped flowers, opening towards evening and fading when the sun of the following day becomes intense, contrasted with the dull green leaves, attract the most casual notice, as they occur in waste spaces in field and roadside, growing by hundreds where conditions favor their increase. The plant is remarkable in the extent of its distribution. Undiscouraged by the intervening wastes of desert, it appears throughout Arizona as in California.

The roots of the toloache contain a narcotic principle which has a marked effect on the mind; and the taking of this is the center of an important ceremony. It is fifty years or more since the toloache ritual has been celebrated by the Luisenos; but for convenience the present tense is used.

At the time of the Mani, [*9] the toloache ceremony, a big fire is lighted at the main place of gathering. They have two places, and the one where they actually give the toloache is at a distance from the other. The places are made ready in the day time, but the ceremony does not begin till evening. In the main place the sacred enclosure of brush, the wamkish, is built in a circle to about the height of a man. On the ground inside are placed the sacred ceremonial objects: the tamyush or sacred stone toloache bowls, large and small,--all but one which is to be used in the other place in drinking the toloache; feather head-dresses and eagle-feather skirts; and the paviut, the sacred sticks with flint in the end.









[p. 78]

The tamyush, which since the last celebration of the ceremony have been buried in the ground, in a place known only to the chief, are taken out in good time and freshly painted so that they look nice. They are painted red, white, and black. Of the sacred ceremonial objects the tukmul [*10] is not in the main enclosure but at the other place. The tukmul is a flat winnowing basket sacred to the Chungichnish rites. It belongs to the men, that is, is possessed by every initiate, and during every ceremony is placed on the ground containing grain, the sacred stone pipes, or other objects.

When it grows dark the people gather at the main place. The chief has charge of the religious conduct of the ceremony; but to see to the correct performance of every part of it during the four or five days of its continuance, two officers, Paha, [*11] are selected, with varied functions.

They must go around to the different houses to collect the candidates for the Mani, carrying some of the little boys who may be found asleep. One Paha is detailed to supervise the main place; the other, the place for drinking the toloache. By a well understood law no one is allowed to run around or make any noise. The Paha must be a hechicero, or shaman, of repute; and he could tell by looking at the mother of a boy whether she had been doing wrong in any way. No woman could be admitted to the ceremony who was unclean, unchaste, or menstruating.

It is dark in the place where they take toloache. The large tamyush selected for the purpose is placed on the ground before the chief. It contains the root, previously prepared and dried, perhaps a year before. [*12] The chief pounds the dry scraped bark with the stone mano (muller or pestle) to the accompaniment of a curious recitative, not a song: "Chanyoko, yoko," while the boys stand waiting in the darkness. The powder is then placed in a small twined sifting basket [*13] and sifted again into the tamyush,









[p. 79]

which is filled with water. The Paha goes about whispering: "Keep quiet all of you. Do not talk. Everyone keep quiet."

The chief superintends the drinking, and as the candidates kneel in turn before the big tamyush to drink out of it, he holds the head of each with the palm of his hand under the forehead, and raises it when they have drunk a sufficient quantity of the liquid, watching to see that they do not drink too much. They drink from the tamyush in which the toloache was mixed.

They give the toloache to the boys in the dark; and while it is being administered, the Paha goes over to the main place three times in succession, and the third time tells them to get ready, for Mani is coming. He sings a curious recitative.

The men and boys in this ceremony do not wear clothes. Before they start, each man takes charge of one of the boys who have partaken of the drink, and they stand and get ready. Now begins the marching song or recitative as they march to the main place, taking the boys along. The words of this recitative are: "Tamyush noya kwoya, Tamyush walks by twisting." [*14] In the early days this tamyush, finely painted, out of which they drank toloache, when it was time to march to the main place, would walk along by itself. This was done with a twisting motion from side to side,--as a heavy barrel is moved.

Tukmul, the sacred winnowing basket, [*15] would do the same thing. He would run by himself to the main place; so would the other sacred basket, piavala, [*16] a small basket in the shape of an olla. These three, tamyush, tukmul, and piyevala, would have to stop three times on their way to the main place.

The dancers crawled in on their hands and knees, making the noises of birds and animals. They had some secrets about this, shamanistic power, and could talk in the language of these birds







[p. 80]

and animals, hawks and owls, and ravens and weasels. One could hear this but could see nothing. [*17]

Then they march around the fire, and dance singing the toloache song. The boys soon grow dizzy and fall down, and they carry them to the other place and leave them there, under the charge of some of the old people, until the toloache intoxication wears off.

After this come the dances and the Chungichnish songs, and sometimes new songs are composed at this time. Some of the old men have composed them to teach to the boys, and they dance all night long. At daylight they sing the song: "Tukaina wonipa," [*18] which means to go off; and they march to the other place where they took toloache, where they remain during the day.

The boys cannot eat anything. The Paha watches to see that they do not eat more than two or three spoonfuls at most; but the others eat.

When night comes each man takes one of the boys to the main place; and before all the people these old men do magic tricks () to teach the boys how to perform them. In the old days when they took Mani these people could do anything. They





[p. 81]

could put the feather head-dresses in the fire, and they would not be burned; and they could make the raven talk and everything was done as he said. They were so full of Chungichnish.

Not so very long ago, a shaman cut his tongue off, blood ran all over his breast, and he held it out so everyone could see. Then he put it back and it grew together again. This was while the Indians all lived where Trujillo's land is now. This spot was a prehistoric Indian village site, the author's camping place at Potrero.

In the same place at this time a shaman stood up and another one shot him with bow and arrow. The arrow went deep into his breast, and he vomited blood and fell down apparently dead. The people all began to cry when they saw him shot; but the second shaman pulled the arrow out, doctored him and blew on him, and he got up perfectly well and went on dancing.

One man named Turiyo threw his feather head-dress on the big fire that was burning. One could smell the feathers burn and everyone saw it. He walked around and began looking about and there was the same feather head-dress on the ground.

They would do these things when they got ready to put the fire out, singing the Chungichnish songs and dancing. They wore no clothes but the feather head-dresses and breech-cloths, but they were painted with white clay and black charcoal on their backs to protect them from the heat.

They put the fire out by witchcraft. They would have a very big fire, "as big as a house," and when they got ready to put it out several of the old men would jump right into the middle of the fire and stand there several minutes. You could smell the feathers burn and know that they were burning, but they would jump out again unhurt.

This was not so very long ago. Everyone knows about it. These were the things they taught the boys to do.

The Paha would superintend the putting out of the fire as he did everything else, calling out: "Come up to the fire. Don't be afraid. Don't shirk."

They put the fire out by pulling the burning logs out and stamping on them and putting them out by witchcraft. The chief would not let anyone come near with water, as the hot steam

[p. 82]

would burn. They would tramp with hands and feet, and had the Chungichnish sticks. In the early days they would not feel fire. [*19]

It is the men of the same village where the boys live who give them toloache; but the next day, perhaps, the people from another village will come; and their chief men will take the boys and teach them their ways and ceremonies, and dance all night long. The men that take the boys to instruct them will talk to them and tell them how they must behave. These men bring the dancing feathers, tukmul, and other objects belonging to Chungichnish. During the time they are teaching the boys and giving them presents of the feathers and objects, the fathers and mothers of the boys give back the same value in baskets and other possessions.

Then the instructors dress the boys in the feathers, paint them all over, give them the wonder-working sticks, and go home.

Next day the men of another village come and do the same thing, and so on for four or five days, different parties coming and going.

The boy has to fast from salt and meat for two or three weeks.

Then they use Wanawut, and the boys all jump. (The account of the rope ceremony is given below). If anyone should fail to do it rightly he would not live long. When he comes through this he is free. He joins Chungichnish. (The narrator stood and reverently pointed upward. "The spirit is always sent up.") They have Wanawut for long life, and the boys must believe in it, and obey the rules.

After the fasting is over, they make the sand-painting. (The description of this is also given below.) The instruction is then given in the proper rule of life for the initiate, the Chungichnish rule of life:

No one must eat immediately after rising. They must wait so long that their spirit may return to them from sleep, and then they can eat. In the same way they must not eat immediately upon their return from a journey among the hills. They must



[p. 83]

wait for their spirit to return to them. They must not eat before the old people have eaten, and no young person can eat the last of the seed or grain, the harvest of the previous year. This must be kept for the old. A boy may eat deer's meat when he has grown to the height of his father's shoulder and not before. They must eat sparingly and observe all these rules so that they will live long and have sons and grandsons to perform the ceremonies at their death and to burn their bodies. In the old days they lived to be so old that they became like little babies again, and would lie down and die of old age. Now they eat too much, and they have no rules for eating, and they die young.

They must be kind to the old and not turn their back upon a stranger when he comes to their house. They must not whip their children, for the spirits will be about and will steal their spirits away so that the children will die.

A bath must be taken every morning.

There were many other rules pertaining to the rites and ceremonies and the requirement of secrecy.

If any of the rules were disobeyed, Chungichnish would send the bear, mountain lion, or rattlesnake to bite, and stinging weeds to injure the transgressor. Sickness would come upon him. The earth would hear, and the sun would spy out the guilty by day and the moon by night.

Sage seed ground and mixed with salt is made into a lump, and with this the chief touches the forehead, shoulders, breast, knees, and feet of each boy in turn, telling him that whenever the sun rises he must make the sort of invocation used at this time, sending his spirit towards it,--in an indescribable sound, for which we have no word. Three times this is done,--Ugh-ugh-ha-a-a.

The lump of sage-seed and salt is then put into the mouth of the candidate, who bends over the sand-painting, kneeling before it with arms extended one on each side of it. He spits the lump into the central hole, which is then carefully covered by the old men, who obliterate the sand-painting by pushing it from the circumference towards the center. (See again the special account of the sand-painting below.)

[p. 84]

This ends the first part of the toloache ceremony. It is probable that a race was made by the boys and that a rock was painted as is described in the account of the ant-ordeal, and in the girls' ceremony; but my authorities did not mention this here.

The chief has to take care of those who are under him, and he must save all he can in food and valuables and plan to finish the whole ceremony, notifying his people when it is time to burn the sacred enclosure, which is done four or five weeks later to end the Mani.

The sacred enclosure (Luiseno, wamkish or hotahish; [*20] Spanish, casa grande) is made in a circular form of willow and other brush. The ceremony of burning it is performed in the day time. First the Paha takes the food collected by the chief and distributes it among the different houses to be prepared for eating; then when all is ready he brings it to the main place, where they have a feast.

Instead of burning the whole of the sacred enclosure, a part of the brush is taken from it and this is burned while they dance and sing the appropriate songs.

This ends the ceremony of Mani which came to the mountain people from San Luis Rey. They do not have it regularly, perhaps every two or three years. During the march which ends the ceremony the mothers of the initiated boys throw away baskets and other valuables among the guests.

The following comments on the toloache fiesta are by Salvador Cuevas: Mani was a training for boys. In it they were told how to act in all ways, to old people, to be kind to strangers, not to eat too much, so that they could run miles and miles, and could live long. They were instructed how to dance and how to perform the ceremonies.

Part of the ceremony Salvador hesitated to describe as it was too sacred to be told; but having confidence in me he was willing to do so if I would promise not to repeat it to the Indians. He was willing that I should give it to the white people.





Footnotes

^77:7 Based on an account given by the Luiseno informant Lucario Cuevish.

^77:7a Vowels have the continental sounds, ai, au, a, and u being as in German. The letter x represents the sound of German ch or Spanish j. V, being bilabial in Luiseno, is much more like w than in English.--Ed.

^77:8 Naktomush.--S.

^77:9 Mani or pa'nish mani.--S.

^78:10 Tukmul is given by Boscana as tucmel.--Tukmal.--S.

^78:11 Paha', manager of morahash dance and of mani.--S.

^78:12 Among the Dieguenos the juice is said to be expressed from the fresh root and mixed with water. Only a root growing towards the north is selected. The song used in this connection in Diegueno begins: "Choki, choki. "

^78:13 University of California, Department of Anthropology, Museum number 1-10619.

^79:14 University of California, Department of Anthropology, phonograph record 394.--Tamyush ngoxya (x German ch) kwoya, tamyush walked twisting.--S.--Dr. R. B. Dixon, in the Northern Maidu, Bulletin American Museum of Natural History, XVII, 137, 1905, says that the Shasta Indians of Northern California believe that certain mortars move of themselves, and describes their ceremonial use by the Maidu.--Ed.

^79:15 University of California, Department of Anthropology, Museum number 1-10620.

^79:16 Peyevmal; peyevla, a large storage basket.--S.

^80:17 Lucario knows nothing about personal "totem animals" or guardian spirits with which this part of the ceremony was probably connected. Boscana's account of the connection of the guardian spirit animal with the toloache ceremony is so clear to the modern reader of his work as to be undoubtedly founded on fact; and at Mesa Grande it was possible to extract enough from some of the old men to be sure that the personal totem had long ago existed among the Diegueno Indians. Boscana says: "At the age of six, or seven years, they gave them a kind of god, as protector; an animal, in whom they were to place entire confidence, who could defend them from all dangers, particularly those in war against their enemies . . . . . That they might know the class of animal, which the God, Chinigchinich, had selected for their particular veneration, a kind of drink was administered to them, made from a plant called Pibat, [i.e., tobacco] which was reduced to powder, and mixed with other intoxicating ingredients. Soon after taking this preparation they became insensible, and for three days were deprived of any sustenance whatever. During this period they were attended by some old men or women, who were continually exhorting them to be on the alert, not to sleep for fear the coyote, the bear, the crow, or the rattlesnake might come; to observe if it were furious or gentle, and to inquire of the first that should come, what were its desires. The poor Indian thus intoxicated, without food or drink, suffering under delirium, beheld all kinds of visions; and when he made known that he had seen any particular being, who explained the observances required of him, then they gave him to eat and drink, and made a grand feast; at the same time advising him to be particular in obeying the commands of the mysterious apparition." (Op. cit., 270-1).

^80:18 Tekaia wenepa: said to refer to the placing of the bones of Ouiot in a receptacle and pouring them into a hole in the ground.--S.

^82:19 The Dieguenos of Mesa Grande had a very wonderful stone, which was used in this ceremony of putting out the fire in the toloache fiesta. It was worn by the chief about his neck, and was placed upon the fire at the proper time to put it out by magic power. It was also used when red hot by the medicine men among their other deeds of wonder. They would hold it in their hands, lick it with the tongue, and so on.

^84:20 Vanquech as given by Boscana, pronounced Vankesh, is closely allied to Luiseno wamkish, v and w being more nearly alike than in English. The Diegueno name is awa-iku.

Hotahish, brush enclosure at mani; wamkish, the space enclosed.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 85]

  

WANAWUT, THE SACRED NET.

Wanawut, or Wanal Wanawut, [*21] one of the First People born of the Earth-mother (), is made of milkweed twine in the woven meshes of which three round flat stones, brought from the seashore, are inserted at intervals in a straight line. This was fastened with stakes in place in the bottom of a trench, and the men who laid it down must stand facing the north, since those who laid the dead Ouiot [*22] down did so facing in that direction.


Click to enlarge
Fig. 1.--Wanawut as sketched by Salvador Cuevas.


Three days after the taking of the toloache the trench was dug and wanawut placed in it. The trench was about five feet long, fifteen inches wide, and twenty-eight inches or so in depth. According to Salvador Cuevas, a cross trench was dug to accommodate the arms of the figure which would thus be as long as the trench. According to Albanas, there was only one lengthwise trench, the figure, slightly different in shape, being small enough to be included within it. The latter is possibly the more modern form.

When the wanawut is laid down, the chief explains the sacred symbol and gives instruction to the boys in the things pertaining





[p. 86]

to the spirit. The boys, crouching with feet placed one on top of the other, spring from one of the stones to the other, holding and swinging by the sides of the trench and so out. If they are very small they are assisted in this by their "sponsors." The mothers stand by anxiously awaiting the result, for if a boy should slip and fall it would be a sign that he was not to live long.

Albanas explains more fully the symbolic meaning of this figure:

Wanawut is the symbol of the Milky Way, the Spirit to whom our spirits go when they die. Since the spirit cannot be seen, some symbol of it is required for the instruction of the candidates. This figure is shown to them and explained. Piwish, the Milky Way, was put up where he is as a sign that we are only going to live here for a little while. Death came from Ouiot; but when we die our spirit will be sent to Piwish Ahuta. This rises with Nukulish, Antares. The symbol wanawut was to remind the boys of the spirit. "This will hurt you if you do not obey--the ceremonial law." The main wanawut would be in the sky, but we do not see it. We send our spirits to it in breathing, groaning invocation.

The main idea connected with this object in regard to the spirits of the dead seems to be the wish to free them from the earth, to keep them from returning to it; to "tie" them to the four quarters of the sky; to send them to the Milky Way.

The Milky Way glows brilliantly in the clear atmosphere of Southern California. It is there a much more imposing spectacle than it ever appears to the dwellers in the east. The ethereal quality of it, its vague outline and uncertain luminosity, make it easily an object of veneration.

Wanal wanawut is a double term, wanal meaning an object of string for ordinary use, and wanawut the sacred symbol made of string to which the term for spirit is applied because it symbolizes the spirit. Whether the idea of "tying" the spirit to the four quarters of the sky, especially the sacred north, is the reason for this symbol formed of elaborately woven twine; whether the shape of the wanawut is in some resemblance to the human form, or to a portion of the Milky Way; whether the placing it in the trench signifies the depositing of the ashes in the grave; what the three

[p. 87]

stones mean; whether the jumping of the boys from stone to stone and out means the escape of the spirit from the grave;--all these and other suggestions of the same sort must be left to speculation as I have had no definite explanation of them.

It is probable that little is remembered of the instruction in the things of the spirit which was given to the candidate in the toloache ceremony; but it is certain that in the old days a definite and well understood system of religious thought existed among those who alone were entrusted with the complete knowledge of the sacred mysteries.



Footnotes

^85:21 Wanawut, object of twine used at puberty ceremony. Three stones were employed with it, but wanawut means the twine only. Wanal, a long net for rabbit drives; a seine for sea-fishing.--S.

^85:22 See the creation myths given below.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

THE SAND PAINTING.

The sand-painting was first done by Tukwut, Iswut, and Mesmal Awawit, [*23] Mountain Lion, Wolf, and Sea Fog. They were people and great medicine men, and were the first to institute Mani. It was after Ouiot died that they made all the rituals and ceremonies.

The sand-painting was used in four ceremonies: Mani, the toloache ritual; Wukunish, the girl's ceremony; the ant-ordeal; and in Unish Matakish, [*24] the ceremony for burying the feathers of a toloache initiate when he died. [*25]

Since my authorities differed concerning it, it was with difficulty that I obtained anything like a complete understanding of the sand-painting; and it was not until all my notes were collated and compared that I decided that the main reason for these differences was the fact that some of the old men were describing one form of sand-painting and some another; that those were wrong who maintained that the girls' and boys' sand-paintings were alike; that there were in fact two forms of which one only was distinctly remembered by most of them.

The only alternative is to imagine that different practices prevailed in this matter in the old days.

As all were agreed concerning the sand-painting used in the girls' ceremony, this will be first described.







[p. 88]

A central hole is dug, and the sand removed from it is taken to make a heaped-up circle about two feet in diameter, the width of the heaped-up border being about three or four inches.

This circle is then painted by sprinkling it with different colored sands or ground paint and powdered charcoal. The outer. edge is made white, the middle red, the inner edge black.

The central hole is defined in the same way, white outermost, red in the center, black nearest the hole.

Three concentric circular rows of nine points each [*26] are made pointing outwards from the central hole; the outermost row of points are white, the next circle of points red, those nearest the hole black.

A sand-painting was made for the author, which is shown in . For convenience in photographing it was done chiefly in white. The outer enclosing circle, however, shows the red and black.

According to one authority the three circles forming the circumference mean, the white outer one the Milky Way; the red central one, tukmit [*27] the sky; the black inner one, chum kwinamul, [*27] our spirit. According to another, the outer circle of white is the Milky Way; the middle of red, chum towi [*27] our spirit; the inner of black, kwinamish, [*27] the spirit. Another gives these as chum towi, chum wanamul, chum kwinamul, all meaning our spirit; the central one referring to the Milky Way, which he places in that position, making the white circle central and uppermost. Wanamul seems to include the stem which is found in wanawut, as if spirit and Milky Way were synonymous. [*28]

The sand-painting represents the world. The sky bending above is supposed to rest upon the circle of the Milky Way. The whole of the visible universe is thus represented.







[p. 89]

All the authorities but one maintain that there is a "door" to the north to allow the escape of the spirit. The informant who denies this has either forgotten, or he belongs to a line of descent, a 'clan,' in which the ceremony was modified.

The gate towards the north is shown in the photograph. The Earth-mother lies with her feet to the north. [*29] Those who laid Ouiot on the funeral pile stood facing that way. All ceremonies and invocations are performed facing the north.

In the outer circle of points or diamond-shaped divisions, in the second one from the door, is a small circle of sand. This represents the sea, which according to one version of the creation myth, gives us the breath of life which fills our lungs.

In the next division is a small heap of sand; this is kawima hulwul, that is, the little hill of hulwul, [*30] the sacred Chungichnish plant that grows on the hills, which punishes the transgressor; how, it is not known.

In the sixth division, counting in the same direction, is a larger hill combining the meaning of four Chungichnish avengers: sowut, hunwut, tukwut, iswut, that is, rattlesnake, bear, mountain lion, wolf.

In the middle circle of points, in the fourth division, there is another small heap of sand. This means mukil, boil or abscess, which is a Chungichnish avenger and sent to punish those who do not fast for the appointed time, or who secretly steal meat or salt during the fast.

The name of the sand-painting is eskanish tarohayish, a double name. Eskanish means any kind of images or figures, and after the habit of Luiseno double terms is qualified, as it were, by tarohayish which means this particular kind of image. It is also called nahish. [*31]

Into the central hole of the sand-painting, the girls spit the lump of sage seed and salt at the conclusion of the ceremony. In this hole also are buried the feathers of the toloache initiate







[p. 90]

after his death. The hole in this case must be made larger. In the girls' sand-painting the hole is about four inches in diameter.

Salvador is the only one who gives a different sand-painting for the boys' ceremony (); the others think it differed only in being of a larger size.


Click to enlarge
Fig. 2.--Sand-painting for boys' initiation as sketched by Salvador Cuevas.


Salvador is probably correct. He drew both for me on pieces of paper and explained them as well as he could. The circle in the boys' sand-painting is about as large as a wagon wheel, and is divided in quarters, three of which are marked off by lines into nine divisions each; the fourth being empty except for the figure of a rattlesnake and three round figures meaning the flat baskets, tukmul, which belong to the men and are sacred to Chungichnish, being placed on the ground in every ceremonial, containing a little grain.

[p. 91]

The divisions of this painting are said to be in various colors, made with powdered yellow bark, white and red clay, and other paints, yellow, green, white, blue, and red.

This painting represents the earth, the colors symbolizing flowers, fields, and trees.



Footnotes

^87:23 Mesmal, mist, fog; awa'vit, fog.--S.

^87:24 Yunish, burying of an initiate's ceremonial feathers; matakish, grinding stone.--S.

^87:25 It will be seen that these are all connected with the idea of initiation.--Ed.

^88:26 The design may also be imagined as consisting of nine pointed figures of the form of a Gothic arch, intersecting, and surrounding the central hole.--Ed.

^88:27 Tukomit, night, also the first 'man' made by Kyuvish Ataxvish (x German ch); sky, tupash; Towish, spirit, corpse, cham-towi, our spirit. Cham-kwinamo, our spirit, root, or origin, from kwinamush, which really means root, and is used in speaking of the root of a plant or the origin of a person.--S.

^88:28 To most California Indians the Milky Way is the spirits' or ghosts' road.--Ed.

^89:29 Cf. Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 312, 1906.

