The tales included in this section are all fictionized versions of pueblo life. Insofar as we are interested, not in incident distributions, but in myth as native comment on native life, we need to know primarily which kind of situations in their own existence appeal to them as plot material, how they are treated, and what cultural attitudes they are made to express.
The tales I have grouped as hero tales are strictly a first installment of these novelistic tales based on native life. They are separated here only for reasons of convenience, and in the discussion of the cultural background of the tales I have included material from both groups.
The outstanding situations in the hero tales are those of the disguised boy triumphing over his detractors, and those of magically successful adventure. Perhaps no situations are better adapted as wish fulfillments to the majority of the tellers of these tales. As I have pointed out, all the heroes indiscriminately are mocked by their fellows at the outset of the tale, usually because they live in poverty with their grandmothers, and are unkempt in person. They turn the people's mockery by supernaturally successful rabbit hunts, by contests of personal beauty (long hair), of the fatherhood of a child, of food stores, in all of which they are considered to have magic aid. (See notes, pp. 210, 216, 217, 218, 219.)
The adventures are of similar type, only they are not always prefaced by the mockery of the people. The separation of hero tales of this type from the novelistic tales is entirely arbitrary as can be seen in a comparison of the two groups. My only rule has been to, group under hero tales the stories of the standard heroes, with emphasis upon their mythological exploits--the bringing of the shiwana, releasing them from imprisonment, etc.
There are two striking situations, especially marked in the hero tales, that are not paralleled in the culture so far as we know. One of these is the contest of food stores. Corncob Boy magically obtains four store rooms filled with corn and gourds while his opponents paint stone to imitate these (p. 56); Heluta pits his undersized corn ear against their five full store rooms (p. 9). It is a widespread pueblo incident.
The other situation is the marriage to multiple wives. The hero of course always marries the chief's daughter or daughters, and usually it is the daughters. Corncob Boy marries Heluta's two
daughters (p. 51), Poker Boy retires into his shrine with his two wives (p. 50), Arrow Boy marries the two Eagle Girls (p. 45), or the two Bear Girls (p. 111). This folkloristic acceptance of polygamy is striking in a civilization where monogamy is strongly stressed, so far as we can see, in old native culture as well as in Catholic teaching. There is evidence of more feeling of discomfort in Cochiti in the face of this anomaly than, for example, in Zuñi where the same pattern is very strong. In Cochiti in a number of cases the hero marries only the elder of two sisters. Afterwards he and the younger sister fall in love with each other--this is always expressed as the younger sister's stealing him--and the elder sister ceremonially commits suicide by taking the form of a snake.
The younger of two sisters was stealing the husband of the other. A rabbit hunt was called, and the younger sister went with the husband, leaving the elder one at home to grind. The wife, wishing to know what was occurring, took a bowl of clear water, and set it in the middle of the floor. She looked into it, and saw the husband with her sister in his lap. She took a basket and sat in it. She turned into a spotted house snake. When these two came home, she bit them so that they died. When people found her turned into a snake, she asked them to put her somewhere where she could live always, so two medicine men took her to Gaskunkutcinako (maiden's cave). That is why there are so many snakes there, and why little pots are taken to her there as an offering (p. 115).
Arrow Boy shows preference for his wife's younger sister and his wife goes into the inner room, sits in a basket and becomes a snake. The Flint Society are summoned but can not restore her and she is taken to "The Maiden's Cave" (p. 95).
In other tales the two sisters contest as to which shall have the husband by the stock women's test in the Southwest: meal ground so fine that it will adhere to a polished perpendicular surface. (pp. 45, 49; notes, pp. 216, 217.)
The conventional folkloristic pattern of multiple wives (see above) contrasts violently with the tales of the wife's jealousy in the less formal novelistic tales:
A Cochiti girl stole the affections of an Uwashka man. The wife, seeing her husband take moccasins to her rival, followed him into the field, and caught them together at sunset. She fell upon the woman, threw stones at her and ripped off her clothes. The husband deserted his wife (p. 114).
A variant is told as introduction to the Deer and the Lost Child.
A woman whose baby was still in arms followed her husband to another pueblo where she suspected him of carrying on an amour. She brought him home in disgrace (pp. 75, 77, note 1).
In Cochiti four sisters lived together. The eldest was married. The sisters all had babies, born at the same time, by the same father. The wife, in order to avenge her husband's unfaithfulness, took her medicine stone, and promising him a pretty gift, rolled it to him. He was turned into a snake. The wife left her sisters and nobody knew where she went (p. 96).
A hunter and his wife were living at Potsherd Place. The wife became tired because he brought home so much game, took him down to the corral and scared him so that he turned into a dog. She turned him loose to hunt for his food (pp. 95, 123).
(3 versions: a Boas, p. 72; b Benedict, Informant 2, p. 75; c Benedict Informant 1, p. 77)
The calamities that follow a couple who have been unfaithful and jealous are pictured in this tale.
