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  4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

  5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

  6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

  7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

  8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

  9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

  10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

  11 The name of the first is Pi′-son: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Hav′-i-lah, where there is gold;

  12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

  13 And the name of the second river is Gi′-hon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of E-thi-o′-pi-a.

  14 And the name of the third river is Hid′-de-kel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Eu-phra′-tes.

  15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

  16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

  17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

  18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

  19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

  20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

  21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

  22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

  23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of

  my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

  24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

  25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

  CHAPTER 3

  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

  2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

  3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

  4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

  5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

  6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

  7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

  8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

  9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

  10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

  11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

  12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

  13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

  14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

  15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

  16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

  17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

  18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

  19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

  20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

  21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

  22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

  23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

  24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cher’-u-bims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

  The Blackfoot Genesis

  GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, ED.

  ALL ANIMALS OF THE PLAINS at one time heard and knew him, and all birds of the air heard and knew him. All things that he had made understood him, when he spoke to them,—the birds, the animals, and the people.

  Old Man was travelling about, south of here, making the people. He came from the south, travelling north, making animals and birds as he passed along. He made the mountains, prairies, timber, and brush first. So he went along, travelling northward, making things as he went, putting rivers here and there, and falls on them, putting red paint here and there in the ground,—fixing up the world as we see it to-day. He made the Milk River (the Teton) and crossed it, and, being tired, went up on a little hill and lay down to rest. As he lay on his back, stretched out on the ground, with arms extended, he marked himself out with stones,—the shape of his body, head, legs, arms, and everything. There you can see those rocks to-day. After he had rested, he went on northward, and stumbled over a knoll and fell down on his knees. Then he said, “You are a bad thing to be stumbling against”; so he raised up two large buttes there, and named them the Knees, and they are called so to this day. He went on further north, and with some of the rocks he carried with him he built the Sweet Grass Hills.

  Old Man covered the plains with grass for the animals to feed on. He marked off a piece of ground, and in it he made to grow all kinds of roots and berries,—camas, wild carrots, wild turnips, sweet-root, bitter-root, sarvis berries, bull berries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds. He put trees in the ground. He put all kinds of animals on the ground. When he made the bighorn with its big head and horns, he made it out on the prairie. It did not seem to travel easily on the prairie; it was awkward and could not go fast. So he took it by one of its horns, and led it up into the mountains, and turned it loose; and it skipped about among the rocks, and went up fearful places with ease. So he said, “This is the place that suits you; this is what you are fitted for, the rocks and the mountains.” While he was in the mountains, he made the antelope out of dirt, and turned it loose, to see how it would go. It ran so fast that it fell over some rocks and hurt itself. He saw that this would not do, and took the antelope down on the prairie, and turned it loose; and it ran away fast and gracefully, and he said, “This is what you are suited to.”

  One day Old Man determined that he would make a woman and a child; so he formed them both—the woman and the child, her son—of clay. After he had moulded the clay in human shape, he said to the clay, “You must be people,” and then he covered it up and left it, and went away. The next morning he went to the place and took the covering off, and saw that the clay shapes had changed a little. The second morning there was still more change, and the third still more. The fourth morning he went to the place, took the covering off, looked at the images, and told them to rise and walk; and they did so. They walked down to the river with their Maker, and then he told them that his name was Nápi, Old Man.

  As they were standing by the river, the woman said to him, “How is it? will we always live, will there be no end to it?” He said: “I have never thought of that. We will have to decide it. I will take this buffalo chip and throw it in the river. If it floats, when people die, in four days they will become alive again; they will die for only four days. But if it sinks, t
here will be an end to them.” He threw the chip into the river, and it floated. The woman turned and picked up a stone, and said: “No, I will throw this stone in the river; if it floats we will always live, if it sinks people must die, that they may always be sorry for each other.”* The woman threw the stone into the water, and it sank. “There,” said Old Man, “you have chosen. There will be an end to them.”

  It was not many nights after, that the woman’s child died, and she cried a great deal for it. She said to Old Man: “Let us change this. The law that you first made, let that be a law.” He said: “Not so. What is made law must be law. We will undo nothing that we have done. The child is dead, but it cannot be changed. People will have to die.”

  That is how we came to be people. It is he who made us.

  The first people were poor and naked, and did not know how to get a living. Old Man showed them the roots and berries, and told them that they could eat them; that in a certain month of the year they could peel the bark off some trees and eat it, that it was good. He told the people that the animals should be their food, and gave them to the people, saying, “These are your herds.” He said: “All these little animals that live in the ground—rats, squirrels, skunks, beavers—are good to eat. You need not fear to eat of their flesh.” He made all the birds that fly, and told the people that there was no harm in their flesh, that it could be eaten. The first people that he created he used to take about through the timber and swamps and over the prairies, and show them the different plants. Of a certain plant he would say, “The root of this plant, if gathered in a certain month of the year, is good for a certain sickness.” So they learned the power of all herbs.

  In those days there were buffalo. Now the people had no arms, but those black animals with long beards were armed; and once, as the people were moving about, the buffalo saw them, and ran after them, and hooked them, and killed and ate them. One day, as the Maker of the people was travelling over the country, he saw some of his children that he had made, lying dead, torn to pieces and partly eaten by the buffalo. When he saw this he was very sad. He said: “This will not do. I will change this. The people shall eat the buffalo.”