^89:30 Kawimal hulval, hulval hill; hulval, Artemisia californica.--S.

^89:31 Mr. Sparkman gives the same interpretation of eskanish and tarohayish. For nahish he has nawish, marking, writing, painting, from the verb nawi.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

THE ANT ORDEAL.

Another almost prehistoric ceremony was that of Anut, [*32] called Antish [*33] or Tivihayish, used as a sort of supplement to the toloache initiation, as an education in courage, skill, and quickness for young men. It has been so long discontinued that it is impossible to obtain a complete description of it. It was not performed every year. Sometimes there were many candidates, sometimes very few.

The sand-painting was used in this ceremony, which is one of the four in which it was employed. The first night of the ritual they did not sing or dance; but they had something they whistled with all night long.

The chief would select the young men when they were old enough to endure the ordeal. It was done secretly in a place apart. A certain cone-shaped hill with rocks on top was one of the places where they used to perform it.

Early in the morning before dawn the youths would be taken into the house or sacred enclosure and given hot water to drink.

The chief had a basket in which he collected ants; and one by one the candidates were taken to the place prepared and made to lie down while the ants were shaken out of the basket and over their naked bodies with a certain sort of plant. To this a song was sung: "Toma no kwato."

After a time the ants were whipped from the body with nettles. When all was over, the sand-painting was made as in the toloache fiesta. The lump of sage seed and salt was also used in the same way. This implies that there had been a previous period of fasting. Invocation was made three times by the indescribable





[p. 92]

solemn groans and gestures; then the lump of sage-seed and salt was placed in the mouth of the candidate and spit into the central hole of the sand-painting.

A race was then made by the candidates, probably similar to the races made at the time of new moon; and the winner of the race painted the rock in the designated place, with red and black paint.

After this came the dances and songs of Anut, four or five of which are remembered, sung to the accompaniment of the ringing stones.

A ceremony for tattooing was somewhat similar, but no definite account has been obtained of it; and the songs belonging to it have been forgotten. They had a ceremony for it and would lay the person down in a certain place. Those who performed the tattooing were obliged to fast previously for a certain length of time.

Both men and women were tattooed. One of the old chiefs had a mark on his left wrist; another of the old men had the tattooing on his nose. The meaning of the marks could not be discovered.



Footnotes

^91:32 Anut, species of large red ant, regarding which there are songs.--S.

^91:33 Antish, the action of lying on an ant hill and permitting one's self to be stung, which was thought to be beneficial; anti, verb, antish, action of same.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

THE CHUNGICHNISH CEREMONY OF UNISH MATAKISH.

The sand-painting was used also in the ceremony of Unish Matakish, [*34] the burying of the feathers of a Chungichnish initiate.

When a man died who had drunk toloache in his youth, if he still had in his possession the feather head-dress, sacred stick, paviut, and other ceremonial implements, the chief of his "party" or clan would go and get these objects and bury them.

Many of the features of the toloache fiesta were repeated.

The chief calls the people, and gets out the tamyush and all the sacred objects. He cleans the tamyush--they are buried in the ground when not in use--and paints them and sets them all together. They have two places, as in the Mani. In one place they prepare these things; and in the other they make the sand-painting. This has a gap to the north, and the rattlesnake is



[p. 93]

painted near the gap. Tukmul, the winnowing basket, is represented in the painting, too. It is Chungichnish. [*35]

After everything is ready, the Paha calls out three times; and they come marching and singing a solemn recitative. The chief who made the sand-painting takes the feather head-dress, and the other things to be buried, in his hand, and goes ahead of the others as they sing the Chungichnish songs which mention the stones and sacred objects, always ending with tamyush.

They sing as they reach the main place where the sand-painting is. The feathers and objects are placed in the central hole of the painting, and are buried by pushing the sand slowly forward, obliterating the painting and filling the hole at the same time, to the accompaniment of a recitative invocation.

The Chungichnish songs, sung at this ceremony, are not subject to the law of clan ownership, but may be sung by all, as they do not belong to any one family or party. No one composed them. They were made and given by Chungichnish himself.





Footnotes

^92:34 Yunish, burying of an initiate's ceremonial feathers; matakish, grinding stone.--S.

^93:35 This description evidently refers to the form of boys' sand-painting given by Salvador Cuevas.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

WUKUNISH, THE GIRLS' CEREMONY.

The girls' ceremony, Wukunish, [*36] was the initiatory ceremony made for the girl upon her entrance into womanhood.

The father of the girl would have to inform the people of her condition and call them together, naming the girl; and he would ask the chief of another "party" (clan), or of another village, to conduct the ceremony, putting it entirely into his hands and doing nothing himself except to provide the food and presents for the assembled people and invited guests. Baskets, strings of shell-beads, and sivut paviut, the sacred stick with flint in the end, had to be given away in every ceremony to those coming from a distance to assist. These were the same as money and were used in this way before they had any other sort of money.

The chief would call out three times in invocation and mention the name of the girl.



[p. 94]

The girl, or girls, if several, would be seated upon the ground, and in front of her would be placed a big basket three feet or so in diameter, containing feather head-dresses, feather skirts, the sacred stones wiala, large quartz crystals, and possibly others. [*37] The chief, taking some tobacco in his hand, would powder it in his fingers, at the same time rolling it into a ball; and kneeling in front of the candidate would make the indescribable sound of invocation with curious forward motions of arm and body three times repeated, the third time placing the ball of tobacco in the girl's mouth. Warm water was then administered in a basket, chilkwit. [*38] If she should vomit, it was taken as a sign that she had not been virtuous; but if she were good she would not vomit. This was a severe test.

The tobacco induced drowsiness, and in this state the girl was placed in a large hole that had been previously dug in the ground and heated by a fire and when sufficiently warm lined with green boughs and covered with brush. Two sacred plants were used for this purpose, nenaxel pachayel (double name), sumac and a kind of sedge. [*39] The names of these two plants are always given together in a double term in the list of the First People.

The girl is placed there for three days. Only her mother or the wife of the chief can see her and attend her. A basket, chakwit, the sort men carry on a staff over the shoulder, is put over her face to keep the flies off; and a new tightly woven basket cup, chilkwit, is used to give her water to drink. She can drink only warm water.

As she must not touch any part of her body with her hands, two small sticks are allowed her with which to scratch herself.

In very ancient times, instead of these sticks small oblong pieces of stone or abalone shell, pierced with a hole at the larger end, were fastened by a string around her wrist loosely enough for convenience in handling; and with these she might scratch her head or body.

She must lie perfectly still, and in the day time she may rise slightly from a recumbent position while the attending woman







[p. 95]

arranges her hair, then lie back in the same place and keep motionless.

At night the men dance around the place where the girl is, singing the ashish songs to the accompaniment of the ringing stones. In the day time the women dance and sing songs different from those of the men. This will be kept up constantly for three days, a second village coming and continuing the ceremony, and so on. A men's ashish song is preserved on phonograph record 397 of the University of California. It begins: "No ash-wo, I am menstruating." [*40] One man sings this while all the men dance. The song mentions the mountains that were First People: San Bernardino (Gray-head), the older brother; and San Jacinto, the younger brother; and all the other places, the hot springs, and the mountain ridge where the first ceremonies were held after the death of Ouiot. The mountains were placed all around to keep watch, and spy out things, ceremonial sins.

A women's ashish song, University of California record number 395, mentions a series of places ending at Elsinore. It was here that Kauko and Chihemel first had menses. When the first ceremony of this sort was over, they felt happy and composed this song. This is the last song of the ceremony. It mentions the travels of the First People from Katuktu to Kalaupa and then to Elsinore.

Another ashish song, sung by Martasal Tabac, is on University of California record number 414. This mentions the man who leads the hunt. There are a great many of these songs which properly belong to the girls' ceremony, but they are also sung in the Image ceremony.

A second song on this record was given by the same man in illustration, though it is a women's ashish song. The songs of the men and the women are different, and the men never sing the women's songs. This song mentions a hill to which the girl runs at the conclusion of the ceremony, when a rock is painted.

Another song of this ceremony is on record number 410 University of California, also sung by Martasal. This mentions the deer when he tried to escape from death. He sent his spirit north, south, east, and west, but death was everywhere. He could



[p. 96]

not escape. Blue-fly and Buzzard followed him and killed him. This is in reality a song of the ant-ordeal, but they sing it in the girls' ceremony, though it is different from the regular ashish songs.

The kwinamish songs of the spirit are sung in the girls' ceremony as the second series in that ritual.

After three days of constant singing and dancing day and night by men and women, the girl is taken out and the wife of the chief paints her face. Hair bracelets and anklets are placed upon her hands and feet; and she is decorated with a necklace of pieces of mica.

She must not eat meat or salt for a month; and must drink no cold water for a year. She may voluntarily continue the fast for two or three years. At the conclusion of the month of fasting, the sand-painting is made upon the ground by the chief, and instruction given as in the case of the boys.

A lump of ground sage-seed and salt is made, arid with this the chief touches the girl's head, shoulders, arms, breast, knees, and feet, placing it at last in her mouth. He must do this facing the north and after walking three times around the sand-painting and making invocation to the north. She then kneels in front of the sand-painting, and with a hand on each side of it bends and spits the lump into the central hole, which is then covered by several men who sit around and push the sand with their hands from the circumference to the center, obliterating the painting and covering the hole at the same time.

A race is then made by the women and girls, and this ends the ceremony. They run to the appointed hill, where the wife of the chief paints the girls' faces red, black and white, and scraping some of the paint from their faces uses it to paint the rock in certain designs (Pl. 4). The face of the girl is painted each month in a different design, and corresponding marks are made upon the rock. This is done for four months, after which she may paint her face as she chooses. The hair bracelets and anklets which she has worn are taken off and deposited upon the rock at the time when it is first painted.



Footnotes

^93:36 Luiseno, ashish, menses. Mr. Sparkman gives wekenish, girls' puberty ceremony; ashish, song at this ceremony; ash-k, undergo first menstruation. The Diegueno call the ceremony A-kil.

^94:37 See H. N. Rust, Amer. Anthrop., n.s., VIII, 28, 1906.

^94:38 Chilkwut, basket hat, also used as cup.--S.

^94:39 Nenexyal (x German ch), tussock-grass; pachayat or pachayal, a coarse grass or sedge.--S.

^95:40 Non ashk, or non ashka, I am menstruating the first time.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 97]

  

SACRED CHUNGICHNISH OBJECTS.

The Chungichnish worship was a religion of fear. When the people sent the sun, Temet, into the heavens, he was to watch the people as Tukmit, [*40a] the Sky, also watches them, to see if anyone does wrong, such as stealing food during a fast. The North-star was also put there to watch and spy out everything. It is like our spirit.

The moon, Moyla, was sent up there to look out for everything. In the day-time the Sky and Sun watch the doings of men ; and in the night the Moon does this, so no wrong doer can hide himself, for when one goes the other comes. They keep changing places.

The people were afraid of the sun because he watches everything, and they made it a rule always to eat before the sun rose in the morning.

Chungichnish still punishes, or did so lately. The Yapiche people went to give toloache to Pio Amago, the last Indian who took, it, who lived at La Jolla. Then the Potrero people began the dancing. It was not their place to do so, and it made the others angry. Chungichnish saw that the ceremony was not being properly performed. Suddenly the leader of the dance fell to the ground in terrible pain. The father of Salvador Cuevas was there and he was a medicine-man. He went to see what he could do. When he examined the man he soon found out that the people were so angry at him that he had got sick and that Chungichnish was hurting him. They must come and be friends and he would get well. So they had a big talk, and made up, and the man got up and became well.

Tourmaline was used to cure a man punished by illness by Chungichnish. It was rubbed on his body. But if anyone unauthorized touched it, he was punished.

All of the things mentioned as First People [*40b] were sacred to Chungichnish. There were many other things not remembered or not given in the list of them obtained. Tukmul, the sacred winnowing basket, has already been described.





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The sacred stick, Sivut paviut, [*40c] was brought from one pueblo to another in a ceremony, and served the same purpose as money, being given in return for presents of food. These sticks were painted red, white, and black. The old Diegueno chief, Cinon Duro, had one of these from Rincon, one from Cahuilla, and one from Hot Springs, long since lost.

The feather objects were sacred: the feather head-dress, the eagle-feather skirt, and the feather band or "rope," Luiseno tuminet, [*40d] mentioned in the Diegueno story of Chaup. Of the only specimen seen by the author, one part is in the American Museum of Natural History, the remainder at the University of California, where it is number 1-9580 in the Museum of the Department of Anthropology () . This portion, very old and much worn, is in three pieces, aggregating a total length of over seven feet, the longest single piece being five feet, with an average width of seven to eight inches. It is made of black feathers, four to five inches in length. The base of each feather is stripped to the quill for an inch and a half. The feathers are laid alternately, pointing in opposite directions, and sewn together through their bases with two threads. The backs of the feathers are all on the same side, thus giving a uniform appearance to both the front and the back of the band.

The ceremonial use of this feather band is now uncertain. According to the interpreter, this particular specimen was used in latter times in the cure of men punished by Chungichnish with sickness. Those performing the ceremony all took hold of it. Each one would then take a piece cut off from the band and put it in the fire during the ceremony. This was probably on account of its inherent value as an ancient Chungichnish object, and not because it was designed for use in that way.

Venegas, quoting Father Torquemada, describes in the Island of Saint Catherine (Santa Catalina) an Indian "temple," "a large level court, and in it was a large circular space with an inclosure of feathers of several birds of different colors, which I understood were those of birds they sacrificed in great numbers.





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[paragraph continues] Within the circle was an image strangely bedaubed with a variety of colors . . . holding in its hand a figure of the sun and moon." Two tame ravens were within the circle; and when the soldiers killed them the Indians fell into an agony of fear.

It does not seem at all improbable that this is evidence of a form of Chungichnish worship in one of "the islands of the ocean" from which it originally came. The feathers used as an "inclosure" may have been made exactly like the object in question which my interpreter called a "feather rope."

The raven is the sacred Chungichnish bird, his messenger and spy.

Among the Dieguenos, when the raven flies overhead he caws and says, "I will kill you." Then the medicine-men would smoke their stone pipes, and blow the smoke in invocation three times upward, saying, "Please don't kill us."

Among sacred objects were classed various forms of smooth round pebbles brought from the seashore, and pieces of crystal colored with lithia in tourmaline formations.





Footnotes

^97:40a Tukomit, night; tupash, sky.--S.

^97:40b See lists given in the Creation myths below.

^98:40c Paviut, stick with crystal inserted in one end, and having a ceremonial use; shi'valum, sea shells; perhaps sivut or shi'vul denotes pieces of shell glued to the paviut.--S. The Dieguenos call it Kotat.

^98:40d Tuminut, wide feather band slung over shoulder at tanish dance.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 100]

  

MOURNING CEREMONIES.

  

THE IMAGE CEREMONY.

Both the Luisenos and the Dieguenos have had a commemorative ceremony for the dead from early times; but with what tribe the manufacture of images made to represent the dead person originated, must be matter of speculation. [*41]

The Luiseno ritual is especially complete in the exactness with which the song series are performed; and the Chungichnish worship may be said to be founded upon the thought of the spirit, embodied in such abstractions as Wanawut, Chum Towi, Kwinamo, all of these being different words to express either the spirit of man or the spirit above.

The following account of the Image mourning ceremony is given by Lucario Cuevish:

When people die, the chief will collect food and valuables and notify the other leading men that he is going to have the Image dance. The others make ready to perform the ceremony. One chief out of four or five parties will do this, and the others will assist.

They sing all night long, then go off to a place a little distant to make the images, for this is not done before everyone. The images are dressed as in life. In old days the women's figures would be clothed in the short skirts of fringe made from elders or willows. Hair is put upon the head. The eyes are made of abalone shell. Nose, mouth, and sometimes ears are made.

When all is ready at this place, the chief goes to the main place of the ceremony and digs as many holes as there are images to stand them in. He first calls out three times and the others answer him; then, carrying the images, they march to the sacred enclosure of brush, singing the solemn recitative: "Towish chokya, the spirit appears." [*42] They stand the images in the holes





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while the women among the relatives place gifts of valuables where they can be accepted by those performing the ceremony, who sing the songs of Tochinish, [*43] the Image ritual, while standing near the images.

The men and women of the visiting party have their faces painted, but the relatives do not paint or sing or take any part in the ceremony.

The singing without dancing goes on for a certain length of time. Then the chief takes a whirling-board, or bull-roarer, mumlapish. [*44] Instead of telling them to stop singing, he whirls the board three times. The images are then again lifted up, and carried back in procession to the more distant place. The dancers now paint themselves and put on the feather head-dresses. The whirling-board is swung again as a signal, and they come again carrying the images and marching around the sacred enclosure, bringing the turtle-shell rattle. [*45] In the sacred enclosure they dance to a long series of songs.

Then they burn the images, sometimes burning the clothes and decorations with them; but the visitors have the right to take off the clothes and keep them, the relatives furnishing others for the burning. While the images are burning, the men and women dance around the fire singing Sungamish, [*46] the finishing songs. Other songs called Topasish [*47] are sung while only the men dance. They sing one or two of these songs and half a dozen or so will dance.

A whirling dance with an eagle-feather skirt is danced at this ceremony. They sing and dance all night, and may end the ceremony by noon the next day.

The songs of Pikmakvul, [*48] death, are sung while they burn the clothes, and during the burning they have a recitative describing













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the burning of Ouiot. This recitative tells how thin and sick Ouiot grew. Every song of Pikmakvul tells about Ouiot, and they change from one to the other.

Then they march around the fire carrying some of the possessions of the dead person, and burn these things, telling how the First People burned Ouiot. Many dance and a few carry the things. Then they stop and sit down for awhile.

They now make an invocation to the sky three times, breathing, groaning, indescribable sounds, and put the things on the fire. They sing: "No towi, no towi, my spirit, my spirit." These are the songs of Chum towi, our spirit. They sing two or three of these songs while they burn the possessions of the dead. Then they stop. The relatives bring out baskets and valuables and those performing the ceremony divide them among themselves.

When all is over they sing the songs from the most important song series, as follows:

First are sung the songs of Pikmakvul, the Ouiot songs of death.

Then some of the series called Temenganesh, songs of Seasons. Then some of the series called Chum towi, our spirit, the same as Kwinamish.

Then some of the series called Kamalum, our sons or children, mentioning the children of the Earth-mother, the mountains that were First People, and so on.

Then follows the series called Kish, the house, about the house of the dead man. There are only a few of these.

Then some of the series called Anut, the ant, which was used in ancient times as an ordeal in a sort of sequel to the toloache ceremony to train the young men.

Then some of the series called Nokwanish, [*49] songs in memory of the dead. The little rabbit, Tovit, was the first man to sing in the original ceremony for the dead when they burned Ouiot, so they sing the Nokwanish songs which the rabbit sang.

Then follow some of the series called Totowish. [*50] These mention the spiders, rattlesnakes, and the sun, the avengers of Chungichnish.





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Then some of the series called Munival, [*51] songs of places or landmarks.

Last of all are sung some songs from the series Nyachish, song of the people, in which they load their enemies with indecent epithets and allusions. Family feuds or small fights arose chiefly from land claims. They seldom or never had wars or battles as we understand the words. Each man in the mountains would have a patch of oaks, perhaps a hundred acres or so, and no one else was allowed to go there and gather acorns. Fighting arose over this. So they sing against each other. Even the women sing these songs.

This ends Lucario's account of the Image fiesta. [*52]







Footnotes

^100:41 Mourning ceremonies with images to represent the dead are not confined to Southern California. Professor Dixon has recently described an elaborate form in his "The Northern Maidu," Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XVII, 245, 254.--Ed.

^100:42 Towish, spirit, corpse, 'devil'; choxya (x German ch), perfect tense of choxi, to be born.--S.

^101:43 Tauchanish.--S.

^101:44 A flat disk of wood attached to a string and whirled in the air to make a dull humming sound, still used at Mesa Grande. Mr. Sparkman gives momlaxpish (x German ch).

^101:45 Paiayut; paiala, turtle. (Paayat, paila.--S.)

^101:46 Shangamish, songs, also a dance, at the ceremony at which clothing is burned.--S.

^101:47 Tapa'sash.--S.

^101:48 Pi'mukvul, death, also songs at mourning ceremony; pi'mukvul is singular past; pi'makish, singular present.--S.

^102:49 Nokwanish, general name for men's songs.--S.

^102:50 Totawish, a dancer of the morahash ceremony.--S.

^103:51 Monival, verbal noun from moni, to go, come, journey; denotes past action of verb, tracks, where something passed; there are songs of monival, where one's ancestors traveled.--S.

^103:52 According to the Dieguenos, the Mohave people first made mourning images at Wikami, a wonderful mountain, level on top, where all the religious ceremonials originated. Humkahap, the Mohaves, were the youngest, that is, the last made of the related tribes, and always stayed in the home place.

The Diegueno Image ceremony has been briefly described in the American Anthropologist, N.s. VII, 625, 1905.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

THE NOTISH CEREMONY.

Another form of the Image mourning-ceremony was known to the Luisenos as having been in use among the Indians of the north; and, though never performed among the mountain Luisenos, it was celebrated at least once at San Luis Rey, for Lucario Cuevish remembers to have seen it there.

Salvador Cuevas, who never saw this form of the ceremony, gives the sacred basket pole as one of the children of the Earth-mother, sent by her to the north.

This ritual for the dead was called Notish [*53] or Kutumit. [*54] The chief feature of it was a tall painted pole called Kimul Chehenish, [*55] made very smooth from the trunk of a pine or fir, which was hung with baskets at the top to be reached by climbing







[p. 104]

as a contest of skill. This pole was as high as a house and was painted with different colors. It represented the dead man, the spirit. Different parts of the pole were painted in different colors to refer to the different parts of the body. The pole was not painted with the shape of a man, but one part of the painting meant the knee, another the arm, and so on. The top for the head was always painted white.

On top was fastened the dressed skin of a crow or raven, the same they laid on the breast of Ouiot when they burned him. When the pole was set up they danced and sang.

Notish was a more elaborate form of the mourning-ceremony, in which it was necessary that great stores of food should be provided, and different villages were invited to participate. Contests of skill were a feature of the occasion. The simpler form of the Image ceremony can be performed by one village alone. [*56]







Footnotes

^103:53 Notush, ceremony when things are given away.--S.

^103:54 Kutumit, pole erected at notush; objects are hung on it.--S. Kotumut, pole at San Fernando described by C. Hart Merriam (unpublished account).

^103:55 Kimal, small house, diminutive of kicha, objective kish, house; chehenish, objects hung on kutumit; no doubt derived from chehe'i, to appear, show.--S.

^104:56 The Notish ceremony is referred to below in the third of the myths given.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 105]

  

CEREMONIAL SONGS.

Among the Luisenos the relation of ceremonial songs to distinct series with special meanings and uses can still be clearly traced. The most important of these series were used in the Image ceremony, as has been stated above. The complete list, as far as obtained, [*57] may be given as follows:

Pikmakvul series, songs of death.

Temenganesh series, songs of seasons.

Chum Towi or Kwinamish series, songs of the spirit. Kamalum series, songs of the First People.

Kish series, songs of the house.

Nokwanish series, songs in memory of the dead.

Totowish series, songs of the Chungichnish avengers.

Munival series, songs of landmarks.

Nyachish series, songs of people cursing their enemies.

Anut series, songs of the ant-ordeal, now used in other ceremonies.

Sungamish, the finishing songs.

Topasish, men's dance songs.

Then the songs of the individual for lesser ceremonial occasions, shaman's songs for rain-making, for fair weather; for harvest; for good luck, doctoring; bad luck, death to enemies; for deeds of wonder as instruction to boys, and so on. These include songs of Chatish, songs of Numkish, songs of Tuknish, all of which are Chungichnish songs.

