Reading Notes, wk 2, The Creation

During this weeks reading, The Creation (Maidu), pg 23-35, I visualized the setting in my mind. In the beginning, "when this world was covered with water." I visualized being in a boat or floating device and looking around, all I could see was water. There were two characters, Earthmaker and the Coyote, later came the Meadowlark from the birds nest.
The reading continues to go on and describe how there was nothing around, until Earthmaker thought and sang songs about mountain ranges, and a little bit of land, he sang until he saw something like a birds nest. As he looked at it was small so he thought that it would be better if it was bigger, so as he thought of the ways it could get bigger, the small nest started to grow. I imagine a small humming birds nest and then watching it grow so that it covers the ground. The Meadowlark was in the small nest but as it grew, he stood on the land to later fly away and be the first creature to fly.
Then Coyote was told to laid on his belly to push out the land and make it grow larger, to cover large areas, so there would be places to travel. I imagine Coyote with his belly on the ground, and pushing out the land with his legs, in all directions, like when a dog lays flat on it's belly on the cold tile on a hot summer day.
Earth maker was now alone and started to create creatures, he made them two by two, each pair similar but a little different. During this part of the story I imagine a land that is empty but is slowing being filled with creatures, so they can grow and have children and a build a land of there own, where they have names and give things names. Each pair of creatures can have their own country and have there own foods, names and languages.
Once Earthmaker was done with creating the lands and creatures, he traveled to the middle of the world and built a house.
This story is about the creation of the world, from a place the Earthmaker imagined covered in water, to a birds nest, to stretching it out to make the land that covers the world, and creating creatures, using song and imagination.