A hunter, whose wife had a new born baby, went to San Ildefonso to see other women, instead of hunting deer. She became suspicious. One day she followed him. When he got to Old Mesa, she came to the big arroyo, and laid the baby on the bank while she went on. She found her husband in one of the houses and asked him to go home with her. When they came to the place where the baby had been left they found it gone. b, c. (Version a does not give the motive of the wife.)
The father followed the deer tracks to (a cave in the mountains, a, c, lake into the underworld, and came out into a meadow of melons, squash, pumpkins, and corn. He came to a pond where there were many katcinas roasting yellow corn. They jumped with fright at the popping of the corn. They directed him to the chief of the Deer, who censured him for his conduct and his wife's. He was shown many fawns and picked out the littlest as his baby, b. He went back to the pueblo and called a council, and asked for help, for he could not find the baby and deer. He made prayer sticks, took sacred meal and prayed where they had disappeared. A voice told him that the baby had been lost because of the jealousy of his wife. The door opened and the man found his son. As they gave the child to him, they told him that he must not let it out of his arms on the way home, c. The hunter brought him home (to the Giant Society and they shut him up with them for four days, b). He was not to see his father or mother for four days. All the openings were plastered up. The mother broke the retreat just before the fourth day, and the child ran off as a deer and was never recovered, a, b. The father set the child down while he went to ease himself on the way home, and the child was lost, c.)
(3 versions: a Benedict, informant 3, p. 123; b Benedict, informant 4, p. 125; c Benedict, informant 1, p. 120.)
This wandering and popular tale has as its central situation the vengeance taken by a wife upon her husband. She had been turned out of the pueblo by him, was impregnated at a waterfall, and her numerous children raze the pueblo from which she was expelled.
The wife became tired because he brought home so much game. She took him down to the corral, and jumped at him so that he turned into a dog. She turned him loose to hunt for his food. He came to a witch house. They recognized him as a transformed human being and restored him. They gave him medicine to use against his wife and told him how to overcome her, a.
The hunter took vengeance upon his wife because she did not pray nor remain continent while he was hunting, c.
He dressed her like a Ute Indian (cut her hair off, painted her hair red, a) and sent her to get water. As she was returning he warned the people against her so that she was cast out of the pueblo, a, b, c.
She wandered toward the north, and was impregnated by water (at the place of the water falls, c). She bore child after child until she had a whole army who took vengeance upon the village from which she had been cast out, and destroyed the pueblo. (They asked their mother who their father was, c.)
The pueblo was utterly destroyed, only one baby girl was left alive. A pet parrot found her and cared for her. Parrot Mother chewed piñon nuts for her food. She did not allow the little girl to look outside the house because corpses were piled in the plaza. When she saw them she refused to stay there any longer, and went in search of other people, Parrot Mother guiding her on her shoulder (carrying Mother Corn in her hand. A great butterfly came from the sky and clothed the girl. They met Buzzard and he guided them, b). They settled at Cochiti b, Sandia, a, c. (Version a adds that an evil katcina stole her when she was getting water, set her tasks which she accomplished, so that they lived together happily.) See also p. 187, where this incident is part of an historical tale.
The amount of initiative allowed to women in all situations of life is very striking in these tales. This may be due in part to the fact that three of the principal informants were women. This fact should certainly be taken into account in connection with the detailed description of the processes of carding, spinning, dyeing, and weaving in the tale of the Industrious Daughter (p. 79). Perhaps also it is in the same light that the numerous descriptions of the bringing in of a deer should be considered. They are always told from the point of view of the woman. She is called out to help bring it in, she places it in front of the fireplace, feeds it with sacred meal, formally thanks her husband and sets out food for him (pp. 66, 87, etc.). But even in this last example, my impression is that an equal number of men story-tellers would tell the story in the same way. Certainly in most of the stories just quoted the amount of initiative
allowed to women in conjugal situations is a characteristic of the culture, not merely a stylistic affair of story-telling. In actual life too, as well as in the stories, it would be women who fought together in a quarrel over a man, not men who fought in a quarrel over a woman. Just as it is the woman who ceremonially commits suicide in the tales when she loses her husband's affections, so in the gossip of the pueblo I heard tales of women who died in similar cases, but none of men.
The tales of conjugal dangers arising from the fact that one of the spouses is a witch are closely allied to the tales considered here and should be studied in this connection. (pp. 90-97, notes, p. 232.)
Amorous women are common in the tales.
A hunter overtaken by night followed a light and was invited in by Yellow Woman. She offered him a skull to eat, but he only pretended to eat it. He made a pretext of easing himself and went outside, but she tied him with her belt so that he should not escape. He tied the belt to his excrement and escaped. She pursued him through four kivas, where he took refuge among the shamans performing ceremonies. Finally the Flint Society saved him and killed the woman (p. 101).
The incident of the girl who used to go out to lie with a cactus is attributed to a Navaho girl (p. 119).
In a similar vein it is Old Beaver Woman's pleasure in intercourse that is stressed, not Old Coyote Man's (p. 136; notes, p. 236).