For the benefit of the special student who may be interested, a description of those obtained on graphophone records follows:

Record 369. [*58] Song of Temenganesh, Songs of Seasons. The words as spelled by Jose Albanas or Albanez, the singer, in Spanish orthography, are: Achonacua tuganecancua a guanaguot, [*59] etc. This song means: "All these I have mentioned and Wanawut. I have mentioned all the names of the seasons and stars







[p. 106]

and Wanawut. I am proud of my songs. I have believed in my songs." All danced as they sang this song, which is part of the second series in the Image ceremony.

Record 370. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Luiseno words: Helemocme temenganesh apangaula, etc. [*60] This is a women's song. It mentions the water and mud in which are Wahawut, the frog, and Karout, [*61] the earth-worm. Wahawut hid away Temenganesh, i.e., frogs disappear and are unheard at certain seasons, and at a certain month come out and begin to sing.

Record 371. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Luiseno words: Yjason noqui son notelaneba, etc. Month of Novoyamul. [*62] When Tukmit the Sky grows old. When Tomaiyowit, the Earth, has her menses (the green scum, fresh water algae that appear on ponds). Eagles moult. This song mentions the months [*62] Tasmoimal and Taunamal. "What shall I say about my home and about my talks?" Women dance to this song.

Record 372. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Luiseno words: Potoyau yauca anmal, etc. The ant has his season. [*63] He has opened his house. When the days grow warm he comes out. The spider has her little house and her hill. The butterfly has her house, pohota. [*64] (This word refers to the sacred enclosure of brush made in circular form, in which the religious ceremonies were held.) Wiskun, chipmunk, and also the larger squirrel, yet have the mavakul, [*65] (log hollowed out and used for holding acorns. The allusion is to the log which the chipmunk carried when he was one of the First People, a log ten men could not lift, on which they laid the body of Ouiot when they burned it.) The song on the record ends here. The rest of the song is as follows: Atachama, [*66] a bird, and another bird are mentioned.















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[paragraph continues] It is time for the eagle to fly off. It is time for the acorns to fall from the trees.

Record 373. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Luiseno words: Memec no asunecua awawik, [*67] etc., "I am something doing." This is Nemoimal season. The bear sheds his hair and says, I am fat. The whale, koyowut, now gets fat. The deer grows fat.

Record 374. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Luiseno words: Tomamec uchanat potoblecala, [*68] etc. "North the elk has young." In the north at this season uchanat has her young; and pashakut, [*69] the elk, has young. In the east pahut, [*70] the mountain sheep, and chakla, [*71] a desert animal, bring forth young. In the south awawut and tamyasowut bring forth young. In the west the ocean is hunauish, [*72] tossing its waves back and forth. In the center, "here," the deer sheds his hair, and the acorn grows fat. The sky "sheds," that is, changes color. The clouds of winter are swept away. Tupush is sky. Nahonit also means sky. Tukmit is the personified sky. [*73] This is the season of Pahoyomal, when snakes crawl out, frogs sing, trees are juicy and ready to put out leaves, in early spring.

Record 375. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. First part of song: Whaimul piwamul (primeval stage of being, with some reference to the Milky Way, [*74]) lies back extended making a humming noise. Second part: I recognized afar off, from the door of my house, Nahut, [*75] the stick used to club Coyote, [*76] and Kashlapish, the ringing stones used in the girls' ceremony. Third part: I look east. I look up. Look, Nukulish (Antares) rises.





















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[paragraph continues] Yungavish (buzzard, Altair) rises. Ahuta (Milky Way) is rising at the same time. Aylucha [*77] (Venus) is rising.

Record 376. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Luiseno words: Asguot pela telamoc, [*78] etc., "Ashwut was saying." The eagle, ashwut, talked about the stars rising. Kariya [*79] Ahuta, rises Milky Way. Antares and Altair rise.--In the west the eagle mentions the things in the ocean.--The singer does not know what these words mean. The Chungichnish worship with its songs was brought to the mountain Indians from the islands of the ocean. He mentions Harasa, Catalina Island, and Kimki, San Clemente Island. [*80]

Record 377. Song of Temenganesh. By Albanas. Mulmusna hete pela kamai temet, etc. The sun rose at Mulmus. [*81] Antares rose too.

Record 378. Song of Temenganesh. Wunal Pewipwe tiwium, [*82] etc. "That San Bernardino mountain see," Sulkul, the fall cricket, [*83] said. (Sulkul was the first basket-maker, according to one version of the creation myth.) "Look at Pewipwe; look at (naming all the other high mountains that were born as First People). The acorns are ripe. Look at Pawi Chawima, [*84] (Cahuilla); Kupa Kawima, [*85] (a hill at Warner's ranch), I'pa [*86]





















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[paragraph continues] (Volcan); Naavo Waheto, [*87] (hills south and east of Potrero); Malava, [*88] (Palomar Mountain)." The song mentions the cold wind of early morning when Antares rises, at the time when all the Indians take a bath. This was the rule. Everyone must bathe daily.

Record 379. By Albanas. After the Temenganesh series comes the Kwinamish series, songs of the spirit. In the Image ceremony the songs of Pikmakvul, songs of death, each one mentioning Ouiot, are sung for six or seven hours; then Temenganesh, Kwinamish, and others. In the Girls' ceremony the Kwinamish songs come second.

First song of Kwinamish. This is like talking to themselves, and sending their spirit to the Milky Way. This song tells of the council the people held after the death of Ouiot, to see what they could do, after they found that there was death. This mentions Yula Wanawut, [*89] the spirit of the dead. If the ceremonies are done right, the spirit will be sent off all right, and will not stay in its former abode. In the council they tried to see what they could do about their spirits, and so they arranged these ceremonies. The song says: The Sky, after all these ceremonies were rightly done, felt good in his heart. It mentions the sand-painting, Eskanish Tarohayish.

Record 380. Song of Kwinamish. By Albanas. Tomamik yula poaukala, [*90] north the spirit remains; kwimik yula poaukala, [*90] east the spirit remains; south and west, the same. It is held, tied, to the four quarters of the sky, so that it will remain there and will not get away.

Record 381. Kwinamish song. By Albanas. Tomamik yula Wanawut poponakala ponarakala auma, [*91] etc. "To the north the











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spirit (double name) with (elaborately woven) strings remains tied." No kwinamo wunac qua auma. [*92] "My spirit up there remains." Antares and Altair make the wind blow and remain there in the east.

Record 382. Kwinamish song. By Albanas. No suna qua haiyawa moyna, no suna qua takwaya moyna, [*93] etc. "At the time of death, when I found there was to be death, I was very much surprised. All was failing. My home, I was sad to leave it." The second part means: "I have been looking far, sending my spirit north, south, east, and west, trying to escape from death, but could find nothing, no way of escape."

Record 383. Song of Munival. By Albanas. The Munival songs are individual and inherited. They describe the exact route of the Temecula people, ancestors to the singer, and the landmarks made by each to claim title to places in their migrations, usually at very short distances. Munival no qua awut, [*94] "the tracks I do not understand." Munival no qua nalachat, [*95] "the tracks I make mistakes about." They are therefore explained. The song mentions different places: Nachivo pomisavo, [*96] the canon the First People could not go through; Tokta totpa, [*97] a place; Kawima polalak, [*98] a certain hill; Ashwut kalikwona (eagle sits on something), a place; Waasawaha pometavoy; [*99] and Exvo Temeko, [*100] Temecula.

Record 384. Chatish song. By Albanas. The Chatish [*101]





















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series are secret individual songs, descended in the family or composed by the singer. This is a song the great-uncle of Albanas used to sing. No enge no mane hortata kulkula, etc., from my feet, from my hands, I drew forth, etc. [*102]. Some of the shamans would extract something from their legs or hands or different parts of the body during the dances to show their power: acorns or rabbits or little snakes or frogs. Albanas's great-aunt was a shaman, and could vomit up from her mouth a small live rattlesnake.

Record 385. Song of Chatish. By Albanas. Nororia hechum sil pom mane, [*103] etc. "It thundered. Something from their feet, their hands, etc." The earth shakes and rumbles when the shamans march around.

These songs were sometimes sung to make plenty, to bring abundance of rain, grass, and acorns. They are also called Songs of Numkwish [*104] or Tuknish. [*105] Each "hechicero" has two or three of these secret songs, which he sings at his house and not at public gatherings.

Record 386. Chatish song. By Albanas. These songs were also sung to hurt people with sickness and death, and this particular song could kill a man at a distance of many miles. Lewea lewea towowea, shoots off an invisible (spirit-like) power. The "hechicero" had within him something which could not be seen. [*106] He would draw it out and throw it off towards the man he wished to injure. The "hechicero stick,"--wood without stone in the end, shaped like a small straight sword,--would be used to do this.

Sometimes several shamans met at a house to kill a man at a distance. Tukmul Chayut (double name: tukmul, flat coiled basket, Chayut, flat twined basket) [*107] would be made ready, each













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man bringing his own basket. Chungichnish said that they must always have tukmul chayut when they had the ceremonies or did anything. A certain Indian's mother was killed by witchcraft by his own uncle, after which some of his mother's people, shamans, met together at night and killed the old man in the same way. He died in a few days. Another well-known instance of these beliefs was the killing by witchcraft of the woman who dispossessed the Indians from an ancient village site, having acquired the land under the terms of a Spanish grant. The Indians thus driven off had their revenge in this way, and she did not live long to enjoy her property.

Record 387. By Albanas. Song of Anut, the large ant of the ant-ordeal, used as a hunting song, since the ordeal has been long discontinued. Pom peai yaumo oskamo. [*108] "They kept the game to themselves." This tells about the animals when they were killed after the death of Ouiot. Mountain lion killed the deer, though he tried to escape from death. Tukwut, mountain lion, Iswut, wolf (long since extinct), Tomihut, summer-cloud or thunder-cloud, [*109] were some of the chief men in arranging the ceremonies after the death of Ouiot. They are mentioned in the song.

Record 388. Song of Chatish. By Albanas. Words: Necop manaa, Towit manaa, Yawit manaa, etc. "It is coming to me. Towit is coming. Yawit is coming." [*110] Towit is the thick mist that comes before the rain. [*111] This is a Chungichnish song of plenty. One man will dance while another sings it. It may also be sung as an individual song at the Image ceremony.

Record 389. Sung by Lucario Cuevish. This song was sung in the ceremony for healing a man punished by Chungichnish. It is a Chungichnish song. Anyone in the old times revealing the secrets ("as I am doing now," he says), would be stricken down with illness, and these songs would aid in effecting his cure.









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[paragraph continues] The song mentions hainit, the band around the head used to put the feathers in, and pecheya, feather headdress. [*112] It tells about the shadows cast by the sun. The connection between hainit and the sun is hard to be understood; but the allusion may possibly be the same here as in the myth, [*113] where it is difficult to understand who Hainit was. He was probably the one among the First People who afterwards became the head-band for the feathers.

Record 390. Chungichnish song. By Lucario Cuevish. The song mentions Muta, the horned owl, whose feathers make the sacred headdress. It mentions also the sea-weed on the seashore, one of the First People and sacred to Chungichnish. It mentions pecheya, feather headdress. The same words are repeated over and over.

The Chungichnish worship was brought to the mountains from San Juan Capistrano. Near Capistrano is a hill where there are a live rattlesnake and a raven, Chungichnish animals, that have been there from time immemorial. They are still there.

Record 391. By Lucario Cuevish. Not a song, but a recitative by the eagle; part of the Ouiot story. The eagle, seeking escape from death, went north from Temecula to San Bernardino, came around by the east to the south and west through Julian, Cuyamaca, and Palomar, going towards Temecula, and died at Temecula. [*114] The eagle sang this song or recitative at Temecula. When he got sick he talked this way. He was talking about the spirit. When they were all going along they could hear something singing far away, and the eagle said that was the spirit; and he told the people that everywhere that he had been, north, south, east, and west, death was there waiting for them. It was very near. No one knew when it would come, but they would all have to die.

Record 392. By Lucario Cuevish. Song of the Eagle ceremony. The mourning for the dead, cutting the hair, and so on,







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continues for a year or so, until they have the eagle ceremony at the time the chief decides. This ends the period of mourning. The eagle is killed amid universal lamentations. He is one of the representatives of the spirit and is connected with the spirits of the dead. The song means: "Stand up and hold the eagle in


Click to enlarge
Notation of Eagle-dance song. Record 392.


your arms. Do not be ashamed. Stand up, all, and dance." They dance around the fire and sing this song holding the eagle in their arms.

Record 393. By Lucario Cuevish. Recitative by Ouiot. Used in the Image ceremony. Ouiot tells of his sufferings and names the months in which he may die. [*115]

Record 394. Toloache ceremony march song. By Lucario Cuevish. Tamyush noya kwoya, etc., Tamyush marches by



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twisting. [*116] The power of motion attributed to tamyush, the sacred stone bowl, and this song, have been mentioned in the account of the toloache ceremony.

Record 395. By Lucario Cuevish. Song of Wukunish, the girls' ceremony. This is the last song of the ceremony, and is sung by the women. The women's songs all end by mentioning Elsinore, where Kauko and Chehemal [*117] first had menses. When the first ceremony was concluded, they felt happy and composed this song. It mentions the journeying of the First People from Katuktu to Kalaupa [*118] and then to Elsinore.

Record 396. By Lucario Cuevish. Song of Munival, landmarks. This mentions the turtle-rock on the land now occupied by Albanas, but owned by Lucario's ancestors from time immemorial. There is a large flat rock there marked with cracks like the markings on a turtle's back. This used to be a turtle and was left in this shape as a track of possession. The song means that he is singing to his ancestors. He is singing about the rock. It is his. They left it here to claim the land which was theirs.

Record 397. By Lucario Cuevish. Song of the girls' ceremony. Words: No ashwo, [*119] etc. I am menstruating. One man sings this to the accompaniment of the ringing stones in the girls' ceremony while the others dance. This song mentions the mountains that were First People, starting with San Bernardino on the north; Taakwi popat, San Jacinto; Kupa Kawima (Kupa hill), the mountain at Warner's ranch; I'pa, Volcan; Kachikchi; Cuyamaca; Pawi Chawimai, hot spring near Cahuilla; Waheto Naavo, hills east and south of Potrero in the mountains; Pahamuk Malaya, pre-historic village on Palomar mountain. [*120] The song also mentions So-o Ponota, [*121] the famous place where the first Notish













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ceremony for the dead was made and races were held. It mentions also Wikio Potoypa, [*122] a place on Palomar ridge towards Temecula. San Bernardino, gray-head, white on top, is the elder brother; San Jacinto is the younger brother.

Record 398. By Lucario Cuevish. Song of the Flood. This mentions Katuta, [*123] Mora, the little hill that was the only dry land when the water covered the high mountains. [*124] This hill was one of the First People.


Click to enlarge
Notation of Image Ceremony song. Record 399.








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Record 399. Ouiot Song. Pikmakvul. Sung by Juan de Dios, now blind and partly demented from old age. Once a famous chief, and leader of the ancient religion. Ouiot sang this when he was at Temecula, where he died. (See notation of this song on opposite page.)

Record 400. By Juan de Dios. Ouiot Song. Pikmakvul. Ouiot's counsel to his people when he was dying.

Record 401. Song of Pikmakvul. By Juan de Dios. Ouiot enumerates the "months," in each of which he expects to die.

Record 402. Pikmakvul. By Salvador Cuevas. Ouiot song, sung while the images are being burned.

Record 403. By Salvador Cuevas. Song of Temenganesh, telling of the "month" Tasmoymal. The spider-web now catches butterflies and grasshoppers.

Record 404. By Salvador Cuevas. Chungichnish song, in the language of the coast, now extinct. It was taught to Salvador by Hilario, a famous singer from the coast.

Record 405. By Salvador Cuevas. Two songs of Tomaiyowit, [*125] the Earth-mother. She sang these when she was making the land larger for her children.

Second song on same record. Chungichnish song, sung by a boy when he jumped into the fire.

Record 406. By Salvador Cuevas. Song of Tomaiyowit, sung in the Image ceremony. This song tells of the noise and confusion when the First People were being born. The songs of Tomaiyowit may be a separate series, though they are not so described.

Record 407. By Salvador Cuevas. Song of Munival, the landmarks of ancestors. This mentions some small hills, and the canon which was too small for the people to go through. Some of Salvador's ancestors were there.

Record 408. By Salvador Cuevas. Song of Kwinamish, the spirit. Tomamik yula, tomamik wanawut, etc. To the north the spirit, etc. [*126] This song mentions the names of those First People who were sent north, then those in the east, south, and west. It mentions Sovul (a plant) and Makawut, wild grapes, [*127]







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people of the East; and Pauwhut Abahut, hollowed long coffer used to keep sacred feathers in, [*128] people of the south.

Record 409. By Salvador Cuevas. Song of Nahachish, [*129] one of the Temecula people, who gave names to all the localities in the La Jolla mountain region. [*130] This song mentions the chia seed they used to gather in early days, and another plant with small black seeds used for food. It mentions the deer feast, Pisatish. [*131] The last food of the year, the last of the store of seeds and acorns, could be eaten only by the old people. Nahachish was a great glutton; and it is significant that the name means also a disease, consumption, and an insect.

Record 410. By Martasal Tabac. Ashish song. The song mentions Deer when, like Eagle, he tried to escape from death. He sent his spirit north, south, east, and west, trying to find a way of escape; but death was everywhere; and Buzzard and Blue-fly followed him and killed him.

Record 411. Anut song. By Martasal Tabac. This is a very old song which he learned from his ancestors; the ceremony being done in very ancient times. These songs of Anut were later sung in the girls' ceremony.

Record 412. By Martasal Tabac. Song of Pikmakvul. Image ceremony. The women dance while this is sung. The song tells how they prepared the ground to burn the body of Ouiot, first digging a shallow hole and placing wood there for the funeral pile. Then they went around three times and laid the body on the pile and started the fire.









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Record 413. By Martasal Tabac. Song of Pikmakvul. Image ceremony. Ouiot is very sick and names the months in which he may die. After his death, when death came to all, these songs were composed. They were made at that time. A notation of this record is given below.


Click to enlarge
Notation of Image Ceremony song. Record 413.


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Record 414. By Martasal Tabac. Ashish song. This song mentions the man who leads the hunt. When the men go rabbit hunting they meet in a certain place where a stone stands up at the side of the road. This song is given in notation below.


Click to enlarge
Notation of Ashish song. Record 414.


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Record 415. By Martasal Tabac. Women's Ashish song. The men's and women's songs are about the same, but the tunes are different. This song mentions the hill where the rock is painted after the conclusion of the ceremony.

Record 416. By Salvador Cuevas. Temenganesh song. This song mentions the stars. When Ouiot was dying he talked about the east where he was to rise. The song mentions Nukulish and Yungavish, Antares and Altair. The eagles now fly. This is the month Townamal.

Each man's songs are different from another's, having reached him in a strict line of descent; but the subject matter of each song series is the same with all.

Record 1079. [*132] Sung by Juan de Dios. Song of Ouiot. Image ceremony.

Record 1080. By Juan de Dios. Song of Ouiot after he was burned, sung in the Image ceremony after burning the Images. Record 1096. By Juan de Dios. Ouiot song.

Record 1082. Sung by Margarita Subish. Women's song of Ouiot. Pikmakvul series. Ouiot mentions the different months in each of which he thinks that he may die.

Record 1098. By Margarita Subish. Song of Tochinish, Image ceremony. Women's song, telling about making the images; sung while they are set up in the sacred enclosure.

Record 1084. By Margarita Subish. Song of Wukunish, the girl's ceremony. Women's song sung to the accompaniment of ringing stones. Gives instruction to the girls.

Record 1085. By Albanas. Toloache song. After drinking the toloache they march to the dancing place, and begin to feel the effects of the drink: This song tells of the beginning of the intoxication.

Second song on the record. A Chungichnish song sung when they reach the dancing place.

Record 1100. Sung by Albanas. Song of Pikmakvul sung in the Image ceremony. Ouiot counts the "months." [*133] The





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month Tasmoymal, when the grass begins to grow green, is mentioned.

Record 1076. Creation song of Kivish Atakvish. This song does not belong to Albanas who sings it, but to the chief of his "clan." It is very sacred. The song tells of Tukmit and Tomaiyowit, Sky and Earth.

Record 1100. By Albanas. Ouiot song. Sung to the accompaniment of the rattle. This is what Kingbird sang on the housetop in the early morning: "Ouiot is coming." The stars Nukulish and Yungavish, Antares and Altair, are mentioned.

Record 1088. By Albanas. Song of Tomaiyowit, the Earth-mother. There are ten or fifteen songs about Tomaiyowit. They dance to some and not to others. This tells of the birth of her children. They stayed in that place and then journeyed to another place.

Record 1077. By Albanas. Ouiot song. This tells about Wahawut who killed Ouiot; and mentions Orion and the Pleiades when they went up in the sky.

Record 1102. Sung by Salvador Cuevas. Song of the dead, not used for dancing; but sung in the Image ceremony; or when relatives come to console the family for the death of a member they stay all night and sing this song. It mentions Antares and Altair rising in the early morning. When Antares rises winter is at an end. Grass and fresh things come up; everything dry now grows green. Then when Altair rises the grass is higher.

Record 1091. By Salvador Cuevas. Coyote kills Wahawut. [*134]

Record 1092. By Salvador Cuevas. Song of the dead. This mentions Muta, the owl, Ano, coyote, and Pawewish, fox. [*135] They always come around the house when some one is going to die. The song tells how they are coming nearer and swarming around.

Record 1078. By Salvador Cuevas. Chungichnish song in the extinct language of the coast. This song came from Lukup, a large rancheria south of Santa Ana on the coast. [*136] Pura means Chungichnish in the old language of the coast. A man named







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[paragraph continues] Hilario came from Ushma, now Las Flores, [*137] where there used to be a big village, and taught this song and other songs and dances.

Record 1095. By Salvador Cuevas. Chungichnish dance song. This is sung at the time when the feather headdress is buried in the center hole of the sand-painting in the ceremony performed when one of the initiates dies. The song tells about pecheya, the feather headdress, and muta, the owl, whose feathers are used to make it.

Record 1097. Diegueno. By Hatakek. Tutomunp. It refers to Wikami, Mohave Avikwame, the sacred mountain where all the people were created and where all religious song and dance originated. This place is alluded to at the beginning of every ceremony. The song means: There were two brothers. The father died and his spirit went north into the pine trees and forests. The sons went after him. When they got there they heard the spirit crying. This is the noise in the pine trees.

Record 1083. Diegueno. By Hatakek. Song of Wukaruk, the Image ceremony. The first song on this record means: Two brothers were going along when one was bitten by a rattlesnake, and died of the bite. The other was afraid of his spirit. It was following him and terrifying him. The second song on the record means: He came to the track of Coyote. There was the Coyote's track. This is a women's song of the Image ceremony.

Record 1075. Diegueno. By Hatakek. Song of the Image ceremony, Wukaruk. When Tuchaipa died through the work of the frog, they wanted to make the Image dance and sent to Maiheowit to get him to teach them how. Then they burned the sacred house and burned him too.

Record 1099. Diegueno. By Hatakek. Song of the Image ceremony. It tells of Ishpa, the eagle, and describes his feeling when he knows that death is near. Compare the Luiseno song of the eagle, above, number 391.

Record 1086. Diegueno. By Hatakek. Song of the Image ceremony. This tells of Coyote. He slept all night and was warming himself in the early morning. The series of these songs



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is almost endless, as they are sung all night and for several nights during the Image ceremony. Each song is different. It is impossible to collect the entire series or to trace very clearly the connection between the songs. The singer, a very old man from Manzanita, was sent for far and wide to conduct the Image ceremony on the occasions when it was celebrated. The memory displayed in retention of these series of songs is remarkable.

