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The Story of these Stories
The Story of these Stories
W hen I was at the Pan-American Fair, at Buffalo, in July, 1901, I one day strolled into the Bazaar and drifted naturally to the section where Indian curios were displayed for sale by J. W. Benham. Behind the counter, as salesman, stood a young Indian, whose frank, intelligent, good-natured face at once attracted me. Finding me interested in Indian art, he courteously invited me behind the counter and spent an hour or more in explaining the mysteries of baskets and blankets. How small seeds are!
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The Traditions of the Pimas
The Traditions of the Pimas
And so the Doctor of the Earth himself created the mountains and everything that has seed and is good to eat. For if he had created human beings first they would have had nothing to live on. But after making Nooee and before making the mountains and seed for food, Juhwertamahkai made the sun. In order to make the sun he first made water, and this he placed in a hollow vessel, like an earthen dish ( hwas-hah-ah ) to harden into something like ice. And this hardened ball he placed in the sky. Firs
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Juhwerta Mahkai’s Song of Creation
Juhwerta Mahkai’s Song of Creation
The idea of creating the earth from the perspiration and waste cuticle of the Creator is, I believe, original. The local touch in making the greasewood bush the first vegetation is very strong. In the tipping over of the earth three times, and its standing right the fourth time, we are introduced to the first of the mystic fours in which the whole scheme of the stories is cast. Almost everything is done four times before finished. The peculiar Indian idea of type-animals, the immortal and supern
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Notes on Story of Creation
Notes on Story of Creation
And here appears Eeeetoy, the most active and mysterious personality in Piman mythology. Out of the North, apparently self-existent , but little inferior in power to Juhwertamahkai, and claiming greater age, he appears, by pure “bluff” and persistent push and wheedling, to have induced the really more powerful, but good-natured and rather lazy Juhwertamahkai to give over most of the real work and government of the world to him. In conversing with Harry Azul, the head chief’s son, at Sacaton, I f
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Juhwerta Mahkai’s Song before the Flood
Juhwerta Mahkai’s Song before the Flood
We are destroyed! By my stone we are destroyed! We are rightly turned into stone....
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The Song of Superstition Mountains
The Song of Superstition Mountains
I know what to do; I am going to move the water both ways....
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Ee-ee-toy’s Song when He made the World Serpents
Ee-ee-toy’s Song when He made the World Serpents
In the Story of the Flood we are introduced to Indian marriage. Among the Pimas it was a very simple affair. There was no ceremony whatever. The lover usually selected a relative, who went with him to the parents of the girl and asked the father to permit the lover to marry her. Presents were seldom given unless a very old man desired a young bride. The girl was consulted and her consent was essential, her refusal final. If, however, all parties were satisfied, she went at once with her husband
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Notes on the Story of the Flood
Notes on the Story of the Flood
What beautiful poetic touches are the wetting of the woodpecker’s tail, and the singing of the little birds to subdue the angry waters. The resemblances to Genesis will of course be noted by all in these two first stories. Yet after all they are few and slight in any matter of detail. In Ee-ee-toy’s serpents, that pushed back the waters, there is a strong reminder of the Norse Midgard Serpent. The making of the dolls in this story is one of the prettiest and most amusing spots in the traditions.
