7. Mastamho promises to teach.—Now Mastamho said: "There is no house here, and no shade roof.[7] I have not made everything as yet; it will take time to do that. I know you are hot or cold, and hungry, and without houses; but I will provide everything. The sun and the night have not yet been made, but I will make them; and I will tell you what to eat. Then you will know how to live."
[7] Ramada, arbor.
8. Arrival at Avikwame.—Now they went downriver to Avikwame. There was no mountain there then; the land was level. Mastamho said: "Now we have come to this place and I will do something for you. I want you to learn how to make pottery, and then to know what food is good to eat. You will learn how to know day and night. And you will not be hungry nor thirsty. When you are cold, you will know it[8] and will make a fire, and will have a house to live in. And so when you are hungry you will eat, and when you are thirsty you will drink. I will make mortars, metates, cooking pots, drinking cups, and water jars. I will tell you all about those things. When Matavilya died, you were ignorant, but I thought and knew. Therefore I will do these things that I say; only I cannot do them now, at once. It will take a long time yet to do them." Now Mastamho had no one to help him, no one to join with him in talking. He was alone: while there were many people there, they did not speak. Then he thought: "After I have done other things for them, I will give them names." Now the people did not sleep, but constantly stood, or sometimes sat, and when the sun went down Mastamho talked to them. For four nights he spoke to them.
[8] "At that time they felt neither cold nor hunger, but walked on and on."
9. White-spring made for the Chemehuevi.—On the fourth morning he said: "Now I am old enough. I will go west. I will not go far, I will take only four steps, but I will do something for you." He was intending to make a spring. So as soon as the sun had risen, he walked four steps west to Aha-kwi-nyamasave.[9] He put his weight on the ground, thinking: "Let me see if it is hard." As he stepped on it, he found that it was soft, like mud. So he went toward the north four steps. There he stood, stretched out his hand backward, and had in it a stick of sandbar willow, a forearm long.[10] This stick he set into the ground. When he pulled it out, water came with it. Then he put his foot against the water as it flowed out, and pushed earth over it, until there was only a small stream. Then he returned. When he was again at Avikwame, he said: "If I had been so sorry for my father[11] that I had immediately turned myself into a bird, you would now know nothing. But I want to do everything for you: I want to make things for you. I call you Hamakhava, Mohave. Now I have made a spring in the west: I will give that to the Chemehuevi. Those sitting here on the west side will be the Chemehuevi. Now I will stay here four days and then I will go north to Hatasaṭa."
[9] "White-water (spring)."
[10] Magically obtaining things by reaching out for them is a frequent incident in Mohave and other Yuman tradition.
[11] Nakutk, my father. Other accounts, perhaps less influenced by Christianity, make Mastamho the younger brother of Matavilya. The narrator subsequently added: Mastamho said: "Matavilya is my father. I was born at night. Then he said to me: 'I give you a name. I call you Tinyam-humare, night-child.'" After Matavilya died, Mastamho no longer liked to hear this name and called himself Mastamho.
10. Colorado River, fish, and ducks made at Hatasaṭa for the Mohave.—After four days he went to Hatasaṭa. From there he went west a short distance to Hivθikevutatše. He said: "They are not named, but I will give these names to these two places. I will not go farther but return." He had with him the stick he had got at Aha-kwi-nyamasave, was using it as an old man uses a cane. So he came back to Hatasaṭa, and there he set the stick into the ground. When he drew it out, water came with it. With his foot, he pushed earth over it, thinking: "What beings shall I let issue with the water, animals that will be useful for the Mohave?" Four times he allowed water to come and stopped it again. The first time Atši-mikulye[12] emerged. The next time Atši-yonyene[13] swam out, and the third time, Atši-hane.[14] The fourth time Atši-tšehnap, also called Atši-tšeheθilye,[15] came out. Mastamho thought: "I will give these to the Mohave." Next Av'akwaθpine[16] came out, and then Puk-havasu.[17] Then there came Hanemo.[18] Then Hanyewilye, the mudhen, emerged. As each came out, fish and ducks, he did not let them go, but kept them there. He made only a little water, enough to hold them. Whenever he left his stick plunged into the ground, the water did not issue; but when he drew it out, the water and the fish and the birds came out. When he had finished making the fish and the ducks, he said: "These are for the Mohave, but they do not yet know how to catch them. I will teach them."
[12] A small edible fish with few bones. Atši is fish.