In the beginning of everything was water. On the water, in a fleck of foam, a down feather circled. From the feather came a voice, and the voice was singing.
This was the creator, Taikomal, who was to make the world. His name means He-Who-Goes-Alone. With him was the god, Coyote. After a time, the god who was in the feather came to look like a man. All the time that he was taking on the appearance of a man, he was singing.
Then he made a basket from parts of his own body. From this basket he made the earth. Then he traveled over it, singing. Four times he traveled from north to south, with Coyote hanging from his body. Next he fastened the four corners of the earth and made the sky from the skins of four whales.
Then, as the sang, he took sticks of wood and made the people of the god, Coyote.
- Creation myth of the Yuki people of Mendocino county, California.