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Notes on the Story of Ah-ahn-he-eat-toe-pahk Mahkai
Notes on the Story of Ah-ahn-he-eat-toe-pahk Mahkai
A nd thus Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai became famous for the killing of game; and there was another young man, named Van-daih , who wanted to be his friend . So one day Vandaih made him four tube-pipes of cane, such as the Indians use for ceremonious smoking, and went to see the young hunter. But when he entered the young man was lying down, and he just looked at Vandaih and then turned his face away, saying nothing . And Vandaih sat there and when the young man became tired of lying one way and tur
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Notes on the Story of Vandaih
Notes on the Story of Vandaih
Another variation in the numerical order is in the woman whistling only three times, in putting Vandaih to sleep. As I have before pointed out the reference to white men, and pens and ink, is evidently a modern interpolation, not altogether lacking in flavor of sarcasm. There are suggestions in this story of Jack the Giant Killer, of the Roc of the Arabian Nights, of the harpies, and of the frightful creatures, part human, part animal, so familiar in all ancient folk-lore. The latter part of thi
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Stories of the Second Night
Stories of the Second Night
And Nawitch offered the bird a stick, and it caught hold of the end by its bill, which was like a parrot’s bill, and she led it to her father. And Seeollstchewadack Seeven said: “Feed him on pumpkin seed, for that is what this kind of bird eats.” And Nawitch gave the bird pumpkin seed, but it would not eat. And then she tried melon seed, but it would not eat. And then she tried devil-claw seed, but it would not eat. And her father said, then: “Make him broth of corn, for this kind of bird eats o
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Notes on the Story of the Turquoises
Notes on the Story of the Turquoises
A nd Seeollstchewadack Seeven wondered what this action of the bird meant, and he studied about it till he found out who it was that had sent the bird and for what purpose. And he sent a cold rain upon the home of Dthas Seeven. And it rained a heavy rain for three days and three nights, so hard that it put out all the fires in the city of Dthas Seeven, and Dthas Seeven was dying with cold. And the people came about him to witness his dying, and they said: “Let us send some one to get the fire!”
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Notes on the Story of Wayhohm
Notes on the Story of Wayhohm
A nd when Dthas Seeven had gotten better he meditated on what had happened to him, and studied out that Seeollstchewadack-Seeven was the cause of his trouble, and planned how to get the better of him. Now the Indians have a game of football in which the ball is not kicked but lifted and thrown a good ways by the foot, and Dthas Seeven made such a ball, and sent a young man to play it in the direction of the city of Seeollstchewadack-Seeven. And the young man did so, and as he kept the ball going
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Notes on the Story of Hawawk
Notes on the Story of Hawawk
My Indian hosts cooked me a pot of choohookyuh greens, and I found them very palatable. The reference to the pottery making reminds me of Pima arts. Today the Maricopas have almost a monopoly of pottery making, tho the Quohatas make some good pottery too. It is shaped by the hands (no potters wheel being known) and smoothed and polished by stones, painted red with a mineral and black with mezquite gum and baked in a common fire. It is often very artistic in a rude way, in form and decoration. Th
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Notes on the Story of Tawquahdahmawks
Notes on the Story of Tawquahdahmawks
The confusion in the Pima thought on religious matters is well revealed in this tale, in which Ee-ee-toy, who may be regarded as a god, frankly admits that in some matters an old woman may be wiser and more powerful than he. Nothing appears to have been very clearly defined in their faith except that a mahkai might be or do almost anything. E e-ee-toy lived in the Salt River Mountain, which is called by the Awawtam Moehahdheck, or the Brown Mountain, and whenever the girls had ceremonial dances
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The Song of Nooee when he went to the Sun
The Song of Nooee when he went to the Sun
(A Song) The gun, he gave it to me as a cane; With it I killed the Brother’s heart....
