Coyote’s wife said to him: “I do not want you to marry other women.” Now they had only one child. Then Coyote said: “I want many children. We alone cannot have many children. Let me marry another woman so that there may be more of us.” Then the woman said, “Well, go.”

Then he had five children. Then his children said: “Where shall we make our houses? Where shall we marry?” Coyote told them: “Go out over the world.” Then they went and founded five rancherias with five different languages. The rancherias are said to have been Ensen, Rumsien, Ekkheya, Kakonta, and that of the Wacharones.

Now Coyote gave the people the carrying net. He gave them bow and arrows to kill rabbits. He said: “You will have acorn mush for your food. You will gather acorns and you will have acorn bread to eat. Go down to the ocean and gather seaweed that you may eat it with your acorn mush and acorn bread. Gather it when the tide is low, and kill rabbits, and at low tide pick abalones and mussels to eat. When you can find nothing else, gather buckeyes for food. If the acorns are bitter, wash them out; and gather “wild oat” seeds for pinole, carrying them

[1. Partially based on a Rumsien text.]

on your back in a basket. Look for these things of which I have told you. I have shown you what is good. Now I will leave you. You have learned. I have shown you how to gather food, and even though it rains a long time people will not die of hunger. Now I am getting old. I cannot walk. Alas for me! Now I go.”

Abstracts:

Rumsien Costanoan. Coyote marries a second wife to have. more children. He sends the children out to found villages with different languages. He gives the people bow and arrows and instructs them how to gather and prepare food. He becomes old and goes away.

Indian Myths Of South Central California. By A. L. Kroeber.[1907] University Of California Publications American Archaeology And Ethnology Vol. 4 No. 4, and is now in the public domain.

Costanoan Family
A linguistic family on the coast of central California. In 1877 Powell (Cont. N. A. Ethnol., In, 535) established a family which he called Mutsun, extending from San Francisco to Soledad and from the sea inland to the Sierras, and including an area in the Marin County peninsula, north of San Francisco bay, and gave vocabularies from various parts of this territory. In 1891 (7th Rep. B. A. E., 70, 92, map) Powell divided this area between two families, Moquelumnan and Costanoan. The Moquelumnan family occupied the portion of the old Mutsun territory east of San Joaquin river and north of San Francisco bay.

The territory of the Costanoan family extended from the Pacific ocean to San Joaquin river, and from the Golden Gate and Suisun bay on the north to Pt Sur on the coast and a point a short distance south of Soledad in the Salinas valley on the south. Farther inland the south boundary is uncertain, though it was probably near Big Panoche creek. The Costanoan Indians lived mainly on vegetal products, especially acorns and seeds, though they also obtained fish and mussels, and captured deer and smaller game. Their clothing was scant, the men going naked. Their houses were tule or grass huts, their boats balsas or rafts of tules. They made baskets, but no pottery, and appear to have been as primitive as most of the tribes of California. They burned the dead. The Rumsen of Monterey looked upon the eagle, the humming bird, and the coyote as the original Inhabitants of the world, and they venerated the redwood. Their languages were simple and harmonious. Seven missions-San Carlos, Soledad, San Juan Bautista, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Dolores (San Francisco)-were established in Costanoan territory by the Franciscans subsequent to 1770, and continued until their confiscation by the Mexican government in 1834, when the Indians were scattered. The surviving individuals of Costanoan blood may number today 25 or 30, most of them “Mexican” in life and manners rather than Indian.

True tribes did not exist in Costanoan territory, the groups mentioned below being small and probably little more than village communities, without political connection or even a name other than that of the locality they inhabited.
The following divisions or settlements have been recognized: Ahwaste, Altahmo, Ansaime, Aulintac, Chalone, Costanos, Kalindaruk, Karkin, Mutsun, Olhon, Romonan, Rumsen, Saklan, Thomien, Tulomo, and Wacharon (?).

Handbook of American Indians (1906) ~ Frederick W. Hodge