The initiative allowed to women in Cochiti life is especially striking in the stories of the girl who refuses to marry. The common Southwest treatment of this theme involves the punishment of the girl. She must be trapped into marrying Coyote or into promiscuous intercourse. This is consistent also with Cochiti feeling.
The daughter of a cacique refused to marry all the young men who asked her. They became angered, so they sent Locust Boy who was ugly and bald to woo her. He made a wig and so transformed himself into a handsome boy. The girl married him, but one night awoke and saw the wig and her ugly husband. She ran away from him, but she was pregnant and when her six children were born, they were all bald like locusts. Thus she was punished for her refusal to marry (p. 85).
The most often told tales on this theme in Cochiti, however, are the ones that end happily. They are not so much tales of punishment of the girl for her presumption as of how she was blessed with a supernatural husband or was happily rescued from danger. Even the widespread story of this girl's marriage with Coyote has been drawn into this pattern, so that he figures rather as a supernatural.
The daughter of aged parents decided she must do something to help the family. She decided to pick up the scraps of cotton which had been thrown away, and these she combed and spun, and wound the yarn into balls from which she knitted a pair of footless stockings. Then she made openwork stockings from the scraps of cotton she picked up. Next she made a white manta, and embroidered it. While she was working on this she had many suitors whom she refused because she was caring for herself and her parents. She continued her work, making a ball-fringed sash, a dancer's sash-belt. She dyed her yarn in urine in which she stirred powdered indigo stone and stretched it over the rafter beams. Then the girl told her parents to go out and sell what she had made. They were very successful in disposing of what she had made, and she continued to weave sashes and mantas, which were sold to all the people in the village. When every one in the village had a complete dancer's costume they held a great dance before her house to see with whom she would dance, but when the rainbow dance came she would not lift her head or pay any attention to it, but kept on working. She would marry none of the young men who came to ask her, saying that she knew how to make the sashes and mantas which they brought her, in fact had made these same ones. They tried to attract her by painting rainbows on the walls of their houses, and decorating them with birds and sunflowers. She liked none of these. They planted corn of many colors to win her, but she cared for none of it, so they decided not to bother with her any more. Coyote decided that he would win her by offering her nothing but a branch of black currants gotten from the mountains. He went to his house and collected all the articles of his dancing costume, and got a branch of currants. He went to an empty house in the village and donned his clothing, stamping four times as he put on each article and saying, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." Then he went to dance in the center of Little Plaza. The girl left her work when she heard him singing, and asked him for his branch of currants. The boys of the village were provoked that she would let him sleep with her for such a small gift. They were married, and after a time she gave birth to a coyote. Her husband took his wife and child to his home, which at first seemed but a small hole, but when she entered, the girl found it as good as her own, and as richly supplied with clothing (p. 79).
A girl refused to marry. Four boys came in succession, each bringing a bundle, but she would not have any one of them. Coyote was living at White Mountain, and when he heard of this, he decided to try to marry her. He 'dressed himself for the dance, and went to the hill to get kapolin berries. He went to the village, and when the girl saw him, she said to her parents that there was a beautiful boy ready to dance in the plaza, and that he carried a branch of kapolin berries. She asked him for them, and took him to her house.[paragraph continues]
They were married. She had two children who were half coyote and half human. When they were big enough to walk, their father took them to White Mountain with him, but their mother had to stay with her people (p. 83).
A shorter variant is of the same tenor. Though she bears Coyote children, both she and Coyote bring up these children and this was the origin of blue coyotes (p. 84).
The girl who refuses to marry is impregnated by the sun. Sun makes his child a katcina. He comes back to the pueblo, dances with his mother, and takes her to Sun, his father. (p. 31, notes, p. 214).
A girl who from birth had firmly refused to marry was killed by one of her suitors who was a witch. The witches stole her from her grave and brought her to life again that they might have promiscuous intercourse with her and shame her. Her brothers had been watching her grave and had followed the witches. They broke in and rescued her. She had learned her lesson: that girls should accept their proposals of marriage. (pp. 99, 100; notes, p. 233.)
(The usual punishment of promiscuous intercourse for girls who refuse offers of marriage is in other tales detached from this story and concludes the episode of the pursuit of a beautifully marked butterfly by girls who wanted the pattern of its wings to paint on their pottery. When they were unable to catch it, they lay down under a piñon tree and slept. Coyote found them, and called the Payatamu to come, and all had intercourse with the girls. The latter brought rabbits, corn, and melons to pay the girls, but Coyote had none of these to give them, so he gave them hairs from his whiskers which they used for pubic hair. Their parents were glad of all the presents the girls brought home (p. 85).
This initiative in women figures also as a special danger it is advisable to avert. The story of the rabbit huntress is told in Cochiti always of the girl who, having a lazy brother, assumes the duties of hunting, and has her lesson brought home to her.
(3 versions: a Boas, p. 21; b Benedict, informant 1 (omitted); c Benedict, informant 3 (omitted)
A huntress supported her lazy brother by catching rabbits. One day after a successful hunt she was pursued by a giant and trapped in a cave. She gave him all her rabbits one by one while he tried to hook her with a cane. When these were gone she gave up her clothing.
