CHAPTER II.
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.
In a vision, the Indian through his mysterious eyes
Sees yonder in the distant skies,
A scene sublime of the past ages,
That for aye will enchant bards and sages.
ON His mighty Throne, high in the infinite realms of Heaven, sat the great ruler of the stars and endless skies, Wah-pec-wah-mow (God). As he peered down through the darkness of a cheerless and lonely space, He created a new world, the earth on which we live. He first made the soil of the earth and placed it in a buck-skin sack. He opened the sack and shook the soil from it; it fell down into the chasm of darkness, and Wah-pec-wah-mow could not see anything but the intense darkness. He commanded that the rays of light should penetrate the awful darkness, and there should alternately be night and day. The sun to shine by day and the moon to shine by night, to break the awful stillness of this once dark and cheerless world.
Gazing down from His Throne on high, Wah-pec-wah-mow saw the world he had created was a desolate waste without human life, or life of any kind. He now began the transformation of the new world, and lo, the once barren surface of the earth was clothed in verdure; forests lifted their giant branches sky-ward; tranquil streams flowed and great rivers wended their way to the ocean.
The first living thing placed upon the earth was the white deer (Moon-chay-poke). The white deer roamed over the hills, mountains, in the valleys and on the plains. He was the pride and dignity of the animal kingdom. This is why the Klamath Indians revere the white deer that is so sacred to their hearts and use the skin as an emblem of purity, in one of their greatest festivals, or worships, which is termed in English as, “The White Deer-skin Dance.” In the Indian language it is called, “Oh-pure-ah-wah”; which does not mean dance but means one of their most sacred religious festivals.