Record 1087. Diegueno. By Hatakek. Song of the Image ceremony, telling of the great horned deer, probably the elk.

Record 1104. Diegueno. Sung by Pion. Dance song called Orup from the desert Indians. It tells about two brothers building their house.

Record 1089. Diegueno. Sung by Pion. First song on the record: Two brothers are building a house. Coyote sings in the early morning. The third song on the record tells about the willow trees.

Record 1090. Diegueno. Sung by Pion. Songs of Orup. The first song on the record tells about the clouds from the north, Katutl; the south, Kawak; the east, Awik; the west, Nyak. The second song is a night song, and tells about the dark night.

Record 1073. Diegueno. Sung by Hulapok Hitlmiup. Song of Akil, the girls' ceremony. The men have bows and arrows in their hands and dance as they sing this song. Both men and women dance in a circle, at different times, around the place where the girl is in a hole in the ground covered with brush.

Record 1074. Diegueno. Sung by Hulapok. Songs of the Image ceremony. First song: The man who makes the images goes into the house and cries. The second song mentions the birds. The bird cries.

Record 1103. Diegueno. Sung by Hulapok. Song of the wild-cat dance. This dance comes from the Mohaves. It is accompanied by a gourd rattle, hulma. For the Image ceremony they use a deer-foot rattle.

Record 1093. Diegueno. Sung by Hulapok. Song of the toloache ceremony. The old dancers are seated in a circle on the ground, while the chief pounds the toloache root in the sacred stone bowl to the accompaniment of this song.

Record 1094. Diegueno. Sung by Hulapok. Toloache song.

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[paragraph continues] This song is the same as the beginning of the war dance. It also repeats part of the last record, which is sung when the dancers come in on hands and knees. The singer drank the toloache in his youth. The last ceremony at Manzanita was about fifty years ago. Five old men remain in this region who are toloache initiates.

Record 1072. Diegueno. Toloache song. Also a war dance song. This song is also used at Mesa Grande. Hulapok, the singer, first heard this song at a village called Hawiya, south of Julian.

Besides the ceremonial songs, the myths have their own songs, which are incorporated in the story as part of the text which they amplify and explain, giving character to the narrative as light and shade do to a picture. The story can be told without them, but it loses much of its emphasis and impressiveness.

The Cuyahomarr story of which three versions have been given: one from Mesa Grande, called The Story of Chaup; [*137a] and two, one a fragment, from Manzanita, [*137b] is a good example of a primitive myth in which the narrative is blended with song.

The Luisenos have a version of the same story communicated to them sixty years ago by the Mesa Grande people. [*137c] Some of the old men among the Luisenos can sing its songs, but they hesitate to relate the story from the Diegueno, being uncertain of the meaning in parts, especially in the songs.

One such song was sung to me by Salvador Cuevas, Luiseno, but he was reluctant to begin it, fearing that Takwish, Chaup, might overhear him. As Chaup's dwelling place is in the San Bernardino or San Jacinto mountains, not so very far from La Jolla in the mountains, the fear seemed well founded.

The Dieguenos identified the being whose name on earth was Cuyahomarr, the wonder-working boy, and whose name in the sky is Chaup or Shiwiw, with the large meteoric fire-ball which is his physical manifestation.

Certain Indians, it is said, have an ogre myth-being who is







[p. 126]

identified in their myths with the electric fireball. The two stories have therefore become blended to a certain extent; but while the full text of the Diegueno Cuyahomarr myth has been obtained, and some fragments of the ogre story have been secured, it has not been possible to trace the latter with precision. [*137d]

Chaup is feared among the Luisenos and Dieguenos, but why or in what degree it is difficult to say. It is said that the Indians believe that if he casts the shadow of a man on the ground in his passage overhead, the man will soon die.

The Luisenos sometimes call him Towish Takwish, which means spirit meteor. The younger Indians, who know only the corrupted meaning of Towish, which in modern Luiseno is 'devil,' understand it in that sense.

Takwish, Salvador Cuevas explained, takes the spirit of people just before they die. He does not take the body. One sees the light because he is carrying the spirit.

The following are graphophone records of songs of the Diegueno Cuyahomarr myth.

1. From Mesa Grande. Sung by Antonio. The flute is making music to call the girls.

Ichtaha kwataha, Ichtaha kwataha, Toli otoli, toli otoli, Ichtaha kotoho, Ichtaha kwataha, Toli otoli kotoli, Toli otoli kotoli, etc.

The brothers sat down facing in turn towards the north, south, east, and west, and girls from the four quarters came to them attracted by the music, but none pleased them except the girls from the east.

2. By Antonio. The girls by the pond first hear the music of the flute. "It was the younger sister who first heard the music. The girls were on their way to a pond where they used to swim every morning."

3. By Antonio. The girls' song of farewell to their home. They have come very far and they can see their home far away. "They looked back and saw their old home and sang a song of farewell."

4. By Antonio. The old woman, Sinyohauch, or Sinyohau',



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calls the girls from the east to come and marry her sons. Wichukama, wichukama, repeated many times.

5. By Antonio. The two brothers marry the two sisters.

6. By Antonio. "We shall die for the sake of the girls. I shall never see my home again." The elder brother's song.

Cinan chakom whi-i-i.

Ocinan chakom whi-i-i, repeated many times, but the tune varies.

Mainan chakom whi-i-i.

Kamaina chakom whi-i.

7. By Antonio. Cuyahomarr sat on his grandmother's lap and she put her arms around him and they both cried. Antonio feels like crying when he sings this:

Kawa kowa hi-i, Kawa kowa hi,
 Kawa kowa hi-i, Kawa kowa hi, etc.

8. Manzanita Diegueno. Sung by Hatakek. First song on the record. The younger brother's music on the flute. Second song, that of the elder brother making music on the flute. Third song, that of the younger sister who is tired and lagging behind. "'I can come no faster,' said the younger sister. 'I am thinking of my old father whom I left behind.'"

9. Manzanita Diegueno. Sung by Hatakek. First song on record. Sinyohauch sings to call the dead eagles to come to life and come to the boys' home. Second song. The elder brother sings to call the girls.

Third song on the record. The song of the brothers when the whirlwind lifted the eagles out of their graves. "No sooner had they buried the birds than the whirlwind swept by, lifting the dead eagles from out of the ground, and carrying them through the air." [*137e]

10. Diegueno song sung by a Luiseno, Salvador Cuevas, who does not know exactly what the words mean; but it is the song sung by the boy in the gambling game when he began to win back all that his uncle had lost. "As soon as he fixed his eyes upon him he made his uncle win. He began winning back every point he had lost." See Manzanita version of Cuyahomarr story. [*137f]









Footnotes

^105:57 See also the preceding account of the Image Ceremony.

^105:58 Unless otherwise mentioned, numbers refer to the collection of phonographic records in the Museum of the University of California.

^105:59 Choun, all, everyone; tungani, to give name to; -kwa, suffix, then; wanawut.--S.

^106:60 Helimuk, hid; temenganesh, season; panga, in the water.--S.

^106:61 Karawut, earth-worm.--S.

^106:62 See the section headed Star Lore and Calendar, below, for a discussion the "months" or divisions of the year.

^106:63 Potauyowi yauka anmal, his language has ant.--S.

^106:64 Po-hota, his or her brush fence, from hotahish, ante, enclosure of wamkish, ceremonial place.--S.

^106:65 Mavakul or mavakush.--S.

^106:66 Atachimai, a very small bird.--S.

^107:67 Mimik-mo ashunin-kwa awa'awik, meaning as given.--S.

^107:68 Tomamik uchanut potovlykala, north where the buffalo is breeding, or, in the north the buffalo his breeding place. Uchanut, a fabulous animal, identified with the bison; tovli, breed, bear young, lay eggs.--S.

^107:69 Pashakut, elk.--S.

^107:70 Paut, mountain-sheep.--S.

^107:71 Chalaka, horned toad.--S.

^107:72 Perhaps wanauwanahish, verbal noun from wanauwani, to move.--S.

^107:73 Tupash, sky, nahainit, sky, in ceremonial language; tukmit, night.--S.

^107:74 See the Creation myths given below. Mr. Sparkman says: Only used in songs and myths; perhaps from whaiahat, white, and pewipwish, gray.

^107:75 Nahut, walking stick.--S.

^107:76 See the account of the death of Ouiot in the Creation myths below.

^108:77 Eluchax (x German ch).--S.

^108:78 Ashwut-pila' telamuk, golden-eagle was-saying.--S.

^108:79 Kari'ya, rose.--S.

^108:80 Catalina island: Kimki harasa; San Clemente island: Shoi ponga'; San Nicolas island; Atauki ponga'. I have had much trouble in ascertaining the names of these islands. Some say Kimki harasa is Catalina, others that it is Clemente. Some say ponga' is Catalina, others that it means island. As ponga' is placed after Shoi and Atauki it probably means island.--S.

Kimki is unquestionably San Clemente, and Harasa Catalina. Shoi and Atauki are not referred to by others. Kinki, Kinki-par is the Gabrielino name of San Clemente (present series of publications, IV, 143, 153). Harasa has only been given in the locative form Haras-gna; it occurs in Reid's list of Gabrielino rancherias, but without a designation of its situation (quoted, ibid., 143). The usual Gabrielino name for Catalina is Pimu; Pipimar has been obtained among the Luiseno (ibid., 142, 143, 144, 153).--Ed.

^108:81 Malmusnga heta-pila' kamala temet, at Malmus rose the son sun.--S.

^108:82 Wunal Pewipwi tiwiyam, that San Bernardino mountain see ye.--S. Puwipui, Piwipui, present series, IV, 133, 148.

^108:83 Shulkul, a green cricket.--S.

^108:84 Pawi, the warm spring in the center of village at Cahuilla; Chawimai, probably a valley at Cahuilla known as Duraznos.--S.

^108:85 Kupa, Agua Caliente, kawimal, hill.--S. (Gupa, present series of publications, IV, 148, 150).

^108:86 I'pa.--S.

^109:87 Naav, a mountain south of Rincon, across the river from it; Wee'to, Pine mountain, across the river from Potrero; wee'tut, the great-coned pine, Pinus coulteri.--S.

^109:88 Malava, old village on Palomar mountain.--S.

^109:89 Yula wanawut, hair wanawut. These words may refer to plaiting the hair of a dead person and using it at dances for some time afterward.--S.

^109:90 Tomanik (resp. kwimik) yula poauwkala, north (east) the hair its-remaining; poauwkala, from auwi, to be, live, means it living, its living place, etc.--S.

^109:91 Tomamik yula wanawut poponakala pongarakala auwma, north hair wanawut its-tying its-fastening is; poni, tie; ngari, tie, fasten; po-, pronominal third person.--S.

^110:92 No-kwinamo wuna'-kwa auwma, my-spirit (origin) there-then lives.--S.

^110:93 Noshunupkwa hayinga moinga, noshunupkwa takwayak moinga, then-I-thought at-race in-moon, then-my-heart is-surprised in-moon. A race called hayish was held at the time of the new moon; hayinga is the locative case, as moinga is of moila, moon. No-shun, my heart, is used in speaking of thoughts, sometimes with a verb and sometimes without.--S.

^110:94 Monival-no-kwa auwik, tracks-I-then do-not-know; auwi, to not know.--S.

^110:95 Monival-no-kwa nalahik; nalahi, to err.--S.

^110:96 Journ. Am. Folk-Lore XIX, 313, 1906: Nachivomisavo, a place "north of the San Bernardino Needles," where the hitherto united people were separated, thus acquiring distinct languages. Mr. Sparkman says: "A canyon near San Bernardino. Nachi, a negative verb, not to go in or under. Misi, a negative verb, not to go through, not to get past."

^110:97 Totka; totpa; names of places.--S.

^110:98 Kawimai polalak, name of a hill.--S.

^110:99 Wiashaha pomhetavoi or pohetavoi.--S.

^110:100 Exva (x German ch), a place near Temecula; Temeko, Temecula.--S.

^110:101 Chatush, a series of songs of wizards.--S.

^111:102 No-engai no-mangai hothota kulkala, from my feet, from my hands, was drawn, was drawn. The first two words are ablatives, from no-e' and no-ma; hothota and kulkala are intensive forms of hoti, to pull, haul, and kuli, to pull up, pull out.--S.

^111:103 Ngorora hechasil pom-engai pom-mangai, sounded (thundered) something from their feet, from their hands.--S.

^111:104 Namkush, a ceremony performed with the idea of making acorns, rabbits, etc., plentiful. Namkokwat kwil, one who makes acorns grow.--S.

^111:105 Tu'nish, a ceremony to make plants which are valued, such as chia, sage, grow.--S.

^111:106 Lewya lewya towauya, meaning about as given, past tenses.--S.

^111:107 Tukmal; chayut, open-work sifting basket of rush.--S.

^112:108 Pom-peai yaumuk oshkamuk, their-killing had did-not-wish-to-give; they did not wish to give away what they had killed.--S.

^112:109 Tomihat or tomawut.--S.

^112:110 Nekup mona, Towutup mona, Yawutup mona, to me it comes, Towut comes, Yawut comes.--S.

^112:111 Towut, or Yawut, a fine dust seen in the air when the north wind is blowing at a distance.--S.

^113:112 Hainit, headband; cheyat, feather headdress, pocheya, his feather headdress.--S.

^113:113 Compare the latter of the two versions of the creation myth given below.

^113:114 Lucario's conception of distance is limited, perhaps on account of his blindness. This also illustrates the tendency in Luiseno myths to concentrate the idea of locality to the Temecula region, which would seem to have been the home of these Indians in very early times, at least in their own beliefs.

^114:115 See the corresponding passages in the creation myths.

^115:116 Cf. page <page 79>.

^115:117 Kaukau, blackswift; chekemal, kingbird or bee martin.--S.

^115:118 Katukto, a hill probably between Bonsall and San Luis Rey, where the people are said to have taken refuge at the time of a flood; Kalaupa, mountain near Santa Margarita.--S. See the story of the Flood below.

^115:119 Non ashka, I am menstruating the first time.--S.

^115:120 Taakwi, San Jacinto mountain; po-pet, his younger brother; Kupa, Agua Caliente or Warner's Ranch, kawimal, hill; I'pa, Volcan; Kachikchi, Cuyamaca mountain; Pawi, warm spring in village at Cahuilla valley, Chawimai, probably Duraznos valley at Cahuilla; Weye'to, Pine mountain, across the river from Potrero; Naav, a mountain south of Rincon; Pahamuk and Malaya, old villages on Palomar mountain.--S. See ante, notes [*82] to [*88].

^115:121 Shoau po-nota, Shoau its notush ceremony; Shoau is a place on Palomar mountain.--S.

^116:122 Wikyo, the highest peak of Palomar; Potopa, a place on Palomar mountain.--S.

^116:123 Katukto.--S. Cf. ante, note [*118].

^116:124 See the second of the Luiseno creation myths given below.

^117:125 Tamaiyowut.--S.

^117:126 Literally, to the north the hair, to the north the wanawut-rope.--S.

^117:127 Shovul, Rhus aromatica or trilobata; makwit wild grape-vine.--S.

^118:128 Pauhit, yellow pine, also canoe; avahut, cottonwood. It is said that the feathers of San Luis Rey were kept in a canoe that was found on the beach and considered sacred.--S.

^118:129 Nahachish, a man of Temecula; the walking-stick insect; consumption; with a possessive prefix, -nhacho, plural -nahacho, old age, men, or male animals. Nachaonwut, glutton, from nachooni, to eat.--S.

^118:130 See the tradition of Nahachish, below.

^118:131 Pisatish, a feast where a deer was killed and divided up.--S.

^121:132 The songs on the following thirty records, together with some of the Luiseno myths, were collected with the assistance and co-operation of the American Museum of Natural History, through the courtesy of which they are here published. The numbers refer to the Museum's catalogue.

^121:133 For an account of these "months," which are not lunar, see the section on Star Lore and Calendar, below.

^122:134 See the myth of How Coyote killed the Frog, below.

^122:135 Ano'; Kewewish.--S.

^122:136 Lukup, Las Bolsas. See this series of publications, IV, 144. Las Bolsas was in territory inhabited by Indians speaking the language of San Gabriel.

^123:137 Ushmai, Las Flores, place of roses, from ush-la, rose.--S.

^125:137a Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XVII, 217-241, 1904.

^125:137b Ibid., XIX, 145-164, 1906.

^125:137c See ibid., XIX, 317, 318, 1906, for a statement by a Luiseno informant that he knew only the last part of the story of dakwish or takwish, Diegueno Chaup, but that the Diegueno knew the first part.--Ed.

^126:137d See Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 317, 1906, for Luiseno beliefs of the cannibalistic tendencies of Takwish.

^127:137e Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XVII, 217-241, 1904.

^127:137f Ibid., XIX, 145-164, 1906.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 128]

  

MYTHS.

It is a noticeable fact, and one not unimportant scientifically, that each old man discredits the stories and authority of the other. Cinon Duro of Mesa Grande, Diegueno, who has lately died, was the last of the hereditary chiefs. Juan de Dios of La Jolla, Luiseno, if not partly demented by age, would be an authority, as he used to be leader of ceremonies in his pueblo. Apolonio of Rincon is still leader of ceremonies, and a devoted adherent of the old religion. Salvador Cuevas still leads ceremonies, but more from lack of any better authority than from his own ability to do so. He claims to know everything, having learned from the old men the things that were still in force when he was a boy. There is no doubt that he is one of the few authorities now living. At the same time, the disuse of things once vital, now mere memories, renders it uncertain how valid are the claims of each when they conflict. Salvador says that Jose Albanas knows nothing. The admirers of Albans doubt Salvador's memory. Lucario Cuevish claims that he is best informed.

The important thing in this connection is that it further illustrates the strong differentiation of family groups shown also in the hereditary possession of songs. I have suggested that in the past these divisions may have been clans of some sort. The stories have also descended in families with more or less distinctness, not nearly so marked as in the case of the songs, as no one could claim a story. The tendency to variation in the myths is, I think, explained by the segregation into groups, which is the only marked organization of which traces can be found.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

LUISENO CREATION.

Third Version. [*138]--By Salvador Cuevas.



[p. 129]

Everything in the beginning was empty and quiet. Kivish Atakvish [*139]  [*140] was the only being.

Next came Whaikut Piwkut [*141] (whitish gray, unexplained).

Whaikut Piwkut created two objects like great round balls called Maikumkush [*142] (meaning, something round, not having an end).

They lay there three days and then were made alive, brought into being, after which they recognized each other. They were called Soimal-um [*143] (-um being the plural ending). They were male and female. Whaikut Piwkut, being the father of these two, left them and was no more seen.

The two children (created beings) remained there. When they were by themselves, they quarreled: "I am older than you." "No, I am older than you." Each could read the thoughts of the other and this contention continued. The female being said that she was the older. She was Kivish Atakvish. The male began describing the color of the sky, by this to prove his earlier existence. "See, I am older than you." She got a stone smoking pipe, chahal, [*144] and showed it to prove herself the first. He got three kinds of pipes, kalulmul, nyatlumul, and chetmul, [*145] and held them up, and thus he silenced her and won (in this contention). Then with sighs (guttural breathings used in solemnities), he made her sleep, and after this she knew that she was to be a mother. He was ashamed of his deed, and went up in the sky (i.e., became the sky). He was Tukmit, [*146] the Sky.

















[p. 130]

When she found she was to bring forth, she was making ready. She made the same sort of sighing groans and thereby created a small piece of land. There was no land until then.

Then the first born of her children, the First People, came forth in the following order.

1. Topal Tamyush. [*147] Double name. Topal, ordinary stone grinding mortar; tamyush, sacred toloache bowls of stone; but in this sense tamyush is like an adjective qualifying topal. Museums should classify the stone bowls more carefully, differentiating between the two sorts where possible.

2. Kenhut Paviut. [*148] Double name. Kenhut, strings of wampum-like beads used for money; paviut, sacred stone knife larger than an arrowhead set on the end of a staff for ceremonial purposes. Both of these objects were used as money, that is, carried from one village to the other to pay for the services of those performing the ceremonies. When two words are connected thus in a double term, there is always some such similarity of use, meaning, or purpose. This is a very remarkable peculiarity, more metaphysical than linguistic.

3. Hunwut Ashwut. [*149] Hunwut, bear; ashwut, eagle. The connection is that both belong to Chungichnish.

These above named were those of the First People who were afterwards sent north, excepting the two latter, which the informant evidently transposed from their proper place, and instead of them there should come here in third position:

4. Kimul Chehenish. [*150] Kimul is the mast with baskets hung on top in the Notish ceremony for the dead. The pole is climbed as a contest of skill. If no one can get the baskets, they dig about the pole to make it fall. When the kimul is set up, they sing songs for the dead and dance. They have this ceremony in the north. They never had it here in the mountains. Chehenish is the pole before it is painted and hung with baskets.









[p. 131]

5. Mahul Kwichal. [*151] Mahul, palm tree; kwichal, Spanish bayonet, yucca. These were sent East.

6. Tukvul Wekunla. [*152] Tukvul, carrying net; wekunla, sort of carrying sack. These were sent South.

7. Somal Kachamul. Meaning unknown. Sent South.

8. Makwit Awiwunowut. [*153] Makwit, wild grape; awiwunowut, clematis. Sent to the center.

9. Paulovla Tovolwish. [*154] These were sent East. Paulovla is a tall painted mast in the middle of the sacred inclosure used by the Indians in the East, who got it from the First People. Tovolwish means the color of this painted post.

10. Uutish Kahankish. Uutish, tree that grows in the East; kahankish, unknown. Sent East.

11. Pauhut Abahut. [*155] Pauhut, canoe (also a box hollowed out of a log to keep things in); abahut, cottonwood tree out of which it is made. Sent West.

12. Pevesish Hoyowish. [*156] Pevesish, tule; hoyowish, cat-tail rush. Sent West.

13. Sanut Tanahut. [*157] Sanut, black asphalt on the seashore; tanahut, sea-weed. Sent West.

14. Yuamul Tovoymul. [*158] Yuamul, pine tree; tovoymul, cedar. Sent to the center, i.e., where "we" live, the Mountain Indians.

15. Kwila Sukut. [*159] Kwila, oak with edible acorns; sukut, deer (both used for food). Sent to the center.

And here should probably come Hunut Ashwut, in the center instead of to the North.



















[p. 132]

(Here belongs the song sung by Tomaiyowit, the Earth-mother, to make the land larger for her children, as previously given in the description of phonograph record 405.)

The Earth-mother sent these first-born of her children to the North, South, East, West, and Center. After this everything else was brought forth. The sun came forth at the same time, and as he was there among all the rest of the people, he gave so much light and heat that he nearly killed them all. It would be better to send him away. So they sent him to the east, and in three days he rose in the east. All things were now prepared. Before this all had been confusion and disturbance, but now Tomaiyowit lay back outstretched, her feet to the north, her head to the south, her right hand to the east, her left hand to the west, and everything became quiet. [*160]

This ends the first part of the Creation Story. [*161]

The Earth-mother, when she sent her children to all the four quarters of the world, made feathers for them to wear on their heads. The chief men, the best, quickest and bravest in battle, used to wear them on a long stick high on their heads, and the others wore them close to the head.

While the people were traveling along, carrying arrows, they would stop at a pond to play and swim about. Ouiot was traveling along with the rest and they did not know anything especial about him. He was like one of the rest.

Wahawut [*162] was a handsome fine-looking woman, with long hair. When she jumped into the water, Ouiot was surprised to see that behind she had no flesh on her body, but was flat and thin. He said nothing but was thinking about it. Wahawut could read his thoughts, and made her plans to kill him. Soon he fell sick.

