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Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Unknown
page 122 of 123 (99%)
The Spirit Land
Gallinomero (Russian River, Cal.)

When the flames burn low on the funeral pyres of the Gallinomero, Indian
mourners gather up handfuls of ashes and scatter them high in air. Thus
the good mount up into the air, or go to the Happy Western Land beyond
the Big Water.

But the bad Indians go to an island in the Bitter Waters, an island
naked and barren and desolate, covered only with brine-spattered stone,
swept with cold winds and the biting sea-spray. Here they live always,
breaking stone upon one another, with no food but the broken stones and
no drink but the salt sea water.


Song of the Ghost Dance
Pai Ute (Kern River, Cal.)

The snow lies there - ro-rani!
The snow lies there - ro-rani!
The snow lies there - ro-rani!
The snow lies there - ro-rani!
The Milky Way lies there.
The Milky Way lies there.

"This is one of the favorite songs of the Paiute Ghost dance. . . . It
must be remembered that the dance is held in the open air at night, with
the stars shining down on the wide-extending plain walled in by the
giant Sierras, fringed at the base with dark pines, and with their peaks
white with eternal snows. Under such circumstances this song of the snow
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