Birth in the Dawn - a Hawaiian Creation Story

This story comes from Hawaii, where it was part of the Kumulipo, a chant recounting both the origin of the world and the genealogy of Hawaii's reigning family. The Kumulipo is a work of poetry with many shades of meaning and plays on words, and it also contains many subtle parables and parodies of rivals of the royal family. It is difficult to render the native Hawaiian word-play and rhyme into English prose, and while this version tries to maintain some of the juxtaposition of organisms with similar names, it can do so only in a limited way. In each section of the story, shades of darkness, each of which have their own names in Hawaiian, progress toward daylight and give birth to the life of the world.
     

Birth in the Dawn

      When the earth first became hot and the heavens churned and the sun was dark, land emerged from the slime of the sea. The deepest darkness of caverns, a male, and the moonless darkness of night, a female, gave birth to the simple lifeforms of the sea. The coral that builds islands was born, and the grub, the sea cucumber, the sea urchin, the barnacle, the mussel, the limpet, and cowry, and the conch and other shellfish. Born was the seagrass, guarded by the tough landgrass on land; born was the Manauea moss of the sea, matched by the Manauea taro plant on land; born was the Kele seaweed, and the Ekele plant of the land.

      Next the deep darkness of the deep sea and darkness broken by slivers of light in the moonlit forest gave birth to the fish of the sea. The porpoise was born, and the shark, and the goatfish, and the eel, and the octopus, and the stingray, and the bonito, and the albacore, and the mackerel and mullet, and the sturgeon. Born was the Kauila eel of the sea, matched by the Kauila tree on land; born was the Kupoupou fish of the sea, and the Kou tree on land; born was the A'awa fish of the sea, guarded by the 'Awa plant of the land. Trains of walruses and schools of fish swam past the coral ridges, still in the darkness of night.
     
Next darkness of night and night that just barely breaks into dawn gave birth to the flying creatures. The caterpillar was born, and the moth to which it leads; the ant was born, and the dragonfly that it becomes; the grub was born, and the grasshopper that it becomes. The snipe was born, and the turnstone and the mudhen, and the crow and the rail, and the albatross and the curlew, and the stilt and the heron. Born was the sea-duck of the islands, and the wild duck that lives on land; born was Hehe bird of the sea, matched by the Nene goose on land.

      Next, as the sea advanced onto the land and passed back and forth across it, the light of earliest dawn and half-darkness produced the crawling creatures that come from the sea. The rough-backed turtle was born, and the horn-billed turtle and the dark-red turtle. The lobster and gecko were born and the mud-dwelling creatures that leave their tracks in the sand. Born was the Wili sea-borer of the sea, and the Wilwili tree on land; born was the Opeope jellyfish of the sea, and the Oheohe bamboo of the land. Thus the crawling animals were born in the night, creeping and crawling onto the land.

      Next were born the animals of the land, including the dog and rat. 

Then, in the stillness as the light of dawn came across the land, were born La'ila'i, a woman, and Ki'i, a man, and Kane, a god, and Kanaloa, the octopus. 

From the union of La'ila'i with Ki'i and Kane came humanity, waves of people who came from afar. Born was Hahapo'el, a girl, and Ha-popo, another girl, in the upland valleys whence chiefs arose. Born were humans, spreading across the earth, and now it was day.

Iconic Elders

Every time I read (and it's often) about the lack of role models for vibrant eldering, I pause & ponder how much things have changed in my lifetime, not just in my little home town, but around the country.

A couple generations back, when I was a kid, everyone in my little home town rubbed elbows with great role models of fabulous "ancients" (to use Mom's term).  If you drew a circle a 1/4 mile around our little house perched on the Top Lawn, you'd have found Peggy Hyatt, the Raymond Synnestvedts, the Arthur Synnestvedts, Lester & Grace Asplundh, "Grandma" Rose & Pop-Pop" (I was a fictitious Rose, due to living next to the Grubbs & across from Stanley & Gina), Ken Synnestvedt, Andy & Ruth Klein, Miss Cornelia, Miss Ashby.  And there are probably a LOT that I've forgotten or didn't have the pleasure of knowing.

These were people I saw a lot around our neighborhood.  To the list, I'd add my parents' friends - Phil & Doris Pendleton, Benita Odhner, Viola Ridgeway, Willard & Gay Pendleton.  And iconic  elders like the Powells & the Klips, who tended orchards & harvested crops.

What was typical for Bryn Athyn was also the norm across our great country - grandma & grandpas, great-aunts & uncles, living in houses & tending gardens, welcoming their grandchildren & their grandkids' friends in for a glass of lemonade & some cookies.  Older folks I saw as a kid around town or in Soneson's Store, or as a teen at Friday Supper & church.

Was it unusual of me to appreciate from an early age what awesome role models I had in Elmo Acton & George deCharms, church leaders with (respectively) a deliciously dry sense of humor & a propensity for word play?  To realize how unusual it was to walk past Arthur Wells' incredible cacti?  I hope not.  

