All the Indians of California have a name for the earthquake, and most of them personify it. The belief that earthquakes are caused by the movements of a giant who supports the earth, an idea that crops out in many parts of the world, does not seem to be prevalent among them. Earthquake is a man of supernatural power, usually either allied or contrasted to Thunder. Sometimes there are several earthquake brothers. In northwestern California, among the Yurok, Earthquake shakes the earth by his running, just as Thunder, also imagined to be a man, produces thunder and lightning by running in the sky and opening and shutting his eyes. Earthquake is said by these Indians to have originally lived at the village of Kenek, on the south side of Klamath River, some thirty-five miles from its mouth. He was a most successful shinny player, defeating all by causing the ground to rise in waves under their feet, so that they stumbled and fell as they ran. He was finally defeated by a visitor who observed that wherever Earthquake himself ran the ground was level and undisturbed, and who, therefore, kept close to him until he succeeded in winning the game. At the present time earthquakes are caused by the tilting of the world. This tilting is produced when the deerskin and jumping dances are not held. When two earthquakes occur in the same year, it is a very bad sign, for then the world is far off its level. If the earth should tilt far enough it would slide off altogether. The earthquakes are therefore a warning, which has in the past always been obeyed.
One tradition represents Earthquake as a man travelling northward along the coast to the end of the world. He is followed by Thunder, who wishes to be accepted as his companion. Earthquake is first doubtful as to Thunder's power, but after the latter has given several exhibitions of rumbling and shaking that almost equal those of Earthquake himself, the two continue the journey together.
A somewhat similar relation between the two powers is found in a Yokuts muth from Tule River, in the south central par of the State. Earthquake and Thunder contend for superiority. Each hides the children of the other, but both find their own and liberate them with a display of power.
The California Reader
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