AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS

by Richard Erdoes

  Then he walked over to the grassy spot where the children were playing. “Children, little children, this is for you,” and he gave them his bag. “Open it; there’s something nice inside,” he told them.

  The children opened the bag, and at once hundreds and hundreds of colored butterflies flew out, dancing around the children’s heads, settling on their hair, fluttering up again to sip from this or that flower. And the children, enchanted, said that they had never seen anything so beautiful.

  The butterflies began to sing, and the children listened smiling.

  But then a songbird came flying, settling on the Creator’s shoulder, scolding him, saying: “It’s not right to give our songs to these new, pretty things. You told us when you made us that every bird would have his own song. And now you’ve passed them all around. Isn’t it enough that you gave your new playthings the colors of the rainbow?”

  “You’re right,” said the Creator. “I made one song for each bird, and I shouldn’t have taken what belongs to you.”

  So the Creator took the songs away from the butterflies, and that’s why they are silent. “They’re beautiful even so!” he said.

  —Retold from various sources.

  THE REVENGE OF

  BLUE CORN EAR MAIDEN

  [HOPI]

  A long time ago, two maidens lived in Oraibi. They were close friends and often ground corn at one another’s houses. Their friendship ended abruptly, however, when they both fell in love with the same young man. One of them, Yellow Corn Ear Maiden, had supernatural powers, and she made up her mind to destroy her rival, Blue Corn Ear Maiden. Early one morning the two girls carried their jugs to get water from Spider Spring, northeast of the village. On the way back they came to a sand hill, and Yellow Corn Ear Maiden said, “Let’s sit down and rest for a while.”

  After a time she said: “Let’s play catch. You run down the hill, and I’ll throw something at you, and you throw it back.” She drew from her bosom a pretty little wheel that gleamed with all the colors of the rainbow. When her friend reached the foot of the hill, Yellow Corn Ear Maiden threw the wheel at her, but it was so heavy that Blue Corn Ear Maiden collapsed on the ground when she caught it. When she stood up again, she was a coyote. Yellow Corn Ear Maiden laughed and said, “That’s what you get for quarreling with me!” She shooed the coyote away, took her own jug, and went back to the village.

  Sadly the coyote climbed the hill and tried to pick up her jug, but without hands she couldn’t. She sat down and cried until evening. After dark she tried to enter the village, but the dogs drove her away. She made a large circuit around the village and tried to go in from another side, but she was again driven away by the dogs. By this time she was getting very hungry, so she went off to the west hoping to find something to eat.

  It was the fall of the year, and the people were busy in the fields working on their crops. Carefully she crept up to one of the homemade shelters in which the farmers lived, found two roasted ears of corn that had been left on top, and ate them right up. She tried a third time to enter the village, but when the dogs smelled her and drove her away, she knew she wouldn’t be able to get home as long as she looked and smelled like a coyote.

  She wandered through the entire night, until she arrived at a place which belonged to two Qooqoqlom Kachinas who were hunting in that region. In their hut she found plenty of baked rabbit meat and entrails, and lots of rabbit skins. Starving but also exhausted, she ate a little meat and a bit of entrail (which she did not like very much). Since the two hunters had already eaten and left for the hunt, she decided to stay in their hut and rest all day.

  In the evening the two Qooqoqlom hunters returned. With their keen eyes and ears, they knew even as they approached that something was wrong. One of them peeked in and whispered, “There is a coyote in our hut and he’s eaten some of our meat.” He got his bow and arrows and was aiming at the intruder, when the other one said, “No, let’s try to capture him alive and take him home to our grandmother, Spider Woman.” So they went in but, much to their surprise, they heard the coyote sob and saw tears trickling from its eyes. Even they were touched by the sight, and one of them took a large piece of meat from his pouch, broke it in two, and gave a portion to the visitor, who ate it with relish. They then decided to go back home that evening. They tied up the meat and the skins, and also tied the feet of the coyote. Loading everything upon their backs, they returned to Kachina Gap, a short distance northwest of Oraibi.