Like most communities around us, Bryn Athyn is no longer the village it once was.  Fewer & fewer kids hang with friends from down the street;  structured play dates are more & more the norm.  Instead of playing pick up games of whiffle ball down the road or volleyball a few houses up, today's youngsters are more likely to be chauffeured to hockey or baseball or soccer practice, often playing on "traveling" teams that not only take them out of town but also out of state.  

As I wrote about in an earlier post, many whiles back, we've lost the interplay between generations that once was a hallmark of Bryn Athyn.  It's not just that so many of our elders live in Cairnwood Village rather than in homes where we young folks earned good money cleaning house or gardening.  Sons of the Academy and regular Theta Alpha meetings & dinners are distant memories, ditto the Sons Bulletin;  the once "must read" TA Journal is reduced to coming out occasionally.  

Pots & pans sit unused, where committees of women (and occasionally men, under Dave Roscoe & John Acton) of all ages worked together to put on Friday Supper, newly weds & great grandmothers baking chicken & making mashed potatoes et al, getting to know each other & share thoughts & opinions over steaming vats of veggies and huge bake pans of poultry.  We no longer congregate around the round tables at Friday Supper or at one (1) adult church service.

The current challenge isn't that we no longer have amazing elders among us.  Just a brief ponder brings to mind Boyd & Myra Asplundh, along with Kurt & Martha and Bob & Marilyn.  Fred & Greta Odhner, the epic Morna Hyatt, Hyland & Beth Johns, the Annes - Synnestvedt & Hyatt, Doug & Christine Taylor, Carl & Del Gunther, Joy McQueen, Louise Pollack, Carolyn Soneson, Ruth Zuber, and - a bit farther afield - Frank & Louise Rose, along with slews of others I'll think of over the following days.

We are still remarkably blessed to have what so many in American towns have lost - a wealth of iconic elders.  But how to build ways & means to nurture more of a natural connection between them & the almost there (folks like me), the youngers & the just kids?   Been pondering that for many months, without much to show.

Praise be, I dearly love a worthy challenge!

Two Brothers & Their Grandmother - a Seneca Creation Story

This story comes from the Seneca people, who lived in the Iroquois Nation in what is now central and western New York and Pennsylvania. 

Two Brothers and their Grandmother

      Long ago, before this earth existed, humans lived in the sky, and they were ruled by a great chief. This chief's lodge was near a tall tree that had white blossoms and that every year produced corn for the people to eat. When this tree bloomed, there was light, but once its blossoms fell, darkness descended until its next flowering.

      Once this chief's daughter became ill with a disease no one had seen before. Despite her people's best efforts to cure her, she did not get well, and all the people were worried. Someone in the tribe dreamed that she would be cured if the tree was pulled up by its roots. No one in the tribe wanted to do that, so they ignored the dream as an aberration. This person had another dream that the people must dig a trench around the tree and uproot it to save the chief's daughter, but again the dream went ignored. Only after a third such dream did the people begin digging. They dug a trench around the tree, severing the roots as they went. 

When the last root was cut, the tree disappeared into the ground, into what seemed to be a bottomless hole.

      Many of the people were distraught, and one young man in particular complained about the destruction of the tree. The chief's daughter had been brought to the tree in hopes that she would be cured, and the young man was so angry that he kicked her into the hole. Soon she disappeared from the view of her people as she fell into the apparent abyss.

      The young woman fell through darkness, but eventually it became light and she saw that she was falling into water, and in fact there was no land at all in sight. The animals saw her, however, and they resolved to save her. At the loon's direction, the fishhawk flew up to catch her, and the fishhawk deposited her on the turtle's back. Even Turtle grew tired of holding her, however, and the animals decided they needed land on which to place her. Several dove down to find mud in the water, but they failed until Toad tried and came back with some wet dirt. Soon the other diving animals did likewise, and Beaver patted the mud down on Turtle's back to make an island. Before long the island was quite large, and bushes began to grow at its banks.

      The young woman recovered from her disease, and in fact she soon gave birth to a daughter. She raised her daughter on the island, and they ate potatoes that they grew there. When they went out to dig potatoes, she warned her daughter that she must always face the west. This was so that the west wind could not enter her and make her pregnant. The daughter nonetheless disobeyed, and soon she was heavy with child. She could hear twins inside her debating how to exit her body. One was born naturally, but the other was born through his mother's armpit, and she died from the wound.

      The two brothers grew up together, but the younger was disagreeable and angry. They decided that the island needed more life, so they the made the forests and lakes. One day they divided the island in half, with each to make his own animals. 

The older brother made human beings, and he breathed life into them. He also made many animals that were fat and slow moving, he made the sycamore tree bear fruit, and he made the rivers flow both ways, with one half going upstream and one half going downstream. 

The younger brother also made many animals, including a huge mosquito that knocked down trees when it flew, and he made his half of the island rocky and full of ledges and precipices. The younger brother tried to make humans, but he could only make ugly animals, and in his anger he vowed that he would make animals that would eat humans.

      The two brothers returned home to their grandmother's lodge, and decided that the next day they would go out to see what each other had done. First they went to the younger brother's half, where the older brother was distressed at the huge mosquito that could kill his people. He grabbed the mosquito and rubbed it between his hands until it was tiny, and it flew away when he blew on it. Then they went to see the older brother's half of the island, where the younger brother was disgusted because life would be too easy for the humans. He took many of his brother's animals and made them smaller and faster so they couldn't be caught, and he made the fruit of the sycamore tiny and unpalatable, and he made all the rivers flow downstream so that humans would have to work to travel.

