Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity - Their History, Customs and Traditions by Galen Clark
page 67 of 82 (81%)
page 67 of 82 (81%)
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September, 1857, while out with a large party of Indians on a
deer hunt in the mountains. One day, after a long tramp, I stopped to rest by the side of a small lake about eight miles from the present site of Wawona, and I then named it Grouse Lake on account of the great number of grouse found there. Very soon a party of Indians came along carrying some deer, and stopped on the opposite side of the lake to rest and get some water. Soon after they had started again for their camp I heard a distinct wailing cry, somewhat like the cry of a puppy when lost, and I thought the Indians must have left one of their young dogs behind. When I joined the Indians in camp that night I inquired of them about the sound I had heard. They replied that it was not a dog--that a long time ago an Indian boy had been drowned in the lake, and that every time any one passed there he always cried after them, and that no one dared to go in the lake, for he would catch them by the legs and pull them down and they would, be drowned. I then concluded that it must have been some unseen water-fowl that made the cry, and at that time I thought that the Indians were trying to impose on my credulity, but I am now convinced that they fully believed the story they told me. Po-ho´-no Lake, the headwaters of the Bridal Veil Creek, was also thought to be haunted by troubled spirits, which affected the stream clear down into the Yosemite Valley; and the Indians believed that an evil wind there had been the cause of some fatal accidents many years ago. The word Po-ho´-no means a puffing wind, and has also been translated "Evil Wind," on account of the |
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