  He went to some of the people who were left, and said to them, “How is it that you people do nothing to these animals that are killing you?” The people said: “What can we do? We have no way to kill these animals, while they are armed and can kill us.” Then said the Maker: “That is not hard. I will make you a weapon that will kill these animals.” So he went out, and cut some sarvis berry shoots, and brought them in, and peeled the bark off them. He took a larger piece of wood, and flattened it, and tied a string to it, and made a bow. Now, as he was the master of all birds and could do with them as he wished, he went out and caught one, and took feathers from its wing, and split them, and tied them to the shaft of wood. He tied four feathers along the shaft, and tried the arrow at a mark, and found that it did not fly well. He took these feathers off, and put on three; and when he tried it again, he found that it was good. He went out and began to break sharp pieces off the stones. He tried them, and found that the black flint stones made the best arrow points, and some white flints. Then he taught the people how to use these things.

  Then he said: “The next time you go out, take these things with you, and use them as I tell you, and do not run from these animals. When they run at you, as soon as they get pretty close, shoot the arrows at them, as I have taught you; and you will see that they will run from you or will run in a circle around you.”

  Now, as people became plenty, one day three men went out on to the plain to see the buffalo, but they had no arms. They saw the animals, but when the buffalo saw the men, they ran after them and killed two of them, but one got away. One day after this, the people went on a little hill to look about, and the buffalo saw them, and said, “Saiyah, there is some more of our food,” and they rushed on them. This time the people did not run. They began to shoot at the buffalo with the bows and arrows Nápi had given them, and the buffalo began to fall; but in the fight a person was killed.

  At this time these people had flint knives given them, and they cut up the bodies of the dead buffalo. It is not healthful to eat the meat raw, so Old Man gathered soft dry rotten driftwood and made punk of it, and then got a piece of hard wood, and drilled a hole in it with an arrow point, and gave them a pointed piece of hard wood, and taught them how to make a fire with fire sticks, and to cook the flesh of these animals and eat it.

  They got a kind of stone that was in the land, and then took another harder stone and worked one upon the other, and hollowed out the softer one, and made a kettle of it. This was the fashion of their dishes.

  Also Old Man said to the people: “Now, if you are overcome, you may go and sleep, and get power. Something will come to you in your dream, that will help you. Whatever these animals tell you to do, you must obey them, as they appear to you in your sleep. Be guided by them. If anybody wants help, if you are alone and travelling, and cry aloud for help, your prayer will be answered. It may be by the eagles, perhaps by the buffalo, or by the bears. Whatever animal answers your prayer, you must listen to him.”

  That was how the first people got through the world, by the power of their dreams.

  After this, Old Man kept on, travelling north. Many of the animals that he had made followed him as he went. The animals understood him when he spoke to them, and he used them as his servants. When he got to the north point of the Porcupine Mountains, there he made some more mud images of people, and blew breath upon them, and they became people. He made men and women. They asked him, “What are we to eat?” He made many images of clay, in the form of buffalo. Then he blew breath on these, and they stood up; and when he made signs to them, they started to run. Then he said to the people, “Those are your food.” They said to him, “Well, now, we have those animals; how are we to kill them?” “I will show you,” he said. He took them to the cliff, and made them build rock piles like this, >; and he made the people hide behind these piles of rock, and said, “When I lead the buffalo this way, as I bring them opposite to you, rise up.”

  After he had told them how to act, he started on toward a herd of buffalo. He began to call them, and the buffalo started to run toward him, and they followed him until they were inside the lines. Then he dropped back; and as the people rose up, the buffalo ran in a straight line and jumped over the cliff. He told the people to go and take the flesh of those animals. They tried to tear the limbs apart, but they could not. They tried to bite pieces out, and could not. So Old Man went to the edge of the cliff, and broke some pieces of stone with sharp edges, and told them to cut the flesh with these. When they had taken the skins from these animals, they set up some poles and put the hides on them, and so made a shelter to sleep under. There were some of these buffalo that went over the cliff that were not dead. Their legs were broken, but they were still alive. The people cut strips of green hide, and tied stones in the middle, and made large mauls, and broke in the skulls of the buffalo, and killed them.

  After he had taught those people these things, he started off again, travelling north, until he came to where Bow and Elbow rivers meet. There he made some more people, and taught them the same things. From here he again went on northward. When he had come nearly to the Red Deer’s River, he reached the hill where the Old Man sleeps. There he lay down and rested himself. The form of his body is to be seen there yet.

  When he awoke from his sleep, he travelled further northward and came to a fine high hill. He climbed to the top of it, and there sat down to rest. He looked over the country below him, and it pleased him. Before him the hill was steep, and he said to himself, “Well, this is a fine place for sliding; I will have some fun,” and he began to slide down the hill. The marks where he slid down are to be seen yet, and the place is known to all people as the “Old Man’s Sliding Ground.”

  This is as far as the Blackfeet followed Old Man. The Crees know what he did further north.

  In later times once, Nápi said, “Here I will mark you off a piece of ground,” and he did so.* Then he said: “There is your land, and it is full of all kinds of animals, and many things grow in this land. Let no other people come into it. This is for you five tribes (Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Gros Ventres, Sarcees). When people come to cross the line, take your bows and arrows, your lances and your battle axes, and give them battle and keep them out. If they gain a footing, trouble will come to you.”