Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": A PAWNEE EMERGENCE MYTH:

MOTHER CORN LEADS THE FIRST PEOPLE TO THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH

From the ritual account given by the Pawnee Indian, Four Rings, to Dr. Melvin Gilmore.

Before the World was we were all within the Earth.

Mother Corn caused movement. She gave life.

Life being given we moved towards the surface:

We shall stand erect as men!

The being is become human! He is a person!

To personal form is added strength:

Form and intelligence united, we are ready to corn forth

But Mother Corn warns us that the Earth is still in flood.

Now Mother Corn proclaims that the flood is gone, and the Earth -now

green.

Mother Corn commands that the people ascend to the surface.

Mother Corn has gathered them together, they move half way to the surface;

Mother Corn leads them near to the surface of the Earth;

Mother Corn brings them to the surface. The first light appears!

Mother Corn leads them forth. They have emerged to the waist.

They step forth to the surface of the Earth.

Now all have come forth; and Mother Corn leads them from the East towards the West.

Mother Corn leads them to the place of their habitation. . . .

All is completed All is perfect!

H.B. Alexander, The World's Rim (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1953), p. 89; quoting Dr. Gilmore