The Twin Heroes heard her cries. They followed them to the cave where they shot the giant with their arrows. They opened the giant (returned the
girl's clothing and rabbits, b; clothed her in embroidered white manta, c) and exchanged his heart of cactus for one of turquoise. The Twin Heroes took the girl to her house, and advised her brother to do the hunting in the future. Afterwards the brother hunted for his family and the sister stayed at home (p. 21).
The evil consequences of neglecting or abandoning children are traced in several types of tale.
(4 versions: a Boas, p. 88; b Benedict, informant 4, p. 88; c Benedict, Informant 1, p. 89; d Benedict, informant 6, p. 90.)
A mother was always making baskets in the kiva. She would not even stop to nurse her baby. Its little sister brought it to the kiva again and again, but she put her off. The little girl started with the baby for the "drowning place." She told an old woman she met on the way, who brought the word to her mother in the kiva. The mother ran after them, but she was too late. (They were already sitting on the cedar tree in the center of the drowning place and being drawn down into the water, a, d. She was given four trials to reach her children by parting the waters with a rod but failed. She died right there, c. She was given a flint with which to cut the water but failed. She lost her children forever, a. She left off basket making forever, b. Her children were welcomed by the katcinas in the underworld and became katcinas, d.)
(2 versions: a Dumarest, p. 231; b Benedict, informant 2, p. 77.)
The story of children abandoned when their parents move on to some other pueblo, often in famine, is a constantly recurring motif in Pueblo folktales. In some way all these children find supernatural protection and shame the mother (sometimes the parents) who have abandoned them.
When the people went south from the Place of the Recumbent Lion they left two girls behind (one little girl, placing a corn mother by her side to guard her, b). The elder found a Corn Mother (kotona, perfect corn ear, used as fetish) and it spoke to her and told her not to cry for they would follow the people and see if they could not overtake them. She told her to carry her carefully and not drop her. But when the little girl came to a spring (the edge of an arroyo and had to climb down b) she dropped Corn Mother and knocked one grain out so that she could not speak. Shrew Mouse (chipmunk, b) found her crying and climbed down and recovered the kernel. She brought her a drink in an acorn cup that proved inexhaustible. When they went on, a bear met them, and the footprints of the bear and the turkeys are still to be seen. They came to Jemez and found their parents visiting there at a dance. They stood at the foot of the ladder and when their parents asked them to come in, refused, answering, "You have considered us sweepings and with the sweepings we will remain." When the house owners asked them to come in, they did so, building roosts for their turkeys, a (not in b). The child found her parents In Mexico. The mother had forgotten she had left a child behind, b.
"Turkey Mother" is the same story with the omission of the rôle of Mother Corn and of all supernatural elements:
The people left Rito de Frijoles and came to old Cochiti. They left a girl behind them with the turkeys. She was Duck Girl. She did not want to stay alone there so she went with the turkeys to Jemez. She did not care to join their pueblo, because her parents did not love her, so she stayed on the refuse pile. The people saw her, and feeling sorry for her, took her into their pueblo with her turkeys (p. 78).
Compare also the conclusion of the story discussed, p. 224, and the historical story of the destruction of San Felipe, p. 186.
(4 versions: a Boas, p. 111; b Dumarest 234; c Benedict, informant 1, p. 111; d Benedict, informant 2, omitted.)
Version d is told of Arrow Boy.
A man who was a great hunter found himself one night after dark in the mountains. At White Banks he saw a light in the cliff. A young girl carried him up the bank on her back, and he stayed with the two girls. Their father and mother were at Cochiti (for it was corn harvest time, c, d; curing a sick person who had invoked the help of the Bears, b).
When they heard their parents return the girls wrapped him in a skin and hid him. The Bears came in with (bags of corn, c, d; with gifts given for curing in Cochiti, b) on their backs. They took off their dresses and became people. The younger daughter revealed the presence of the hunter, and the parents welcomed him, treating him with great courtesy. (When he took his leave in the morning they told him not to harm his children and their mother when they came to get, corn in his field, a, b).
He returned home (but his desire for the girls brought him back again, and he brought his game to the Bear girls. Children were born to both. After a time the hunter went to the pueblo promising to plant corn for his children, and did not return, c, d). The Bears came to his cornfield, but he called all the people of the pueblo, and pursued them. The Grandfather Bear turned upon him and killed him. (He ripped his body open and brought back his heart to the cave. So the Bear children had their father living with them, c, d.)
One of the most constantly recurring situations is that of the husband who seeks his wife who has been taken from him. There are a number of stock incidents in these tales: the girl is ordinarily made way with while she draws water, and her jar is left overturned by the river; she is made to grind and do household duties on her arrival; her husband finds her by help of Spider Old Woman who has only one snowbird head that she keeps perpetually in her stew to flavor it because her grandson is afraid of these birds and can not track them.
