Poem Referring to Frogs, Lizards, Fish, Bugs
By Albert Samuel Gatschet
Albert Samuel Gatschet, an American philologist and ethnologist, was born at Saint Beatonberg, Bern, Switzerland. In 1868 he moved to the United States, where, until 1877, he was connected with the staffs of various German newspapers, and in that year was appointed ethnologist of the Government Geological Survey. In 1879 he became linguist to the Bureau of American Ethnology. From 1874 he made extensive study of the languages of the North American Indians. He wrote The Indians of Southwestern Oregon in Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. II, parts 1 and 2, Washington, 1890. Both the animal poem and the fire dance are given in slightly different versions by Leslie Spier in his Klamath Ethnography published at Berkeley in 1930.
I the black-spotted snake am hanging here.
This is mine, the black snake's gait.
Lo! thus I the lizard stick my head out.
When I the lizard am walking, my body is resplendent with colors.
The land on which I, the female lizard, am treading belongs to the lark.
Which game did you play with me?
Now the wind gust sings about me, the yen-fish
I the tsawas-fish am singing my own song.
Here I am buzzing around
I, the bug, I bite and suck.
Fire Dance
By Albert Samuel Gatschet
In fire-flames I am enveloped.
Lu'luksam nu sku'tchaltko.
I am now wrapped in the garments of fire-flame.
