Creation Myths of Primitive America

Creation Myths of Primitive America is a work by Jeremiah Curtin. The title page describes Jeremiah Curtin as author of Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars, and Hero-Tales of Ireland, among others. In a Modoc myth the morning star is the attendant of the sun, and the sun can never perish, since he has an immortal golden disk in his body, a disk which contains his whole existence.

The text says the system outlined in the myths contained in this volume is that of the Wintus and Yanas, two stocks of Indians. The text says the Wintu system is remarkable for the peculiar development of the chief divinity, Olelbis, called also Nomhliëstawa. A story tells of Sedit, who shot away forty arrows while a man passed right close to him, and then sat down, thought a long time, and knew that the man must be Sas Kiemila. The text says a man who has twenty or thirty spirits is greatly limited, therefore, in his manner of living, and adds that some spirits do not like venison, others do not eat fish.