Ta"aroa sat in his shell revolving in space with no light, stars, sun, or moon, to break the darkness. Ta"aora broke his shell which became the sky, and forced him to retire into a new shell. He again emerged. He took stratum rock to create soil and the foundation of the world. The shell, Rumia, which he opened first, became his house and the dome of the gods" sky. This was a confined sky, enclosing the world as a mold. The Polynesians explain their origin without explaining the origin of their creator.
All was dark to the Maidu Indians who believed the world came from water and darkness. A raft came floating on the water, with two persons, Turtle A"noshma, and the Father of the Secret Society, Pehe"ipe. The Earth Initiate came down from the sky with his face covered and never to be seen, but his body shone like the sun. The Earth Initiate had Turtle dive and get as much earth as possible. Six years passed and turtle came up with earth only under his finger nails. The Earth Initiate rolled it into a ball and it grew to be earth. He then called out every star by name to make them appear. He then grew a tree with twelve different acorns in order to spread. Turtle and the Father of the Secret Society, already existed at creation.
The Yauelmani Yokuts believed that the world began as water. A piece of wood grew out of the water to the sky. The tree contained a nest with the Eagle, chief of them, and the wolf, Coyote, panther, prairie falcon, hawk, and condor. Eagle told a small duck to go down and get dirt, but he died half way there. He told another duck to try but just as he reached the bottom, he also died. Eagle and the six others noticed dirt in ducks finger nails. They took the dirt and mixed it with ground telis and pele seeds, and the earth grew over night. Eagle had wolf shout and the earth sank. They once again mixed ground telis and pele seeds, and over night the earth grew again.
