Ayahos

Representation of the Ayahos spirit.

An Ayahos (Lushootseed: ʔayahus; spelled variously in English as A'yahos, Ayahus, Aiyahus) is a spirit power in the traditional religion of the Lushootseed-speaking peoples of Puget Sound. A rock near the Fauntleroy ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington is associated with the Ayahus.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]: 118  The Ayahos is a "malevolent and dangerous" spirit,[6]: 72  capable of shapeshifting, who sometimes appears in a two-headed serpent form, who is associated with other earthquake-related areas like landslides near the Seattle Fault.[4][8][9]

LIDAR imagery of the Seattle area revealed a previously unknown landslide in the Fauntleroy area. Another area associated with the Ayahos near Mercer Island could be related to the Lake Washington sunken forests, caused by landslides triggered by a Seattle Fault event around 900 CE.[4]

References

  1. ^ Buerge, D. M. (March 6, 1985), "Lost Seattle, our shameful neglect of a rich archeological past", Seattle Weekly
  2. ^ Fauntleroy, Southwest Seattle Historical Society, retrieved 2015-07-05
  3. ^ Ron Richardson (March 22, 2002), "Fauntleroy thumbnail history", HistoryLink, Seattle: History Ink
  4. ^ a b c R. S. Ludwin; C. P. Thrush; K. James; D. Buerge; C. Jonientz-Trisler; J. Rasmussen; K. Troost; A. de los Angeles (July 2005), "Serpent Spirit-power Stories along the Seattle Fault", Seismological Research Letters, 76 (4): 426–431, Bibcode:2005SeiRL..76..426L, doi:10.1785/gssrl.76.4.426
  5. ^ True, Kathryn; Dolan, Maria (2003), Nature in the City Seattle, The Mountaineers Books, p. 185, ISBN 9780898868791
  6. ^ a b Piccardi, Luigi; Masse, W. Bruce (2007), "Folklore and earthquakes: Native American oral traditions from Cascadia compared with written traditions from Japan", Myth and Geology, vol. 273, London: Geological Society, pp. 67–94, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2007.273.01.07, ISBN 9781862392168, S2CID 130713882
  7. ^ Yeates, Robert S. (2004), "Ghost Forests, Raised Shorelines, and the Seattle Fault" (PDF), Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest (Second ed.), Oregon State University Press, pp. 109–118, ISBN 0-87071-024-9
  8. ^ Vince Stricherz (July 11, 2005), "Native lore tells the tale: There's been a whole lotta shakin' goin' on", UW Today, University of Washington
  9. ^ David Bressan (October 28, 2012), "An Essential Field Guide to North American Earthquake Beasts", History of Geology, Scientific American blogs

47°31′22″N 122°23′40″W / 47.52270°N 122.39431°W / 47.52270; -122.39431 (Psai-Yah-hus)