XXXVII.

p. 299

Formula of Medicine to Protect Children in Strange Places. ¹

p. 302

In the middle of this world the birds flew together in a flock. They were the children of an old woman. "Let me go and look about," she said. When she returned she said, "Come, run into Tseninme (Burnt Ranch mountain)." When the sun was down they came back. "Way up the river stands a yew tree. Come, run into the mountain which stands by that," she told them. At sundown the flock came flying back. "Come, run into Djelōme," she said. They went and returned to the middle of the world. "Come, run into the mountain east of Djictañadiñ," she told them. After a time they returned. "Come, run into

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[paragraph continues] Tsetitmilakût," she said. They did so and came back where their mother lived. "Come, run into Lōhwûnme (Bald Hill)," she told them. They went into Lōhwûnme and came back into the middle of this world. "Come, run into Lōkyō," ¹ she said to them. They came back again to the middle of this world. "Come, Xaïsdilme (Hooker's Ridge) run in," she told them. They went and came back again. "Come, run into Yidatciñdinûndiñ (Weitchpec Butte)," she said. They came back again to the middle of this world. "Come, Yīdekitciñ Tcexûneūwme, run in," she told them. When they had come back again, she said, "Come, run into Misxûstûndiñ (a mountain north of the Klamath)." They went and came back. "Come, run into Dadinmōtdiñ (a mountain at the mouth of Redwood Creek)," she told them. After they had been gone a short time they came back.

And then she said, "Come, run into Tañaime (a mountain at Trinidad)." There they made slaves of them. They put them inside of that mountain.

Finally night came and she looked for them. When it became dark she thought, "That is the only place they got into trouble." When it became very dark she looked for them. Long after night had fallen she thought, "I am going to make medicine against him. That is why I kept saying to them, 'Come, run in here and there.'"

All night long the old woman sat up; she did not lie down at all. She got up and took a water bug and put it with incense root. Then rubbing them together between her hands she dropped them into the fire. "To whomsoever took my children in," she said, "when dawn comes this smoke will blow. After them it will go there." When dawn came, thereat Tañaime (Trinidad) they smelled that incense root. That Tañaime man said, "I smell incense root. It smells on account of those children. Throw them out."

When they had been thrown out they came back. They got back to this middle world when the sun was up only a little way. When her children came back to her she asked them, "Did you

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smell anything on yourselves?" "There was something on us that smelled," they said. "He told them to throw us out. 'The smell comes on account of them,' he said." "Indians are coming into existence," the old woman thought. "They will say of me, 'That is the one who did this way. In vain they tried to take them into the bad mountains. Notwithstanding she made incense go there after them.' They will say of me, 'That is the one who did this way.' Whoever makes for them this medicine which I made, will accomplish what I did."

Footnotes

299:1 Told at Hupa, December 1901, by Emma Lewis.

303:1 A mountain near the Eight-mile camp on the Redcap trail from Hupa to Orleans.