Suppose some woman is out in the woods. She is thinking of some man that she likes, and right away she sees the very man she is thinking of. He is coming to meet her. He comes up and asks, “Where are you going?” The woman is glad to see him. She tells. He carries her to the mountain, and never again will that woman be seen by her friends or by others. It was one of Kele’s sons who took the form of the man she was thinking of, so as to entice her away and destroy her. If the woman has sense she will look down at the foot of the stranger, see the tuft of hair, and say, “You are Kele; go off.” He turns to a wolf on the spot, and runs away to the mountain. All Wintus went barefoot in old times, and this tuft could be seen, if a person had sense enough left to look for it. As every one wears shoes or moccasins now, it might not be easy to find it. But to this day the Keles lead people astray. All the Wintus know them, and are afraid.
They live on Wenempuidal, a high mountain near the left bank of the Little Sacramento. Dekipuiwakut, a small creek, comes down from Kele’s Mountain and falls into the Sacramento. White men call it Hazel Creek. The Keles live at the head of this creek. The whole mountain is their sweat-house. They are up there now, and almost any night you may hear them howling on the mountain when the evil brothers are going home.
The following four spirit songs are from my Wintu collection. Two I give in the original, with literal translation; the other two, in translation only. The lightning song, by referring to the connection between lightning and the sucker, which has one of the most formidable spirits, enables us to suspect why the sucker is so much feared by Wintus. In the Olelbis song, the great one above is the cloud-compeller, as in classic mythology. The tanning is described in “Olelbis.” In the Hau song, the celestial Hau is described as travelling along the Milky Way. This is the Wintu comment on the text. Many readers will agree, I think, that the Polar Star song, the fourth, is composed on a scale truly immense. The lightning song sounds wonderfully like an extract from the Sanscrit, “Rig Veda.”
SONGS OF SPIRITS
1. Walokin tsawi, Lightning’s Song.
Mínom tóror wéril chirchákum sáia
Dúne wérem winwar dún bohémum.
I bear the sucker-torch to the western tree-ridge.
Look at me first born (and) greatest.
2. Olelben tsawi, the Song of Olelbis.
Olél bohéma ni tsulúli káhum síka ni.
I am great above. I tan the black cloud (there).
3. Song of Hau (red fox).
“On the stone ridge east I go.
On the white road I, Hau, crouching go.
I, Hau, whistle on the road of stars.”