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When Nooee Killed Ee-ee-toy1
When Nooee Killed Ee-ee-toy1
The hot arrows of Ee-ee-toy, that withered the crops, remind us of Apollo. The idea often comes up in these stories that a person possessing the powers of a mahkai was hard to kill, having as many lives as a cat. It would also appear that there was a confusion as to what constituted killing, anyway . They perhaps regarded mere unconsciousness as death . Both Ee-ee-toy and Nooee are “killed,” but after an interval are alive again. And Whittemore relates: “An Apache, seeing Louis, the Pima interpr
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Notes on how Nooee Killed Ee-ee-toy
Notes on how Nooee Killed Ee-ee-toy
1 The reference to the “gun” shows clearly that this song was made after the advent of the white man. A nd after Ee-ee-toy was dead he lay there, as some say for four months, and some say for four years . He was killed , but his winds were not killed, nor his clouds and they were sorry for him, and his clouds rained on him. And he lay there so long that the little children played on him, jumping from him. But at last he began to come to life again, holding down the ground—as a wounded man does,
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Notes on Ee-ee-toy’s Resurrection
Notes on Ee-ee-toy’s Resurrection
To work witchcraft on a foe, so that he be left weaponless and helpless, and off his guard against attack, seems to have been the favorite dream of whoso went to war. Treachery was idolized. There was no notion of a fair fight. Stories of mythical beings who, tho repeatedly killed, persist in coming to life again, are common among many Indian tribes. A nd after Ee-ee-toy was thru speaking Juhwerta Mahkai addressed him, and promised him his help, and that he would lead out to earth again his peop
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Stories of the Third Night
Stories of the Third Night
And the sixth band was called Ah-pel-ee Gum . And their colors were white and yellow. And these bands were so called because it was by these names they called their fathers. As they were going to start they sent the Yellow Gopher ahead to open a way for them to this earth. And the gyih-haws were loaded with their belongings, and stood up beside the ranks. And the bands went thru, one by one. And when the fifth band was partly thru Toe-hahvs looked back and saw the gyih-haws walking beside the ra
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The First Song of Ee-ee-toy’s Army
The First Song of Ee-ee-toy’s Army
Sahn-a-mahl! 1 Haymohl give me the necklace! Sooadack Ceeavawt give me the turquoise ear-rings!...
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The Doctor’s Song to the Hunters
The Doctor’s Song to the Hunters
1 This word was not translated—probably archaic and the meaning forgotten. (The Pima plural of vah-ahk-kee is vahp-ahk-kee , but I have made all plurals English, as more understandable.) A nd after this they were not sick any more, and they came to the Gila Country, to Ee-ee-toy’s land, the Land of the Vahahkkees, and here they divided themselves into four parties, of which one went south; but the doctors united them all by “The Light,” so that they would know about each other in case there was
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Song before the Fight with Cheof-Hahvo Seeven1
Song before the Fight with Cheof-Hahvo Seeven1
I made the black snake; And he went across and wounded the vahahkkee....
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A Song of the Doctor whose Snake Threw down the Vahahkkee
A Song of the Doctor whose Snake Threw down the Vahahkkee
In the Story of Ee-ee-toy’s Army we come to an amusing superstition of the Pimas. There is a funny little creature in Arizona, related to the tarantula, perhaps, which the Pimas say is very poisonous, and which is certainly very quick in motion and the hardest thing to kill I ever saw. It is covered with a sort of fuzzy hair, which blows in the wind, and is sometimes red and sometimes yellow or white. Now there seems to be a connection in the Indian mind between this way-heem-mahl , as they name
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Notes on the Story of Ee-ee-toy’s Army and that of the Destruction of the Vahahkkees
Notes on the Story of Ee-ee-toy’s Army and that of the Destruction of the Vahahkkees
The Choochawf Awawtam appear to have been cave-dwellers, and my Indians were confused in memory as to whether they were encountered on the hither or far side of the Colorado. The statement that the closing of the waters left the Yumas and Maricopas on the far bank of the Colorado is likely only a mahkai’s fanciful attempt to explain their presence there. As the Indians of the Yuman stock speak an entirely different language from the Indians of the Piman stock, it is unlikely they were united in
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Notes on the Story of Sohahnee Mahkai
Notes on the Story of Sohahnee Mahkai
A nd when they came to their journey’s end the wife of Kaw-koin-puh had a baby, which grew up to be a fine boy, but the mother cried all the time, where-ever she went, on account of her husband’s death. And the people, after they had settled down, used to go rabbit-hunting, and the children too, and this boy, Paht-ahn-kum , used to watch them wistfully, and his mother said: “I know what you are thinking of, but there is nothing for you to kill rabbits with. But I will send you to your uncle, my
