Maidu Texts
- ISBN-10
- 1533631336
- ISBN-13
- 9781533631336
- Series
- Maidu Texts
- Pages
- 104
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016-06-19
- Author
- Roland Dixon
Description
The Maidu lived in the central Sierra Nevada of California, to the north of Yosemite. The Maidu, who were not particularly numerous to begin with, were decimated by the incursion of Americans. These texts were collected by a linguist at the beginning of the 20th century. In these texts Coyote is the central character. He is first seen in the company of Earth-Maker, giving him advice about how to build the world. The Coyote is constantly seducing women by guile and deceit. While these stories are very entertaining, they shouldn't be taken to imply that this was normal behavior for the Maidu. The trickster figure is an anti-hero, used as a way of defining the limits of the acceptable."When this world was filled with water, Earth-Maker floated upon it, kept floating about. Nowhere in the world could he see even a tiny bit of earth. No persons of any kind flew about. He went about in this world, the world itself being invisible, transparent like the sky.He was troubled. "I wonder how, I wonder where, I wonder in what place, in what country, we shall find a world!" he said. "You are a very strong man, to be thinking of this world," said Coyote. "I am guessing in what direction the world is, then to that distant land let us float!" said Earth-Maker."
