DESERT LIGHT: Myths and Visions of the...

DESERT LIGHT: Myths and Visions of the Great Southwest photographs by Dean Lee Uhlinger, edited by John Miller (Chronicle Books: $18.95.) This is a modest collection of creation myths and rain songs paired with Uhlinger’s photographs of desert landscapes in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. The photographs are dramatic and clear as night air, with bright blues and terra cottas, and strange desert rock formations. The stories come from the Zuni, the Sia, the Pima and the Navajo. This one is from the Sia: “Sussistinnako said, ‘My son, you will ascend each day and pass over the world from east to west.’ Upon each day’s journey the sun stops midway from the east to the center of the world to eat his breakfast. In the center he stops to eat his dinner. Halfway from the center to the west he stops to eat his supper. He never fails to eat these three meals each day. . . . Each night the sun passes by the house of Sussistinnako, the spider, who asks him, “How are my children above? How many have died today? How many have been born today?’ The sun lingers only long enough to answer his questions. He then passes on to his house in the east.