Waida Dikit, host of the world’s musicians

Overview

Waida Dikit first builds a sweat-house near Tede Puyuk, painting its eastern half red and its western half green with leaf pigment. The plants used for the green paint grow from that side. He brings Tsaroki Sakahl to live with him, marks the green youth with a yellow stripe, and gives him an alder flute whose wood, he explains, grew from earlier people’s bones. His invitations eventually bring musicians from distant parts of the world. Each time the gathering grows, his breath and wish enlarge the house.

After Hawt wins the musical contest and Waida Werris is revealed in the north, Waida Dikit hosts a feast. His sister Tunhlucha Pokaila brings water in two baskets, one for drinking and one for washing, followed by food. Their contents remain undiminished however many guests use them. Those who cannot eat venison and acorn porridge receive fish instead. The narrative links such choices with the later food preferences of the beings listed as otter, loon and kingfisher.

Guests then supply foods from extraordinary bodily sources: Patit’s spittle produces a basket of acorns, Tsihl’s unbound wrist pours pine seeds, Hau’s scratched ear releases manzanita berries, and Wima’s wrist yields plums. As host, Waida Dikit tastes food before others to show it is acceptable. Manzanita berries disturb his spirit because they are not his food; colored spots appear on his body and remain. For the plums he sends Tichelis to taste instead. His trout association is supplied in Curtin’s personage list.

Sedit objects to setting surplus food aside, but Patkilis explains that future people will eat what they need and keep the rest. The gathering disperses after establishing its foods. Waida Dikit returns permanently to his old house and declares it the point to which salmon will ascend Wini Mem before returning. A later visit by several departing guests concludes the story with their association with the surrounding country.

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 notes pp. 486–487 identify the first nine narratives as Wintu and describe his California collecting in 1895 and earlier publication in The Sun. This chapter names no individual teller.

Records & interpretation

Complete Hawt, pp. 177–208, including the feast, distribution of food and final return to Tede Puyuk. The chapter names no individual teller. Its personage list and narrative explanations are distinguished from zoological and astronomical claims.

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 Wintu teller unnamed here · 1898

   Complete Hawt, pp. 177–208; collection provenance pp. 486–487.

Family, evolution & connections

Waida Dikit and Tunhlucha Pokaila - stated siblings

The narrator’s explicit sister identification on p. 202.

Parallel branches show stated siblings under a grouping heading, not an ancestor. No parents or birth generations are supplied here. Grandfather and grandson forms of address elsewhere are not used to invent a wider pedigree. This is Curtin’s English narrative witness, not a universal account of Wintu relationships.

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

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