Myths And Legends Of California And The Old Southwest — Part 5

The Corn Maidens Zuni (New Mexico) After long ages of wandering, the precious Seed-things rested over the Middle at Zuni, and men turned their hearts to the cherishing of their corn and the Corn Maidens instead of warring with strange men.

But there was complaint by the people of the customs followed.

Some said the music was not that of the olden time.

Far better was that which of nights they often heard as they wandered up and down the river trail.

(6) Wonderful music, as of liquid voices in caverns, or the echo of women's laughter in water-vases.

And the music was timed with a deep-toned drum from the Mountain of Thunder.

Others thought the music was that of the ghosts of ancient men, but it was far more beautiful than the music when danced the Corn Maidens.

Others said light clouds rolled upward from the grotto in Thunder Mountain like to the mists that leave behind them the dew, but lo!

even as they faded the bright garments of the Rainbow women might be seen fluttering, and the broidery and paintings of these dancers of the mist were more beautiful than the costumes of the Corn Maidens.

Then the priests of the people said, "It may well be Paiyatuma, the liquid voices his flute and the flutes of his players."

Now when the time of ripening corn was near, the fathers ordered preparation for the dance of the Corn Maidens.

They sent the two Master-Priests of the Bow to the grotto at Thunder Mountains, saying, "If you behold Paiyatuma, and his maidens, perhaps they will give us the help of their customs."

Then up the river trail, the priests heard the sound of a drum and strains of song.

It was Paiyatuma and his seven maidens, the Maidens of the House of Stars, sisters of the Corn Maidens.

The God of Dawn and Music lifted his flute and took his place in the line of dancers.

The drum sounded until the cavern shook as with thunder.

The flutes sang and sighed as the wind in a wooded canon while still the storm is distant.

White mists floated up from the wands of the Maidens, above which fluttered the butterflies of Summer-land about the dress of the Rainbows in the strange blue light of the night.

Then Paiyatuma, smiling, said, "Go the way before, telling the fathers of our custom, and straightway we will follow."

Soon the sound of music was heard, coming from up the river, and soon the Flute People and singers and maidens of the Flute dance.

Up rose the fathers and all the watching people, greeting the God of Dawn with outstretched hand and offering of prayer meal.

Then the singers took their places and sounded their drum, flutes, and song of clear waters, while the Maidens of the Dew danced their Flute dance.

Greatly marvelled the people, when from the wands they bore forth came white clouds, and fine cool mists descended.

Now when the dance was ended and the Dew Maidens had retired, out came the beautiful Mothers of Corn.

And when the players of the flutes saw them, they were enamoured of their beauty and gazed upon them so intently that the Maidens let fall their hair and cast down their eyes.

And jealous and bolder grew the mortal youths, and in the morning dawn, in rivalry, the dancers sought all too freely the presence of the Corn Maidens, no longer holding them so precious as in the olden time.

And the matrons, intent on the new dance, heeded naught else.

But behold!

The mists increased greatly, surrounding dancers and watchers alike, until within them, the Maidens of Corn, all in white garments, became invisible.

Then sadly and noiselessly they stole in amongst the people and laid their corn wands down amongst the trays, and laid their white broidered garments thereupon, as mothers lay soft kilting over their babes.

Then even as the mists became they, and with the mists drifting, fled away, to the far south Summer-land.

(6) The mists and the dawn breeze on the river and in the grotto.

The Search for the Corn Maidens Zuni (New Mexico) Then the people in their trouble called the two Master-Priests and said: "Who, now, think ye, should journey to seek our precious Maidens?

Bethink ye!

Who amongst the Beings is even as ye are, strong of will and good of eyes?

There is our great elder brother and father, Eagle, he of the floating down and of the terraced tail-fan.

Surely he is enduring of will and surpassing of sight."

"Yea.

Most surely," said the fathers.

"Go ye forth and beseech him."

Then the two sped north to Twin Mountain, where in a grotto high up among the crags, with his mate and his young, dwelt the Eagle of the White Bonnet.

They climbed the mountain, but behold!

Only the eaglets were there.

They screamed lustily and tried to hide themselves in the dark recesses.

"Pull not our feathers, ye of hurtful touch, but wait.

When we are older we will drop them for you even from the clouds."

"Hush," said the warriors.

"Wait in peace.

We seek not ye but thy father."

Then from afar, with a frown, came old Eagle.

"Why disturb ye my featherlings?"

he cried.

"Behold!

Father and elder brother, we come seeking only the light of thy favor.

Listen!"

Then they told him of the lost Maidens of the Corn, and begged him to search for them.

"Be it well with thy wishes," said Eagle.

"Go ye before contentedly."

So the warriors returned to the council.

But Eagle winged his way high into the sky.

High, high, he rose, until he circled among the clouds, small-seeming and swift, like seed-down in a whirlwind.

Through all the heights, to the north, to the west, to the south, and to the east, he circled and sailed.

Yet nowhere saw he trace of the Corn Maidens.

Then he flew lower, returning.

Before the warriors were rested, people heard the roar of his wings.

As he alighted, the fathers said, "Enter thou and sit, oh brother, and say to us what thou hast to say."

And they offered him the cigarette of the space relations.

When they had puffed the smoke toward the four points of the compass, and Eagle had purified his breath with smoke, and had blown smoke over sacred things, he spoke.