  As soon as they arrived, they called to Spider Woman, “Grandmother, we have brought you an animal. Come and help us lift it off our backs.” She was delighted with her present, and placed the coyote with the rabbit meat near the fireplace. Then the woman looked closely at the wretched animal and exclaimed, “Alas! That poor one! This is no coyote. Thankfully you have not killed it. Where did you find it?” They told her how they had found and captured it in their hunting hut. She sent one of the men into the village after some tomóala a potent plant; the other one she sent to the woods to fetch a few juniper branches.

  While they were gone she boiled some water, and when the man with the tomóala returned, she poured the water into a vessel and hooked one tomóala pod into the coyote’s neck and another one into her back. She then plunged the animal into the water and covered her with a piece of native cloth. Placing her hand upon the cover, Spider Woman took hold of the two hooks and kept twisting and turning them until she had pulled off the skin of the coyote. When she threw aside the cloth, there was Blue Corn Ear Maiden, still in her original clothes, her hair tied in whorls just as it had been when she left the village. The woman asked how she had met this fate, and the maiden told her the whole story. Spider Woman comforted her, saying, “That Yellow Corn Ear Maiden is bad, but you will have your revenge.”

  At this point, the other hunter returned with the juniper branches. She took the maiden, together with the branches and the water, into another room and there bathed her, then gave her some corn, which the maiden ground into meal. The maiden stayed there for several days, until Spider Woman told her that her mother was very sick with worry and that she should go home. But first Spider Woman called together a number of Kachinas who lived nearby and told them all that had happened. “I want you to return her to her house,” she said, and they were willing. She dressed the maiden in wonderful finery, put her hair into fresh whorls, and placed over her shoulders a new atoo. She instructed her to have her father make bahos, prayer sticks, and a number of nakwakwosis as prayer offerings to the leader of the Kachinas and the leader of the singing. Lastly, she gave her a plan to deal with Yellow Corn Ear Maiden. So off they set, the maiden walking in the rear of the line of Kachinas.

  At early dawn, the so-called white dawn, they arrived near the house of the village chief, where the Pongowe kiva is at present situated; there they performed their first dance, singing while they danced. Those already stirring in the village rushed out to see the Kachinas dancing. Soon the news was whispered around through the whole village that the Kachinas had brought a maiden with them, and some soon recognized Blue Corn Ear Maiden and ran to the house of her parents. The latter refused to believe the news, and four messengers had to be sent to convince them. When they finally went to the Kachinas, the procession had arrived at the dancing plaza in the center of the village. “So you have come,” the mother said, and began to cry. She wanted to take her daughter with her then, but the girl said, “Wait a little,” and gave her father Spider Woman’s instructions. The Kachinas continued their dancing, with the mana, the female Kachinas waiting by their side. When finally the father brought the prayer offerings, he gave one baho to the leader, the other to his daughter. After the dancing was over, the daughter gave her prayer stick to the leader of the singing. The nakwakosis were distributed among the other Kachinas, and after the happy father had thanked them for bringing his child, they returned to their own homes.

  Blue Corn Ear Maiden rested at her parents’ for a day and a night, but early the next
morning she went to grind corn, and as she did, she sang a little song about her adventures. When Yellow Corn Ear Maiden heard her voice, she came rushing out to proclaim how delighted she was at her friend’s return. Blue Corn Ear Maiden treated her cordially, just as Spider Woman had told her to. They ground corn together all day, just as they had done before. In the evening they went after water again, to the same spring where they had gotten water before. While they were filling their jugs, Yellow Corn Ear Maiden noticed that her friend was dipping her water with a peculiar little vessel (which Spider Woman had given her) and that the water, which ran into the jug, was very beautiful, glistening with the colors of the rainbow. She said to her friend: “What have you there? Let me see that little cup.” Yes,” her friend said, “that is a very fine cup, and the water tastes good from it, too.” Thereupon she drank from it and handed it to her friend, who also drank. Immediately she fell down and was turned into a bull snake. “There! You will remain on the ground forever,” Blue Corn Ear Maiden said. “You tried once to destroy me, but it didn’t work. No one will help restore you, though.” She laughed, picked up her jug, and returned to the village.

