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Ai-kut is the short for Adam, and my father and my mother were the coyote and the moon. And this is Yo-to-to-wi, my wife. Yo-to-to-wi is the short for Eve. She is the first woman of the Nishinam. "Me, I am Ai-kut. This is my dew of women. This is my honey-dew of women. Her father and her mother were the Sierra dawn and the summer east wind of the mountains.
Dick danced half a dozen steps, stiff-legged, as Indians dance, slapped his thighs with his palms, and began a new chant, still retaining his hold on his wife. "Me, I am Ai-kut, the first man of the Nishinam. Ai-kut is the short for Adam, and my father and my mother were the coyote and the moon. And this is Yo-to-to-wi, my wife. She is the first woman of the Nishinam.
Dick obediently ceased his chant of Mountain Lad, but shook his head like a stubborn colt. "I have a new song," he said solemnly. "It is about you and me, Paula. I got it from the Nishinam." "The Nishinam are the extinct aborigines of this part of California," Paula shot in a swift aside of explanation to Graham.
Her father and her mother were the grasshopper and the ring- tailed cat. They were the best father and mother left after my father and mother. The coyote is very wise, the moon is very old; but who ever heard much of anything of credit to the grasshopper and the ring- tailed cat? The Nishinam are always right.
You see, no man lives who ever heard it sung. The Nishinam got it from the Maidu, who got it from the Konkau, who made it. But the Nishinam and the Maidu and the Konkau are gone. Their last rancheria is not. You plowed it under, Mr. Crockett, with you bonanza gang-plowing, plow-soling farming.
When Graham had finished, Paula thanked him with her eyes, closed them, and lay still for a space. "And now, Red Cloud," she said when next she opened them, "the song of Ai-kut, and of the Dew-Woman, the Lush-Woman. Stand where Evan did, so that I can see you well." And Dick chanted: "I am Ai-kut, the first man of the Nishinam.
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