Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Part 25

But the children paid little attention, but when they got older they asked their mother if they could go and see their father. And their mother let them go.

And they went, and came to a house, and the man who lived there asked them where they were going, and they said they were looking for their father, whose name was Cloud.

And the man pointed to the next house, and said: "That man, there, is your father."

And they went to that man, but he said: "It is not so. He is your father. He is Cloud," and sent them back again.

But the first man sent them back once more to the second, who was really Cloud.

And Cloud said, that time; "I wonder if it is so that you are my children!"

And the boys said: "That is what they say."

And Cloud said: "I want you to do something to prove it."

Then the oldest boy thundered loud and lightened, and the other lightened a little, and Cloud said, "It is true, you are my children!"

And before night Cloud fed them, and then went into his kee and shut it up and left them outside all night. And it rained and snowed all night, but they staid outside.

And in the morning Cloud came out, and said: "It is really so, that you are my children."

And the next night he took them to a pond, where there was ice, and left them there all night. And the next day, when he came there and found they had staid in the water all night he said: "It is really so--you are my children."

So Cloud acknowledged them for his children and took them into his kee. And after awhile the boys wanted to go back to their mother, and Cloud said: "You may go, but you must not speak to anybody on the way. And I will be with you on the journey."

So the boys started, and cloud was over them, in the sky, shadowing them.

And after a while they saw a man coming, and the younger boy said: "We must ask him how our mother is."

But the older brother said: "Don't you remember that our father told us not to speak to anyone?"

The younger said: "Yes, I remember, but it would not be right not ask how our mother is."

So when the man came the boy asked: "How is everybody at home, and how is the old woman, our mother?"

And then the cloud above them lightened and thundered, and they were both turned into century plants.

NOTES ON THE STORY OF CLOUD

In Emory's report, before alluded to, also in Captain Johnston's, we find variants of The Story of the Children of Cloud. Thristy Hawk, the Maricopa, told Emory "that in bygone days a woman of surpa.s.sing beauty resided in a green spot in the mountains, near where we were encamped. All the men admired and paid court to her. She received the tributes of their devotion, grain, skins, etc., but gave no love or other favor in return. Her virtue and her determination to remain unmarried were equally firm. There came a drought which threatened the world with famine. In their distress, people applied to her, and she gave corn from her stock, and the supply seemed endless.... One day as she was lying asleep with her body exposed, a drop of rain fell on her stomach, which produced conception. A son was the issue, who was the founder of a new race which built all these houses"

(ruins, vahahkkees).

Johnston has it: "The general asked a Pima who made the house I had seen. 'It is the Caza de Montezuma,' said he, 'it was built by the son of the most beautiful woman, who once dwelt in yon mountain; she was fair, and all the handsome men came to court her, but in vain; when they came, they paid tribute, and out of this small store she fed all the people in time of distress, and it did not diminish; at last, as she lay asleep, a drop of rain fell upon her navel, and she became pregnant, and brought forth a boy, who was the builder of all these houses."

The seeneeyawk.u.m gives her twins but knew nothing of any story of their children or of these buildings, the vahahkkees.

THE STORY OF TCHEUNa.s.sAT SEEVEN

Stcheuadack Seeven wanted to gamble with Tcheuna.s.sat 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 Tcheuna.s.sat 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 Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven got his lunch ready, and he and his wives started; and the first night camped at Odchee, and the next day came to the little mountain, near Blackwater, called Sahn-a-mik, and they crossed Ak-kee-mull, The River, the Gila, there, and Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven told his wives to wash their hair and clean themselves there, and then he told them to go ahead to Stcheuadack Seeven while he took his bath. And while he bathed they went on and came to Stcheuadack Seeven's house, where he was singing and his wives dancing.

Then the wives of Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven did not ask for invitation, but went right in and joined the dance, and went to Stcheuadack Seeven and took hold of his hand in the dance, pushing each other away to get it.

And Stcheuadack Seeven thought from this that he would get all of Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven's wives away from him.

Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven, after his bath, cut a piece of oapot wood and sharpened it, and split the other end into four pieces, and bent them over and tied the ends of crow's feathers to them, and stuck it in his hair, and dipped his finger in white paint and made one little spot over each eye, which was all the paint he used, and then he went and watched his wives dancing and taking Stcheuadack Seeven's hand.

And Stcheuadack Seeven asked them if that was their husband, and they said: "Yes, he is our husband. He is not very good-looking, but we care so much for him."

Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven watched the dancing awhile and then stepped back a little and took out his rattle and began to sing. And at once everybody crowded around him, and all his wives came back to him, and finally all Stcheuadack Seeven's wives came and contended for his hand, as his wives had been doing with Stcheuadack Seeven.

And this went on into the night, all dancing and having a good time, except Stcheuadack Seeven, who walked around looking at his wives dancing.

And finally he sent a message to the most beautiful of his wives (who had a beautiful daughter) and told him to tell her: "I am sleepy, and I want you home now, and I want all my wives to go into the house."

And she said: "I will come. I will tell my daughter, who is over there, and then we will come home."

But she did not tell her daughter, and did not come home, and Stcheuadack Seeven waited awhile, and then found his messenger and asked him: "Did you tell her?"

And the messenger said: "I did."

And he said: "Tell her again that I am waiting outside here, and I want her to come to me and we will go home."

Then the messenger told the woman again, but she did not come, and Stcheuadack Seeven wandered around outside till morning.

And near morning Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven sang a beautiful song, and began to move toward his own home, dancing all the way, and all the women going before him.

And he did this till morning, and then stopped, and went home, taking all his own wives and all of Stcheuadack Seeven's wives with him.

And Stcheuadack Seeven went home, when he saw this, and took his beautiful cloak all covered with live b.u.t.terflies and humming-birds, and lay down, covering himself with it.

But four days after, Stcheuadack Seeven told the messenger to take this beautiful cloak to Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven, and ask him to send back that beautiful wife and her daughter, and to keep the rest of the wives; and to keep the cloak and use that to marry more wives.

But Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven said to the messenger: "Tell him I do not want his cloak. I have one just like it, and I have all I want, and I will not send back any of his wives. It was his wish that we should gamble, and if he had been the better singer and had won my wives I would not have asked for any of them back."