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Some of the tales I heard from people while in the raawu, go like this.

There was the Sky, and there was the Earth. The Sky was male and the Earth was female. The Sky married the Earth and was looking to have many beautiful children, but the Earth could not have them. They'd been trying for four springs, and on the fifth, the Earth, ashamed of her inability, set herself on fire. For a hundred days, the Earth burned, and the Sky could not do anything except shed streams of tears. On the hundred-and-first day, the Sky’s tears put out the fire, and the Earth bloomed and flourished with life of all sorts.

Since then, every spring the Sky weeps over the Earth, causing life to spread and flourish.

The Sky had a brother called Light, and the Earth had a sister called Shadow. Shadow desired to avenge her sister. She sent a swarm of cold dust at the Sky. To protect his brother, Light spread his white cloak across the Sky. The dust fell back to the Earth, covering everything on it. The wind brings this dust over from the northern desert every winter to this time.

Shadow became livid and sent swaths of dead waters at the Sky. Light spread his cloak again, and all the waters dropped back to the Earth, killing all remaining life. Pools of those waters remain in some places to this day as dead salty lakes.

Light addressed Shadow,

“Maybe it's time that you stop? You're dishonoring the body of your own sister!ˮ

But Shadow did not stop. More furious than ever, she grabbed a Crystal Knife and rushed at Light. Light dodged the attack, and Shadow sliced the Earth; the Sky tried to stop her, but she sliced him as well. Light grabbed Shadow's hand and took the knife from it. Those slices were later filled with water and are now known as the Land River and the Sky River.

At the time when this brawl was happening, Klanazhaano* – the highest of the land patrons, biggest of all spirits, an odd stranger from the abyss – was passing by. Light grabbed him by the hand and begged for him to intervene,

“For the sake of life, help us stop this frenzy!”

With his huge hands, Klanazhaano pulled the brawling ones apart and asked what was happening.

“He killed my sister!ˮ Shadow screamed, pointing at the Sky.

“I did not, she killed herself!ˮ the Sky answered.

“My brother didn't kill her; she is going insane! ˮ Light pleaded.

Klanazhaano was unwilling to seek complex resolutions to the conflict. To keep all the parties apart, he spun the world around, and he did it so fiercely that it spins to this day. It is because of this that the whole world is in some kind of motion: everything spins, moves, changes, and transforms. The Sky spins around changing between dayside and nightside. Light spins around and Shadow moves along – they never cross. Waters always move, and life always goes on in circles. Even Earth, though dead, makes the slightest movements.

As for Shadow's knife – Light kept it for himself. Sometimes he sharpens this immense tool, and when he does, the chips fly down to earth. We call it hail.

*How the Circles of Life Were Established*

From the Hundred Days Fire until the Spin, the world was covered with trees. The Primordial Forest stretched all the way to the horizon; all plants and all animals, and all other creatures lived in peace and prosperity. But when Klanazhaano spun the world, everything was put in motion. Life itself began to move, and so all the creatures began growing and getting older, eventually dying. Death became rampant, and the only way to escape it was to take another life – by eating another.

All the creatures started eating each other in order to prolong their own lives. There was no limit to their hunger or their lifespan, so soon the trees were gone. Then all the bushes were gone too, then all the grasses, then all the big animals, and then all the small ones. In the end, only three left – Wood, Flesh, and Slime.

The three creatures knew that eating each other would not be good for anything – whoever remained in the end would die of hunger anyway. They went searching for Klanazhaano. He was the one who messed up the world, he should be the one to solve the mess, they reasoned.

They found him sitting atop the Sky Mountain, far in the south. They went to him and laid out their misery. Klanazhaano listened to them but was reluctant to do anything.

“Why would I care? ˮ he grumbled.

“Why, maybe because you're alive too? ˮ the Wood said. “Maybe if I am the only one remaining, I should put my roots into your body and drain you of your juices for as long as possible? ˮ

“Yes, and if I am the only one remaining,ˮ the Flesh said, “I will whop you in the head and eat you piece by piece while you're unconscious! ˮ

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“Yes, and if I am the only one remaining,ˮ the Slime said, “I will swallow you whole and slowly digest you inside me! ˮ

“What do you say, Klanazhaano? What would suit you best? ˮ the three of them said together.

Klanazhaano considered this and agreed that a solution had to be found. He divided the world into south and north, and he divided each of the three creatures into body and spirit, and he also divided the spirit into two parts. He assigned Lark to carry the first part of the spirit to the north, and Raven to carry the second part to the south. On each of the sides of the world, he put down multiple Payahas**, which he made of his hair. Payahas were supposed to rejuvenate and reincarnate the spirits and send them back to the center.

The Wood and the Flesh agreed with this arrangement, but the Slime did not. It wanted to live long, and it wanted to be intact, so Klanazhaano left Slime's spirit as one. He then divided the world into east and west and connected two ends of the Land River on the other side of the Earth. On both sides of the world, he put Shois***, which he created from his fingernails. These creatures were supposed to catch dead Slime on the eastern side, separate its spirit from its body and send it to the western side, where they'd divide the bodies and the spirits in two. Then they’d put the spirits into new bodies and send them back down the River.

