e Direction of the Home of the High; lower regions, the Direction of
the Home of the Low.

How Old Man Above Created the World
Shastika (Cal.)

Long, long ago, when the world was so new that even the stars were dark,
it was very, very flat. Chareya, Old Man Above, could not see through
the dark to the new, flat earth. Neither could he step down to it
because it was so far below him. With a large stone he bored a hole in
the sky. Then through the hole he pushed down masses of ice and snow,
until a great pyramid rose from the plain. Old Man Above climbed down
through the hole he had made in the sky, stepping from cloud to cloud,
until he could put his foot on top the mass of ice and snow. Then with
one long step he reached the earth.

The sun shone through the hole in the sky and began to melt the ice and
snow. It made holes in the ice and snow. When it was soft, Chareya bored
with his finger into the earth, here and there, and planted the first
trees. Streams from the melting snow watered the new trees and made them
grow. Then he gathered the leaves which fell from the trees and blew
upon them. They became birds. He took a stick and broke it into pieces.
Out of the small end he made fishes and placed them in the mountain
streams. Of the middle of the stick, he made all the animals except the
grizzly bear. From the big end of the stick came the grizzly bear, who
was made master of all. Grizzly was large and strong and cunning. When
the earth was new he walked upon two feet and carried a large club. So
strong was Grizzly that Old Man Above feared the creature he had made.
Therefore, so that he might be safe, Chareya hollowed out the pyramid of
ice and snow as a tepee. There he lived for thousands of snows. The
Indians knew he lived there because they could see the smoke curling
from the smoke hole of his tepee. When the pale-face came, Old Man Above
went away. There is no longer any smoke from the smoke hole. White men
call the tepee Mount Shasta.

The Search for the Middle and the Hardening of the World
Zuni (New Mexico)

As it was with the first men and creatures, so it was with the world. It
was young and unripe. Earthquakes shook the world and rent it. Demons
and monsters of the under-world fled forth. Creatures became fierce,
beasts of prey, and others turned timid, becoming their quarry.
Wretchedness and hunger abounded and black magic. Fear was everywhere
among them, so the people, in dread of thei