      Soon the two brothers got into a terrible fight about how each had changed the other's half of the island, and in their battle the older brother was killed. 

The older brother went to his home in the sky, where those who live good lives go to join him, and the younger brother went on to spread evil, and when evil people die they are tormented by him because he could not make a human.

The Creation & Emergence - Jacarilla Apache Creation Story

One of my grannie clients LOVES history & she LOVES spiritual things, so it was a lot of fun researching the various creation stories, starting with the native people of our own continent.  The following is a series of stories from the Jicarilla, one of six tribes of the Apaches (SE  U.S.A.).  They recount the story of the creation, emergence & explanation of  the world;  they reflect the sacredness of fours in every thing and every behavior (and the Jacarilla's disregard for the shamans found in some other Native American religions).
     

The Creation and the Emergence

In the beginning there was nothing - no earth, no living beings.
There were only darkness, water, and Cyclone, the wind.
There were no humans, but only the Hactcin, the Jicarilla supernatural beings.

The Hactcin made the earth, the underworld beneath it, and the sky above it. The earth they made as a woman who faces upward, and the sky they made as a man who faces downward. 

The Hactcin lived in the underworld, where there was no light. There were mountains and plants in the underworld, and each had its own Hactcin. There were as yet no animals or humans, and everything in the underworld existed in a dream-like state and was spiritual and holy.

The most powerful of the Hactcin in the underworld was Black Hactcin. One day, Black Hactcin made the first animal with four legs and a tail made of clay. At first, he thought it looked peculiar, but when he asked it to walk and saw how gracefully it walked, he decided it was good.

Knowing this animal would be lonely, he made many other kinds of animals come from the body of the first. He laughed to see the diversity of the animals he had created. All the animals wanted to know what to eat and where to live, so he divided the foods among them, giving grass to the horse, sheep, and cow, and to others he gave brush, leaves, and pine needles. He sent them out to different places, some to the mountains, some to the deserts, and some to the plains, which is why the animals are found in different places today.

Next, Black Hactcin held out his hand and caught a drop of rain. He mixed this with some earth to make mud and made a bird from the mud. At first he wasn't sure he would like what he had made. He asked the bird to fly, and when it did he liked it.

He decided the bird too would be lonely, so he grabbed it and whirled it rapidly clockwise. As the bird became dizzy, it saw images of other birds, and when Black Hactcin stopped whirling it, there were indeed many new kinds of birds, all of which live in the air because they were made from a drop of water that came from the air. Black Hactcin sent the birds out to find places they liked to live, and when they returned he gave each the place that they liked. To feed them, he threw seeds all over the ground. To tease them, however, he turned the seeds into insects, and he watched as they chased after the insects.

At a river nearby, he told the birds to drink. Again, however, he couldn't resist teasing them, so he took some moss and made fish, frogs, and the other things that live in water. This frightened the birds as they came to drink, and it is why birds so often hop back in fright as they come down to drink. As some of the birds took off, their feathers fell in the water, and from them came the ducks and other birds that live in the water.

Black Hactcin continued to make more animals and birds. The animals and birds that already existed all spoke the same language, and they held a council. They came to Black Hactcin and asked for a companion. They were concerned that they would be alone when Black Hactcin left them, and Black Hactcin agreed to make something to keep them company. He stood facing the east, and then the south, and then the west, and then the north. He had the animals bring him all sorts of materials from across the land, and he traced his outline on the ground. He then set the things that they brought him in the outline. The turquoise that they brought became veins, the red ochre became blood, the coral became skin, the white rock became bones, the Mexican opal became fingernails and teeth, the jet became the pupil, the abalone became the white of the eyes, and the white clay became the marrow of the bones. Pollen, iron ore, and water scum were used too, and Black Hactcin used a dark cloud to make the hair.

The man they had made was lying face down, and it began to rise as the birds watched with excitement. The man arose from prone, to kneeling, to sitting up, and to standing. Four times Black Hactcin told him to speak, and he did. Four times Black Hactcin told him to laugh, and he did. It was likewise with shouting. Then Black Hactcin taught him to walk, and had him run four times in a clockwise circle.

The birds and animals were afraid the man would be lonely, and they asked Black Hactcin to give him company. Black Hactcin asked them for some lice, which he put on the man's head. The man went to sleep scratching, and he dreamed that there was a woman beside him. When he awoke, she was there. The man and the woman asked Black Hactcin what they would eat, and he told them that the plants and the cloven-hoofed animals would be their food. They asked where they should live. He told them to stay anywhere they liked, which is why the Jicarilla move from place to place.

These two, Ancestral Man and Ancestral Woman, had children, and the people multiplied. In those days no one died, although they all lived in darkness. This lasted for many years.
Holy Boy, another Apache spirit, was unhappy with the darkness, and he tried to make a sun. As he worked at it, Cyclone came by and told him that White Hactcin had a sun. Holy Boy went to White Hactcin, who gave him the sun, and he went to Black Hactcin, who gave him the moon.


