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A second creation story also exists in the bible in Genesis 2: a stream of water rose from the earth and watered it. And God created man from the dirt, and gave him a soul. In heaven God created a garden and placed man in it, and put man in the garden. And four rivers were in the garden. And God saw that man was lonely and so created animals and birds. Man gave them names but, seeing that he had no partner, so he asked god who created woman.
Sun is the creator and father of our people.
The first man that was created was Njáves. He asked for a friend from his creator and he got Háhces, a brother.
When he got bigger it wasn't so fun because there were only two boys in the world. Then he asked for a differend kind of a friend from the Sun and he got Mother Njáves. The brother Háhces asked a friend from the Moon and he got Mother Háhces. The both Mothers got pregnant and Mother Njáves gave bith to a son and Mother Háhces to a daughter.
Mother Háhces got jealous and challenged Mother Njáves to a competition, the son as a prize.
They competed in picking berries. Mother Háhces won and they exchanged children.
Later on the son killed Mother Háhces and the daughter as well. The son was 'Son of the Sun' who is the first human of our kind.
The new creation was "Adam". God sent him to heaven. As he was living there he felt lonely and he asked God for a companion, so the God created "Eve". After creating Eve God told them to stay away from one plant and do and eat whatever they want, but one day Eve said to Adam "Let's eat from the tree which God told us not to." So they did it and God became angry and he threw them out of the heaven and they started to live on the earth.
"Will you give me some food?" asked South Wind. "I am very hungry."
"I have no food," answered the giantess, "but here is a net. You can catch some fish for yourself if you wish."
So Old Man South Wind dragged the net down to the ocean and with it caught a little whale. Taking out his knife, he was about to cut the whale and take out the blubber.
But the old giantess cried out, "Do not cut it crossways. Take a sharp knife and split it down the back."
But South wind did not take to heart what the old woman was saying. He cut the fish crossways and began to take off some blubber. He was startled to see the fish change into a huge bird. It was so big that when it flew into the air, it hid the sun, and the noise of its wings shook the earth. It was Thunderbird.
Thunderbird flew to the north and lit on the top of the Saddleback Mountain, near the mouth of the Columbia River. There it laid a nest full of eggs. The old giantess followed the bird until she found its nest. She broke one egg, but it was not good. She threw it down the mountainside. Before the egg reached the valley, it became an Indian.
The old giantess broke some other eggs and then threw them down the mountainside. They too became Indians. Each of Thunderbird's eggs became an Indian.
When Thunderbird came back and found its eggs gone, it went to South Wind. Together they tried to find the old giantess, to get revenge on her. But theynever found her, although they traveled north together every year.
That is how the Chinook were created. And that is why Indians never cut the first salmon across the back. They know that if they should cut the fish the wrong way, the salmon would cease to run. Always, even to this day, they slit the first salmon down the back, lengthwise.
One took some clay from the stream bed in his hand and it shaped itself into a food bowl. The other Twin found reeds growing and with them he shaped a water basket. Then they picked up stones from the ground and the pieces became axes and hammers, knives and spear points in their hands. Last of all the Twins shaped digging sticks from branches of mountain mahogany and hoes from deer shoulder blades.
They found the Kisani, a different people growing gardens in the valleys, and the people traded their tools and baskets and bowls and weapons for seeds to plant in their own places along the rivers. They learned how to build dams and spread the water on the dry ground where it was needed.
Now, there was a Great Spirit watching over everything; some people say he was the sun. He saw how things were down under the earth, so he sent his messenger, Spider Old Woman, to talk to them. She said, "You creatures, the Sun Spirit doesn’t want you living like this. He is going to transform you into something better and I will lead you to another world."
When they came out on the surface of the earth, that’s when they became humans. In the journeys that followed, they were looking for a place of harmony where they could follow good teaching and a good way of life.
So the Great One decided to make a man to direct the Earth. 'What will I make him from?', he thought. He glanced over near him and saw his pile of pottery mud which he used to make cooking pots and beautiful pottery. He often shaped the pottery mud and then he cooked it so it would be strong and the rain would not harm it. He picked up a hand full of mud and began to shape it. He rolled it in his hands and he beat on it like we beat on the pottery clay to get the air bubbles out.
What should this look like?, thought the Great One. He didn’t have a picture or anything to go by like we would. He began to shape his project and before long he realized he was using arms and legs and man was looking like his own shape. He said, "That’s okay, he can be like me."
He made man a heart representing the life and he put in a brain like he had given the other animals. But he thought the man would need more if this man was to help him direct the earth. He would need a mind so he could plan and remember things. Then the Great One thought I want him to keep in contact with me. I need him and he will often need my help, too. So he gave the man a mind and a soul to connect the man with the Great One.
The Great One looked out on the planer and began to select the best place for man to start. Suddenly he heard a clap of thunder. He said, "Oh, oh, I forgot. He wont last long if I don’t waterproof him." So he heated up the stove to temper the man and make him strong. He placed the man in the hot oven and rolled a rock over the opening.
He was so excited about this new creation he could hardly wait. After a little while, he pushed the rock out of the way of the mouth of the oven and was he disappointed! The man was still quite pale and sort of sickly. He almost threw him away but that would teach a bad lesson: I want all my creatures not to throw things away, but to use everything wisely. So he thought this man has a good mind and I’ll make him some help.