Ouiot got sick and said he wanted to see his sons. At this time he acted to the people like a father. Before this he had only







[p. 133]

been a person like the others. Now he called for his sons (the First People) from the north to come and see him, and they all tried to cure him. They were like witches then, and could tell by looking at him what was the matter; and they all tried their best to cure him, but could give no help, so they went back north. In the same way the people came in turn from the south, east, west, and center, but could do nothing. Tishmel [*163] the hummingbird was an important person then and he went to see if he could find out what was the matter. Sakapipi, [*164] who is now a tiny bird, got up and put his ear to Ouiot's heart so that he could hear his breathing, and then he said it was Wahawut who was working to kill him by witchcraft.

Then the people found out that it was Wahawut who was doing this; but she had gone down into the mud and water and never was seen. Since she began to work against Ouiot she stayed there. (No. This is not the place in the story to explain that she was the frog, for she was a person then. They were all people at that time.)

Ouiot told them that he would not live much longer. "I think I shall die soon," he said, and he mentioned the names of all the months, and each month they waited until the time was up. "I may die in this month."

When Ouiot was sick, he told his people to take him to the hot spring at Pawi Chawimai [*165] (Cahuilla), and they took him there, and he bathed in the waters, but did not get any better. On the contrary he grew worse and worse. Then they took him to Kupa Kawima [*166] (Agua Caliente, Warner's Ranch Hot Springs), then to Paska Mahala, [*167] a little further on, then to Pauma, near Pala. When there he died but revived again. They got ready to burn his body, making use of the same sticks with which they clubbed Coyote. When he revived again, they took him to Malama Ekapa [*168] (Agua Tibia), trying all these hot springs to cure him, but













[p. 134]

they did no good. Then they took him to Cherukanukna Jaquiwuna, [*169] near Temecula, to the hot spring there. [*170] Then to Etengvo Wumoma, [*171] hot springs at Elsinore, and this was the last place, for he died there. [*172]

Before Ouiot died he told Chehemal (the kingbird now) [*173] that he was going to die, but he said he would come back, and told him that in three days he would rise in the east. [*174] Kauki Chahiwul, [*175] something gone that comes again. Ovaweleva, something that will come back, disappears and returns.

He died in the season Soimamul mokat. When he died the people wanted to burn his body, and they sent Coyote to the north to the people there to see if he could get fire; but he only went a little way and came back. Then they sent him to the people of the east, Uutish Kahankish, and so on, and in the same way to the people of the west, the south, and the center. Each time he went a little further off, and while he was gone Sariwut, [*176] the bluefly, made the fire with the fire-drill. [*177] Then Coyote came running back yelling and saying: "Why do you play such a trick on me? I want to see my father."

The people all stood around the fire where only the heart was left unburned, and Coyote starting a little way back took a running jump over their heads. Wiskun, now a tiny squirrel, the chipmunk, was the strongest man then, and he had gone and brought a log ten men could not lift. Ouiot was laid on it. All the body was burned but the bones, after Coyote got the heart. [*178]





















[p. 135]

When the three days were up, Chehemel got on his housetop in the dark and sang and everyone listened. Meaning of the song: "Ouiot, Ouiot is coming. He is coming. I am watching for him, looking to the east. Ouiot is coming."

Pretty soon he did come, as the new moon, Moyla achagha. [*179] They could just barely see it, a little line. Chehemel saw it in the east, but no one else could see it there. The others saw it in the west.

Before Ouiot died, he told them when they saw him, the new moon, in the west, they should get together and make races (as an answer to the moon, giving their spirits to it). If they made these races, and shouted at this time, they would live longer. (This means that as a part of the Chungichnish ceremonial, obedience is required, and reward or punishment promised for that or the reverse, as in all the Chungichnish instruction.) After this they always made these races. Salvador remembers them, sixty years or so ago, when he was a boy.

The chief men who had charge of these things would know when the new moon was expected and would watch for it. Then they would get ready, and just as soon as the moon appeared one man would start a fire and shout, and all would come together. They would shout three times, and then all start together in a straight line, side by side, and run until the fastest runner got ahead of the others, when he cut across in front of them, and that was the end of it. There might be from twenty to fifty who did the running. They made the indescribable guttural invocation to send their spirits to the moon, and they had to have a fire as they did in every religious ceremony. The head men always started the fire, and the long ceremonial pipes they smoked were lighted at it.

At the time Ouiot died he did not talk much, but only told them about the races they should have. But after he died the people held a council, and talked it over among themselves to decide what they could do. Some of the people had gone north, south, east, and west, and some had gone up in the sky or down in the ground. So they considered what they could do. Some



[p. 136]

thought they could do the same as Ouiot, die for a time and then come back; but they could not do this. Some thought the deer would be good to eat. They could kill him and have a gathering and have that meat to eat. They spoke to Deer about it, but he said, No. He was a shaman and very powerful. He had something in his nose like the black asphalt on the seashore, [*180] and this would protect him. [*181] They gave up killing him when he said that.

Then they laid on the ground one of the sacred stones, [*182] wiala, enormous crystals, and said they could kill him with them. But Deer said, No, he had some of that too, and they could not kill him with them. [*183] Then they laid down one of the eagle-feather skirts, Pahlut, [*184] and said they could kill him with that. He said, No, he had some of that too. [*185] Then they put down tobacco, Pivat, and said they could kill him with that. Deer said, No, he had some of that too, and they could not kill him with that. [*186]

Then they laid down some "wild bamboo," the kind that grows at Warner's Ranch and they use for arrows, huikish, [*187] and said they could kill him with that. He showed them that the bones in his nostrils were like that, and said they could not kill him with it.

Then they laid down arrows already made with flint points fastened to them; so then he had no more to say. He gave up. So they killed him with bow and arrows, and ever since the people have used them to kill the deer; and they skinned him and took the bones of the leg for awls to make baskets. They gave them to Wahawut,--not the one that killed Ouiot,--and she made a good-sized basket in which to collect the bones of Ouiot, and after that they always used the baskets in ceremonies. And they killed

















[p. 137]

other animals besides the deer. They killed acorns,--they were people then,--and killed all that they now have to eat. These turned into animals and seeds, acorns and plants.

Eagle was a big man, a great "hechicero," then, and they told him they would kill him to have ceremonies. But he said, No, it was not right. He was a person of importance. When they told Eagle they were going to kill him, he thought he could get away from them, for he was very wise and knew a great deal. So he went north, thinking that from there he could get entirely away from this world, reach its limits and fly away; and he tried it everywhere, but could not do it. He thought he could live forever and keep away from death, but there was death, Pikmakvul, [*188] wherever he went. Then he went east and did the same thing, and south and west the same, and then he came home to the center and stayed there. He had to die. There was no death before this time.

By this time the people's council was concluded. Wahawut had finished her basket. [*189] She had been working all the while and had lost no time. So they gathered the bones and put them in the basket to carry them, and they put the bones into a stone mortar and ground them, and added water and made it into a kind of mush. When all was well mixed they made a hole in the ground and poured it into the hole and buried it. The crushed bones were not contained in any vessel. [*190] They made the solemn guttural invocation with waving motions to the north and all the other points of the compass, to send Ouiot's spirit up to the sky; and since then the people do the same thing when they have the ceremonies for the dead. [*191]

When the people scattered from the place where Ouiot died, all the tribes had names, but many are dead and few living. He









[p. 138]

does not know the name of this tribe. These Indians (the Luisenos) are called by themselves Western Indians. [*192] When they scattered, the people traveled about, two or three families together, and they claimed the places where they stopped for a time, [*193] and a great deal of fighting came from this. Other groups coming after would occupy the land claimed by the first. The La Jolla people would fight the Potrero people. A man could not go from La Jolla to San Jacinto without being killed by some enemy.







Footnotes

^128:138 Two versions, of the Luiseno creation myth, one a fragment, have been published. Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 145, 1906. See also ibid., 310. The two versions herewith given, which are probably more primitive and more complete, were related by Salvador Cuevas and Lucario Cuevish, aged Indians of La Jolla and Potrero in the mountains.

^129:139 Luiseno religious terms are double, made of two words, each with a different meaning supplementing and reinforcing each other--a very marked peculiarity.

^129:140 Kyuvish, empty, solitary, unoccupied; also a noun, as in po-up auma kyuvi-nga, he lives in solitude. Ataxvish (x German ch), empty. Kyuvish Ataxvish, used together, mean some thing like the empty, solitary, unoccupied place, and are used in speaking of before the world was created. Kyuvish Ataxvish is also spoken of as a person who made Tamayowut, the first woman, and Tukomit, the first man.--S.

^129:141 From whaiahat, white, piwahat, whitish, grayish.--S.

^129:142 Makumkush, round.--S.

^129:143 Saimalum. Some say these were a man and a woman born from two eggs made by Whaikut Piwkut; others deny this.--S.

^129:144 Hahal, stone pipe.

^129:145 Kalulmal, ngatlamal, chetmal. There is only one man who knows of these words.

^129:146 Tukomit, night, also the first man, made by Kyuvish Ataxvish; tupash is sky.--S.

^130:147 Topal, tamyush.--S.

^130:148 Kenghut, a string of shells or bear-claws; paviut, stick with a crystal in one end, used in ceremonies.--S.

^130:149 Hunwut, ashwut.--S.

^130:150 Kimal, small house; chehenish, the objects hung on kutumit, the pole erected at the notush ceremony; probably a derivative from chehe'i, to appear, show.--S.

^131:151 Mahul, palm; kwichal, unknown; the species of yucca growing in the San Luis Rey valley are called panal and hunuvut.--S.

^131:152 Tukval is sea-otter; the carrying net is called ikut; wekunla, network sack with very fine mesh.--S.

^131:153 Makwit, wild grape-vine; awiwanawut, clematis.--S.

^131:154 Paulovla, (?); tovolvush or tovolovahat, adjective meaning of different colors.--S.

^131:155 Pauhit, yellow pine, also dug-out canoe; avahut, cottonwood tree. It is said that the feathers of San Luis Rey were kept in a canoe found on the beach and considered sacred.--S.

^131:156 Pevesash, tule; hoyawish, species of rush.--S.

^131:157 Shanut, asphalt, gum; tanahut, sea-weed.--S.

^131:158 Yuila, species of pine, tovut, cedar; yuimal and tovomal are diminutives.--S.

^131:159 Kwila, Quercus californica; shukut, deer.--S.

^132:160 This is why all ceremonies are performed facing the north. Cf. the drawing by a Luiseno in Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 312, 1906.

^132:161 Another old Indian story teller here appeared on the scene and some tact was necessary to manage the situation. It was feared that Salvador might object to the presence of a rival; but when asked if he were willing to continue his recitation he smiled and said that there need be no jealousy as he told nothing but the truth. So he continued.

^132:162 Wahawut, frog, an ugly woman that bewitched and killed Wiyot.--S.

^133:163 Tushmal.--S.

^133:164 Sakapepi, titmouse, who found out who had killed Wiyot.--S.

^133:165 Cf. notes 84 and 120.

^133:166 Cf. notes 85 and 120.

^133:167 Paskwa, San Jose, on upper San Luis river, given in this series of publications, II, 148, as in Diegueno territory.

^133:168 Malamai, Agua Tibia.--S.; ibid., this series, II, 147.

^134:169 Cheruka, locative Cherukanga, large rock near Potrero; also one near Temecula.--S.

^134:170 A few miles the other side of the railroad station near Murietta.

^134:171 Etengvo; Mumoma.--S.

^134:172 The names of all these places are mentioned in the Ouiot songs.

^134:173 Chehemal, kingbird or bee martin.--S. Given in Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 313, 1906, as chekhemal, a bird, possibly the meadowlark.--Ed.

^134:174 Perhaps a trace of Christian influence.--But compare the incident in ibid.--Ed.

^134:175 Kauki chehevo, said to be the name of a place.

^134:176 Shariwut, blowfly.--S.

^134:177 Albanas, commenting on Salvador's story, says that the idea of the fire being started by Bluefly with the whirling-stick came to these Indians from some other source, he thinks from the north. Juan de Dios gives the Bluefly as originator of the fire. Albanas in his version leaves it in doubt as to where it came from, but he evidently approves Lucario's statement that it was Glow-worm who had the fire.

^134:178 Coyote jumped over the heads of the people into the fire to seize the heart of Ouiot, which he ate.

^135:179 Moila, moon; achohax (x German ch), adjective, born; achohahup moila, it is born moon, there is a new moon.--S.

^136:180 Sacred as a Chungichnish object, and one of the First People.

^136:181 The shiny black on the deer's nose is like that.

^136:182 Two of these stones I have seen are of white crystalline rock in round shape ten inches or so in diameter, others of clear quartz (?) crystal, ten inches long.--Wiyala, rock crystals.--S.

^136:183 The white fat of the deer looks like that.

^136:184 Pa'lut.--S.

^136:185 The deer's entrails are like that.

^136:186 There is some bushy hair on the deer's hind leg near the joint that smells like tobacco.

^136:187 Huikish, Elymus condensatus, from which arrows are made.--S.

^137:188 Cf. ante, under "Ceremonial Songs," records number 391 and 410.

^137:189 Note the different statements in each story as to who was the first basket-maker, showing a possible family descent in stories, as is the case in songs.

^137:190 I have not found among the Luisenos any allusion to the burial ollas for containing the bones and ashes of the cremated body so common among the Dieguenos.

^137:191 In former times they burned the bodies of the dead. Salvador, seventy-five years old, never saw this, but his grandfather did. They burned the bodies in a certain place, digging holes in which they made the fire and burying the ashes in the same place.

^138:192 It is remarkable that the Dieguenos as far south as Manzanita also use this name in their language for themselves.

^138:193 See the account of the munival, or songs of landmarks, below.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

LUISENO CREATION.

Fourth Version--By Lucario Cuevish. [*194]

The first that came or appeared was Kivish, the man, Atakvish, the woman. [*195]

Then Omai, the man, Yamai, the woman. [*196]

When the two beings found themselves there, realized the existence of each other, the brother and sister each said to the other, "Who are you?"

The man called her sister. But when the thought of marrying her came to him, he changed the form of address and spoke to her in a different way. The woman asked, "Who are you?"

He answered, "Kivish no, Kivish no, Kivish no, Han-n-n-n-n. (I am Kivish, I am Kivish, I am Kivish, groan used in sacred narrative and ceremonies)."

The man asked, "What have you to say?"

She answered, "Atakvish no, Atakvish no, Atakvish no, Han-n-n-n."

The inquiries being repeated, he said, "Omai no, Omai no, Omai no, Han-n-n-n."

She said, "Yamai no, Yamai no, Yamai no, Han-n-n-n."

There was now a transition impossible to explain.







[p. 139]

Whaikut Piwkut was the man, the sky or Milky Way, whitish-gray. Harurai Chatutai [*197] was the woman, the earth.

Another transition and they became Tukmit, the sky, Tomaiyowit, the earth. These came after and from the previous states of existence, but were not born of them as their children.

The woman lay extended, her feet to the north, her head to the south. Her brother sat on the right hand by her side. "Sister, you must say who you are," he said. She answered, "I am Tomaiyowit." She asked, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am Tukmit." Tomaiyowit now, in a marvelous recitative, enumerates her attributes which it is distinctly explained do not belong to her but are prophetic of the completed state of being which is to come later. [*198]

"Non Obkit, non Opaykit, I am that which stretches out flat or is extended (from horizon to horizon). [*199]

"Non Yaramul, non Kworamul, I am that which shakes, and sounds with a loud noise, like thunder. [*200]

"Non Yinkit, non Yenankit, [*201] I am the earthquake.

"Non Punkit, non Choykit, [*202] I am that which rolls around and is round in shape.

"Non Manakit, [*203] I am that which goes out of sight and appears again." After things were in shape it would be this way.

Then Tukmit spoke:

"Non Tukmit, non Pamkit, I am that which arches over like a round lid or cover. [*204]

















[p. 140]

"Non Yumkit, same meaning. [*205]

"Non Hetkit, non Kariamul, I am something that goes up high, and will rise high. [*206]

"Non Somkit, non Paikit, I am death, that which will devour as if by taking all in, in one bite. [*207]

"Non Hakwit, non Lamkit, I am he that from the east catches the spirits of men and sends them away off.

"Non Wokumal, non Chorumal, [*208] I am death." [*209]

They said all this while she lay there and he sat by her side. It was in darkness, but he felt her and took her right hand. "What part of your body is this?" "That is my right hand." "And this?" "My left hand." In the same way he felt and she named her head, hair, the parting of the hair, the skull, the temple, brows, eyelids, cheek bones, teeth, etc. This is an extremely long enumeration, ending in that part of the story which the narrator omits from motives of delicacy, but which Boscana gives briefly in his version of the same myth among the San Juan Capistrano Indians as follows: "The brother wished to marry the sister but she resisted, reminding him of their affinity. In due time, however, they were married."

She was with child and so large that she must lie down, falling backwards. She looked for something to help her, and Tukmit to deliver her took Sivut paviut, the sacred stick with flint knife inserted in the end of it, and with this he cut her open from between the breasts downward. (Groaning recitative.) Then came forth her children in the order of their birth.

1. Yula Nahut. Yula, spirit, literally, hair; nahut possibly should be wanawut. Yula wanawut is the sacred string used in connection with the toloache ceremony and sand-painting. [*210]

2. Chakwut Wakut. Chakwut, a woven basket carried on the end of a cane by the men and used to cover the faces of the girls













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to keep the flies from them [*211] in their puberty ceremony. [*212] Wakut, curved throwing stick for killing rabbits. [*213]

3. Nosish Ayaraka. Nosish, the red scum on iron springs. This was sacred because it was skimmed off, burnt, and used for red paint in the sand-painting and elsewhere. Ayaraka, the green scum, fresh-water algae, that appears on water when Tomaiyowit, the Earth-mother, has her menses. [*214]

4. Pala Yowhala. Pala, water; yowhala, mud. [*215]

5. Ushla Pikla. Ushla, wild roses; pikla, wild blackberry. Almost all, if not all, thorny, stinging things belonged to Chungichnish, being his avengers. [*216]

6. Nenexel Pachayel. Nenexel is a brush that grows on the mountains; pachayel is a sedge or plant that grows in wet places, the root of which makes large clumps. [*217] They were sacred because they were the plants used in the girls' ceremony to cover them with or to line the hole, or both.

7. Simut, double not given. Simut is salt grass on the seashore. [*218]

8. Poola Poaskatu. Both words mean menses. [*219]

These were the first born. Then came forth all the hills, trees, stones, rocks, and everything that we now see on the earth, but all were people then. There were born, not given as doubles:

9. Hunal, the badger.

10. Yungavish, the buzzard, and meaning also the star Altair.

11. Takwish, the large meteor sometimes seen in the daytime, Diegueno Chaup or Shiwiw.

12. Choruwut, an underground animal that has never been seen, but which can be heard growling and shaking the stones in certain places in the mountains. [*220]





















[p. 142]

13. Towish, the spirit. When a man dies he becomes Towish. [*221]

14. Kwila, an oak tree with edible acorns. [*222]

15. Pauhwhut Abawhut. Pauhwhut, a painted board about four feet long, kept hidden in the house. If anyone is sick, punished by Chungichnish, they get it out and lay it on the ground in ceremonies. [*223] Abauhwhut or Abawhut, definition obscure.

16. Kimul Chehenish, [*224] definition given obscure.

17. Poblish, a tree. [*225]

18. Isla, a person. [*226]

19. Masla, a fern. [*227]

Then came forth the avengers and special messengers of Chungichnish.

20. Sowut, the "black" rattlesnake. [*228]

21. Mekus, the "yellow" rattlesnake. [*229]

22. The spider.

23. Palahush, the tarantula. [*230]

24. Awialut, the raven. [*231]























[p. 143]

25. Hunwut, the bear.

26. Wulamul, the stingaree. [*232]

Then the sacred objects:

27. Tukmul, the flat winnowing basket sacred to Chungichnish, placed upon the ground in the ceremonies.

28. Somkul Papawish. Somkul, urine; papawish, mock-orange plant, also called Naxish. [*233] These two names make a double because in the ceremonies when the stone bowls and so on were placed upon the ground, urine was sprinkled over them with the branch of the mock-orange plant. [*234]

29. Topal Tamyush. [*235]

The raven was the especial messenger of Chungichnish and was able to tell the secret transgressions of those who offended against him, revealed the secrets, made mistakes in the ceremonies, or disobeyed the rules of life; but it was not everyone who could hear what the raven said. It was only the shamans of greatest power, those who could hear and see everything and kill a person at a distance.

Tukmit and Tomaiyowit now made the land, only a small piece at first. Then later they made it larger just as it is now. Everything now came into shape just as it had been named and planned in the conversation between Tukmit and Tomaiyowit. Everything was all in the dark. The First People could just feel each other but could see nothing.

They traveled east till they came to Epyuvokala Putwalakala, a place that was just like a blank wall in front of them; [*236] so they turned around and came back to the same place.

Then they came to Kawima [*237] Putlalak, [*238] near San Bernardino, where they got to a canon that they could not go through. [*239]

















[p. 144]

[paragraph continues] Then they came along by Elsinore, and stopped there, and made the lake that is there. [*240] They traveled as far as Temecula, called Ekva Temeko, and stopped by a small lake that used to be there, but it is drained out and dried up now.

Then they began to think, to gain consciousness, and could now talk to each other, and discuss what it was best to do. Now Hainit [*241] Yuinit [*242] made the sun. This means something way down in the ground. [*243]

This man, when he made the sun, took the reddish milkweed plant that twine is made of, and twisted the fibres of it into twine, and out of that made a net, not an ordinary carrying net, but a long one. Then he called all the people and they got together in a place near Temecula. [*244] He took the net that was all rolled up, and with groaning invocation he laid it on the ground, and all the people standing in a circle bent over and placed it before them on the ground. They sang about Temet, the sun, and putting him in the net, they raised their arms with the appropriate groans, cries, and gestures, and sent him up into the sky as the sun:

Temet kwon na num, temet kwon na num, temet kwon na num, han-han-n, han-n-n.

He went to the north, but that was not right and they placed him in the net again.

(Same recitative, words slightly varied.)

He went south, but came back again.

(Same recitative, groans, and gestures.)

He went west, but went a little way and came down again. 

Temet kwon put ya, temet kwon put ya, temet kwon put ya, han-n-n, wahha, wahha, wah-ha-a.

They sent him east, and he went up in the sky and away off. (Expressive gestures, arms raised towards the sky.)

(Another recitative invocation). They made it so that he











[p. 145]

would not follow in a straight line, but work southward or northward at different seasons of the year.

Song, Temet karia. The sun should rise. [*245]

He rose. All was light, and the people could see each other.

Tukmit said that some of the children should go north, others east, south, and west. So he divided them in this way. They had had only one language, but when they scattered he gave them different languages. He also gave them their religion. He sent the Dieguenos and others south with their language, and to the west he sent those of Capistrano, and so on, with their language, and in the center he left us (the Mountain Luisenos), with one language from Temecula to La Jolla.

Before the people, the tribes, were scattered north, south, east, and west, Moyla, [*246] Ouiot, was there. Because he disliked the shape of Wahawut, the frog, she killed him. He only thought about her, but as she was a witch she could tell his thoughts; so Ouiot got sick and called his people from the north to come. He was very sick, and when they came they tried to find out what was the matter. They were witches and thought that they could cure him, but they could not tell what was the matter. Then the people from the east, south, and west came and did the same thing.

Ouiot got worse, and was paralyzed so that he could not walk, but crawled around and grew worse and worse. The hawk, Mawhala, [*247] came to doctor Ouiot, and he was the only one who could tell what was the matter with him. He said that Wahawut was killing him by witchcraft. Then the people found out that Wahawut was doing that.

Ouiot knew now that he was going to die, and he mentioned all the "months" in a series, saying in each that perhaps he would die in that one. The last one, Soymamul, meant that he would die and take all with him (in death).