Black Hactcin told Holy Boy how to make a sacred drawing on a buckskin to hold the sun and moon, and Holy Boy, Red Boy, Black Hactcin, and White Hactcin held a ceremony at which White Hactcin released the sun and Black Hactcin released the moon. The light grew stronger as the sun moved from north to south, and eventually it was like daylight is now.

The people didn't know what this was, and the shamans each began to claim that they had power over the sun. On the fourth day, there was an eclipse. After the sun had disappeared, the Hactcins told the shamans to make the sun reappear. The shamans tried all kinds of tricks, but they couldn't make the sun come back.

To solve the problem, White Hactcin turned to the animals and had them bring the foods they ate. With the food and some sand and water, they began to grow a mountain. The mountain grew, but it stopped short of the hole in the sky that led from the underworld to the earth. It turned out that two girls had gone up on the mountain and had trampled the sacred plants and even had defecated there. White Hactcin, Black Hactcin, Holy Boy, and Red Boy had to go up the mountain and clean it. When they came down and the people sang, and the mountain grew again. It stopped, however, just short of the hole, and when the four went up again they could only see to the other earth.

They sent up Fly and Spider, who took four rays of the sun and built a rope ladder to the upper world. Spider was the first one to climb to the upper world, where the sun was bright.

White Hactcin, Black Hactcin, Holy Boy, and Red Boy climbed up the ladder, and they found much water on the earth. They sent for the four winds to blow the water away, and Beaver came up to build dams to hold the water in rivers.

Spider made threads to catch the sun, and they made the sun go from east to west to light the entire world, not just one side. Hactcin called for the people to climb up, and for four days they climbed the mountain.

At the top they found four ladders. Ancestral Man and Ancestral Woman were the first people to climb up, and the people climbed up into the upper world that we know today. Thus the earth is our mother, and the people climbed up as from a womb. Then the animals came up, and before long the ladders were worn out.

Behind the animals came an old man and an old woman, and they couldn't climb the ladders. No one could get them up, and finally the two realized they had to stay in the underworld. They agreed to stay but told the others they must come back to the underworld eventually, which is why people go to the underworld after death.

Everything in the upper world is alive - the rocks, the trees, the grass, the plants, the fire, the water. Originally they all spoke the Jicarilla Apache language and spoke to the people. The Hactcin, however, decided that it was boring to have all these things speaking the same, so they gave all these things and all the animals different voices.

Eventually the people travelled out clockwise across the land. Different groups would break off and stay behind, and their children would begin to play games in which they used odd languages.

The people in these groups began to forget their old languages and use these new ones, which is why now there are many languages. Only one group kept on traveling in the clockwise spiral until they reached the center of the world, and these are the Jicarilla Apaches.

The Story of Corn & Medicine ~ Cherokee Creation Myth

This is a synthesis of several stories from the Cherokee, who were the native people of northern Georgia and Alabama, western North Carolina, central and eastern Tennessee, and Kentucky. 

The Story of Corn and Medicine

            The earth began as nothing but water and darkness, and all the animals were in Galúnlati, above the stone vault that makes up the sky. 

Eventually Galúnlati became so crowded that the animals needed more room, and they wanted to move down to earth. Not knowing what was below the water, they sent down the Water-beetle to explore. Water-beetle dove below the water and eventually came back with some mud from below. That mud grew and grew, and finally it became the island that we call earth. This island of earth is suspended at its four corners from ropes that hang down from the sky, and legend has it that some day the ropes will break and the earth will sink back into the water.

      Because it grew from mud, the new earth was very soft. Many of the birds flew down to explore the new land, but it was too wet for them to stay. Finally Buzzard flew down, hoping it was dry, but the earth was still wet. Buzzard searched and searched, especially in the Cherokee country, and finally he became so tired that his wings flapped against the ground. His wings dug valleys where they hit the ground and turned up mountains where they pulled away, leaving the rugged country of the Cherokee.

      Eventually the earth was dry and the animals moved down. There still was no light, however, and so the animals set the sun passing from east to west just over their heads. With the sun so close, many of the animals were burned, giving the red crawfish its crimson color. The animals raised the sun again and again, until it was high enough that all could survive.

      When the plants and animals first came to earth, they were told to stay awake for seven nights, as in the Cherokee medicine ceremony. The animals all stayed awake the first night, and many stayed awake the next few nights, but only the owl and the panther and a couple of others stayed awake all seven nights. They were given the ability to see at night and so to hunt at night when the others are asleep. 

The same thing happened among the trees, and only the cedar, pine, spruce, holly and laurel stayed awake all seven nights, which is why they can stay green all year when the others lose their leaves.

      Humans came after the animals. At first they multiplied rapidly, and the first woman give birth every seven days. Eventually there were so many of them that it seemed they might not all survive, and since then to this day each woman has been able to have just one child each year.

Among these early people were a man and a woman name Kanáti and Selu, whose names meant "The Lucky Hunter" and "Corn", respectively. Kanáti would go hunting and invariably return with game, which Selu would prepare by the stream near their home. She also would always return home with baskets of corn, which she would pound to make meal for bread.

