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Overview

Au Mujaupa lives south of a great river, with a large village and a sweat-house where he keeps useful fire. The people outside serve him by preventing anyone in the world from stealing it. Curtin names snow, great rain, two sizes of hail and four directional winds among these guardians. Their collective role makes the weather a defending household, rather than an incidental obstacle in the journey.

Three visitors cross the slippery bridge with pitch on their hands and feet while the household sleeps. They remove coals from beneath the ashes. Au Mujaupa wakes, notices the disturbed covering and a coal beside the central pillar, and orders pursuit. Rain inundates the country; the south wind leads, while rain, north wind and snow drench and nearly freeze the fugitives.

The pursuers extinguish the two younger carriers’ fire. When one of Shushu Marimi’s coals falls and breaks, Great Rain counts six recovered pieces and believes the task complete. The pursuit stops, leaving her other coal safe in her covered ear. Au Mujaupa is not killed: the resolution is the successful transfer and dissemination of his formerly guarded fire, not the destruction of its original keeper.

Fire hidden under ashesWeather guardians pursue thievesRecovered fragments miscountedMonopoly ends through surviving coal
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Origins & earliest records

Jeremiah Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind (Boston: Little, Brown,1898). Collection notes486–487 distinguish the first nine narratives as Wintu and the later thirteen as Yana. Curtin describes California collecting in1895 and prior publication of these narratives in The Sun. The Yana section begins at281; these selected chapters do not name individual tellers.

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Records & interpretation

Curtin presents this as a Yana narrative. The complete The Finding of Fire, pp. 365–370 was read through its ending; the chapter does not identify its individual teller. His personage list describes later animal correspondences, not an already biological animal society.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Creation Myths of Primitive America

    Jeremiah Curtin, collector and English presenter; individual Yana teller unnamed here · 1898

    The Finding of Fire, pp. 365–370; Yana section statement p. 281 and collection provenance pp. 486–487.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textCurtin1898 digitised primary collectionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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