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The Song of Koelhahah about her Son
The Song of Koelhahah about her Son
In this, in the smoking at the war-council, appears a curious superstition concerning the effect of a man’s smoking upon his unborn child. Another superstition appears in the idea that the killing of an Apache and throwing up of his accoutrements or scalp would cause rain. I have a boy’s bow and arrows just like those described in this story, bought of a Pima child. War arrows were a yard long, with three feathers instead of two, and tipped with flint or, later, with iron. But even a wooden arro
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Notes on the Story of Pahtahnkum
Notes on the Story of Pahtahnkum
1 The reason why the older people went inside the circle was to protect the younger ones from the impurity of anything Apache, and they went inside as more hardened to this. A nd after this, for a long time, there was peace toward the Apaches, but it happened, once, that two brothers of the country went to gamble with the Awup, playing the game called waw-pah-tee in which the gamblers guess in which piece of cane a little ball is hidden. And one of the brothers, after losing all his goods, bet h
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Stories of the Fourth Night
Stories of the Fourth Night
“My pitiful relatives, I will pity you and you will pity me. This spread-out-thing, the world, is covered with feathers, because of my sadness, and the mountains are covered with soft feathers. Over these the sun comes, but gives me no light, I am so sad. And the night comes, and has no darkness to rest me, because my eyes are open all night. (This has happened to me, O all my relatives.) And it was my own bones that I raked up, and with them made a fire that showed me the opposite land, the Lan
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Notes on the Story of the Gambler’s War
Notes on the Story of the Gambler’s War
E e-ee-toy was once wandering along when he found some moss that had been left there ever since the flood, and he stood and looked at it, wondering how he could make it into a human being. And while he watched it the sun breathed on it, and it became not a man, but a turtle. And he wandered on again and found some driftwood, and while he stood wondering how to make it into a human being, the sun breathed on it, and it became a man, but he could not see its face, which was covered as with a mask.
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Notes on the Story of Nahvahchoo
Notes on the Story of Nahvahchoo
T here was a powerful mahkai who had a daughter, who, tho old enuf, was unmarried, and who grew tired of her single life and asked her father to bury her, saying, we will see then if the men will care for me. And from her grave grew the plant tobacco, and her father took it and smoked it and when the people who were gathered together smelled it they wondered what it was, and sent Toehahvs to find out. But, altho the tobacco still grew, the woman came to life again and came out of her grave back
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Notes on the Story of Corn and Tobacco
Notes on the Story of Corn and Tobacco
1 Read before the Anthropological Society of Philadelphia, May 11, 1904. T here was a woman who lived in the mountains, who was very beautiful, and had many suitors, but she never married anyone. And one day she was making mats of cane; and she fell asleep and a rain came and a drop fell on her navel. And she had twin babies, and all the men claimed them, but when the babies were old enuf to crawl she told all the claimants to get in a circle, and she would put the babies in the middle, and if t
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Notes on the Story of Cloud
Notes on the Story of Cloud
S tcheuadack Seeven wanted to gamble with Tcheunassat Seeven, who lived at Kawtkee Oyyeeduck, and sent a man with an invitation to come and play against him, and bring all his wives. And Tcheunassat Seeven said: “I will go, for my wives are used to travelling, and we will take food, and will camp on the road, and day after tomorrow, about evening, we will be there.” So the messenger went back with this word, and in the morning Tcheunassat Seeven got his lunch ready, and he and his wives started;
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A Song of Tcheunassat Seeven
A Song of Tcheunassat Seeven
My poor wife! In the West she seems to be bound by the song of the Bamboo....
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The Lark’s Song about his Lost Wife1
The Lark’s Song about his Lost Wife1
1 This is a Pima flute-song, a record of which I obtained for my phonograph while in Arizona. It has no direct connection with the legends; but illustrates the Story of Tcheunassat Seeven a little, as it is about a woman, the wife of an Indian named the Lark, who is led away by the seductive singing of another Indian named the Bamboo; the Indians having an idea that women were most easily seduced by music. The Pimas, when they speak English, calling the wild cane bamboo. A little off from the ro
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The Legend of Blackwater
The Legend of Blackwater
Koo-a Kutch The End...
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Corrections
Corrections
The following corrections have been applied to the text:...
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