      Kanáti and Selu had a little boy, and he would play by the stream. Eventually they realized that he was playing with another little boy who had arisen from the blood of the game washed by the stream. With their son's help they caught the other boy, and eventually he lived with them like he was their own son, although he was called "the Wild Boy".

      Kanáti brought home game whenever he went hunting, and one day the two boys decided to follow him. They followed him into the mountains until he came to a large rock, which he pulled aside to reveal a cave from which a buck emerged. Kanáti shot the buck and, after covering the cave, he headed home. The boys got home before him and didn't reveal what they had learned, but a few days later they returned to the rock. With a struggle they pulled it aside and had great fun watching the deer come out of the cave. They lost track of what they were doing, however, and soon all sorts of game animals - rabbit and turkeys and partridges and buffalo and all - escaped from the cave. Kanáti saw all these animals coming down the mountain and knew what the boys must have done, and he went up the mountain after them. He opened four jars in the cave, and from them came fleas and lice and gnats and bedbugs that attacked the boys. He sent them home, hoping he could find some of the dispersed game for the supper. Thus it is that people must now hunt for game.

      The boys went home, and Selu told them there would be no meat for dinner. However, she went to the storehouse for food, and told the boys to wait while she did so. They followed her instead to the storehouse and watched her go inside. She put down her basket and then rubbed her stomach, and the basket was partly full with corn. Then she rubbed her sides, and it was full to the top with beans. Watching through a crack in the storehouse wall, the boys saw all this. Selu knew that they had seen her, but she went ahead and fixed them a last meal. Then she and Kanáti explained that, because their secrets were revealed, they would die, and with them would end the easy life they had known.

However, Selu told them to drag her body seven times around a circle in front of their house, and then to drag her seven times over the soil inside the circle, and if they stayed up all night to watch, in the morning they would have a crop of corn. The boys, however, only cleared a few spots and they only dragged her body over it twice, which is why corn only grows in certain places on the earth. They did sit up all night, though, and in the morning the corn was grown, and still it is grown today, although now it takes half a year.

      In these early days, the plants, the animals, and the people all lived together as friends. As the people multiplied, however, the animals had less room to roam, and they were either slaughtered for food or trampled under the humans' feet. Finally the animals held a council to discuss what to do. The bears experimented with using bows and arrows to fight back, but they concluded that they would have to cut off their claws to use the bows. The deer held a council and decided to send rheumatism to any hunter who killed a deer without asking its pardon for having done so. When a deer is shot by a hunter, the fleet and silent Little Deer, leader of the deer, runs to the blood-stained spot to ask the spirit of the killed deer if the hunter prayed for pardon for his affront. If the answer is no, Little Deer follows the trail of blood and inflicts the hunter with rheumatism so that he is crippled.

      The fish and reptiles likewise met, and resolved that the people would suffer from dreams in which snakes twined about them. The birds and smaller animals and insects all met too, and talked long into the night about how they had suffered from the humans. Eventually they created all sorts of new diseases to afflict humans, which have since become a scourge to the animals' oppressors.

      After this the plants met, and they resolved that something must be done to counteract what the animals had done. That is why so many trees and shrubs and herbs, and even the mosses, provide remedies for diseases. It was thus that medicine first came into the world, to counteract the revenge of the animals.

Creation Myths - HOPI #3 (The Final Worlds)

At the end of the 2nd World, Sotuknang he ordered Poqanghoya & Palongawhoya to abandon their posts at the poles, and soon the world spun out of control & rolled over.  Mountains slid & fell, and lakes & rivers splashed across the land as the earth tumbled, and finally the earth froze over into nothing but ice.  

This went on for years, and again the people lived with the ants. Finally Sotuknang sent Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya back to the poles to resume the normal rotation of the earth, and soon the ice melted and life returned.

The 3^rd World

 Sotuknang called the people up from their refuge, and he introduced them to the third world that he had made. Again he admonished the people to remember their Creator as they spread across the land.

As they did so, they multiplied quickly, even more quickly than before, and soon they were living in large cities and developing into separate nations. With so many people and so many nations, soon there was war, and some of the nations made huge shields on which they could fly, and from these flying shields they attacked other cities.

When Sotuknang saw all this war and destruction, he resolved to destroy this world quickly before it corrupted the few people who still remembered the Creator. He called on Spider Woman to gather those few and, along the shore, she placed each person with a little food in the hollow stem of a reed. When she had done this, Sotuknang let loose a flood that destroyed the warring cities and the world on which they lived.
     

The 4^th,  Final World

Once the rocking of the waves ceased, Spider Woman unsealed the reeds so the people could see. They floated on the water for many days, looking for land, until finally they drifted to an island. On the island they built little reed boats and set sail again to the east. After drifting many days, they came to a larger island, and after many more days to an even larger island. They hoped that this would be the fourth world that Sótuknang had made for them, but Spider Woman assured them that they still had a long and hard journey ahead. 

They walked across this island and built rafts on the far side, and set sail to the east again. They came to a fourth and still larger island, but again they had to cross it on foot and then build more rafts to continue east. 

