Chumash · deity · Chumash traditional religion; continuing · deity
Slo'w is the giant Golden Eagle of the Chumash upper world. The astronomy recorded by Hudson and Underhay describes the house of the Sun and indeed the whole upper world as resting upon his outstretched wings, and tells that he stands motionless save when, to ease his tiredness, he slowly stretches those wings; in so doing he passes them before the moon, and the Chumash explained the waxing and waning of the moon by this stretching. He is also one of the upper-world gamblers, partnering the Sun against Sky Coyote and Morning Star in the nightly game of peon.
Domains
sky vault
Powers
to hold up the upper world upon his outstretched wings
to partner the Sun in the nightly peon game against Sky Coyote
Travis Hudson and Ernest Underhay, Crystals in the Sky: An Intellectual Odyssey Involving Chumash Astronomy, Cosmology, and Rock Art (Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 10, 1978)
Thomas C. Blackburn, December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives (University of California Press, 1975)