Chehemal was a good man, and Ouiot had confidence in him, so he called him and told him that he would come back in three days. After he died, all his people were gathered there and they







[p. 146]

did not know what to do, whether to burn or bury him. They decided to burn the body. The kangaroo-rat lost no time but went to work, and kept himself busy making a carrying net in which to lift Ouiot. An old woman, now the glow-worm, had some fire hidden under her arm. They first of all dug a shallow hole and put wood in it. Coyote was always a mean sort of fellow, and the people suspected him and made an excuse to send him away while they burned the body. So they called him and told him he was the quickest man and he must go north to get some fire. He did not want to leave. Se he started to where the First People lived in the north. But he did not go all the way, only ran a little way and came back, saying he could not get any fire there. So they sent him in turn to the people in the east, south, and west, but he came back each time without any fire. There was a big log lying there which a dozen men could not lift. When Coyote had gone off, Wiskun, now the chipmunk, went out and got the log, singing a groaning recitative, lifted it, and carried it over to where Ouiot was. As soon as they got it ready, the kangaroo-rat brought his net, and they put Ouiot in it, and he carried it over to the place of the burning. He could hardly walk but staggered under his load. Then they took half of the log, slightly hollowed out, mavakal, and laid Ouiot on it. He had no clothes, but upon his breast was laid the dressed and decorated skin of the crow (raven?). Over him they put the other slightly hollowed piece, avakal. They started the fire, and while it was burning they stood close together around it so that Coyote could not reach the body. The badger was a little man and he was standing there in the circle. The body was burned all but the heart, and when Coyote got there he ran around the circle stretching himself and peering over to see what he could do. Then he ran back to get a start, took a running jump forward over their heads, got the heart, and ran off with it in his mouth. They clubbed him well, but he got it just the same. Then when everything was burned, they gathered the bones and held a council to decide what they should do.

The eagle was a very wise man and he knew a great deal; and he thought he would go north to try to get away from death, as he found there was to be death after Ouiot died. When he

[p. 147]

went north he found that death was there, and east, south, and west the same. When he came back he told the people that death was everywhere. It was very close. They had all to die. He sang this at Temecula. [*248]

Then they wanted to kill the deer, but he said, No, that was not right, for he was just the same as they were. They told him they would kill him with the sacred stones. He said, No, he had the same. Then they got a stone arrow-straightener and said they would kill him with that. He said, No, he had that too. They said they had the feathers for the head-dresses and would kill him with them. He said, No, he had some of them too. They showed him arrowheads and said they would kill him with them. He said, No, he had those also. They showed him a bow and said they would kill him with that. Deer said he also had that. They told him they had sinew and would kill him with that. He said, No, he had that too. They told him they would kill him with blood. Deer said, No, he had that. They told him they would kill him with the tracks of their footprints. He said, No, some of those were his too. They told him they would kill him with marrow. Deer said, No, he also had marrow. They told him they would kill him with their ears. He said they could not do that. He had ears too. They told him they would kill him with their eyes. He said, No, he had eyes too. They told him they would kill him with the skin of the deer's head and antlers worn on the head by the hunter to deceive the deer. He said, No, he had that too. They told him they would kill him with tobacco. He said, No. He had some of that too. They told him they would kill him with wood-ticks. He said, No, he had those also. They told him they would kill him with one of the big blue-flies. He said, No, he had that too. Then at last he gave up when they told him they would kill him with the feathers that wing the arrows.

So they killed the deer, and all the different kinds of rabbits.

Then the valley quail and mountain quail and road-runner and woodpecker mourned and cut their hair for mourning. [*249] They were the first to do this, and the Indians still mourn in this





[p. 148]

way in some places, cutting their hair for the dead. Chehemel, kingbird, was the only one that knew that Ouiot was coming back, and when the day came he got on his housetop and said, "Ouiot is coming." Some of the people said, "How can that be? He is dead." Kingbird said: "Come. Look in the east. Karia Ouiot, Ouiot Moyla, Rises Ouiot, Ouiot the moon." All came out and saw him in the west. Kingbird alone saw him in the east. All shouted out, and every time after that when they saw the new moon they would start a fire and have races.



Footnotes

^138:194 An old man, blind from his youth.

^138:195 See the preceding version for names not commented upon here.--Ed.

^138:196 Omai, to not be, said of animate things; yamai, same, inanimate.--S.

^139:197 Harurai chatutai; this phrase speaks of boring a hole and lowering.--S.

^139:198 Much in this mythology is abstraction, belonging to the domain of metaphysics. Transition in character of being or condition, while identity or continuity is asserted, and the latent possession of attributes to be manifested in future time in the external order of Nature, are ideas above the ordinary.

^139:199 Non obkit, non opoikit, I am stretched out. This and the following sentences were spoken to Tukomit by Tamaiyowut, it is said.--S.

^139:200 Non yaramul, non kwomamul; meaning, that shakes and makes noise.--S.

^139:201 Non inkit, non ngenankit; from ini, to deduct, take off, and ngeni, to be an earthquake.--S.

^139:202 Non punkit, non chorkit; from puni, to go around, and chori, to roll.--S.

^139:203 Non mane'kakit, I disappear.--S.

^139:204 Tukomit speaking to Tamaiyowit: Non Tukomit, non pemkit. Pemkit from pemi, to be upside down.--S.

^140:205 Non yumkit; perhaps related to yumu'i, to put on a hat.--S.

^140:206 Non ketkit, non kareamul; perhaps from the verbs heti and kare'i, to rise.--S.

^140:207 Non shomkit, non pakit; from shomi, to devour, pai, to drink.--S.

^140:208 Non wokamul, non choramul; woki, to cut; chori, to cut, cut off.--S.

^140:209 These words are used in the fiestas for the dead, and are always the final words.

^140:210 Nahut is waking-stick, cane.--S.

^141:211 If analogy with the customs of other California tribes holds, it was primarily for the purpose of concealing the face of the girl, or hiding the world from her sight to prevent its being harmed by the supernatural power in her.--Ed.

^141:212 Cha'kwut, a rush basket.--S.

^141:213 Wakut, throwing stick.--S.

^141:214 Moshish, oxide of iron from springs; ayaraka, pond-scum.--S.

^141:215 Pala, water, yuwhala, mud.--S.

^141:216 Ushla, wild rose; pikwlax (x German ch), blackberry.--S.

^141:217 Nenexyal (x Spanish), tussock grass; pachayal or pachayat, a coarse grass or sedge.--S.

^141:218 Shimut, salt grass; shamut, grass of any kind.--S.

^141:219 Poaulo, her menstruating; poashkato, same.--S.

^141:220 Chorwut, a water animal.--S.

^142:221 The Catholic Indians, learning of the devil, identified him with Towish and still have songs and charms drawn on the ground as a form of exorcism, but these are modern and not genuinely Indian. The primitive Luisenos and Dieguenos appear to have had no idea in any way approaching this. They seem to have learned their fear of Takwish, the meteor, from the Cahuillas, though this is not certain. They sometimes combine the names, Towish Takwish. The Chungichnish religion was a religion of fear, as its exacting ceremonial if not obeyed would bring punishment from the many avengers of Chungichnish, but it does not seem that this fear was ever concentrated in one being until the priests taught them to identify 'Towish' with 'devil.' The old narrator has separated his double names in this part, and has perhaps forgotten some. As all the sacred and ceremonial objects were first-born people, it is no wonder that each narrator gives a different list and forgets many.

Touch, given by Boscana, pronounced To-ush, is not far from Towish. Boscana defines the word as "devil" which is the modern Indian significance of Towish, the original meaning being spirit. Tacuieh, as given by Boscana, defined as meteoric appearance, is evidently a misprint for Tacuich, pronounced Takwish.

^142:222 Kwila, Quercus californica.--S.

^142:223 Cf. no. 11 in the list of the first born in the preceding myth.

^142:224 Cf. no. 4 in the list of the first born in the preceding myth.

^142:225 Pavlash, mountain ash.--S.

^142:226 Isla, a plant.--S.

^142:227 Nashla, large brake fern.--S.

^142:228 Showut.--S.

^142:229 Me'kash, generally called red rattlesnake.--S.

^142:230 Pulakwush, the tarantula-hawk, a large insect. Tarantula is monawut.--S.

^142:231 Kawialwut, raven.--S.

^143:232 Wulamul, stingray.--S.

^143:233 Shomkul, a sea fish; papaiwish, urine, more polite than shiish; nehish, mock orange.--S.

^143:234 This would seem to the Christian priests the devil's derision of holy water. It long antedates the arrival of the priests.

^143:235 See number 1 in the list of the first born in the preceding myth.

^143:236 Poyuvakala, it growing dark, from yavi; potowalakala, it beginning to grow dark.--S.

^143:237 Kawima, little hill.--Kawimai.--S.

^143:238 Poxlalah (x German ch), his climbing, from verb elali.--S.

^143:239 See song record 407 above.

^144:240 See Diegueno Creation myth. Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, XIV, 181, 1901.

^144:241 Hainit, headband to hold feathers in place.--Ibid.--S.

^144:242 Yunenkit, from yuni, to dive, sink.

^144:243 There is a song for this but it belongs to the Calacs, and Lucario cannot sing it. It descended to the Calacs from some dead ancestor.

^144:244 It is a place that can still be seen. The rocks and trees are all around in a circle, and stones are left there in groups of threes just as they used them for cooking their food, and heaps of ashes are found there.

^145:245 Temet, sun; kare'i, to rise; temet-up kare'ak, the sun is rising.--S.

^145:246 Moon.

^145:247 Mawhala, a large hawk that soars much.--S.

^147:248 See song record 391 above.

^147:249 All birds with a plume or crest.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

ORIGIN OF THE NOTISH MOURNING CEREMONY. [*250]

The Sea-fog, Awawit, was the one who started the Notish ceremony. He was one of those who arranged all the ceremonies after the death of Ouiot. He was the one who had to provide the food and to call all the people together.

Sea-fog set up the kutumit pole with baskets at the top, and arranged for a contest of skill between his people of the West and those of the mountains. The Western people were sure that they could do better in everything than the people of the mountains. [*251]

So everyone tried to climb the pole to get the baskets, but no one could reach the top except the squirrel from the mountains, and he climbed the pole, cut the string, and the baskets fell down.

When the mountain people went to this gathering, they took deer meat and much food, all they could carry; but Mechish from the ocean, a sea animal that crawls along, and has little hollows or cups in his shell, got a bag and got all the food in that and carried it off. So the West won in that contest and got all the mountain people's food. In the first game the squirrel beat. In the second the West beat.

Then the Western people gathered fish and other things to eat. There was a bird there from the mountains with a very big mouth (the whip-poor-will?), and the mountain people said to





[p. 149]

him: "It is your turn now to eat." He said: "That is nothing for me to do." So he opened his mouth and they poured everything into it, and he ate it all up. So the mountain people beat.

Then they arranged a game between the fish and the owl. They were to look straight at each other and whoever closed his eyes first was to lose. The owl and the fish sat and looked at each other, and finally the owl had to close his eyes, so he lost, and the Western people won on that.

They were getting angry over all this contest and it seemed that there would be a fight. When levalwish, the crow's skin, [*252] is hung on the pole, there is to be fighting.

Then Sea-fog made a house and told the mountain people to try to destroy it. So they got the summer-cloud, Thunder-cloud, a very powerful man, to come and see if he could blow or break it down. He came, he roared and blew, but could do nothing to break the house down. So the West won. Then Thunder-cloud invited Sea-fog to come up to his house and see if he could destroy it. So Sea-fog came. A strong wind broke the trees and knocked down all the houses. So the West won again. Then they tried their skill in a long race. They went past Pala up through the mountains as far as La Jolla. [*253] Some of those that raced on the side of the mountain people were the hawk, frog, eagle, raven, and chicken-hawk; and for the West, Emamul (little birds on the seashore, very fast runners), [*254] the butterfly, grasshopper, and others. As they came by Pala to the foot of the mountain, at Rincon, Wasimul, [*255] a kind of hawk, gave out in the race, and there he is now as a rock beside the road, right below the store. (See Ancestral Songs.) At the same time Chehuka, [*256] a person, coming along in the race, gave out, and his footprint can still be seen in the rock. When many of the racers had given out and died, or stayed behind, the eagle and the raven and the chicken-hawk, Mountain people, were ahead; and the grasshopper and











[p. 150]

the butterfly, Western people, were close behind, so the Mountain people won in this race.

The last race was between the deer, Sukut, and the antelope, Tonla. This race was from Temecula to San Bernardino mountain, and the antelope beat in this, for it was all on a level, where the antelope can go fastest. So they arranged to have another race between them, and this time it was over a mountain route, and here the deer won the race.

Summer-cloud (Thunder-cloud) was glad because the deer beat, and the mountain people had won in most of the contests. [*257] All these contests were made in the first Notish ceremony and ended it.





Footnotes

^148:250 Told by Lucario Cuevish.

^148:251 The place where the ceremony was held can still be seen. It is where the trees stand around in a circle, and ashes and stones used for cooking are there. It is on the mountain ridge from Pala going towards Temecula. Compare the description of the place near Temecula where the sun was raised, given by the same informant (<page 144>, note ).

^149:252 Levalvush, wide; a rare word.

^149:253 Lucario, probably on account of his blindness, is inclined to give a very limited account of distance. All the others say that this race was to be made out to the desert and back again.

^149:254 Emamal, a small bird.--S.

^149:255 Wasimal, a hawk that nests on the ground.--S.

^149:256 Chahuka, a person that lived in the distant past.--S.

^150:257 It is evident that certain trials of skill have been forgotten by the narrator, as in his list the mountain people are not ahead.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

A CHUNGICHNISH STORY. [*258]

Among the people living near El Toro, there was a boy who was always hunting rabbits, quail, and the like with bow and arrows. One day, near Santa Ana, he saw a rabbit which he tried to catch, but it ran into a hole in the ground. He got a stick and poked in the hole. He felt the rabbit, so he kept on digging, and went farther and farther down, every little while finding something, which, he would say, "I will take to my mother," "to my sister," and so on.

So he went on, and finally came to a place where those Chungichnish were living. They all said, "Witte,"--"Welcome"--to him, and told him to sit down. Then they built a big fire, a very large fire. The boy was very sad. He did not know what to do. There he was down in the ground among those people. He was afraid.

These people had power and could do anything. They would stand up, leap, jump, and dance moving about, jump into the fire and stand in the middle of it, the flames going up above their heads. All took turns in doing this; then they said to the boy: "It is your turn now." He was frightened, but he sang a song, a sort of invocation, [*259] and then jumped into the fire. He felt





[p. 151]

no heat, and after standing there awhile he came out unharmed. They all shouted and said, "Now you are a good Chungichnish."

This is the reason people dance in that way, jumping and moving about.



Footnotes

^150:258 Told by Salvador Cuevas.

^150:259 See song record 405 given above.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

NAHACHISH. [*260]

One of the Temecula people was called Nahachish. He was a chief. He used to have in his house the limb of a tree cut into a hook and fastened up to hang food on. Some people broke the hook down. He became so poor that he had nothing to eat, and did not know what to do. He sang a song. [*261] He sang that he was going to leave that part of the country, but he did not know where to go.

He went to Picha Awanga, Pichanga, [*262] between Temecula and Warner's Ranch, and named that place. There were a lot of people there having a fiesta, and there was plenty of food. They passed everything to him, and there was a sort of mush of a light gray color. So he said, "My stomach is picha." So they called the place by that name.

Then he went over the mountain at George Cook's to Palomar mountain. There was no one there. The houses were empty. He stood looking and peering about, and could see no one. So he called the place Chikuli. [*263]

Then he went to a place, Poyarak, [*264] where some of his family lived. They gave him so much to eat that he got sick and called the place Sukishva, [*265] nettle. "My stomach is nettle," burns, he said. He was so poor that he did nothing but go from place to place to get something to eat.

There is a place below here where he washed his hands, and called it Kaiyawahuna. [*266] He did this on a flat rock where one















[p. 152]

can still see his footprints, and see where he knelt on the soft rock. There are footprints of deer there too.

He came to La Jolla and called it Huyama; [*267] and the place next to that he called Namila. [*268] He went in a ravine [*269] and called it Sovoyama, [*270] because it felt chilly.

He made a sort of whistling noise and called the next place Puma. [*271]

He saw people feasting when his stomach was empty, and called that place Yapichi, [*272] where the government Indian schoolhouse at Yapichi now is.

When he came to where Mendelhall lives now, the people were eating. He had a good meal there and called the place Tumka. [*273]

In the canon he drank water and called it Pala, water, and Pame, little water. [*274]

He went on and came to Rincon. It was muddy there and he called it Yohama. [*275]

He came to Bear Valley, where he fainted from hunger. He called it Nakwama. [*276]

He came to the water. He had something with him in a basket, and this he threw out, and it still grows there in the water, a sort of greens, called Mawut.

Then he went below Pala to a place where they ground pinole for him so fine that he could not handle it, and was disappointed. They mixed it with poison to kill him. It made him sick, and he traveled toward home. He died on the way, and turned into a rock which still stands near Temecula, two or three miles south.

They say that a priest once went out and baptized this rock because the people told him it was a man.























Footnotes

^151:260 See above under "Ceremonial Songs," record number 409.

^151:261 See song record 409.

^151:262 Pichaang, now Pichanga; Awa', locative Awanga, now Aguanga or Aguango.--S. Awa, present series, IV, 147.

^151:263 Chakuli.--S.

^151:264 Poyarak.--S.

^151:265 Shakishva, a place on Palomar mountain; shakishla, stinging nettle.--S.

^151:266 Kayawahana.--S.

^152:267 Huyamai, a place, not La Jolla.--S.

^152:268 Namila, a place near La Jolla.--S.

^152:269 A ravine between the Mission house and Leandro's place.

^152:270 Sovoyamai, where the La Jolla schoolhouse now stands.--S.

^152:271 Pumai, a hill on Potrero rancho.--S.

^152:272 Yapichi.--S.

^152:273 Tomka, valley on Potrero ranch.--S.

^152:274 Pala, water; Pamai, in San Luis Rey canon above Rincon.--S.

^152:275 Yuhwamai, muddy place, near Rincon; yuhwala, mud.--S.

^152:276 Possibly Makwimai, a place near Rincon.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 153]

  

THE SPIRIT WIFE.

Some years ago the people from the Potrero district used to go up to an old village site on Palomar mountain, Pahamuk, [*277] near where Bailey's place is now, at the season for gathering acorns; and while they still lived there, a young man abused his wife. He scolded and beat her all the time, and she was always sad. She got sick and did not want to live. She would rather die.

She had a little baby boy just beginning to crawl. Soon the woman died, and the man was left alone with his baby. He had to carry the baby about with him all the time, and the baby cried.

The man went up the mountain to gather acorns, and left the baby lying under a tree. The baby cried and cried, until at last the spirit of the mother came and took the baby in her arms.

The man came down the mountain and found the woman there. She spoke to him and said that he had been so cruel to her that she had had to leave him; but that now he must never be unkind to her again. She had come back to him because he and the baby were suffering without her. She could stay with him as long as he was kind to her, but no longer.

So he promised never to treat her harshly again.

She used to make the wiwish, acorn mush; [*277] but it was never good. It was always watery. The man was sure he would never abuse his wife again. But when she made the mush just as she used to, and it was thin, he acted as before and lifted his hand to beat her.

"You promised not to be angry," she said, "but now you are doing the same as formerly. I see that you cannot be trusted to be good. So now I shall have to leave you." With this she turned into a dove and flew away.

The man fell on his back; and he and his baby stayed alone.





Footnotes

^153:277 Ibid.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 154]

  

THE DANCE OF THE SPIRITS.

There were two large villages in old times, Kamak, where Potrero is now, [*278] and Ahoya near where Sparkman's store is at Rincon, [*279] where one leaves the sycamore trees.

When it was time to gather the acorns, all the people of Kamak left their houses empty and went up on Palomar Mountain.

An old man named Pautovak came up from Ahoya, and stopped at Kamak, thinking he would stay all night and go on in the morning. He took one of the enormous storage baskets, mushkwanish, [*280] that was empty, inverted it over himself for shelter, and went to sleep.

Early during the night he heard people call out the summons to a dance. He lay and listened.

There were children among the people, little boys, and they came near the granary basket, and there was a torn place in it where the toes of the old man were sticking out. The boys said "the devil" (a spirit) was there, and ran away.

The old man could recognize the voices of men and women who had died long ago. He could hear the spirits talk and hear them laugh. One was Exwanyawish, [*281] the woman that was turned into a rock, and Piyevla, [*282] the man that scooped the rock with his fingers. [*283] Piyevla sang that night all the songs that had been his when alive.

The old man could hear the women's songs as they danced. He lay awake all night and listened; till at last, just before dawn, he could not wait any longer, but determined to see them for himself; so suddenly throwing off the basket, he said, "Hai, are you there? " and immediately all the spirits turned into a flock of birds and flew away; and the turtle-shell rattle they had used all night for the dancing he found where they had left it, but now it was nothing but a piece of soaproot.















Footnotes

^154:278 Kama', near Potrero; Kuka, a village near where Potrero now is.--S.

^154:279 Ahuya, old village site above Rincon on road toward Potrero.--S.

^154:280 Ibid.--S.

^154:281 Exvongawish (x German ch), of Exva.--S.

^154:282 Peyevla, large basket; a hole in a rock at Potrero.--S.

^154:283 See below, the account of ancestral landmarks.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 155]

  

THE SPRING BEHIND THE CEMETERY.

A man was going out to get some yucca, and went to the spring. He had a stick in his hand, and he dropped it into the water, and it sank so deep he could not get it. He was a witch, so he went down under the water to look for the stick.

And he came out into a place where a man and woman lived who sat there making baskets.

"Who are you, cousin, and where do you come from? What are you doing here?" they asked.

"I live up there, and I came down to look for the stick which I lost."

He stayed there three days. He was very thirsty, so the woman gave him a little shell full of water. He drank and drank, and still the shell was full of water. He was hungry and they gave him honey to eat.

Then he began to wish for his home, and the man who lived there saw that he wanted to leave them; so he said he might go if he would promise never to tell where he had been. If he told this secret the rattlesnake would immediately bite him and he would die. So the man promised not to tell, and they painted him all over and pushed him out, and he found himself in his own home.

His wife and his brother asked where he had been, but he would not tell them. His wife was determined to find out, and gave him no peace day or night until at last he consented to tell her.

"I shall be killed for telling this," he said, so he called all the people together and told them he must die; and he wanted them to burn his body in a certain open level place where there was no water; but after his ashes were buried there, water would come up and there would be a nice spring.

So he went out of his house, and a rattlesnake was there which bit him, and he died.

The people got wood for the funeral pile, and burned his body and buried his ashes. There was no water in this place, but two or three days after there was a spring of water there. One can see it now behind the cemetery, and fresh coals, pieces of charcoal, are always rising where the water bubbles up.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 156]

  

THE WALKING TAMYUSH.

The Tamyush, sacred stone bowls, were never made. They were among the first people, born of the Earth-mother. If the chief in whose charge they are, does not take good care of them they go away.

They have been seen going along the road, and one can follow their track in the dust. It is like a rattlesnake track, but broader.

At Pichanga one lately came there. A raven was seen flying along above the road, and every now and then he swooped down as if following some object. A man went to see what was there, and found the Tamyush. It had been coming along the road to Pichanga. He took it to his home and they had a big ceremony over it. The man is dead now.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

HOW COYOTE KILLED THE FROG.

Coyote was going along. He was a man then, and had a bow and arrows. He came to Wahawut, the frog, who was making a large granary basket.

He went around her with his bow and arrows; and she thought, "My nephew, I believe you are thinking of killing me." She knew what he was thinking.

Coyote said, "No, I am not."

Then she said, "If you shoot me with your arrow, wherever you hit me water will run out and drown you."

"No, I don't believe it," said Coyote.

So he made ready his arrow and shot her, and ran away as fast as he could.