From this island, Spider Woman sent them on alone, and after many days they encountered a vast land. Its shores were so high that they could not find a place to land, and only by opening the doors in their heads did they know where to go to land.
      When they finally got ashore, Sotuknang was there waiting for them. As they watched to the west, he made the islands that they had used like stepping stones disappear into the sea. He welcomed them to the fourth world, but he warned them that it was not as beautiful as the previous ones, and that life here would be harder, with heat and cold, and tall mountains and deep valleys. He sent them on their way to migrate across the wild new land in search of the homes for their respective clans. The clans were to migrate across the land to learn its ways, although some grew weak and stopped in the warm climates or rich lands along the way.

The Hopi trekked and far and wide, and went through the cold and icy country to the north before finally settling in the arid lands between the Colorado River and Rio Grande River. They chose that place so that the hardship of their life would always remind them of their dependence on, and link to, their Creator.

Creation Myths - Hopi #2 ~ 2nd World

After the First Creation, people spread across the earth and multiplied.  Despite their four languages, in those days they could understand each other's thoughts anyway, and for many years they and the animals lived together as one.

DISSENT & DISCORD

Eventually, however, they began to divide, both the people from the animals and the people from each other, as they focused on their differences rather than their similarities. As division and suspicion became more widespread, only a few people from each of the four groups still remembered their Creator.

Sotuknang appeared before these few and told them that he and the Creator would have to destroy this world, and that these few who remembered the Creator must travel across the land, following a cloud and a star, to find refuge.

These people began their treks from the places where they lived, and when they finally converged Sotuknang appeared again. He opened a huge ant mound and told these people to go down in it to live with the ants while he destroyed the world with fire, and he told them to learn from the ants while they were there.

The people went down and lived with the ants, who had storerooms of food that they had gathered in the summer, as well as chambers in which the people could live. This went on for quite a while, because after Sotuknang cleansed the world with fire, it took a long time for the world to cool off. As the ants' food ran low, the people refused the food, but the ants kept feeding them and only tightened their own belts, which is why ants have such tiny waists today.

      Finally Sotuknang was done making the second world, which was not quite as beautiful as the first.
     

END  of the 2^nd WORLD

Again, Sotuknang admonished the people to remember their Creator as they and the ants that had hosted them spread across the earth.

The people multiplied rapidly and soon covered the entire earth. They did not live with the animals, however, because the animals in this second world were wild and unfriendly. Instead the people lived in villages and built roads between these, so that trade sprang up. They stored goods and traded those for goods from elsewhere, and soon they were trading for things they did not need.

As their desire to have more and more grew, they began to forget their Creator, and soon wars over resources and trade were breaking out between villages.

Finally Sotuknang appeared before the few people who still remembered the Creator, and again he sent them to live with the ants while he destroyed this corrupt world. This time he ordered Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya to abandon their posts at the poles, and soon the world spun out of control and rolled over. Mountains slid and fell, and lakes and rivers splashed across the land as the earth tumbled, and finally the earth froze over into nothing but ice.

      This went on for years, and again the people lived with the ants. Finally Sotuknang sent Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya back to the poles to resume the normal rotation of the earth, and soon the ice melted and life returned. 

next...  end of the 3rd world

Creation Myths - HOPI (in the beginning...)

One of my grannie clients loves to consider the people who lived in North America LONG Europeans arrived.  So, I'm putting together a series on the creation stories of our land's native peoples.  It will be similar to one I did on the Louisiana Purchase (she was fascinated by the thought that our nation more than doubled its size without shedding any blood), where the whole story was broken down into five different, stand-alone sections.  

The first discussion prompt describes the earliest part of the Hopi creation myth.  The Hopi - "People of Peace" - lived in northern Arizona. This version of the story was recorded in the 1950s by Oswald White Bear Fredericks and his wife Naomi from the oral storytelling of older Hopi at the village of Oraibi, which tree-ring dating indicates has been inhabited by the Hopi since at least 1150 AD.
   

The Four Creations - in the beginning...

The world at first was endless space in which existed only the Creator, Taiowa.

This world had no time, no shape, and no life, except in the mind of the Creator.

Eventually the infinite creator created the finite in Sotuknang, whom he called his nephew and whom he created as his agent to establish nine universes.

1^st ACT of CREATION ~ Sotuknang gathered together matter from the endless space to make the nine solid worlds.

2^nd ACT of CREATION Then the Creator instructed him to gather together the waters from the endless space and place them on these worlds to make land and sea.

3rd ACT of CREATION When Sotuknang had done that, the Creator instructed him to gather together air to make winds and breezes on these worlds.

THE 4^th ACT of CREATION with which the Creator charged Sotuknang was the creation of life. Sotuknang went to the world that was to first host life and there he created Spider Woman, and gave her the power to create life. First Spider Woman took some earth and mixed it with saliva to make two beings. Over them she sang the Creation Song, and they came to life. She instructed one of them, Poqanghoya, to go across the earth and solidify it. She instructed the other, Palongawhoya, to send out sound to resonate through the earth, so that the earth vibrated with the energy of the Creator.  Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya were despatched to the poles of the earth to keep it rotating.

