Unwritten Literature of the Hopi — Chapter XI, Stories Told Today, Part 3

=A Bear Story,= as told by Quahongva "Long ago at Shipaulovi there lived a woman with her husband and two little children, two and four years old.

The husband died.

For a long time the woman stayed alone and had to do all the work herself, bring wood and make the fire and everything.

"One day she went to a little mesa a good ways off for wood, for there was dry wood in that place.

One of the children wanted to go with her and cried, but the mother could not take her, she was too little.

So she told her to stay at home and play and watch for her return.

"The two little ones were playing 'slide down' on a smooth, slanting rock, and from quite a distance the mother looked back and saw them still playing there.

Then she went around a little hill to find her wood.

"She gathered a big bunch and tied it up, making a kind of rack that she could carry on her back.

Now she leaned her load up on a big rock so she could lift it to her back, and as she turned around just ready to take up the load, she saw a bear coming.

She was terribly frightened and just stood still, and the bear came closer and made big noise.

(Note: A good imitation was given, and the children listeners first laughed and then became comically sober.

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) "She said, 'Poor me, where shall I hide!

What am I going to do!'

"She was so frightened she could not think where to go; but now she saw a crevice under the rock where she was leaning, so she crawled in and put the rack of wood in front of her.

"From behind the wood she could still see the bear coming and hear his great voice.

Soon he reached the rock and tore the wood away with his great paws.

Then he reached in and pulled the woman out and ripped her open with his terrible claws and tore her heart out and ate it up.

"By this time the sun was nearly down; it was soon dark and the poor children were still waiting for their mother just where she had left them, but she never returned.

Some one came to them and asked, 'What are you doing here?'

"'We are watching for our mother, who went for wood, and we are waiting for her,' they said.

"'But why does she not come when it is so late?'

they said.

Then they said, 'Let's all go home; something must have happened.'

So they took the children home with them and sent some others to look for the mother.

"They followed her tracks and found the place, the mother dead, and her heart gone.

So they came back home in the dark night.

"Next day, they returned to the place and followed the bear tracks to the woods where his home was, but never found the bear.

So they went home.

"The poor little children were very lonely and not treated very well by the neighbors, and both children died, first the younger, and then the older; and this is a true story."

(Note: One could well imagine from the faces of the young listeners that something like a resolution to stay pretty close around home was passing unanimously.

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) * * * * * Don Talayesva of Upper Oraibi was the only one of my story-tellers who spoke without the aid of an interpreter.

He is a tall, good-looking man of less than forty, with an expressive face and a pair of merry dark eyes that hold a prophesy of the rich sense of humor one soon discovers in both his conversation and his stories.

This particular tale rather gives away some state secrets as to how Hopi children are persuaded to be good, and Don chuckled and paused to lower his voice and see that his own small son was out of hearing, when explaining certain parts of the story.

=The Giant and the Twin War Gods,= as told by Don Talayesva "Well, once upon a time more people lived here in Old Oraibi--many people, many, many children, and the children getting pretty bad.

People tried every way to punish and correct them and at last the head governor got tired of this business, and so he thought of best way to fix them.

They were all time throwing stones at the old people and pinning rags on the back of somebody and don't mind their parents very good.

"Now this head governor is very powerful and very wise.

He went out to where there is many pinon and cedar trees and he gathered much pinon gum.

Next day he called an old lady, a Spider Woman, to come and help him out.

"She asked what she can do.

He explained about the naughty children and their disrespect for the old people and their parents.

"He asked her to make a Giant out of the gum.

She greased her hands and molded a big figure about a foot thick and four feet high with head and arms and legs.

Then she covered it up with a white wedding blanket, and then she take whisk-broom and she patted with the broom, in time to her singing, on this doll figure, and it began to live and grow larger.

"When she finished singing he was enormously wide and tall, and he got up and uncovered himself and he sat there and said, 'What can I do to help you?'

"Then the governor said, 'I hired the old lady to make you and make you come to life so you can do a job for me.

Now you go and make your home over here near by.'

"The governor gave him as weapons a hatchet, bow and arrow, a rabbit stick, and a big basket to carry the children away in, and a big wooden spear.

"'Now you go over there,' the governor said, 'and make your home.

On the fourth day you come down and catch the first child you see playing on trash piles.'

"So on the fourth day the Giant came over early before sunrise and got to Oraibi by sunrise and got up here on top of the mesa and saw two brothers playing on the trash pile.

They were facing west and he slipped up behind and tied them together and put them in his basket and carry them to his home.

"At breakfast the families missed the children and traced them to where the Giant picked them up, but saw no tracks farther.

"Every morning he comes over looking for some more children and got away with many before parents know where they went.

"This kept going on till there were very few children left and the parents were very sad.

Giant leaves no tracks, so nobody knows what to do.

At last parents decide to do something.

"The second chief decided to go to the two little War Gods, who live with their grandmother, a Spider Woman, and see if they would help them.

"So then the second chief cut two round pieces out of strong buckskin, and made two big balls and stuffed them hard and painted them with a red face, a mask like Supais.

He made a strong bow and many strong arrows and put them in a--something like an army bag.

All this he made for the Twin War Gods, who are small but powerful and their medicine too.

"Then he took these presents and started off to the home of these two little War Gods.

