[160] Hayekwire-nye-matāre, a dry lake bed which the railroad crosses between Mojave station and Kramer. It is described as about fifteen miles east of Mojave, wide, level, entirely without vegetation, and surrounded by mountains.
99. Thrasher and Mockingbird at Rattlesnake's Playground teach veneral cure.—Then they started; and near sunset they arrived at Rattlesnake's Playground. Then Ikinye-istum-kwamitše and Hatšinye-kunuya said: "When you have intercourse, you will think you feel good. But some of you will be sick from that. Some women will have a baby. When it is born, it will cause them great pain in the belly. The pain will go back into them and will be a sickness in the bones." Then they hooked their middle fingers into the middle fingers of the people who were still with them and swung them to the left. This they did to all of them, saying: "You will understand." After they had been swung, all sat looking at the ground, and appeared thin and sickly. Then the two talked to them again, and sang four songs. When they had sung the four songs, the flesh had returned to them and they were healthy once more; and they all shouted and laughed.
100. More songs for this.—The two said to them: "You have seen us do that: you all know it now. When someone dreams about us, let him tell what we have said. When they cure sickness, let them say what we have said, and the sick person will get well. Sometimes a man will like a woman. She will sleep with him and soon he will be sick. Or she will like him, and kiss him, their saliva will come on each other, they will become sick, and have pains in the body. Then sing about us and you will cure them." Then they sang again for them.[161]
[161] Making the total number of songs used by the doctors of such sickness much greater than the four first mentioned. In addition, the narrator stated, Ikinye-istum-kwamitše and Hatšinye-kunuya sang other songs, later learned by other people, to cure different kinds of sickness; but of that he himself did not dream.
101. At Three Mountains, Thrasher, Mockingbird, and rest turn to mountain birds.—Now in the morning Ikinye-istum-kwamitše and Hatšinye-kunuya wanted them to try to fly; they wished them to learn flying. Four times they all rose into the air and settled again, Ikinye-istum-kwamitše and Hatšinye-kunuya with the others. Then they flew off, northward to Three Mountains.[162] When they arrived there, they were birds, and no longer knew where they came from. Then Ikinye-istum-kwamitše and Hatšinye-kunuya said: "Now we know nothing. Now we think no more, for we are birds. We are Thrasher and Mockingbird. When you dream of us, and tell of us and of Three Mountains, for a person that is sick, you will cure him. Say: 'I saw them do that: I heard them say that.' Then the person will become well. Tell them that we said so and so."
[162] Avi-hamoka, described as being "near Tehachapi."
N. Leftover Straggler Reaches the Sea: 102
102. Hakutatkole, left for Pošoik sickness, goes south to sea and becomes a bird.—Now when the others had all flown off to Three Mountains, one of them, Hakutatkole, nevertheless had stayed at Rattlesnake's Playground. He was sick with pošoik[163] in his mouth. Ikinye-istum-kwamitše and Hatšinye-kunuya had said: "We do not want that kind of man with us," and had left him. So he went south, alone, until he reached Halyuilyve. Now at Konyokuvilyo and Ha'tana there was another man, Himeikwe-halyepoma, who also taught, but about other things. Hakutatkole, coming to where he lived, approached him with his hand over his mouth; but Himeikwe-halyepoma, coming to meet him, pulled away his hand from his mouth, and said: "Do not come here!" and pushed him away. So Hakutatkole went south to the sea,[164] and there he, too, became a bird.
[163] A minor skin disease, for which the Mohave do not employ doctors. They fear it as contagious, however, and others do not use the clothing or food dishes of the person afflicted. Hakutatkole is said to have received this sickness from swallowing sea fog: the bird is spotted inside the mouth.
[164] Cf. his illness being from sea fog.