      Then Spider Woman made all the plants, the flowers, the bushes, and the trees. Likewise she made the birds and animals, again using earth and singing the Creation Song. When all this was done, she made human beings, using yellow, red, white, and black earth mixed with her saliva. Singing the Creation Song, she made four men, and then in her own form she made four women. At first they had a soft spot in their foreheads, and although it solidified, it left a space through which they could hear the voice of Sotuknang and their Creator. Because these people could not speak, Spider Woman called on Sotuknang, who gave them four languages. His only instructions were for them to respect their Creator and to live in harmony with him. 


These people spread across the earth and multiplied. Despite their four languages, in those days they could understand each other's thoughts anyway, and for many years they and the animals lived together as one.

 next - Division & Discord 

Celebrations

I believe it was Garrison Keillor who described the Danes as a people who loved  celebrations & who took every opportunity to turn small occasions into great ones.  Maybe some Danish blood ran through my parents’ veins, because that certainly described my family, who used everything from birthdays to Christmas to St. David's Day as reasons to celebrate.  And I took to it all like a duck to water! 

How lucky am I that John also loves celebrations!  Not great big extravaganzas (although the thought of making an overnight in Manhattan & dinner at Brooklyn’s  Peter Luger's an annual birthday treat does have its appeal), but small cozies.  

Today is my idea of a sublime birthday:

Rennie gave me the best possible giftie from our kitties, letting me sleep until the unheard-of hour of 7:22 a.m., rather than pawing or nipping me awake at the usual 5:15 a.m. (or earlier) with a meowy plea for breakfast.  

After giving the kitties double scoops of breakfast, I set the toaster & portable ovens for the right temp to bake crackers, then settled back to savor one of Maddie's cheddar rolls with a cup of John's coffee.  Perfect way to start MY day.

Of all the things I bake, crackers are far & away my favorite.  They are time consuming, needing to be started in one oven, then transferred to another.  And they are downright temperamental, with at least one refusing to crisp, no matter how long I leave it in the finishing oven.   But I do find handcrafting & home-baking them so very satisfying.  Today’s: sundried tomato with rosemary, thyme & lavender – perfect with a lovely chunk of cheese & a decent Merlot or Cab..  

My pre-occupation with cracker baking almost made me forget the most important thing I had to do this a.m.!!

My baking kept me tied to the kitchen – I never went into the living room, so never saw the bag of RKT hearts with lashings of chocolate waiting to be taken to Kelly's to put into care packages for B.A. kids away at college!!  Camethisclose to totally blowing it!!!  How foolish it would have been to make the crackers & mess up getting the most important goodie where it needed to be.  Easy to chalk it up to birthday bliss, but an error is an error & I'm relieved to have at least remembered at the last moment.  Leaped into the car, dashed down to Alnwick Road & I hope got there in time for at least some of them to make it .  Sorry!

Once delivered, it was off to have a birthday breakfast with friends at Fred's, followed by a lovely visit with John & Mimi (alas, that dear Jack Russell has laryngitis) at Porches on the Towpath.  Then a quick nip across the river to tag up with Marianne & then Barbara.  

Whew!  Ready to settle back for some quite time – aka, US time. 

Off we went, on a leisurely ramble up the River Road, crisscrossing the Delaware between New Hope & Milford.  Sweet bliss, with John taking the reins so I could enjoy the scenery & soak in all the memories.

What memories line that particular ramble, not only of our own courting days - 24 years ago! - but so many of meanders with Mim & Mom, memories reaching back so many decades.  

We headed down Lambertville’s Union Street, lined with its lovely old houses, then up Rt 29 toward Stockton, heading off to the right along the route I can’t identify but love so dearly, a mostly one-lane stretch between Stockton & Kingwood that skirts a broad, rock-strewn river bed.  Cascades of ice cycles on the far side were breathtaking - looked straight out of National Geographic.  A covered bridge, many beautiful farms & dramatic views into the river gully later and we arrived at Highland Gourmet.  

What do I find so irresistible about Highland Gourmet, a small specialty shop known throughout the region for their grass-fed beef?  Could be their incredible baked goodies or their wine crib or just the sheer eclectic vibe, but my guess is it's got to be seeing the great woofy, long-horned cattle grazing in the pastures. Alas, their homemade pies are all crumble, when what I want more than anything else for my b-day dessert is a glorious 2-crust multi-berry pie - ideally (I must confess) a Marie Callendar Razzleberry Pie, but they are as rare as hen's teeth to find.  

Up to Stockton on the N.J. side, then across to Centre Bridge (blow kisses at the inn), up to Frenchtown where we crossed over to get gas ($3.59 compared to $3.79 at home) and back across to the PA side for the meander up to Milford.  

