Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Part 26

And now Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven appeared as a beautiful person, with long hair and turquoise ear-rings, and he said: "He need not think I always look as I did when I came to his dance. That was only to fool him."

The beautiful daughter of the beautiful wife grew up, and Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven married her, too, and she had a baby.

And when Stcheuadack Seeven heard of it, he said: "I am going to punish him." And he made a black spider and sent it thru the air.

And in the evening when the mother wanted to air her baby's cradle, she took it out, and then the black spider got in the baby's cradle and hid himself, and when the baby was put back the spider bit it, and it began to cry.

And its father and mother tried to pacify it, but could not, and when they took it out of the cradle, there they found the black spider.

And Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven sent word to Stcheuadack Seeven to come and see his grand-child, which was about to die, but Stcheuadack Seeven said to the messenger: "What is the matter with Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven? He is a powerful doctor. Tell him to cure the child. I will not come. The bite of a black spider is poisonous, but it never kills anybody. Tell him to get some weeds on Maricopa Mountain and cure the child." And he sent the messenger back again.

And Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven said: "How can I get those weeds when I do not know which ones are right and there are so many! I cannot go."

And he did not go, and the child died.

A SONG OF TCHEUNa.s.sAT SEEVEN

There stands a dead vahahkkee On top of it there runs back and forth the Seeven And he has a robe with yellow hand prints on it.

THE LARK'S SONG ABOUT HIS LOST WIFE [9]

My poor wife!

In the West she seems to be bound by the song of the Bamboo.

THE LEGEND OF BLACKWATER

A little off from the road between Sacaton, and Casa Grande Ruins there is, or was in the old days, a mysterious pool of dark water, which the Indians regarded with superst.i.tious awe.

They said it was of fathomless depth, that it communicated with the ocean, and that strange, monstrous animals at times appeared in it. There are Indians still living who declare they have seen them with their own eyes.

I visited this famous place once with my interpreter, Mr Wood. After galloping a while thru a mezquite forest we suddenly emerged upon its legendary sh.o.r.es. Alas, for the prosaic quality of fact! It was but a common-place water-hole, or spring-pond, a few rods across, with bogs and bulrushes in its center.

The unkindness of irrigation ditches, withdrawing its waters, revealed that like most bottomless pools of story it was very shallow indeed.

It was nearly dry.

Its name of Blackwater has been given to the nearby surrounding district.

This was the only trace of the common Indian superst.i.tion of water monsters I found among the Pimas.

Koo-a Kutch

The End

ERRATA

In this book of Pima legends, various errors with regard to Indian words have occurred which will be corrected in a second edition. These are princ.i.p.ally as follows:

The rule was made that all Indian words should be printed the first time in italics, with hyphens to facilitate p.r.o.nunciation; afterwards in roman type, without hyphens. This rule has many times been violated.

There is a lack of uniformity in the spelling, etc., of many of the Indian terms. Thus the name of the old seeneeyawk.u.m has been spelled in different ways, but should always be Comalk Hawkkih. The name of the Creator should always be Juwerta Mahkai. The name of his subordinate should be Eeheetoy. Gee-ee-sop should be Geeheesop. Cheof should be Cheoff. Vah-kee-woldt-kee, as on page 8, should be Vahf-kee-woldt-kih as on page 112. Sah-kote-kee, on page 183, should be Sah-kote-kih, and Chirt-kee should be Chirt-kih. On page 224, vahs-shroms should be vahs-hroms. Tcheua.s.sat Seeven (page 237) should be Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven. Stchenadack Seeven (page 238) should be Stcheuadack Seeven. Scheuna.s.sat Seeven, on page 239, should be Tcheuna.s.sat Seeven. In the story of the Turquoises and the Red Bird (page 99) the name of the chief who lived in the Casa Grande ruins should have been spelled with a u, instead of a w, to secure uniformity; also the Indian name of the turquoises. The name of the Salt River Mountain, wherever it occurs, should always be Moehahdheck.

NOTES

[1] Many doubt that the Indians of North America knew anything about the diamond, but my interpreter insisted that the Doctor-stone was the diamond, therefore I have taken his word for it. Perhaps it was crystal.

[2] What the Pimas call the haht-sahn-kahm is the wickedest cactus in Arizona. The tops of the branches fall off, and lie on the ground, and if stepped on the thorns will go thru ordinary shoe leather and seem to hold with the tenacity of fish-hooks, so that it is almost impossible to draw them out.

[3] "To swallow charcoal" implies the swallowing of meat so greedily it is not properly cleansed of the ashes of its roasting.

[4] The reference to the "gun" shows clearly that this song was made after the advent of the white man.

[5] This word was not translated--probably archaic and the meaning forgotten.

[6] This song is evidently imperfect, for in the context it is said that before this fight they sang about the beads, sah-vaht-kih, but there is no mention of them here.