As soon as the arrow struck her, the water began to run out.

He came to a tree [*284] and climbed into it; and the water reached it, and made a big lake around it. It rose and rose, and Coyote climbed up higher into the tree. He felt that he was near his death and began singing about his brother, his relatives, and friends. [*285]





[p. 157]

The birds came close about the tree, and told him that if he jumped down they would catch him on their backs and carry him safe to land. He believed them, jumped from the tree, fell into the water, and was drowned.



Footnotes

^156:284 Chehenahut, a tall green tree.

^156:285 Song record 1091, above.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

THE FLOOD. [*286]

There is a wonderful little knoll, near Bonsall, the Spanish name of it Mora, the Indian name Katuta; [*287] and when there was a flood that killed all the people, some stayed on this hill and were not drowned. All the high mountains were covered, but this little hill remained above the water. One can see heaps of seashells and seaweed upon it, and ashes where those people cooked their food, and stones set together, left as they used them for cooking; and the shells were those of shell-fish they caught to eat. [*288]

They stayed there till the water went down. From the top of this hill one can see that the high mountains are lower than it is. This hill was one of the First People. [*289]













Footnotes

^157:286 Told by Lucario Cuevish.

^157:287 Or Katuktu; see song records 395 and 398 above.--Katukto.--S.

^157:288 The hills near Del Mar and other places along the coast have many such heaps of sea-shells, of the species still found on the beaches, piled in quantities.

^157:289 See song record 398, above.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 158]

  

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE.

  

ANCESTRAL LANDMARKS AND DESCENT OF SONGS.

After the water dried, the people went on to Kalaupa, [*290] and killed a bear there, and held a council whether they should go any further. They decided to go on, and went to Elsinore where the lake is. From there they scattered, north, south, east, and west, in parties as they are now. The people of La Jolla stayed in one place; those of Rincon in another, and so on. When they scattered in this way they composed the songs about their travels and the different places where they stopped. These are the songs of Munival.

When the people scattered from Ekvo Temeko, Temecula, they were very powerful. When they got to a place they would sing a song to make water come there, and would call that place theirs; or they would scoop out a hollow in a rock with their hands to have that for their mark as a claim upon the land. The different parties of people had their own marks. For instance, Albanas's ancestors had theirs, and Lucario's people had theirs, and their own songs of Munival to tell how they traveled from Temecula, of the spots where they stopped and about the different places they claimed.

Wasimul, one of the Temecula people, who is now a small flat rock at Rincon in the field below the store, was one of Pio Amago's ancestors, and he has a song about it. It mentions Temecula and mentions Wasimul. Lucario cannot sing this song because it does not belong to his family.

Piyevla, [*291] the man who scooped out a rock on the hill near Albanas's house at La Jolla, was one of Lucario's ancestors; and the turtle rock in the same locality was brought from Temecula by one of Lucario's ancestors and left there. The oak tree growing on this rocky knoll was called long ago Pecheya, sacred feather headdress. (.) The place itself is called





[p. 159]

Popikvo. The sliding place on a large rock in Trujillo's field adjoining Popikvo, was made smooth by Lucario's ancestors sliding on it.

One of the most striking rocks in this locality of ancient monuments is the painted rock, Exwanyawish [*292] which was one of the Temecula people, a woman, who turned into this form. Indians suffering bodily pain rub against the rock to obtain relief. It is not known when the painting on the hollowed side was done, nor when the sacred stones, wiala, were poised on top. The oldest man remembers that they were always there, though the touch of a hand might overturn them. (.)

In those days they used to sing songs to kill each other by witchcraft, and Lucario knows these songs. He has one of them which mentions the turtle rock, and tells how it was left there. [*293] The large flat rock is divided by cracks which resemble the marks on the turtle's back.

Lucario is the last of his line, party, or clan, and everything sacred will be lost when he is gone, as the succession in these things ends with him. He is dispossessed from his ancient home place, which was allotted to another.

Each man knows the migration route of his ancestors, and claims certain localities as having been theirs. They did not travel great distances, according to tradition. Salvador says that when the people scattered from Temecula all the tribes had names, but many are dead and few now living. He does not know the name of his own tribe. They are called by themselves Western people. [*294] When they scattered, the people traveled in parties of two or three families, and they would claim the land where they stopped, though they might have left it and gone further and others might have occupied it later. This led to a great deal of fighting. The La Jolla people would fight the Potrero people. A man could not go from Potrero to San Jacinto without danger of being killed by some enemy.

The family songs of Munival mention the marks made by the earliest Temecula people when they took possession of certain







[p. 160]

localities. Every family or "party" had its own songs, and no man is allowed to sing a song belonging to another family connection. It would be an unpardonable offense against custom. Lucario was quite indignant when it was suggested that his song of the eagle dance might have been heard at Mesa Grande. One of the songs in his version of the creation myth belongs to the Calacs, so that he could not sing it but only refer to it.

The subject matter of the song series in all the lines of descent or "parties" is the same. All the singers have songs mentioning the same places and subjects; but Juan de Dios's song of Ouiot, for instance, would be entirely different from Lucario's in tune and arrangement.

This may also account for the variation in the myth versions, as the songs are part of the story, and the rigid separation of songs among family groups must have resulted in certain differences in the transmission of traditions.

Inheritance in these unsubstantial things is strictly observed until the family line is extinct. My Indian driver once pointed out a distant cliff of gray rocks, tall and forbidding, far from a human habitation, and informed me that an eagle had its nest on that cliff, and that this eagle belonged to Maria Subish.

This means that she is the last of a line in which the possession of this eagle eyrie was hereditary. The old eagle never dies, it is thought, hence may descend as the songs do. The young ones from this locality may have been caught for the performance of the eagle ceremony in this family.



Footnotes

^158:290 Kalaupa, mountain near Santa Margarita.--S.

^158:291 See the story of the Dance of the Spirits, ante.--Peyevla, a hollow rock near Potrero.--S.

^159:292 Exvongawish (x German ch), of Exva, a place near Temecula; Exvayam, people of Exva.--S.

^159:293 See song record 396, above.

^159:294 The Diegueno also give themselves this name.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

CLANS OR TRADITIONAL GROUPS.

At the present day no trace of tribal consciousness exists; but a division can still be traced into what may be called clans; though the little information gained is so vague in character that no definite conclusion can be based upon it.

The interpreter thus tries to explain the division into these parties or clans. Jose's uncle has one name, and Jose's father has another; but the latter and others belong to the uncle's "party." They do not have to be related, but anyone can join the party who wants to. It is like church membership, he says,

[p. 161]

or like Masons and Oddfellows. Some chiefs did not have many ceremonial objects, and did not perform any ceremonies: but to Jose's uncle descended the hereditary performance of Mani, the toloache ceremony. In earliest times the family name was Naxyum. Now they are called Calac. When they scattered from Temecula, the Naxyum family brought their tamyush, toloache bowls, with them, and the other families did not bring any, or not many; and they brought the fire songs to put out the fire in the toloache ceremony: and they brought an eagle with them; rind as they came along they put him in one of the canons, and he is still there. They used to catch the young ones in this place for the ceremony. The Naxyum were a big family of brothers. They were all related. After they had found there was to be death, at the death of Ouiot, the Naxyum took the tamyush, while others did not take anything. They would sing the songs of Munival to tell how they traveled from Temecula to Rincon, where they now live as the Calacs.

The people from Temecula called themselves Exvayum. [*295] Temecula was ruined after Ouiot died, so they scattered in groups. The Dieguenos went off with a separate language when they left Temecula.

The groups were originally related, but they kept changing names, so that they have not the same names now, but have the same ancestors.

The songs show who are related. Only those of the same group can sing the same songs. Jose's father's traveling songs are different from Lucario's. The songs descended from father to son and the old people were eager to teach the songs to those in the same family, but not to outsiders. But if an old man is the last of his line, like Lucario, it is then permissible for him to leave his songs to another in a different "party."

When Albanas was a boy, his father was killed, and his mother died soon after. He was brought up by a circle of old people, each of Whom in turn instructed him in the family songs.

Some of the chiefs had very few ceremonies, did not know much. Only the most important ones could lead the ceremonies.





Footnotes

^161:295 Exvayam (x German ch), people of Exva, a place near Temecula.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 162]

  

STAR LORE AND CALENDAR.

The stars were those of the First People who went up into the sky in the attempt to escape from death when it became known that the death of Ouiot had brought death to all upon earth.

In the old times much more was known about the stars than at present. Songs remain containing the names of stars which cannot now be identified. It is possible that the motions of the planets were recognized, but today Venus seems to be the only one distinguished by a special name. Venus is Aylucha, [*296] that which is left over from evening till morning, food or anything of the kind.

Only the most important stars have names. They were the chiefs among the First People, and they took their parties of adherents or relatives with them, which are now the stars grouped about the chief star, but without individual names.

The associated stars form much larger groups than those which we have adopted from antiquity; and when the Luiseno system is understood, there is something more impressive in it than in the haphazard arrangement of the Greeks and Romans. The oldest and most important star-chiefs, those most often mentioned, are Nukulish, Antares, and Yungavish (buzzard), Altair. The right hand of Antares, Nukulish po-ma, Nukulish his-hand, is Arcturus. Rising always in advance of Antares, it heralds his coming. All the other stars grouped around and between are the people of Antares, a large following.

In the same way Yungavish po-ma, the right hand of Altair, is Vega. The feather headdress of Altair, Pecheya Yungavish, [*297] is a star close to and immediately above it.

The Luisenos regard the Milky Way as the spirit, the home of our spirits, to which they are sent when leaving the earth. The long series of songs of Kwinamish define their beliefs concerning the spirit. These songs are extremely difficult of interpretation and explanation, for they include words unused in ordinary life, and ideas that would have been puzzling in the old days to any but the initiated. The instruction concerning the things of the





[p. 163]

spirit given to the candidate in the toloache ceremony, as explained by the symbol Wanawut, has already been referred to. The exact character of this can never be discovered; nor in just what manner it symbolizes these ideas.

One of the songs of Kwinamish, already given, begins: Tomamik Yula Wanawut poponakala ponyarakala auma, to the north the spirit in carefully woven strings remains tied. The striking peculiarity in the Luiseno use of sacred terms, the doubling of the word, has been referred to. Wanal Wanawut has been explained. Yula Wanawut has almost exactly the same significance. Yula means spirit, and literally head or hair. It is possible that in ancient times the object Wanawut was made of hair, as were the bracelets and anklets used in the girls' ceremony. In the creation myth one of the first states of existence, out of which Earth and Sky came by successive transitions, was called Whaikut Piwkut, explained as something silvery gray, like the glimmering of dawn or the gray hair of old age. In one of the earlier notes made, the explanation identifies Whaikut Piwkut with the Milky Way. It is possible that Whaikut Piwkut was the pre-existing form of the Milky Way, which in that case would have preeminence over Earth and Sky. Its silvery glimmer is suggested by the term; hut all this is involved in uncertainty.

The other chiefs of the first people now seen as stars of the first magnitude are Waonesh, [*298] Spica; Nawiwit Chawachwish, [*299] Fomalhaut; and Tukmishwut, [*300] the North star. Hulaish [*301] is Orion, and Chehaiyam [*302] the Pleiades. These two are always named together.

Tukmishwut, the North star, [*303] remains motionless, and all his people, the members of his "party," move in a circle about him. This is the reason the dancing and marching are in a circle around the sacred enclosure, the fire, and so on. His hand and heart are both to be seen in the sky. The outlines of these figures, traced













[p. 164]

in tiny sixth-magnitude stars, are only to be seen in an atmosphere entirely free from moisture as well as from clouds. Three fingers are outlined, the blunt one having been bitten off; and the heart is placed among them, its point reaching to the horizon beneath. Albanas's grandfather taught him the outlines of this constellation of the North star in the evenings when the little boy sat by the hearth fire, tracing the figure in the sparks of little live coals upon the earth floor of the hut () .


Click to enlarge
Fig. 3.--Heart and three fingers of north star.


At the time when the stars went up in the sky to escape death, the Pleiades, Chehaiyam, were seven young women, sisters; and when they went up a rope was let down for them to climb on.

Coyote came along, and as there was no man with them he said, "I will go with you, girls." They did not answer him, but he took hold of the rope and kept on going up after them. But when they were safely up, they cut the rope and Coyote fell backwards. There is always a star following them, Aldebaran, and this is Coyote.

Orion went up at the same time.

The eclipse of the moon is the physical manifestation of Ouiot's sickness when he counted the months expecting to die. When the eclipse clears off, Moyla, Ouiot, gets well again.

At the time of the eclipse they sing the songs of Pikmakvul.

The moon was sent up into the sky to watch the people and regulate everything, and all goes according to the moon. Especially is this so in regard to women who have their menses, but men are also affected by it, and become strong or weak as the moon waxes and wanes

[p. 165]

Mr. F. S. Sparkman in his unpublished dictionary of the Luiseno language says:

"The Luiseno year was divided into eight periods, each of which was again divided into two parts. Periods of time were not represented by these divisions, which merely indicated when certain fruits and ripened, grass began to grow, trees came into leaf in the valley, or on the mountain, etc.

"The following are the divisions of the year:

         	Tasmoi-mal alu'mal

      	Tasmoyil mokat

     
     	Tauna-mal alu'mal

      	Tawut mokat

     
     	Tausun-mal alu'mal

      	Tausanal mokat

     
     	Tovuk-mal alu'mal

      	Tovakal mokat

     
     	Nova'no-mal alu'mal

      	Novanut mokat

     
     	Pahoi-mal alu'mal

      	Pahoyil mokat

     
     	Nemoi-mal alu'mal

      	Nemoyil mokat

     
     	Somoi-mal alu'mal

      	Somoyil mokat

     
   "It will be seen that the first word of the name given to the first part of each period has the diminutive suffix -mal affixed to it, while the second word of the name, alu'mal, means thin or lean. Therefore this means something like the small lean part of the period. Mokat, the second word of the name given to the second part of each period, means large, therefore the second parts are spoken of as the large parts. But it is not necessary to use the words alu'mal and mokat; the other words may be used alone.

It has been impossible to ascertain exactly what periods of the year are represented by these divisions; informants reply differently."

The names of these "months" are all taken from the physical features of different seasons. Tausunmal, August, means everything is brown and sear. Tovukmal refers to the little streams of water washing the fallen leaves. Tasmoimal means that the rain has come and grass is sprouting. In Nemoimal the deer grow fat. The "months" are marked by the rising of certain magnitude stars counted in the early morning. [*304]





Footnotes

^162:296 Eluchax (x German ch).--S.

^162:297 Yungavsh po-eheya, buzzard his-headdress.--S.

^163:298 Waunish, a star.--S.

^163:299 Ngoiwut chawochmush, a star.--S.

^163:300 Tukmi iswutum pomshun, or tukmi iswut, the north star.--S.

^163:301 Hula'chum, the three stars of Orion.--S.

^163:302 Chehaiyam, Pleiades.--S.

^163:303 His finger was bitten off by the rattlesnake. Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore, XIX, 54, 1906.

^165:304 The Diegueno year was divided into six months and the morning rising of five chief stars was noted. The names of the months are: Hutlnamashap, Hutltai, Hutlpswi, Hutlkwurx, Hutlmatanai, Hutlanaxa.

The Diegueno constellations are altogether different from the Luiseno, and based upon totally different ideas. It has not been possible to secure an accurate account of them; but it seems that there is no one consistent idea to account for them as with the Luisenos, whose superior intellectuality is shown in their power of generalization; but it is probable that with the Dieguenos as with us, they represent each a different myth concept.

Orion is called Mu in Manzanita Diegueno, Emu at Mesa Grande, the word meaning mountain sheep. This apt name is given from the perfectly defined horns of the mountain sheep which can be traced on one side of the constellation as we see it, in tiny stars.

It is said that Scorpio is with the Dieguenos a boy with a bow and arrow.

The Diegueno conception of the Milky Way was probably adopted by them from the Luisenos along with the rest of the Chungichnish religion.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 166]

  

THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC.

Music was invented in the earliest times, and Lion, Frog, Eagle, Raven, Deer, and others were the first musicians.

The instrument they used to play on was a flute made of a hollow elder stern or piece of cane, having four holes. It is extremely difficult to play upon this primitive instrument, and only one old Indian at present knows the tunes and the art of playing them.

The First People had a contest to see who could play the best tune, the condition being that the whole of each piece invented by them should be played upon the flute in one breath. So, having composed each a tune, they met at the appointed place to play in turn.

Coyote was artful enough to compose his tune with many pauses in the measure; and at each pause he would secretly draw his breath. So he won in every contest, till it came to be the turn of the Lizard, and he had  watched all the time to see how Coyote did it. So when they had a contest, Lizard did just the same, pausing and secretly drawing his breath, as Coyote did; till at last Coyote forgot to do this and stopped, and Lizard beat him in the contest.




      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



[p. 167]

  

APPENDIX I.

  

GAMES, ARTS, AND INDUSTRIES OF THE DIEGUENOS AND LUISENOS. [**]

  

By CONSTANCE GODDARD DUBOIS.

The Dieguenos had many gambling games which were simply contests of skill. One was played by throwing a stick at a rolling hoop. Men and women had different but somewhat similar games, played by throwing sticks marked with certain figures, and counting so many for the throw, which are quite complicated and not easily understood unless illustrated. The men's game called "quince" is named from the Spanish, but is probably much older than that would suggest.

The most important game is "peon," which has almost the value of a religious ceremonial. It is played at midnight on the occasion of an Indian fiesta. A shaman should lead each side, and all his power must be exerted for the success of his village, the challengers being visitors from a distance.

Sides are chosen and money in considerable quantity is staked on the result. Wooden counters are used as in all the games to mark the score. White and black "sticks" made of bone fastened by a string are tied securely to the fingers of the players, so there can be no cheating, but all depends on skill or quickness of observation.

The players of one side, kneeling in a row upon the ground, are covered to the waist with a blanket which hides all motion as they arrange the pieces of bone upon the finger. While doing this, the better to confuse the observation of the opponents, they sway from side to side emitting the most unearthly series of repeated sounds in measured time to the accompaniment of the women's songs.



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When they are ready the blanket is dropped, and the other side must guess the location of the small disk of bone concealed in the hand of the player, whose name is called while the hands are clapped and pointed with lightning rapidity first to one and then to another in the row. The points are counted and awards made by the leader or "umpire" in the game.

Gambling with the Indians satisfied that instinct for recreation and excitement which in civilized man finds expression in the countless amusements good and bad which he devises for his leisure hours. Peon is thrilling even to a bystander; but all is managed with the precision and self-restraint which is inherited from primitive days, when every act was in some sense a religious ceremonial.

As is the case in all primitive tribes, basketry and pottery rank first in importance among the industrial arts of the Dieguenos and Luisenos.

The former used pottery not only for domestic purposes, but in the form of burial vessels, ollas, for the preservation of the ashes of the dead. After the body was burned, the ashes and bones were collected and deposited in the pottery receptacle or olla, and carefully buried in some secret place. The whereabouts of some of the burial ollas are still known to the initiated. Others have been discovered by chance by tourists and collectors. With the Indians, to betray the secret would be to profane the most sacred things of their religion. Fortunately two fine specimens of these rare objects have lately been secured. [*305] They were found buried among fallen granite rocks in a distant canon of the mountains near a deserted Indian village. They contained bits of burned bones, charcoal, arrow-heads, etc.

Next in importance were the large storage pots or ollas for the seed supply of the family. The seeds, carefully harvested, were deposited in these receptacles, which were hidden among heaps of rocks in canons or on almost inaccessible mountain sides, discouraging discovery, but allowing the members of the household to resort to this granary in time of need.

One fine specimen collected for the American Museum of Natural History was made by the grandfather of the man of



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sixty-five who sold it; and he remembers going as a little boy at night with his grandfather to this secret storehouse. This vessel was photographed, and also the inaccessible rocky hillside, near the top of which it had been hidden among the rocks.

In the Ballena district, eight miles or so from Mesa Grande, there is an exceedingly interesting painted rock which marks the site of a prehistoric village. The flat rocks near by show the round holes left by the departed grinders of seeds, grains, and acorns. But the most remarkable feature of the place consists in the circles of stones grouped on top of the hillock as if huddled together for protection against the foe.

Upon first examination it seemed that these circles had been the foundations of Indian houses, though of what material the superstructure had been made it was impossible to conjecture. They were formed of loose boulders rolled into place, and showed no trace of other building material. They were singularly small in circumference if houses were to be erected upon them.

Later the probable explanation of these circles was found in Venegas. Venegas writes: "The people near Cape San Lucas make huts of the branches of trees. In other parts of the country, their houses are only a little space inclosed with stones laid one upon another, half a yard high, one yard square, and without any covering but the heavens; dwellings indeed so scanty and mean that an European tomb would here be reckoned a palace. For within this small precinct they have not room to lie at full length; so that they sleep in a sitting posture."

This exactly describes the stone circles at Spring Hill. It would be interesting to know from what locality Venegas's description was derived, and to trace the connection between the tribes making the stone circles in Lower and Southern California.

It is evident that the site in question was abandoned in very early times, possibly before the Diegueno occupation of the country, for no tradition remains to explain these monuments.

They are described in this connection to account for a rare specimen of pottery collected for the American Museum of Natural History, an ancient vessel with a base, found on this village site. The shape is quite unlike those made by the Dieguenos, who so far as known never made ollas with bases.

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Venegas mentions very little pottery among the Indians of the peninsula, crediting only one tribe with the making of pottery cups. It was at one time imagined that pottery was not native to the California Indians. But it is certain that it existed in some localities from early times. Tiny pottery vessels were used in the Image ceremony among the southernmost Dieguenos and allied Indians, hung in a net about the neck of the image, to supply food and drink to the spirit of the departed. Domestic utensils of every shape were made, cups, bowls, jars, and pots. A rude decoration was lately made at Manzanita, and some good specimens of small decorated pieces have been collected.

Basketry existed in great perfection in the old days.

The sacred ceremonial baskets of the Luisenos have already been described. The great granary baskets of the Dieguenos are alluded to in the myths. The bestowing of baskets upon the visiting guests who assisted in performing the various ceremonials has already been mentioned. Beautiful baskets were burned with the other possessions of the dead.

It is this burning of household belongings which makes the collecting of ancient specimens of the sort an almost impossible task. Only a few ceremonial objects remain. The things worn and used in daily life have been destroyed.

Weaving was practiced in a rude way in early and later times. All of these Indians had rabbit-skin blankets, worn in cold weather as a cloak. They were made by twisting the strips of the skin into a rope and weaving this as the warp, with strings of milkweed or yucca twine for the woof.

That more elaborate woven goods were manufactured like those alluded to by Venegas, girdles, fillets, and so on, is by no means impossible, since the burning of household effects would account for the non-existence of such at present.

One fine example of Diegueno weaving is the woven sack now in the National Museum, described and figured in Professor Mason's book on Aboriginal American Basketry (Pl. 203, p. 487). It is made of two varieties of milkweed fibre twine woven in alternate bands of the white and red. It is twenty-nine inches high and was made for the storage of seeds. It was discovered hidden in the brush walls of an Indian hut owned by two aged

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brothers. Its manufacture long antedated their memory of the past.

Women's skirts of peeled elder or willow bark were made in the simplest way, but a certain amount of weaving was necessary at the top to hold the dependent fringes in place about the waist. Little girls wore petticoats of reddish milkweed twine netted at the top and hanging in fringes.

Netting was universally practiced, the reddish twine being in favor in the mountains near Warner's ranch, where the red-bark milkweed grows; and the yucca fibres being used farther south and towards the desert.

Carrying nets, bags of various sorts, prickly pear cleaners (loose long pouches closed at each end, in which the fruit was gathered and shaken to rid it of its prickles), and so on, were manufactured in this way.

Two sorts of netting stitches are seen, to correspond with the two different regions mentioned above.