The simplest situation is that of the bad katcina, who holds the stolen wife in durance from which she is rescued by her husband. The child has supernatural powers from his father.
(2 versions: a Boas, p. 66; b Benedict, informant 1, omitted.)
The husband and hero in version b is Arrow Boy.
Cuisi'nyinawa was an evil katcina who betrayed women by tempting them to pick up something of his when they came to get water. He took them to his home in the east. If they were not quick enough in making wafer bread, he threw them on the ice to die.
Yellow Woman went for water and picked up a kick-stock, a, a prismatic crystal, b, and put it in her dress. Cuisi'nyinawa came up and asked for it but she denied having it (he said, "Look, see its colors are reflected on your chin," b). He took her to his home (on which a rainbow rests, a). When her husband found she was gone he followed her tracks to the river and found her jar. Spider Old Woman spoke to him. (When he put his foot upon the entrance to her house it enlarged and he could enter, b.) Her grandson never brought food and Arrow Boy trapped birds for her stew. Again, a sister of Spider Old Woman spoke to him and gave him a root. His next helper was Whirlwind. Whirlwind was away when Arrow Boy arrived and his grandmother hid him under blankets. Whirlwind came in with a rush of wind, and when he had thrown himself down to sleep Arrow Boy prayed over him and disenchanted him, using the root Spider Woman's sister had given him. When Whirlwind woke his grandmother said, "Do not harm your brother, the spider boy. For his sake you are well. He has disenchanted you." Whirlwind took him to the house of Cuisi'nyinawa, b.
When he got to his village all the people mourned with him over the evil man who had stolen his wife. He took her back with Spider Woman's help. Cuisi'nyinawa pursued them with thunder and lightning, but because Yellow Woman was carrying his own child he could not kill her. (The curing societies were in retreat praying for Arrow Boy, and therefore he brought her home safely, b.) When her child was born he had great power because he was the child of a katcina.
The same story is told of Sun's abduction of Shell Man's wife. Sun, however, is, as usual in Cochiti tales, where he figures as a supernatural father, not evil:
Shell Man and his wife lived at old Cochiti. When she went out for water Sun stole her. On his search for her Shell Man was resting in a muddy place when something crawled on him. It was Spider Woman, who told him where his wife was and advised him to take the old road, of the two that led to this place, for a dangerous person would meet him on the new road. He, however, took the new road and came to Whirlwind Man's house. His mother received Shell Man, and when her son came back from the hunt, Shell Man fought and killed him. On the plea of the mother he pressed his stomach and Whirlwind Man came back to life. He then took Shell Man to the house of Sun, where he found his wife and started back with her. They were pursued by Sun who shot arrows at her, but could not harm her for she was carrying his child. Whirlwind Man took them as far as his house, then they continued their journey alone. Sun, who just missed catching them, told the woman that her child should be chief of this people (p. 70).
The story of Shell Man's recovery of his wife from Payatamu is similar, but Payatamu has not abducted her and he is not evil. He found her when she was lost, having run after her husband's eagle, and gave her up to, her husband after he had won the required game of hide and seek (p. 71).
Shell Man's wife lost her eagle and went in pursuit, taking with her a white manta to throw over it. She came to Payatamu, who took her to his house. Shell Man went to seek her. He came to Spider Grandmother. Her grandson never killed any game for her, so Shell Man went hunting for her and brought in many small birds, so that she would not have to use her bird head any longer for the soup. She was so pleased that she told him his wife was in the sky, and that she would take him there it he would bring her certain things, black paint, red paint, a white embroidered manta, etc. She crossed two owl's feathers, ordered him to stand in the middle, and not look. Twice he disobeyed this last injunction, but the third time they got up, and arrived where Payatamu lived with his mother. Shell Man, Payatamu, and the mother contested in hide and seek for the wife. Shell Man hid where the sun comes up, the old woman in the zenith, Payatamu in the cracks of the kiva steps, in the first round. In the end Shell Man won and secured his wife. Spider Grandmother took them down after some unsuccessful attempts because they opened their eyes. Shell Man lived with his wife in Tiputse.
A group of moral tales is told of the punishment that is visited upon people who step upon bugs and snakes and beetles. One of the stories of people who visit the world of the dead underground, is of the man who was taken there for a reprimand for this kind of behavior (p. 128; notes, p. 205).
There was a little boy who disobeyed his father and mother, and stepped on and killed every little animal that came near him. The spirits of the bugs and snakes were angry, and held a meeting to plan revenge. They first chose the swiftest snake, who refused to undertake to hurt the boy, as did the sand snake and the rattlesnake. Finally the tip beetle consented to try. When the boy came down the road, he saw tip beetle and kicked him, but as he kicked him, the beetle stung the boy in the middle of the foot. A man carried him home on his back, and that night he died. So the little bug killed him (p. 127).
(2 versions: Benedict, Informant 2, p. 126; b Benedict, Informant 1, p. 127.)
