The following story is an excerpt from a book written in 1866 by George W. Caldwell entitled “Legends of Southern California” . University of California Collections.

It is to be noted that in fact there is a blue species of  lizard that is endemic to the local mountains. It can be found only at high elevations.

 

 Blue Lizard…...

There was a mourning in the villages

There was a weeping in the teepees

Mothers sat beneath the willows

Holding empty papoose baskets

Wailing, wailing, swaying, swaying

Children sickened with the fever

Flushed to scarlet, paled, and perished

Priests of medicine were helpless

All their charms and herbs were useless.

 

The cheiftain called to all his peoples

Called his people to a council

To a sad and somber council

For many days they danced and chanted

Danced in low and sacred measure

Sang the solemn songs of sorrow

Sang and burned the sacred pollen

Praying to the good Great Spirit

That he would send to them a magic

That would save their little children,

And the prayer of all Sobobas

In a single voice united,Rose

and reached the Cheif of Heaven

The Great Spirit in the Heavens.

 

But in all the tents of Heaven

Not an angel was remaining

As a messenger to carry

Magic charms to the Sobobas

They were all gone to every corner

Of the earth to carry healing;

People everywhere were calling

To the Father for his magic.

 

Then the Father, filled with pity

Reaching his hand into the Heavens,

Stripping off the thinnest ribbon

From the sky where it was the bluest,

Rolled it gently into his fingers,

Fashioned it into a lizard.

 

And he gave to him the magic

Saying,” Take it to my people;

Be my messenger, Blue Lizard,

Save the children of Soboba,

Take the sunshine always with you,

Travel only on a sunbeam.’

 

Then he sent the sky blue lizard

Sliding down a slanted sunbeam

To the village of Soboba;

And the lizard saved the children

By the power of the magic

That was wrapped about with sunbeams.

When the lizards work was finished,

When the children, well and happy

Romped around the camp as ever,

He was lonely for the Heavens,

For his home among the star-clouds;

But no sunbeam ever travels

From the earth into the Heavens.

So the lizard climbing upwards

Reached the sides of San Jacinto.

Then he prayed to his Creator

For a helpmate and companion,

And the Father sent another

Lizard down upon a sunbeam.

 

To this day their sky-blue children

May be seen on San Jacinto

Darting over sunny ledges,

Basking in the brilliant sunshine,

Never going to the valleys,

Ever seeking to climb upward

Til they reach the blue of Heaven.

No Soboba ever harms them,

For the Heavenly Father sent them

From the sky to save the children.

 

If you wish to see the marking

On the Heaven where the ribbon

of the sky was stripped for making

The Blue Lizard, I will ask you

To observe on moonless evenings,

The Milky Way that stretches over,

Where the blue so thinly covers

That the light shines through from Heaven.

The End