Are the Santa Lucia Mountains really inhabited by shadowy Dark Watchers? Is the labyrinthine Winchester House still inhabited by the reclusive widow who masterminded its construction? And how did a sewing machine salesman make good on his promise to end a terrible drought in Southern California? From Mount Shasta’s legendary Lemurians to battles with alien spacecraft, California Myths and Legends of makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the Golden State’s most fascinating and compelling stories.

First published in 1912, these collected myths tell of good and evil, the entrance of death into the world, great floods and fire, and the origins of names. Also included are fables, rain songs, the Paiute song of the Ghost Dance, and legends of Yosemite Valley. Illustrations.

Miss Judson has collected these myths and legends from many printed sources. She disclaims originality, but she has rendered a service that will be appreciated by the many who have sought in vain for legends of the Indians. There is an agreeable surprise in store for any lover of folk-lore who will read these books. Contents: The Beginning Of Newness The Men Of The Early Times Creation And Longevity Old Mole's Creation The Creation Of The World Spider's Creation The Gods And The Six Regions How Old Man Above Created The World The Search For The Middle And The Hardening Of The World Origin Of Light Pokoh, The Old Man Thunder And Lightning Creation Of Man The First Man And Woman Old Man Above And The Grizzlies The Creation Of Man-Kind And The Flood The Birds And The Flood Legend Of The Flood The Great Flood The Flood And The Theft Of Fire Legend Of The Flood In Sacramento Valley The Fable Of The Animals Coyote And Sun The Course Of The Sun The Foxes And The Sun The Theft Of Fire The Theft Of Fire The Earth-Hardening After The Flood The Origins Of The Totems And Of Names Traditions Of Wanderings The Migration Of The Water People Coyote And The Mesquite Beans Origin Of The Sierra Nevadas And Coast Range Yosemite Valley Legend Of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La (El Capitan) Legend Of Tis-Se'-Yak (South Dome And North Dome) Historic Tradition Of The Upper Tuolumne California Big Trees The Children Of Cloud The Cloud People Rain Song Rain Song Rain Song The Corn Maidens The Search For The Corn Maidens Hasjelti And Hostjoghon The Song-Hunter Sand Painting Of The Song-Hunter The Guiding Duck And The Lake Of Death The Boy Who Became A God Origin Of Clear Lake ... and many more ...

In the beginning of the New-making, the ancient fathers lived successively in four caves in the Four fold-containing-earth. The first was of sooty blackness, black as a chimney at night time; the second, dark as the night in the stormy season; the third, like a valley in starlight; the fourth, with a light like the dawning. Then they came up in the night-shine into the World of Knowing and Seeing. So runs the Zuni myth, and it typifies well the mental development, insight, and beauty of speech of the Indian tribes along the Pacific Coast, from those of Alaska in the far-away Northland, with half of life spent in actual darkness and more than half in the struggle for existence against the cold and the storms loosed by fatal curiosity from the bear's bag of bitter, icy winds, to the exquisite imagery of the Zunis and other desert tribes, on their sunny plains in the Southland. It was in the night-shine of this southern land, with its clear, dry air and brilliant stars, that the Indians, looking up at the heavens above them, told the story of the bag of stars of Utset, the First Mother, who gave to the scarab beetle, when the floods came, the bag of Star People, sending him first into the world above. It was a long climb to the world above and the tired little fellow, once safe, sat down by the sack. After a while he cut a tiny hole in the bag, just to see what was in it, but the Star People flew out and filled the heavens everywhere. Yet he saved a few stars by grasping the neck of the sack, and sat there, frightened and sad, when Utset, the First Mother, asked what he had done with the beautiful Star People. The Sky-father himself, in those early years of the New-making, spread out his hand with the palm downward, and into all the wrinkles of his hand set the semblance of shining yellow corn-grains, gleaming like sparks of fire in the dark of the early World-dawn. "See," said Sky-father to Earth-mother, "our children shall be guided by these when the Sun-father is not near and thy mountain terraces are as darkness itself. Then shall our children be guided by light." So Sky-father created the stars. Then he said, "And even as these grains gleam upward from the water, so shall seed grain like them spring up from the earth when touched by water, to nourish our children." And he created the golden Seed-stuff of the corn.

Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest offers a glimpse into the spiritual beliefs, traditions, and storytelling of indigenous peoples.