Powĭshke Girl lived there with her mother. She was afraid to let her go, out because she always harmed something, especially snakes. Snake wanted to go out but his mother was afraid that this girl might injure him. Both
mothers yielded to the pleas of their children. On the road Powĭshke Girl saw Snake. Snake tried to get out of her way, but she threw stones at him and hurt him. His mother heard his cries of distress, as he cried that bowlegged Powĭshke Girl had broken his back. The mother snake took her little snake home, and went to tell the girl's mother what her daughter had done. But the mother said that her daughter did not pay any attention to her advice. Powĭshke Girl did not return, but that did not cure the little snake, a.
Version b is much slighter, and pleads the girl's lack of intent to harm as extenuation.
The situation that appears most often in the stories of witches is that of the husband or wife who is in danger from the fact that his spouse, unknown to him, is a witch. The anger of these unconfessed witches is easily aroused, and they turn their spouses over to the witches to kill.
(2 versions: a Boas, p. 90; b Benedict, Informant 1, p. 91.)
A hunter killed many deer. His wife was (tired of making mush; a, angry because she had to prepare the venison, and that made her late to the witch meeting, b). She turned him over to the witches to kill. (They planned to kill him by Whirlwind, but they were unsuccessful. A dream warned him, b. The game animals took him to their house and warned and advised him, a.) When he returned home his wife was gone, but she had left a (red, i. e. witch colored, b) Mother Corn to take her place. He threw it against the wall and some of the kernels fell out. He found his wife's eyes on a little shelf in the inner room and urinated upon them. When his wife came home in the form of an owl, she went into the inner room to exchange her eyes, but was unable to do so. In the morning her husband found her dead. Her body had owl eyes, a, b.
The same story is told of a husband who is a witch. Their child is called Arrow Boy.
A woman who had lost all her children carried dinner to the Mint Society to ask their help. They gave her prayer sticks for the kopishtaya, and she planted them before sunrise. She was given a root by the kopishtaya to rub upon the body of her next child and was warned against her husband who was a witch. They gave her directions. She threw the Corn Mother against the wall and dropped his eyes into the chamber pot. Her husband died and the Flint Society was called to kill him ceremonially; they cut the ground four times with an obsidian knife (p. 92).
One night the witch wife asked her husband to go to the corral with her and she turned him into a dog. He remained until he was weak from lack of food, then he went out and came to a house into which he fell. They recognized him as Bloodclot Boy, and told him that his wife was angry because
he brought home set many deer and made her late for her meetings. They covered him with a white manta and performed their ceremony and he returned to his own shape. They gave him a crystal to roll to his wife. When she picked it up, she became a snake, a form which she must keep forever, for nobody had power to turn her back (p. 95).
The elder of two sisters lay sick, and the younger became suspicious of her brother-in-law. One night, when she went to do her accustomed grinding, she followed him to a bank, and found that he had gone to attend a witch meeting, and also that one of the witches was trying to gain his affection, giving him a root to put under his wife's pillow, so that she would not recover. In the morning her sister removed the root, foiling the plan. The same episode was repeated on the following day, as before. The next day the man was to make his wife get up and. to take her to a dance at the next pueblo, leaving the younger sister at home, if possible. On the way the witch woman, in the form of a bear, was to kill her. The sister overheard this plan, too, and prayed to the katcina, who gave her a magic crystal which she was to throw at the bear woman. She did this, and the bear hugged her brother-in-law to death, and was also killed at the same time. So the sisters returned to their pueblo and lived there (p. 97).
It is not only the, husband or wife who is in constant danger from the machinations of witches. All ordinary life is lived under this threat. A very popular story tells of the vengeance of the witches upon the girl who refused offers of marriage.
(3 versions: a Benedict, informant 2, p. 99; b Benedict, informant 3, p. 100; c Benedict, informant 4, p. 100.)
She was the daughter of the chief and declared her intentions from the time she was able to speak. Many sought her with gifts, but she remained firm, b, c. She said, "My brothers will take care of me," a.
(A witch boy became angry at her refusal and asked the other witches to help him injure her, b, c). They played shinny while the girl was going for water, hit her with the ball, and she died. The witches took her body from the grave and brought her back to life. They taunted her with her refusal to marry, and boasted of their advantage. Her brothers were watching her grave, and had seen the witches robbing it. They followed and heard what was said. They entered the witches' cave and killed most of them, and freed their sister, and took her home. (She was alive during the night and slept in the day, a; she had learned her lesson: girls were placed in this world to take suitable partners, b, c).
The outdoor occupations of men also invite danger from the witches:
A hunter overtaken by night followed a light and was Invited in by Yellow Woman. She offered him a skull to eat but he only pretended to eat it. He made a pretext of easing himself and went outside, but she tied him with her
belt. Outside he defecated and tied the belt to his excrement and escaped. Yellow Woman pursued him. He ran north and hid in a kiva among the shamans.
She overtook him and he ran west and successively south and east, until there he was saved by the Flint Society. They put him on top of a spruce tree. Below was a dish of medicine water. She came looking for him, saw his reflection In the water, and jumped in to get him. The Flint shaman stirred it with his flint knife and killed Yellow Woman. The man escaped. (Boas, p. 101.)
