ok my uncle back and then he said it was like waking
up from a dream and there he was laying in the creek down under a
bunch of cattails."(4)

6. "There was this white man up here fishing. He caught a Water
Baby but he didn't know what it was. He thought it was some kind
of fish and took it to San Francisco and they put it that place
where they have a lotta fish [aquarium]. Captain Jim went all the
way down there to tell the mayor that they had better let that
Water Baby loose, but nobody would pay no attention to him. Well
you know they had a big earthquake down there and the water came
up around everything. When it was all over that tank where they
had the Water Baby was empty."

The Giants

Washo mythology features several creatures which may each have contributed
to the wild men I will describe in this section. Both Lowie and Dangberg
report myths in which a giant, Hangawuiwui, is the principal figure.
Although the myths do not describe him, my informants generally picture
him as a colossus who hops on a single leg from the top of one mountain to
another. He has a single eye to match his single limb and a proclivity for
gobbling up Indians. Several miles southwest of Gardnerville, in the hills
overlooking Double Spring Flats, a cave is known by the Washo as
Hangawuiwui an?l (the place where Hangawuiwui lives). Present-day Indians
tell a number of stories about this giant and display a certain uneasiness
when they are near places he is supposed to haunt.

Another kind of giant appears in a myth reported by Lowie. These beings
appear to be considerably more human than Hangawuiwui. Traditionally they
camped south of Pyramid Lake and terrorized the Paiutes. However, when one
of their number attempted to take fish from a Washo the tribe rallied and
routed the giants in a battle near Walker Lake. The giants did not have
bows and arrows. They fortified themselves behind rock walls and threw
stones.

According to my informant on the subject, the mountains are still the home
of a tribe of "wild men." These people have managed to hide the location
of their camps so that no one knows where they live. My informant felt
that they were in fact some kind of Indian. Despite the mythological
ability of the Washo to defeat the giants, modern stories about them
suggest they have a great deal of supernatural power in addition to their
physical prowess.

The following stories we