At Mesa Grande and Warner's ranch the common netting stitch called the "bowline on a bight" was and is used. In the southern mountains, the Manzanita region, the double loop or square knot is used. [*306]

The Luiseno netting stitch has not been investigated. Sandals made of yucca fibre very neatly arranged or woven are still worn at Manzanita.

A little brush for sweeping the metate stone is manufactured with great precision, the fibres bound with knotted and twisted twine.

Although coiled basketry is common among Luisenos and Dieguenos, the twined weave was known and is still used to a certain extent. The chakwhit, [*307] Luiseno ceremonial basket, also used by men on a staff hung over the shoulder, was twined, as





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are the Diegueno basket hats still worn in the Manzanita region. Sifting baskets are made in an openwork twined mesh. The cheyut, [*308] Luiseno ceremonial basket used with the coiled tukmul, was twined in flat plaque shape, but is not now to be found in existence. A sacred basket in jar shape was probably twined.

The immense granary baskets made in circular form with a lid, and placed on high rocks or on a framework of poles to secure their contents from the depredations of rodents, are made in a rough twining or interlacing.

Small rudely twined baskets of the same sort were used about the house.

A rare and obsolete form of basket was made by piercing splints of symmetrical shape laid close together and stringing them on twine.

Stone arrow-heads were made within the memory of old people now living; but the sacred flints set on sticks, paviut, were not made, being born of the Earth-mother.

The common grinding mortars and metate stones were made. Very beautiful metates set on three legs, hewn of solid stone, were manufactured at the Missions; [*309] but the sacred symmetrical toloache bowls were born of the Earth-mother as people, and were later transformed into their present shape.

Many rare and interesting objects were collected at the command of the early missionaries by their shaman converts and burned as a renunciation of heathenism. As many have probably perished by degrees during Spanish, Mexican, and American occupation in Southern California.

It is not safe to generalize in a negative way from any lack of existing specimens.

Some of the old shaman's sticks from near the desert show rude inlaid work in abalone fragments glued with mescal or other juice. Decorations of feathers, of powdered mica, of beads or disks of mica, and abalone were used. Hair was woven into bracelets and anklets. The eagle-feather skirt was manufactured with twined and netted milkweed fibre, sometimes colored red with the iron scum of springs burned into paint. At the end of





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every lowest loop an eagle feather was inserted, hung by the stiff end of the hollow quill bent upon itself. The ends of the strings were left long to fasten about the waist. Feather headdresses were sometimes made with a buckskin cap to which the bunches of feathers were sewn; more commonly of a headband into which the bunches, owl-feathers tied on sticks, were inserted. Painted boards of various sorts were used in ceremonies, now mostly lost. One bull-roarer still exists.

We are enumerating the merest fragments of a past that was undoubtedly rich in objects of native art and industry.



Footnotes

^167:* The following notes on the culture of the Luiseno and Diegueno were incidentally obtained by Miss DuBois during her stay among them while she was engaged in the study of their religion.--Ed.

^168:305 See Amer. Anthr. IX, pl. XXIX, 1907.

^171:306 The bowline on a bight is made by bringing the shuttle over before the stick, up through the loop of the last row, behind both lines of the loop and down in front of both lines and through the loose loop of new thread on the stick.

The square knot is made by bringing the shuttle behind the stick, up through the loop of the last row, behind both lines of the loop and down between both lines of the loop, over the first and under the second line, pulling backwards and towards the left.

^171:307 Cha'kwut, openwork rush basket for gathering acorns, cactus, etc.--S.

^172:308 Cheyit, openwork rush basket for sifting.--S.

^172:309 Probably under Mexican influence.--Ed.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



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APPENDIX II.

  

NOTES ON THE LUISENOS.

  

By A. L. KROEBER.

The subjoined information regarding Luiseno beliefs and customs was given principally by Felix Calac of Rincon, and Pachito, an old man of Pauma, in 1904. Pachito was born at the old village site by the Pauma cemetery, not far from the present rancheria of Pauma, and neither he, his father, nor his grandfather, lived at the San Luis Rey mission.

Besides mourning ceremonies of various kinds--five are mentioned below, the Luiseno possessed puberty or initiation rites for both boys and girls. Those for girls have been described as follows: [*310]

Girls' Puberty Ceremony.

A fire was made in a hole in the ground. In this tule was placed. The girls were laid on this on their backs. Two flat stones were heated and laid on their abdomens. Several girls, generally relatives, were usually put through the ceremony at once. They were called as, and the ceremony weghenish. The ceremony lasted four or five days. A headdress of a plant called engwish [*311] was worn by the girls for several months after the ceremony. During this period they could neither eat meat nor fish. The duration of this restriction does not seem to have been altogether fixed. The longer it was observed the better it was thought to be for the girls. In some cases it is said to have lasted a year. The ceremony was performed in order to make good women of the girls. They were talked to by their relatives and advised to be good and to give water and food to people.

The conclusion of the girls' period of restrictions at puberty was marked by paintings made by them on the smooth surfaces of large granite boulders. These paintings, some of which can





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Click to enlarge
Fig. 4.--Remains of red rock-paintings made by girls after weghenish ceremony at Sheva, an old village site a mile from Rincon.


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still be seen, especially near the old village sites, consist of geometrical arrangements of red lines, usually in patterns forming vertical stripes several feet high. (.) After making her painting, a girl was again free to eat meat and salt. The paintings were called yunish. [*312]

At one period, apparently at the beginning of the ceremony, the girls ate tobacco. Several small balls of this, it is said without admixture of any other substance, were swallowed by them, after which they drank hot water. If they retained the tobacco they were said to be good; but if they vomited it, they were regarded as bad.

Boys' Puberty Ceremony.

The initiation or puberty ceremony for boys, like that for girls, included a test of fortitude. Ants, antum, were put into a hole in the ground, the boys placed into the hole, and after more ants had been thrown on them they were covered over and left for a time. Afterwards they were made to run a race. From the old village site Taghanashpa, where the Pauma graveyard still is, they would run around the hill which lies to the northeast, and back again. In connection with the ceremony the boys were also preached to, and exhorted to be good men, and strong and enduring runners.

The chief initiation of boys, which is said to have followed the ant ordeal, was accompanied by the drinking of a decoction of jimsonweed roots, Spanish toloache. This plant was called mani. The period of stupefaction lasted two or three days, or sometimes four days, but this was regarded as too heavy a dose. The boys to be initiated were caught in the evening and given the drink in the wamgush, the ceremonial enclosure, the same night. Any adult man who might happen to be uninitiated on account of having lived elsewhere in his youth, would also be made to take the drink. The boys were instructed to be good and kind-hearted and not to steal. For several months after the ceremony they could eat no meat. If they refrained for a year they were thought more highly of. After the ceremony the boys were called pumal, plural pumalum, which is equivalent in meaning to



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[paragraph continues] "initiate." The ceremony was called mani paash, toloache-drinking. It was held at irregular intervals, not annually, according as there were boys of age to be initiated. The custom is said not to have come from the divinity Wiyot, but from the tribes of the coast, who in turn derived it from the San Clemente islanders, who were brought to San Luis Rey mission. The mountain Luiseno, after learning the ceremony from the coast people, taught it to other tribes.

The plant was also used as medicine for pain in the body. Its power of bringing on visions was well known.

A part of the initiation ceremonies were connected with a ground-painting in the wamgush. The painting was made with red and yellow paint, paesul and navyot, ashes for white, and charcoal for black, on the ground which formed the background of the painting. The entire picture, which was circular and represented the world, was called torokhoish. (). The circle was bisected from north to south and from east to west. At each end of the two diameters were represented the bear and the rattlesnake. The four radii formed by the intersecting diameters, and pointing as it were to the cardinal directions, were called tamaiawot pomo, the hands of the world. Parallel to the circle on one side, and apparently outside of it, was a representation of mountains, tota-kolauwot, literally, rock-wood or stone-timber. This representation may have consisted of no more than a line. In the two quadrants of the circle farthest away from this mountain symbol, were placed representations respectively of the raven, and of the spider called kuikhingish, or the tarantula. In the center of the circle, where the two diameters intersected, was a hole perhaps a foot and a half across, called the navel. This is said to have had reference to death, to have represented the grave, and indicated to the initiates the fate that would overtake them if they disobeyed. (The ceremonial feathers of an initiate were buried in this hole after his death.) The world is thought to be tied at the north, south, east, and west with hair-ropes, yula-wanaut or yula-wanal. At each of its four ends is a little hill, khawimal, and a rod or cane, nakhat, to which one of the four hair ropes is tied. It is not clear whether this is only a cosmological conception or was also represented in the painting. The entire torokhoish

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painting "filled the wamgush," being apparently about twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. [*313]


Click to enlarge
Fig. 5.--Sand-painting, torokhoish, representing tamaiawot, the earth.


         	1. Hands (or arms) of the world.
   2. Mountain.
   3. Spider.
   4. Raven.
   5. Bear.
   6. Rattlesnake.
   7. Central hole, navel.

     
   The raven was represented in the torokhoish painting because he is thought to see the whole world and to bring good fortune if one obeys him, but to cause the death of those who do not obey ceremonial instructions or who refuse to enter ceremonies. When a raven was seen coming and cawing, "witiak" was said to him.

After having drunk the jimsonweed, and apparently toward the conclusion of the entire initiation ceremony, the boys rose and stood in a circle around the sand-painting. The initiated men



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were with them, and other people looked on from outside. An old man talked to the boys. He explained the meaning of the picture. He told how the raven would see everything, and if anyone disobeyed or thought lightly of the ceremony, the bear and the rattlesnake would kill him. Whether he went north or south or east or west he would be killed. In this way the old man instructed the boys.

A short rope made of wish, [*314] and called wanawut or wanal, whereas an ordinary rope is wichit, was laid next to the hole in the center of the painting. The boys went to the wanaut and, holding their feet together, made three jumps along on it. Thereupon they spat into the hole, thereby ending the ceremony.

When one of the initiated, the pumalum, dies, the ground-painting is again made. In the hole in the center are buried his head-dress, cheyat, and similar articles. At the end of the ceremony the initiates squat in a circle, with their hands stretched forward, growl or blow three times, and erase the painting.

When a boy had a bad dream, the initiates brought baskets of seeds and deposited them in the ceremonial enclosure, where they were divided, especially among the old people. Thereupon the initiates danced for three days. If they failed to do this the boy would be bitten by a rattlesnake and would die. Perhaps this refers to a boy dreaming while being initiated.

The ceremonial structure or wamgush, the vanquech of Boscana, is an open enclosure of brush. It is only a few feet high, so that it can be looked over from the outside. The eastern end is left open. At the north and south are small gaps used as entrances. A little distance to the east is a smaller brush enclosure in which the dancers put on their ceremonial dress. When there is dancing in the wamgush as in the tanish or dancing in connection with the toloache ceremony, the pumalum or initiated dancers stand at the western or closed end. A fire is in the middle. The singers, old men, sit at the open or east end, and behind them are women who sing. The people who are looking on are behind these. Half of the dancers proceed from the small enclosure around the southern side of the wamgush and



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enter at the north, while the other half pass around the northern end and enter from the south.

Mourning Ceremonies.

Three similar mourning ceremonies, differing in degree of elaborateness, were practiced, besides the eagle ceremony and the morahash dance. These three were the tuvish, when the clothes of the dead were washed; the djudjamish, when his clothes were burned; and the totinish or tautinish, at which images of the dead were burned and property was distributed.

At the tuvish, the first and simplest of these ceremonies, the clothes of the dead person were brought to the fire in the ceremonial enclosure and washed or gone over with water, after which they were kept to be burned at the djudjamish. There was singing throughout the tuvish, and at times men or women danced. The men three times emitted a growling or groaning sound ending in a blowing, and accompanied by the exclamation "wiau." This was done to prevent the dead spirit from being about.

The djudjamish was apparently held somewhat later, also in the ceremonial enclosure and at night, and its general course seems to have been similar to that of the tuvish. Its purpose is described as having been to sever all connection with the dead and to cause them to be forgotten. They were told not to remain about, but to go to the sky. If their clothes were not burned, their ghosts would not depart. At this ceremony the relatives of the dead wanted to think of them for the last time.

The tautinish or totinish was prepared for many months before. Women made baskets, which at the ceremony were burned or thrown among the spectators. The same was done with other property and with money. Figures representing the dead were made of tule, dressed in clothing, and burned. Visitors who attended this ceremony were given money or property by the people of the place. They were paid also for dancing. The tautinish ceremony seems to have been held at irregular intervals. Whenever the chief thought that enough people had died to warrant the ceremony being held, it was made. A recent ceremony at Pala was made for twelve persons.

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A tuvish ceremony that was seen, began in the early part of the night. There was a fire in the ceremonial enclosure. About midnight some of the people were sitting about inside, but the majority were outside in groups, talking and not paying attention to what was being done. A man holding a turtle-shell rattle was leading the singing. Near him sat several old men, while behind him, on the ground, were several women. At intervals between songs, one of the old men would speak, for about a minute at a time, in a ceremonial or oratorical style, in short detached words. This speaking resembled the declamation which is a characteristic part of Mohave ceremonies, but was less loud and the words were not so abruptly uttered. Also as among the Mohave on such occasions, the content of these speeches was said to have been much the same as the meaning of the words of the songs. Both the rattling and the singing were less monotonous than under similar circumstances among the Mohave; the rattling especially was somewhat varied. All the songs had words. Once an old woman stood up and danced. She held her feet together and her knees were somewhat bent, so that her American dress reached the ground. In consequence it was impossible to determine whether she jumped from the ground a little at each step of the dance, or whether she only raised herself on her toes. She held her hands together in front of her. Most of the time she stretched them out from the wrists, stiffening her arms. Her eyes were shut. While she danced some of the old men stamped one foot on the ground, uttering each time a growl or grunt. Usually several women dance together on this occasion, it was said. After a few songs the old woman sat down again. The principal singer was about southeast of the fire. Several other men sat on the opposite side of the fire. Some of these occasionally accompanied the singing or helped it by exclamations. The woman who danced stood east of the fire, not far from the singers. Those in the enclosure smoked freely, and children and dogs ran about it. The ceremony is said to have continued until about two in the morning.

The songs sung on occasions such as this, in part name animals, and at least at times contain references to myths. It was not learned whether or not they form a connected narrative

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series. The owl is sung of because the owl's call is a sign that some one will die. The words of the song mention the bird's call and express regret. Other songs mention the coyote, a coyote's cry near a house being an omen of death to one of the inmates. The words of one song are said to be: "I am sorry, for we must all die." Many songs are about Wiyot, especially his death. Such matters as his foretelling of the time when he would die, and his counting or naming the months until his death, are typical of the subjects of the songs.

In recent years the Indians of Pichanga had given up the mourning ceremonies. A woman of high rank, of a chief's family, had died. Then a person dreamed of Coyote. Coyote said to him: "Why do you not hold the djudjamish any longer? It is not good not to have it. I do not like it so." Then this person told the chief of his dream. He said to him: "Have you heard the coyote howling at night? That was the dead woman. She told me that she wanted us to burn the clothes of the dead again." This dream caused the resumption of the ceremony.

The eagle ceremony is a mourning ceremony for a chief. It is called ashwut maknash, eagle killing. Either an eagle or a condor is used. The people of the coast also use bald eagles and chicken hawks. The birds are taken when young from their nests in the canyons. The eagles of certain places belong to certain villages. Thus the Potrero people owned the eagles at Pachorivo. When caught, an eagle is raised by the chief. At the eagle-ceremony dancing is made during the night around a fire. Men take turns holding the eagle. As each man holds it he presses it, breaking an additional bone. At the cry, "Hu! Hu!" the dancer who is carrying the eagle gives it to another, who then dances with it until the cry is heard again. Toward morning the eagle is finally killed by a certain pressure on the heart. The relatives of the dead chief for whom the ceremony is made then cry. A blanket is laid down and the eagle put on this. The chief's relatives thereupon bring property and money, and lay them with the eagle, which is finally covered with a large basket. People whose relatives have died place the clothing and property of these on the blanket with the eagle. In return the dead chief's successor, who is holding the ceremony, seems to give these people

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an equivalent in property. The entire property placed with the eagle's body is given by the chief making the ceremony to the chief of another village, who divides it among his own people. This chief also takes the eagle, which he burns. The entire ceremony seems to be made by a son or grandson or relative, in other words the successor, of the chief in whose honor it is held, and whom the eagle represents or "calls."

A dance called morahash was performed by a single dancer in the wamgush. It would be made for a dead chief by his son, some years after his death. The young chief would hire the man who danced for him. All chiefs had such dancers; they did not dance themselves. The women sang, the men "growled" or blew, and the singer shook a turtle-shell rattle. The songs were descriptive of the dancing. The dancer was called totawish; his performance is evidently what is called the "tatahuila" dance by the present-day Diegueno, who do not acknowledge this word as their own. The dancer wore a skirt of eagle feathers, called balat; cheyat, a head-dress of a bunch of owl, crow, or raven feathers, fastened to the hair by a pin or stick; piwish, ropes of owl feathers, wound around the head or hung around the neck; and apuma, a head-dress of long eagle-feathers worn upright on the head.

This morahash dance is said to have been among the Luiseno before the toloache-ceremony. It is thought to go back to the time when the people were still in the north. It is not from Wiyot, for Wiyot did not give dances, but the people made them after his death. The morahash was first made over his ashes.

Customs and Beliefs.

The medicine man is called pula. He derives his power from dreaming. He does not dream of Wiyot, nor derive his power from him, but dreams of a rock, a mountain, a person, or something similar. Shamans were men, not women.

The shamans have songs, which they receive from the object of their dream, and which they sing to themselves. It is not known whether they also sing them while doctoring. Their stone pipes seem to be regarded as fetishes. At least shamans frequently speak to their pipes. They also blow tobacco smoke on

[p. 184]

the sick person. Sometimes they sleep near the patient, waiting for a dream in which their guardian spirit tells them how to proceed. The main reliance seems to be on sucking. Water is also spurted or blown on the patient.

When a man killed a deer, or rabbits, he brought them to the wamgush. Then the people ate the meat, but he did not partake of it. If he should eat of the meat of animals he himself had killed, even only very little, he would not be able to kill others. However if he confessed to the people that he had taken some of the meat, he would again be able to hunt successfully.

The dead went to the sky.

A menstruating woman did not mix with other people. She could not cook for them. She herself ate neither meat nor fish. She slept by herself, outside the house.

After the birth of a child both the mother and the father remained quiet. They did not cook or work. They remained lying down for twenty, thirty, or forty days. They used medicine of a plant called hulvul, [*315] boiled in water. They ate no meat. All this was done for the health of the child. When the child's navel string was cut, it was tied over the navel. After the cord fell off, it was buried.

Women were tattooed on the chin, with a vertical line down the forehead, and with a small circle on each cheek. On their wrists there were bands of tattooing and across the breast a curved band or line from which lines extended downward. Men tattooed less than women.

The following animals are said not to have been eaten: the dog, bear, coyote, lizard, frog, turtle, eagle, buzzard, and raven.

At marriage property was given to the parents of the bride. It is not certain whether this took the form of a purchase payment or merely of a customary gift. The informants questioned knew of no restrictions on communication between parents-in-law and children-in-law.

Houses and Implements.

The house consisted of a framework of posts, rafters, and poles, with a thatching of shuikawat [*316] plants. The thatching was





[p. 185]

then thickly covered with soil. The interior of the house was excavated perhaps two feet. Tule houses were built by the mountain Luiseno while at San Luis Rey mission.

The sweat-house was similar but smaller. Two forked posts were erected and connected by a log, on which poles were rested from both sides. A thatching of plants was covered with mud, and over this was put dry soil. The door was on one of the long sides. The sweat-house was not used for dancing, all such functions occurring in the wamgush enclosure. The sweat-house was regularly used for sweating in the evening, and sometimes in the morning also. After sweating in the evening, men slept in the house, not in the sweat-house. The heat in the sweat-house was produced directly by a fire, not by steam.

The mortars of the Luiseno are generally large boulders weighing perhaps two hundred pounds or more. The cavity is conical and pointed rather than rounded. The pestles are usually a foot or more long and rather unshaped. One or two sides are generally flat, as in Yokuts pestles, and the butt end, which is wider than it is thick, has a diameter of about half the length of the pestle. On the whole the pestles seem to be boulders or slabs which are little worked except at the rather pointed pounding end. The most common material is granite. A flat metate, malal, was also used.

Head-bands of human hair, called yukish, [*317] were made from hair cut off in mourning, and were worn by old men in dancing.

Nothing corresponding to a drum is said to have been used in any ceremonies. Whistles, bakhal, of cane or reed, huikish, [*318] and asphalt, shanat, were used at the boys' initiation, at the time when the boys were buried and covered with ants. The pumalum or initiated men danced in a circle on this occasion, blowing these whistles and singing in slow broken syllables. The chief musical instrument in ceremonies was the rattle. This was made of a turtle-shell, paayat, which often contained cherry-seeds. String was wound around the shell until the head and leg openings were covered. A stick was put through the top and bottom of the shell until it projected a few inches above and about a foot below.





[p. 186]

[paragraph continues] Such rattles were used in the singing in the mourning ceremonies. They were also used for the dancing in connection with the girls' puberty ceremony. At this ceremony women danced, while men, bending their bodies forward, sang and rattled, stamping one foot.

Money, auvirat or khenkhat, was made from shells called si'wal, probably a clam; khapshut, almeja; and shauvish, a large univalve of which the columella was used. The clam shells were made into small disks which were perforated and strung. The strings were measured around the circumference of the hand, much as by the Yokuts, except that the measurement seems to have been a little scantier. The end of the string was held between the tips of two fingers. The string was then passed entirely around the edge of the hand back to its beginning, and continued a second time down one side of the hand to the wrist. This measure, approximately one and a half times the circuit of the hand and fingers, was half the unit measure, which was called ponko. This full measure was also determined by taking the end of the string between two finger tips, and then passing around the elbow and back to the finger tips.





Footnotes

^174:310 Am. Anthr., n. s. VIII, 32, 1906.

^174:311 Enwish, Echinocystis macrocarpa.--S.

^176:312 Yuninish, the girls' puberty ceremony.--S. Cf. note .

^178:313 Compare the native drawing in Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 312, 1906.

^179:314 Objective case of wicha, given by Mr. Sparkman as Apocynum cannabinum, while Dr. Barrows, in his Ethno-botany of the Cahuilla , makes Cahuilla wish the name of Phragmites communis.

^184:315 Hulval, Artemisia californica.--S.

^184:316 Croton californicum.--S.

^185:317 Yula, hair; yukut, hairy; yutush, the scalp, when detached.--S.

^185:318 Elymus condensatus.--S.


      
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

PLATES.


Click to enlarge
Plate 16


Plate 16 (referred to on page <page 80> as Pl. 1). Fig. 1.--Medicine-man smoking stone pipe preparatory to swallowing wooden "sword." Fig. 2.--Medicine-man swallowing wooden "sword" about an inch wide and fourteen inches long.


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Plate 17


Plate 17 (referred to on page <page 88> as Pl. 2). Fig. 1.--A Diegueno woman sitting by a storage olla. Fig. 2.--Model of sand-painting for girls' ceremony.


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Plate 18


Plate 18 (referred to on page <page 98> as Pl. 3). Feather headband and skirt of string and feathers.


Click to enlarge
Plate 19


Plate 19 (referred to on pages <page 158>, <page 159>, as Pl. 4). Fig. 1.--The ancestral home of Lucario Cuevish. Fig. 2.--A painted rock, once a woman, on which two sacred stones are poised.


     
The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, by Constance Goddard DuBois, [1908], at sacred-texts.com



  

ERRATUM.

Page <page 79>, lines 26 and 27, for "piavala" and "piyevala" read pievala.

 

 

 

    