In the beginning there was no sun, no moon, no stars. All was dark and everywhere there was
only water. A raft came floating on water. It came from the north, and in it were two persons
Turtle (A'noshma) and Father-of-the-Secret-Society (Pehe'ipe). The stream flowed very rapidly.
Then from the sky a rope of feathers, called Po'kelma, was let down, and down it came Earth
Initiate. When reached the end of the rope, he tied it to the how of the raft, a stepped in. His
face was covered and was never seen, but his body shone like the sun. He sat down, and for a
long time said nothing. last Turtle said, 'Where do you come from?' and Earth-Initiate answered,
'I come from above.' Then Turtle said, 'Brother, can not make for me some good dry land, so that
I may sometimes come up out of the water?' Then he asked another time, 'Are there going to
be any people in the world?' Earth-Initiate thought awhile, then said, 'Yes.' Turtle asked, 'How long
before you are going to make people?' Earth-Initiate replied, 'I don't know. You want to have some
dry land: well, how am I going to get any earth to make it of?' Turtle answered, 'If you will tie a rock
about my left arm, I'll dive for some.' Earth Initiate did as Turtle asked, and then, reaching around,
took the end of a rope from somewhere, and tied it to Turtle. When Earth-Initiate came to the raft,
there was no rope there: he just reached out and found one. Turtle said, 'If the rope is not long
enough, I'll jerk it once, and you must haul me up, if it is long enough, I'll give two jerks, and then
you must pull me up quickly, as I shall have all the earth that I can carry.' just as Turtle went over
the side of the boat, Father-of-the-Secret-Society began to shout loudly.
Turtle was gone a long time. He was gone six years; and when he came up, he was covered with
green slime, he had been down so long. When he reached the top of the water, the only earth he had
was a very little under his nails; the rest had all washed away. Earth-Initiate took with his right hand
a stone knife from under his left armpit, and carefully scraped the earth out from under Turtle's
nails. He put the earth in the palm of his hand, and rolled it about till it was round; it was as large
as a small pebble. He laid it on the stern of the raft. By and by he went to look at it; it had not
grown at all. The third time he went to look at it, it had grown so that it could be spanned by the
arms. The fourth time he looked, it was as big as the world, the raft was aground, and all around
were mountains as far as he could see. The raft came ashore at Tadoiko and the place can be seen
today.
When the raft had come to land, Turtle said, 'I can't stay in the dark all the time. Can't you make a
light, so that I can see?' Earth Initiate replied, 'Let us get out of the raft, and then we will see what
we can do.' So all three got out. Then, Earth-Initiate said, 'Look that way, to the east! I am going
to tell my sister to come up. Then it began to grow light, and day began to break; then Father-of-the-Secret-Society began to shout loudly, and the sun came up. Turtle said 'Which way is the sun going
to travel?' Earth-Initiate answered, 'I'll tell her to go this way, and go down there.' After the sun went
down, Father-of-the-Secret-Society began to cry and shout again, and it grew very dark. Earth-Initiate asked Turtle and Father-of-the-Secret-Society, 'How do you like it?' and they both answered,
'It is very good.' Then Turtle asked, 'Is that all you are going to do for us?' and Earth Initiate
answered, 'No, I am going to do more yet.' Then he called the stars each by its name, and they came
out. When this was done, turtle asked, 'Now what shall we do?' Earth-Initiate replied, 'Wait, and
I'll show you.' Then he made a tree grow a Ta'doiko, the tree called Hu'kimsta and Earth Initiate
and Turtle and Father-of-the-Secret-Society sat in its shade for two days. The tree was very large,
and had twelve different kinds of acorns growing on it.