  So the bull snake slithered away to begin its lifelong wandering. It was often hungry, but as it couldn’t move very fast, it had to capture its prey by luring little rabbits and birds with its powerful intoxicating breath.

  Yellow Corn Ear Maiden tried finally to return to her village, where she was killed by her own parents. They, of course, didn’t know the snake they had killed was their own daughter. But her soul was liberated to go to the Skeleton House.

  Ever since then some dead sorcerers will take the form of bull snakes and leave their graves, still wound in the yucca leaves with which the corpse was tied up when laid away. If such a bull snake is killed, the soul of the sorcerer living in it is set free and can go to the Skeleton House, just as Yellow Corn Ear Maiden did at last.

  —Based on a version collected by Henry Voth in 1905.

  The mana, or female Kachinas, were actually men dressed up like women.

  THE MEETING OF THE

  WILD ANIMALS

  [TSIMSHIAN]

  A long time ago, when the Tsimshian lived on the upper Skeena River in Prairie Town, they were the cleverest and strongest of all humans. They were good hunters and caught many animals. They went hunting the whole year round, and all the animals feared for their survival.

  Grizzly Bear invited all the large animals to his house. “A terrible calamity has come to us with these hunting people, who pursue us even into our dens,” he said. “I suggest we ask Him Who Made Us to give us more cold in winter and keep the hunters in their own houses and out of our dens!” All the large animals agreed, and Wolf said, “Let’s invite all the small animals—Porcupine, Beaver, Raccoon, Marten, Mink, and even the really small ones such as Mouse and the insects—to join us and increase our strength.”

  On the following day the large animals assembled on a wide prairie and called together all the small animals, even down to the insects. The multitude sat down, the small animals on one side of the plain, the large animals on the other. Panther came, and Black Bear, Wolf, Elk, Reindeer, and Wolverine.

  Then the chief speaker, Grizzly Bear, rose. “Friends,” he said to the small animals and the insects, “you know very well how the people hunt us on mountains and hills, even pursuing us into our dens. Therefore, my brothers, we large animals have agreed to ask Him Who Made Us to give our earth cold winters, colder than ever, so that the people who hunt us cannot come to our dens and kill us and you! Large animals, is this so?”

  The Panther said, “I fully support this wise counsel,” and all the large animals agreed. Grizzly Bear turned to the small animals and said, “We want to know what you think of in this matter.” The small animals did not reply at first. After they had been silent for a while, Porcupine rose and said, “Friends, let me say a word or two in response. Your strategy is very good for you, because all of you have plenty of warm fur for the most severe cold. But look at these little insects. They have no fur at all to warm them in winter. Moreover, how can insects and small animals obtain food if winters are colder? Therefore I say this: don’t ask for more cold.” Then he sat down.

  Grizzly Bear rose again. “We need not pay attention to what Porcupine says,” he told the large animals. “You all agree, don’t you, that we should ask for the severest cold on earth?” The large animals replied, “Yes, we do. We don’t care for Porcupine’s reasoning.”

  “Now, listen once more! I will ask you just one question,” Porcupine said. “If it’s that cold, the roots of all the wild berries will freeze and die, and all the plants of the prairie will wither away. How will you get food? You large animals always roam the mountains wanting something to eat. When your request brings more winter frost, you will die of starvation in spring or summer. But we will survive, for we live on the bark of trees, the very small animals eat the gum of trees, and the smallest insects find their food in the earth.”

