Regular readers of this blog and people who otherwise know me should be quite familiar with my fandom for Maryland Terrapins athletics including its catchphrase “Fear the Turtle.” One aspect of my travels that’s both central and peripheral and that is sometimes planned and sometime serendipitous has been my repeated encounters with turtles. Thus, you can imagine my delight when I read the tale from Tongva mythology that I recount below.
The Giver of Life and the Turtles.
Let me start with this: Many of the creation myths of the Tongva have elements in common with the Judeo-Christian creation myth. For example, they believe in one god who organized the universe creating order from chaos. This god dwells in a heaven-like location where it receives the spirits of all who die. His sacred name is Qua-o-ar but it is rarely heard in common speech. Instead, they use the term Y-yo-ha-rivg-nain meaning Giver of Life. This Giver of Life created all the animals that inhabit the Earth before creating the first man, Tobohar and the first woman, Pabavit. Although Qua-o-ar has no gender it is usually referred to using male pronouns.
One critical difference, among many, between the two traditions is that rather than viewing humanity as the focus of creation, the Tongva view humanity as a single strand in a larger web of life. Thus, humanity’s primary religious responsibility is to be wise stewards of all living things and, when a place is deemed sacred, to offer ceremonies of thanksgiving.
And now, a story of creation and earthquakes.
“In the time before people, there was hardly anything in the world but water. One day, Giver of Life looked down from heaven and decided to make a beautiful land. Seeing nothing but water, he was uncertain how to begin until he spotted a giant turtle. The turtle was as big as an island. Giver of Life decided to make the beautiful land on the turtle’s back.
But one turtle alone was not big enough because the land Giver of Life wanted to make was very large. He called out, ‘Turtle, go forth and find your six brothers.’ Turtle swam to find them. It took him a day to find the first. ‘Come,’ he said. ‘We must find our brothers. Giver of Life wants us.’ They swam in all directions bringing the turtles together from the east, from the north, from the south and from the west. After six days, the turtles were together.
‘Giver of Life,’ they called, ‘we are here.’
‘Turtles,’ he answered! ‘First, form a line, head to tail, north to south. Now, you three in the south, please move a little to the east.’ The turtles moved slowly. ‘There, that’s just right. Now, the three in the north move a little to the west.’ When the turtles were at last positioned just as he wanted he said, ‘What a beautiful land you will make!’ Then Giver of Life reminded them, ‘It is a great honor I give you to carry this land on your backs so YOU MUST NOT MOVE!’
The turtles stayed very still while Giver of Life took some straw from his supply in the sky. He put it on the turtle’s backs. Then he took some soil and patted it down on top of the straw.
Giver of Life cleaned his hands on a fluffy white cloud. ‘I’ll use these clouds to make mountains,’ he said.
Then Giver of Life made trees and lakes and rivers.
[Image from tigernewspaper.]
When he was finished, he looked at the beautiful land he had made and was so pleased he returned to heaven.
But after a time trouble came. The giant turtles grew restless. Two wanted to leave.
‘A turtle must swim and I want to swim east,’ said one. ‘This beast goes east.’
Hearing his brother’s declaration another turtle responded. ‘I’ll swim toward the setting sun because west is best.’
‘No,’ a third turtle said. ‘We must stay here because that is what Giver of Life has commanded.’
The turtles began to argue. Unable to reach a resolution, one day, some of the turtles simply began to swim east while others tried to swim west. Above them the earth shook and cracked making a loud, loud noise. But after a minute, the turtles had to stop because Giver of Life had made the land on their backs so heavy. When the turtles stopped, the shaking stopped. They had only been able to swim a little way from each other. When they saw that they could not swim away, they stopped arguing and reconciled their differences.
But, as the first turtle said, ‘Turtles must swim’ and they can only stay still for so long before they begin to argue and try to swim away again. This is what makes the earth shake.”
(Note: Although I have placed the story in quotation marks, it is my retelling of the myth and not directly copied from any single source. However, I want to emphasize that the story itself originates from the Tongva.)