Reading Notes: Southwestern and California Legends, Part A

(Stars in the galaxy; source: Wikipedia)

Plot:

• Initially, there existed nothing but darkness. Eventually, the darkness accumulated to form a giant mass over which Earth Doctor floated.
• When Earth Doctor resolved to make himself a home, he summoned a plant which caused the creosote bush to form. The bush kept falling over until the fourth time when it stood still
• Earth Doctor then took some dust from his pocket and flattened it to form a cake. He then created small black insects that in turn created black gum on the creosote bush. He also made a termite that worked with the cake until it expanded and became the size of the earth we know now.
• Earth Doctor created a sky cover to fit over the earth. However, when he found that this was unstable, he sent a spider to stitch the ends of the sky cover to the earth.
• The Doctor then created the remaining landscape: mountains, trees, grass, and water. However, everything was still covered in darkness so he made a dish of ice and took it to the north where it became the sun. The sun rose up a little but fell back down and did the same thing in the west and south. When he took it to the east, it rose to the middle of the sky and fell in the west.
• The Doctor made a smaller bowl of ice and repeated this trial and error process to create the moon. Like the sun, the moon eventually found its home in the east.
• Although the sun and moon helped significantly, the Doctor noticed that it was still dark when they were not around. So he sung a magic song and blew into the sky to create smaller stars, broke a magic crystal and threw it upwards to create larger stars, and took his walking stick with ashes at the end and drew across the sky to fill in the rest. Thus, he created the earth and the Milky Way.

Bibliography. Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).