Pohila and the fire household

Overview

Yonot, Katkatchila’s sister, keeps her child Pohila inside the house. Her husband is Tilikus, whose brother is Poharamas. After Katkatchila returns with news of his stolen flint, Tilikus and Poharamas sweep a space, gather pitch-rich pine and wait for Yonot to place her baby outside. Fire springs up as they push the wood toward him. The mother then lifts the child back into his basket; he is not sacrificed or killed to produce the flame.

The two brothers carry burning brands in opposite directions along the meeting of earth and sky, setting everything alight until they meet in the north. They strike their torches together and throw them down. Yonot, Pohila and Tilikus escape beyond the sky; Poharamas goes upward to Olelpanti. The child’s fire thus drives a destructive episode, but the members of his household do not all flee to the same destination.

After floodwater extinguishes the blaze, Yonot is again in her old, tightly closed house with Pohila’s basket. Tede Wiu and Kuntihle make unsuccessful attempts to obtain fire. On a renewed vigil, Tede Wiu finally catches a spark falling through the house and takes it to Olelbis. Neither parent knows it has been removed. The chapter’s personage list associates Yonot with buckeye, Tilikus with fire drill and Poharamas with shooting star; those identifications accompany, rather than replace, the specific family and fire narrative.

Origins & earliest records

Jeremiah Curtin’s Creation Myths of Primitive America (1898), opening Wintu narrative Olelbis. His provenance notes describe the California collecting context; this chapter does not name its individual teller. Curtin states that an earlier version appeared in The Sun on29March1896.

Records & interpretation

Complete Olelbis,pp.3–48, read through the final disposition of the first people; notes490–493 also read. Complete family/fire5,11–15 and recovery28–29; personage list3. Curtin’s general theory of a uniform American mythology and comparisons with European tales are not adopted as historical findings.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind

   Jeremiah Curtin · 1898

   Complete Olelbis,pp.3–48; Complete family/fire5,11–15 and recovery28–29; personage list3. Notes486–493 for collection, prior publication and editorial interpretation.

Family, evolution & connections

Pohila’s parents — Curtin’s Olelbis

Marriage and maternal identification, pp. 5 and 12–14; explicit father and mother, p. 29.

Joint parental branch to their named child. These are characters in this telling, not biological taxa. No wider natural-ancestor chain is inferred from their fire or plant identities. Olelbis’s Pakchuso grandmother addresses do not establish an intervening birth pedigree.

Katkatchila, Yonot and the little brother

Express sibling statements, pp. 5 and 14.

Sibling grouping with Yonot’s own family shown beneath her. The grouping root is not an ancestor. Parents of these siblings and Yonot’s birth order are unspecified. Tilikus is Yonot’s husband and Pohila’s father, not another sibling.

References

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

1. Primary textCurtin1898: complete opening Wintu narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.