"At early sunrise he arrived there and peeked down into their house, which was like a big kiva, and there were the two boys playing shinney.

"The grandmother received the man kindly and told the rough, unruly boys to stop their playing and be quiet.

But they don't stop their playing, so she picked up a big stick and hit the boys a good lick across the legs.

Now the boys see the man and his two fine balls and sticks.

They say to each other, 'We like to have those things!'

"After a good breakfast she asked the man, 'What can we do for you?'

"'Yes,' he said, 'a Giant at Oraibi has been carrying away more than half the children from our village.'

"She said, 'Yes, we know all about this and just waiting for you to come to ask our help.

I have dreamed that you would come today for our help.'

"Then the man gave his nice presents to the boys and said, 'Tomorrow you come over to Oraibi and meet the Giant when he comes at sunrise for children.'

"The boys said, 'Sure, we kill him!'

"But the grandmother said, 'Don't brag, just say you do your best!'

"Next morning both boys forget all about it, but grandmother wake them up and started them off.

"They got to Oraibi Mesa and waited for the Giant, but they got to playing with their balls and sticks and forgot to watch for him.

"Soon the Giant came slipping up, but the boys saw him and they said, 'Here's that Giant, let's hit the ball hard and hit him in the head and kill him.'

So they did, and knocked him off the mesa.

"It didn't kill him though, but he got mad, and he said, 'You wait and see what I do to you!'

And he came back and picked them up, one at a time, and put them in his basket and started off with them.

"As they were going along, the boys told the Giant they have to get out, for just a minute please.

So the Giant let them get out of the basket, but he held on to the rope that he has tied around them.

"So the boys stepped behind a big rock and untied themselves and fastened the rope to the rock.

Then the Giant got mad and pulled the rope hard and the big rock rolled over on him and hurt his legs.

"Then that Giant was sure mad, and he catch those boys again and he put them in his basket and take them right home and make oven very hot for cooking boys.

"But the boys had some good medicine with them that their grandmother gave them, and each took some in his mouth and when the Giant threw the first boy in the oven, he spit a little of the medicine out into the oven and cooled it off, so that it was just warm enough for comfort.

So the boys told stories and had fun all night.

"Next morning the Giant made pudding to go with his meat, and he opened the oven and there were the boys smiling.

"Giant was very hungry, so he said, 'You come out and I challenge you to fight it out and see who is more powerful.'

"So the Giant threw his rabbit stick at the bigger boy, but the boy jumped up and the stick caught fire as it passed under him.

Then the Giant threw at smaller boy just high enough to hit his head, but he ducked down and the stick passed over his head like a streak of fire.

Then he tried bow and arrows, but nothing hurt the boys.

"Then the Giant said, 'Well I have used all my weapons and failed, so now you can try to kill me.'

"So both boys threw their rabbit sticks at the same time.

One broke the Giant's legs, the other cut off his head.

Then the boys smelled the pine gum that he was made of, so they burned him up and he sure did make a big blaze.

"They just saved his head, and carried it to the Hopi at Oraibi.

They arrived just when the people were having breakfast, at about ten in the morning.

So they reported to the second chief and presented him with the Giant's head.

"The second chief was well pleased and said he was glad and very thankful, and then he said, 'I don't know what I can give you for a proper gift, but I have two daughters and, if you want them, you can take them along.'

"The boys smiled and whispered, 'They look pretty good, let's take them for squaws.'

So they said they would take them.

"'All right,' said their father, 'come on the fourth day and get them.'

"So they went home and told their grandmother, and on the fourth day they came back and got their wives.

"The Hopi always kept the head of this Giant to use as a mask in some dances.

"Really the most important thing we do with this kind of a mask is for the men to wear when they go round the village and call out the children and scare them a little bit and tell them to be good so they don't have to come back with the basket and carry them off.

Sometimes they act like they were going to take some naughty children with them right now, and ask the parents if they have any bad ones, and the parents are supposed to be very worried and hide the children and tell the Giants their children are good, and always the parents have to give these Giants that come around some mutton and other things to eat, in order to save their children; and then the children are very grateful to their parents.

"You see, the parents always tell the men who are coming around, beforehand, of a few of the things the children have been doing, so when they come looking for bad children they mention these special things to show the children that they know about it.

And parents tell children a Giant may come back for them if they are pretty bad, and come right down the chimney maybe.

"My brother is a pretty tall man, and I am the tallest man in Oraibi, so we are sometimes chosen to act the part of Giants.

Then we paint all black and put on this kind of a mask.

It is an enormous black head with a big beak and big teeth.

The time when the Giants go around and talk to the children is in February.

"There were a good many of these masks, very old and very funny ones.

But a beam fell, killing many giant masks and leaving only two of the real old ones.

So now we have to use some masks made of black felt; one of these is a squaw mask.

"I don't know if we can wait till February, or not, mine is getting pretty bad already."

(Note: This last was said with a big laugh and a look around to see where his own boy was.

And just then the tall little son, aged eight, let out a yell exactly like any other little boy who has cut his finger on Daddy's pocket knife.

The buxom mother and two aunts went scrambling down the ladder to see what was the matter.

The father got up, too, but laughed and remarked, "He be all right," and came back and sat down.

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