Thus, Klanazhaano established the circles of life and the order of reincarnations. The first three creatures died, and their spirits were divided and dealt with accordingly. The new creatures lived their lives and then were separated too, and brought around and dealt with accordingly. Onward these circles went; onward they are still going today, making the world as we know it.

*How the First Clans Settled Around the River*

On and on the circle went. More and more creatures were appearing, starting from small, getting to big, and then, eventually, getting to people.

The very first people came from eagles; they went south, to the very end of the Earth, where they passed the edge and went to the other side. They now live on the other side of the Earth.

The Second People came from clay; they went west, to the very end of the savanna, and settled at the foot of the Big Mountains that stand on that edge. They live there to this day.

The Third People came from snakes. They went east, over the waters of the Eastern Sea, which is what they call the Maragor Sea. There, they now live on boats.

The Fourth People came from antelopes. They settled near Lake Soddo. They are now known as Surians.

The Fifth People came from boars. They remained in the center of the world and spread all over the savanna.

The River People are descendants of the Fifth People. Once, a big fire destroyed their hunting ground, so they were forced to go to the shores of the Land River. They were led by Lolla-Tombona (Mighty-Boar), their strongest and most respected hunter.

When they arrived at the River, however, there was a problem – a dreadful monster Tlunolo had already settled there. It was a big, disgusting creature with small reptile eyes and a huge maw, a tiny tail, and an immense body covered in slime. It attacked Lolla-Tombona and his people and killed several. Their spears and javelins bounced off its skin as if it was stone. Their arrows couldn't hit its eyes, because they were too small. There was no way of them settling around the River, and the tribe thought of going back to the plains, but the plains were already burned and empty – there was nowhere to go.

Lolla-Tombona gathered the strongest, bravest hunters and together they went to the river. They hid behind the brush and watched the monster. They saw that it hid in the water in the daylight, but went up on the southern bank at night and retired to a grove nearby. Every night it went to that grove, and every morning it went back to hide in the water.

Lolla-Tombona and the hunters came up with a plan. When the monster returned to the water, they sneaked onto its path and dug out a deep pitfall. They worked hard all day, and when the pit was ready, they covered it with grass and leaves and hid in the nearby bushes.

Night came, and Monster Tlunolo surged up on the shore and treaded to its grove. It went slowly, steadily, not seeing the trap and not knowing of the hunters. The monster walked up to the pitfall and fell into it with a cry. The hunters rushed over and began throwing their spears at the beast, but Lolla-Tombona stopped them, for its skin was still like stone, and wasting projectiles was unwise. He urged them to wait until the beast wore out, and so they did. The beast fought and climbed for three days. Its body was fearsome on the ground, but useless in the pit – on the fourth day it exhausted itself and couldn't fight anymore. The hunters jumped down with clubs and axes and smashed the monster's head and cut it up right in the pit.

The River was now free, and the tribe settled around it. They were the First Clans – the ancestors of the River People.

*How Lolla-Tombona Befriended Hoeyi*

Though the River was now free of the monster, there was another being in it that had to be reckoned with–Water Spirit Hoeyi****.

Hoeyi was the patron spirit of the River. He lived in the water and guarded its fish, not allowing the First Clans to catch them. Hoeyi had many children–snakes that lived on the shores and in the marshlands. His children had a tough time, for many predators hunted them: the Mongooses hunted them on the southern shore, the Yellow Cat hunted them on the northern, and the Eagle hunted them everywhere.

To befriend the spirit, Lolla-Tombona decided to ensure his children’s safety. With other hunters, he tried to drive all those predators away, but they did it with weapons of the plains–spears and javelins, and so had no success, for the dexterous animals avoided their hits easily. So, Lolla-Tombona made the first bow. With the bow, he killed the Eagle, but the rest of the predators were difficult to deal with even with the new weapon.

“Well,” Lolla-Tombona said, “if you can’t run down the prey, let the prey run to you.”

So, Lolla-Tombona made the first snare. He placed lots of snares on both shores. With those snares, he caught both the Mongoose and the Yellow Cat. Hoeyi’s children were now safe from perils, and when the Spirit knew of that, he granted Lolla-Tombona and the First Clans his patronage.

Ever since then, the River People have lived around the River, protecting and respecting Hoeyi’s children, catching the River’s fish, and using bows and snares for hunting.

***

Lolla-Tombona was a smart man, and a strong man, praised and respected; but he was also a vain man and a snobbish man–two traits he hid his whole life. He performed many heroic deeds, but he also did many questionable ones. Among them, there is a story of his son, Tuna-Shidda or Big-Eye, which I’ll tell later for the sake of preserving readers’ time.

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Footnotes:

* - /ˌklanaʒaːˈno/

** - /paˈjaha/, pl. /paˈjahas/

*** - /ˈʃoi/, pl. /ˈʃois/

**** - /ˈhoji/