He threw the man into the part of the world we now call Georgia, not the Georgia like Atlanta, the other Georgia in Europe. We call him a white man, but you never saw a white man in your life, maybe pink, maybe beige, but not white.
The Great One was determined to make the next man more carefully so he cooked him and cooked him and then he cooked him a little bit more. When he took this one out, he was very, very dark. He had nearly burned him. He said, "What have I done? You’ll surely be weather-proof." So he hurled him down into a place called Africa, and we call him a black man even though he’s really usually brown, too.
The third time he tried to finish the man he turned out a little bit smaller and a bit yellowed. This one was placed into what we call China. Next time he liked the smaller size and he cooked him purely brown, a beautiful small man with nice dark hair. This man lives in present-day India. But the Great One still was not satisfied. He tried one more time.
This time he cooked his creation so carefully that the man looked just as he planned him: a tall, brown man with beautiful straight hair. The Great One was so happy he was about to keep this man up in Galunlati with him, but that would not be a good lesson. He knew he should finish what he started. But this time he didn’t hurl the man; instead the Great One went with the man to find the best place to put this favorite man. They traveled all over the earth and finally after seven times looking around the world, the Great One noticed the Southern Appalachians. The mountains were so beautiful that he knew he would settle his strong, brown Cherokee man in these Southern mountains.
He went with the man and explained to the animals that they were here to work with the man. He explained that the man would need to use them for meat and tools and clothing. When that was all done, he said to the man that his soul would make it possible to call on the Great One. The Great One was very happy with his helper on Earth.
AND again like the Lord God, Baiame walked on the earth he had made, among the plants and animals, and created man and woman to rule over them. He fashioned them from the dust of the ridges, and said,
'These are the plants you shall eat--these and these, but not the animals I have created.'
Having set them in a good place, the All-Father departed.
To the first man and woman, children were born and to them in turn children who enjoyed the work of the hands of Baiame. His world had begun to be populated, and men and women praised Baiame for providing for all their needs. Sun and rain brought life to the plants that provided their sustenance.
All was well in the world they had received from the bountiful provider, until a year when the rain ceased to fall. There was little water. The flowers failed to fruit, leaves fell from the dry, withered stems, and there was hunger in the land--a new and terrifying experience for men, women, and little children who had never lacked for food and drink.
In desperation a man killed some of the forbidden animals, and shared the kangaroo-rats he had caught with his wife. They offered some of the flesh to one of their friends but, remembering Baiame's prohibition, he refused it. The man was ill with hunger. They did their best to persuade him to eat, but he remained steadfast in his refusal. At length, wearying of their importunity, he staggered to his feet, turning his back on the tempting food, and walked away.
Shrugging their shoulders, the husband and wife went on with their meal. Once they were satisfied, they thought again of their friend and wondered whether they could persuade him to eat. Taking the remains of the meal with them, they followed his trail. It led across a broad plain and disappeared at the edge of a river. They wondered how he had crossed it and, more importantly, how they themselves could cross. In spite of the fact that it had dwindled in size, owing to the prolonged drought, it was running too swiftly for them to wade or swim.
They could see him, some little distance away on the farther side, lying at the foot of a tall gum tree. They were on the point of turning back when they saw a coal-black figure, half man half beast, dropping from the branches of the tree and stooping over the man who was lying there. They shouted a warning, but were too far away for him to hear, even if he were awake. The black monster picked up the inert body, carried it up into the branches and disappeared. They could only think that the tree trunk was hollow and that the monster had retreated to its home with his lifeless burden.
One event succeeded another with bewildering rapidity. A puff of smoke billowed from the tree. The two frightened observers heard a rending sound as the tree lifted itself from the ground, its roots snapping one by one, and soared across the river, rising as it took a course to the south. As it passed by they had a momentary glimpse of two large, glaring eyes within its shadow, and two white cockatoos with frantically flapping wings, trying to catch up with the flying tree, straining to reach the shelter of its branches.
Within minutes the tree, the cockatoos, and the glaring eyes had dwindled to a speck, far to the south, far above their heads.
For the first time since creation, death had come to one of the men whom Baiame had created, for the monster within the tree trunk was Yowee, the Spirit of Death.
In the desolation of a drought-stricken world, all living things mourned because a man who was alive was now as dead as the kangaroo-rats that had been killed for food. Baiame's intention for the men and animals he loved had been thwarted. 'The swamp oak trees sighed incessantly, the gum trees shed tears of blood, which crystallised as red gum,' wrote Roland Robinson, in relating this legend of the Kamilroi tribe in his book Wandjina.* 'To this day,' he continued, 'to the tribes of that part is the Southern Cross known as "Yaraandoo"--the place of the White Gum tree--and the Pointers as "Mouyi", the white cockatoos.'
It was a sad conclusion to the hopes of a world in the making, but the bright cross of the Southern Cross is a sign to men that there is a place for them in the limitless regions of space, the home of the All-Father himself, and that beyond death lies a new creation.
2 The universe has been created always with capability of creating
life organisms. That orthogenesis (directed evolution) occurs from
this system from an god consisting of the primal "light" or other
power that caused the big bang.
3. Life was created in distant universe and placed on barren
worlds. Species approach a stage of evolution where species gains
enough technological know-how for space travel. Then places life on
barren world.
Ideas put forward by Tristan McAlpine. tristanmcalpine@girton.vic.edu.au
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