Milford is a very small town, about three or four not very large blocks, but it holds a lot of special memories for me - of Ship Inn (the owners were good friends with Dave & Jenny Childs), the super cozy Oyster House right before the bridge, and the magnet that drew us there in the first place many decades ago - The Baker. Many many many moons ago, as America quivered on the cusp on understanding the importance of whole grain, The Baker was a bastion of stoneground wheat, rye & sour dough bread & rolls.  We'd go up every few weeks to stock up.  Oh, to have one of their freshly baked whole wheat with raisin rolls!!  Sad to say, being on the (stone)ground floor of the whole grain revolution AND well situated near Mid-Atlantic transportation routes, The Baker outgrew its location in Milford & is now reported to be baking its breads in Rhode Island.  At least the Milford Station Bakery is top notch & totally worth a visit.  Rats!  Not a pie in site!!  Although John was only too happy to pick up a cinnamon roll for later, while I indulged in a chocolate-dipped biscotti to savor over the weekend.

We headed down the N.J. side to Frenchtown, where we crossed over again (3rd time!), back to the PA side, where we stayed for the rest of our journey.  

It's a wonderful bit of road, between Frenchtown & Centre Bridge.  Lots of curves & interesting houses, long stretches with the river just a hundred yards to the right & great hulking cliffs on our immediate right, where hills that once stretched down to the river were dynamited to make way for the road, awesome ice formations cascading down the sheer rock, making even the steeliest driver edgy about possible falling chunks.  Past Tinsmans Lumber & the Kinsman Company, pass the Black Bass & the Lumberville General Store, pass the sprawling circa 1920s hacienda & 1785's Burgess Lea Farm, to where the River Road intersects with RT 263, Dily's Ice Cream (closed up for the season) to the left & our dearly beloved Centre Bridge Inn across the way.  

This is where we bid adieu to the road & the river, heading UP the hill toward Lahaska, then meandering off the main road, down Byecroft, then turning this way & that, back across the main road & point the car toward our beloved (we have a lot of beloveds on this route) farm on Pebble Hill & Wilkshire Roads.  

How we love that farm!  This was the 3rd time we've been past in two weeks without sighting so much as a single sheep, which we find quite alarming, but everyone else was there - cattle & horses & white geese & barnyard fowl.  As usual, the Shetland was off standing by itself - we've never seen it with the other sleeker, bigger horses.  Gives us pause.  Just beyond the pasture, we turn around & go back the same way.  

Almost on the last lap.  One last stop - King of Tarts..  Surely, we will find a just-right pie there!  

We came so close - but their pie was cherry, which wasn't what I had set my heart on.  But John was happy as a dickey bird to get one of their delectable cherry turnovers!

Oh well, at least I knew that I'd find a fabulous mini-cake at ShopRite in Warminster, just 5 minutes down the road & over a bit.  They specialize in little bitty cakes that are decadent enough to be FABULOUS but small enough to avoid being a health hazard.  Which to choose?  The Chocolate Chocolate Fudge or the Cannoli?  

Something made me hesitate, something whispered, "Check the freezer section." So, I turned my back on the Scylla & Charybdis of b-cake choices & went hunting for the freezer dessert section.  Where I found a Marie Callendar Razzleberry Pie!!  

The top box seemed a bit the worse for wear, so - offering it my apologies - I moved it aside & took the pristine one underneath (very much against my early upbringing, which would have found pity on the battered one & made do).  

As I write this, my birthday pie is happily baking in my beloved (there it is again) portable oven.  I could NOT have made it last year, when I only had toaster ovens.  I might not have the full baking freedom I look forward to someday, but at least I can finally bake a razzleberry pie!!!  

Time to sign off.  Making pork chow mein for dinner (we had my birthday dinner last night at Centre Bridge Inn, where I go every Wednesday with a grannie client to bask in the glorious song stylings of Barbara Trent).  We'll snuggle down on the couch to listen to Fresh Air - Terry Gross interviewing Jenkintown's own Bradley Cooper - and savor a cup of  John's coffee & a slice of freshly baked pie.

A day filled with the best sorts of celebrations; a very happy birthday, indeed!

RKT Hearts

Spent a couple hours this a.m. making Rice Krispie Treat hearts to tuck into CARE packages being sent to B.A. students away at college.  Hand-cut 36+ just-right sized hearts, with lashings of white & dark chocolate, each individually packaged in a cellophane bag.  So loverly when something looks just the way I hoped they would!

Making them took me back to the first time I can remember making something for a crowd.  It was 7th grade, our class Christmas party, and I made my first batch of Krazy Krunch.  Popped corn covered with a caramelly concoction made from butter, sugar & clear corn syrup.  It disappeared FAST and I was hooked on making goodies.

By my freshman year in high school, I was churning out cookies & other goodies for the girls dorm.  It wasn't  until my senior year that the girls dorm had a kitchen, so anything homemade was incredibly appreciated & to have it home-baked by someone who sort of reminds you of your younger sister, way back home ~ I was a hit on every level!

It built from there, lots of wonderful stories over 40+ years, culminating in last year's Bryn Athyn Bounty's farm market & doing DYI cupcakes with dozens of smiling kids, cooling down a passle of boys with Mango Mango ice pops.  

50 years ago, it was Krazy Krunch.  Today, it was Gilded RKT Hearts for away students.  Tomorrow, it will be cupcakes for the 02/09 reception at Artists' Gallery & Sunday's "Gold Bar" bake sale at Cairnwood.  Next up - ?? 

Join me in celebrating food as a connector, a community builder, a relationship cementer.  And the source of so many wonderful stories & memories!