A man and his son were wood gathering and their donkeys were grazing. They saw a coyote sitting on one of them. It was a witch who had taken that shape. They scared him away and summoned the people, who shot Coyote. But the following day the boy who had been frightened died. (Boas, p. 110.)
Three men were out working. Only one of them was not a witch. The latter had to open the door for them, when they went and came at night as coyotes and as owls. They brought bags of green corn and chili in the winter and shared with him. They offered him a man-woman for a wife. He accepted because he could not get any girls. When he had slept with her the witches demanded that he pay for her. He had no money, so his wife died. The witches made fun of him. (Boas, p. 105.)
A witch and another man were herding sheep. When the man heard of the wonders that occurred to the witch, the man wished to have such things happen to him. The witch assured him that if he were really interested he would find a teacher for him. One night the witch offered to take him to a meeting if he were willing, so placing his hands upon the shoulders of the witch, kneeling, and closing his eyes, he was carried to Old Mexico to the meeting place. At the feast he discovered a baby's finger in the food and refused to cat. After the meal a handsome man with horns, then a beautiful woman, who was followed by an ugly man, and then a great serpent came out, and last a he-goat; all of them tried to frighten him. They started back, but the man kept thinking of his flock, and called upon the forbidden name of Christ asking the other to hurry. The angered witch threw him off, and he had to make the eight days' trip back on foot to the camp. He failed to become a witch (p. 105).
There was a great famine. The witches had plenty for they turned themselves into mice at night and gathered corn from the corn rooms. One of them tempted a friend who was not a witch to join them. That night the owner of the house heard them; the witches escaped, but the friend was caught. He told his story and the owner gave him all the corn the witches had shelled and left behind. He took it home to his children and they had a fine feast (p. 104).
Four men went hunting antelope, and all were very successful except the leader who was a witch. Each night he used to go out by himself, build a fire and try to call the Gewa Indians to come and destroy his companions. His brother-in-law became suspicious, and decided since this man was "not thinking right" they should return home. He had a dream that his side locks were too long and should be cut before sunrise for his safety. He was about to do this when the witch came in, declared his dream false, and so prevented him from doing it. The next day they were about to return when the Gewa came. They captured the witch, but his brother-in-law escaped, although badly wounded. On his way home he fell in with some Mexican herders. They helped him as far as Santo Domingo where the Indians of that place helped him the rest of the way. When the Cochiti heard what had occurred they prepared to go against the Gewa. He was taken into the Giant Society and cured (p. 108).
A very few references to witches are found in the emergence and hero tales:
Our Mother told the witches not to come out of Shipap into this world, but they forced their way past (p. 4).
The witches killed a man and resuscitated him as a child-killing giant, because they were offended that so many children were growing up in Cochiti. He picked up the children in his basket and carried them off on his back and ate them. The Giant Society ritualistically created a giant who overcame him (p. 17; notes, p. 213).
There are a few miscellaneous situations in pueblo life that are given in the tales with very little modification:
Three children were left orphans, two little children and one adolescent girl. The older girl neglected her brother and sister and stayed out with men. The little children found shelter and food where they could till at last the baby boy died in his little sister's arms. The older girl never came back from Santo Domingo (p. 116).
An eagle swooped down on an isolated camp and stole first a lamb and later a baby. A great party followed the eagle's flight and located the nest. A man was swung over the edge of the cliff and the baby was recovered unhurt. The father and mother moved back to the pueblo where they would be safe and the baby grew up to find a gold mine, the gold from which he sent to Montezuma (p. 117).
In the old days when they were still living in White House and the Village of the Stone Lions, a father and mother and four sons joined them. When his mother was so old she could no longer grind for them, the eldest son said to her, "You must have help. I will find a wife." At the Village of the Stone Lions he asked a girl and then her father, and when they agreed she went to his village with him.
The man and his brothers were great hunters. They took two deer to the girl's family, and the daughters of that house made a feast. The brothers brought their parents also. The girl's family would not let them return, so they all lived together at the girl's home (p. 86).
When the people went to mine turquoise one man gave turquoise to his sweetheart. Buckskin is the proper gift and turquoise is taboo. Therefore the cave fell in on them and killed them all. To-day if any one offers them moccasins they give him turquoise (p. 254). This incident is told also with different motivation; it was forbidden to chip turquoise from the pillars of the mine, and it was this taboo that was broken (p. 196).
There is one type of animal tale that it is necessary to discuss among the novelistic stories based on cultural situations. This is the transparent animal fable, a type of story rarely found among the American Indians. In Cochiti it is characteristic of these tales that the moral is not given explicitly, but when informants are questioned they phrase the underlying idea of the story in terms of their own cultural life.