  After he had spoken, Porcupine put his thumb into his mouth, bit it off, said, “Confound it!” and threw his thumb out of his mouth to show the large animals how bold he was. He sat down again, full of rage. Therefore the hand of the porcupine has only four fingers, no thumb.

  The large animals were speechless at Porcupine’s wisdom. Finally Grizzly Bear admitted, “It’s true what you have said.” And the large animals chose Porcupine as their wise man and as the first among the small animals. Together all the animals agreed that the cold in winter should be the way it is now. And they settled on six months for winter and six months for summer.

  Then Porcupine spoke again in his wisdom: “In winter we will have ice and snow. In spring we will have showers, and the plants will become green. In summer we will have warmer weather, and all the fishes will go up the rivers. In the fall the leaves will drop, it will rain, and the rivers and brooks will overflow. Then all animals, large and small, and those that creep on the ground, will go into their dens and hide for six months.” And after they had all agreed to what Porcupine had proposed, they happily returned to their homes.

  That’s why wild animals, large and small, take to their dens in winter. Only Porcupine does not hide, but goes about visiting his neighbors. Porcupine also went to the animals who had slighted him at the meeting and struck them dead with the quills of his tail. That’s why all the animals are afraid of Porcupine to this day.

  —Based on a myth reported by Franz Boas in 1916.

  A FISH STORY

  [TEWA]

  There occurred in those days a great drought. Rain had not come for many, many days. The crops were dying and the water in the lake was going down and down. Prayers had to be offered to the Great Spirit. This was the duty of the fish people, so they all assembled in the kiva to pray and offer sacrifices to the rain gods.

  The custom was to fast and stay in the kiva until the rain came. A woman by the name of Fee-ne-nee was given the duty to feed the fish people, which she did each day at noon. Since the men were fasting, she served them only a small amount of food and a few drops of water.

  On the night of the third day, however, one of the men could no longer stand the isolation. When the others went to sleep, he sneaked out of the kiva and ran to a nearby lake. There he drank and drank, swallowing all the water he had been thinking about for three days.

  After filling his body with water, he returned to the kiva. He entered slowly and stepped quietly down the stairs so that he would not be heard. Midway between the roof and the floor, however, he burst. Water poured out of his head, eyes, mouth, arms, body, and legs. When this happened, the people who were inside turned into fish, frogs, and all kinds of water animals, and the kiva was filled with water.

  The next day at noon, the woman who was in charge of feeding the men went to the kiva. She could not believe what she saw: water was gushing from it straight up into the air, and suspended in the torrent were fish, frogs, eels, snakes, and ducks.

  Sadly, with
her basket still in her hand, she slowly returned to the village. The first house she visited was that of an untidy old couple. She placed her basket in the center of the room and silently sat by the grinding stone. After making only one stroke of the stone, she too turned into a snake.

  Seeing this, the old man and his wife both said, “Something terrible has happened at the kiva.” The man ran to find out what was wrong, and at the kiva he saw ducks, beavers, and frogs swimming in the water at the bottom.

  The old man knew that this was a bad omen for the people of the village. When he reached home, he told his wife, “One of the men failed us, and all of them turned into ducks, frogs, eels, snakes, and beavers.”

  “We can no longer live here,” his wife replied. “You must let our people know. We must also make preparations to take this snake, our friend Fee-ne-nee, where she belongs.”

  The old woman prepared a basket filled with blue cornmeal and placed the little snake inside. Her husband took the basket and headed toward the east, where there was a snake burrow. At the home of the snakes, he fed them blue cornmeal, and one by one all kinds of snakes wiggled through the meal. Then he placed Fee-ne-nee among the others and said to her: “I have brought you to live here. You are now a young lady snake, and with the help of the Great Spirit you will live among your own kind. I give you my blessing.”

  To the other snakes he said, “I have brought you a sister; take her into your arms.”

  As the other snakes curled around Fee-ne-nee, the man walked away with tears in his eyes.