This myth of Hawt is very curious and subtle; it is one of the best told tales that I have found anywhere. There is a largeness about it, and, at the same time, a perfectly firm grasp on the part of Waida Dikit, the master of the assembly, that produce a grand effect.
Though the story is long, it needs, I think, no explanation beyond what is stated in the introduction and in preceding notes, except some remarks touching the character of Hawt.
Hawt, the great musician, is identified with water; he is, as it were, the spirit of water made visible.
In this myth, only the musical powers of Hawt are exhibited; but in the Yana Tirukala, which means the same thing as Hawt (lamprey eel), we see the active side of the same personage, we see him as a worker. Original is Hawt indeed,—a living flute fingering his own body as he would an instrument; inhaling air and blowing it out through the apertures in his sides.
The present lamprey eel has marks, as it were, of holes in his sides.
NORWANCHAKUS AND KERIHA
This tale contains actions and a number of personages difficult to identify, because their names are merely epithets. Eltuluma means “he swims in;” but who it is that swims in we know not. Keriha seems connected with ducks, from the fact that he wore a duck-skin all his life on earth, and, when he threw off this skin, all ducks were produced from it.
Norwanchakus means the southern end of that staff or stick to which was attached the net with which these two brothers dragged Pui Mem and Bohema Mem, and named each place from the thing which came into the net in front of it.
Nodal Monoko (the little man who ate so many salmon and sturgeons, and carried so many away in his bag) means “sweet in the south.” He has another name, Nodal Wehlinmuk, which means “salt in the south.” At first he is hostile to grizzly bears, but later has intimate relations with them and marries one. His acts point strongly toward electricity or lightning. His bag, in which the whole world could be put away, may well have been a cloud bag.
Norwinte means “seen in the south;” but, again, we have no knowledge of the person seen. Poni Norwanen Pitchen, the full name of Norwan, is also an epithet meaning “daughter of the land on the southern border,” and would convey no information if it stood alone; but as Norwan, in addition to many other details, is also the dancing porcupine and the food-producing woman, we know who she is.