(2 versions: a Benedict, informant 1, p. 133; b Benedict, informant 2, p. 135)
A good example of the Cochiti fable is the story of the crow who abandoned her eggs in the nest. Hawk (another crow, b) had pity on them and hatched them. After they were out of the nest Crow came back and claimed them. The small birds refused to recognize her as their mother, and the case was taken before the king of the birds. He left the choice to the small birds, who elected as their mother the one who had brought them up and provided for them.
It is said that in former times two hunters would arrange to bring their catch to the other's wife and sleep with her. They took their turns on two successive days and nights. The story that deals with this custom is told of Beaver and Coyote.
Coyote is the proverbial bad hunter and Beaver Woman waits for him, but he does not come. Next day It is Beaver's turn. He brings as much as he can carry and sleeps with Coyote Woman while Coyote sits alone in the front room. Afterwards they are as good neighbors as ever (p. 136).
A story, the point of which is the difference in the domestic habits of two families which one discovers when one has married into another family, is told of the cranes and the geese.
The Geese were living at Goose Village, the Cranes farther down the river. One of the Goose Girls wondered what Crane did, went to investigate and married him. She learned to eat the fish which he caught In place of the corn picked up in the fields at Cochiti. For four days she stayed at his house and then took him home with her where he was received kindly. Crane brought fish for them, and taught them to like them. Since they were too far from the source of supply, Crane and his wife returned home. Their son went to visit them once and carried them fish, but soon returned to live with his parents (p. 137).
(2 versions: a Boas, p. 118; b Benedict, Informant 2, p. 118)
The point of this incident is of the consequences of a rash promise. In version b it is followed by a romantic incident:
Yellow Woman was in her field and was delighted by a grasshopper's song. She offered him (four ears of green corn a; his fill of her squashes b) if he would teach it to her. (Grasshopper said, "It is not enough, I have many children." "Take more, bring your children Into my field," a.) He taught her his song. He called all his relatives and ate her whole field. (She killed many of the grasshoppers, a.)
Yellow Woman's father and mother beat her and left her naked. She wandered off, but in his field she heard Payatamu singing to his flute. He gave her a long stick and told her to strike him, whereupon one by one articles of women's clothing came out of Payatamu. When she had dressed, he took her to his grandmother who welcomed them and they lived together, b.
Two tales are recorded of suitors who are accepted only to be discovered as Bat or Frog. One is of the discredited girl, the other of the discredited boy.
Corn Tassel Girl and Turquoise Girl heard Bat Boy singing, Inviting them to come to his meadow and gather pumpkin blossoms. When they had gathered the flowers he took them home with him Intending to marry them. However, he proved to be half bat and they were ashamed, and would not sleep with him. His grandmother had warned them not to pinch him, so in the middle of the night when all the rest were asleep, they pinched him as hard as they could and he burst. They escaped home taking the pumpkin blossoms to their father and mother who were very glad to get them (p. 139).
When the people first came to Cochiti, a girl went down to the river to fill her water jar. She saw a man sitting on the opposite bank who invited her
to wade across and go home with him. He took her to his grandmother's house, and she was welcomed as a daughter-in-law. The grandmother prepared corn in the evening for the girl to grind in the morning early. The girl rose, ground the corn, parched it, and made hard mush for breakfast, and the grandmother was very happy. For four days the girl ground in the morning. Again the grandmother shelled the corn for her, but as the girl ground, the corn seemed as hard as rock. She began to cry, and the grandmother thought she was singing. She remembered the village from which she came and was homesick. So In the morning she took her moccasins and as she passed her grandmother she urinated on her, and then went back to the river, where she lived forever (as a frog or toad). When her grandmother awoke she could not find her (p. 140).
(2 versions: a Benedict, Informant 1, p. 142; b Benedict, Informant 3, p. 142)
Both versions of this tale describe, in an animal setting, official decisions of capital punishment. In both cases it is Bear that is the guilty person against whom the judgment is pronounced, but the crimes differ. In version a Grizzly Bear's strength has so run away with him that he has killed a culprit that he was ordered only to frighten. In version b he has merely refused to attend the council called by Bear Chief in preparation for a contest with the Mountain Lions. Version b is followed by the incident of how the animals held a war dance after they had killed a bear--in Cochiti bringing in a bear was celebrated in the same way as bringing in a scalp,
The queen of the animals ordered that Grizzly Bear frighten a man who had been disobedient, but he killed him. Lion was appointed to carry out Bear's punishment, and he roped the bear with his tall and climbed with him to the top of a, pine tree. He split a tree and put the bear In the crevice. They were glad he was dead because he had no control over himself when he was angry, a.
Bear Chief summoned the Bears in preparation for a contest with the Mountain Lions to determine which was the stronger. Grizzly Bear refused to come and Lion was ordered to kill him at sunrise. The Lion won, and the council ordered that Bear be hung on a tree because he had done wrong, b. (Version b continues with the war dance the animals held for the dead bear. They had no bear medicine bundle but one of them stole one from its owner. They brought in the war dance for the person who had killed the bear and initiated him into the Warrior Society, ompe).
The point of this tale (p. 155; notes, p. 243) is that great and easily procured riches have often accompanying dangers that even the score.