"Far have I journeyed, scanning all the regions.

Neither bluebird nor woodrat can hide from my seeing," he said, snapping his beak.

"Neither of them, unless they hide under bushes.

Yet I have failed to see anything of the Maidens ye seek for.

Send for my younger brother, the Falcon.

Strong of flight is he, yet not so strong as I, and nearer the ground he takes his way ere sunrise."

Then the Eagle spread his wings and flew away to Twin Mountain.

The Warrior-Priests of the Bow sped again fleetly over the plain to the westward for his younger brother, Falcon.

Sitting on an ant hill, so the warriors found Falcon.

He paused as they approached, crying, "If ye have snare strings, I will be off like the flight of an arrow well plumed of our feathers!"

"No," said the priests.

"Thy elder brother hath bidden us seek thee."

Then they told Falcon what had happened, and how Eagle had failed to find the Corn Maidens, so white and beautiful.

"Failed!"

said Falcon.

"Of course he failed.

He climbs aloft to the clouds and thinks he can see under every bush and into every shadow, as sees the Sunfather who sees not with eyes.

Go ye before."

Before the Warrior-Priests had turned toward the town, the Falcon had spread his sharp wings and was skimming off over the tops of the trees and bushes as though verily seeking for field mice or birds' nests.

And the Warriors returned to tell the fathers and to await his coming.

But after Falcon had searched over the world, to the north and west, to the east and south, he too returned and was received as had been Eagle.

He settled on the edge of a tray before the altar, as on the ant hill he settles today.

When he had smoked and had been smoked, as had been Eagle, he told the sorrowing fathers and mothers that he had looked behind every copse and cliff shadow, but of the Maidens he had found no trace.

"They are hidden more closely than ever sparrow hid," he said.

Then he, too, flew away to his hills in the west.

"Our beautiful Maiden Mothers," cried the matrons.

"Lost, lost as the dead are they!"

"Yes," said the others.

"Where now shall we seek them?

The far-seeing Eagle and the close-searching Falcon alike have failed to find them."

"Stay now your feet with patience," said the fathers.

Some of them had heard Raven, who sought food in the refuse and dirt at the edge of town, at daybreak.

"Look now," they said.

"There is Heavy-nose, whose beak never fails to find the substance of seed itself, however little or well hidden it be.

He surely must know of the Corn Maidens.

Let us call him."

So the warriors went to the river side.

When they found Raven, they raised their hands, all weaponless.

"We carry no pricking quills," they called.

"Blackbanded father, we seek your aid.

Look now!

The Mother-maidens of Seed whose substance is the food alike of thy people and our people, have fled away.

Neither our grandfather the Eagle, nor his younger brother the Falcon, can trace them.

We beg you to aid us or counsel us."

"Ka!

ka!"

cried the Raven.

"Too hungry am I to go abroad fasting on business for ye.

Ye are stingy!

Here have I been since perching time, trying to find a throatful, but ye pick thy bones and lick thy bowls too clean for that, be sure."

"Come in, then, poor grandfather.

We will give thee food to cat.

Yea, and a cigarette to smoke, with all the ceremony."

"Say ye so?"

said the Raven.

He ruffled his collar and opened his mouth so wide with a lusty kaw-la-ka--that he might well have swallowed his own head.

"Go ye before," he said, and followed them into the court of the dancers.

He was not ill to look upon.

Upon his shoulders were bands of white cotton, and his back was blue, gleaming like the hair of a maiden dancer in the sunlight.

The Master-Priest greeted Raven, bidding him sit and smoke.

"Ha!

There is corn in this, else why the stalk of it?"

said the Raven, when he took the cane cigarette of the far spaces and noticed the joint of it.

Then he did as he had seen the Master-Priest do, only more greedily.

He sucked in such a throatful of the smoke, fire and all, that it almost strangled him.

He coughed and grew giddy, and the smoke all hot and stinging went through every part of him.

It filled all his feathers, making even his brown eyes bluer and blacker, in rings.

It is not to be wondered at, the blueness of flesh, blackness of dress, and skinniness, yes, and tearfulness of eye which we see in the Raven to-day.

And they are all as greedy of corn food as ever, for behold!

No sooner had the old Raven recovered than he espied one of the ears of corn half hidden under the mantle-covers of the trays.

He leaped from his place laughing.

They always laugh when they find anything, these ravens.

Then he caught up the ear of corn and made off with it over the heads of the people and the tops of the houses, crying.

"Ha!

ha!

In this wise and in no other will ye find thy Seed Maidens."

But after a while he came back, saying, "A sharp eye have I for the flesh of the Maidens.

But who might see their breathing-beings, ye dolts, except by the help of the Father of Dawn-Mist himself, whose breath makes breath of others seem as itself."

Then he flew away cawing.

Then the elders said to each other, "It is our fault, so how dare we prevail on our father Paiyatuma to aid us?

He warned us of this in the old time."

Suddenly, for the sun was rising, they heard Paiyatuma in his daylight mood and transformation.

Thoughtless and loud, uncouth in speech, he walked along the outskirts of the village.

He joked fearlessly even of fearful things, for all his words and deeds were the reverse of his sacred being.

He sat down on a heap of vile refuse, saying he would have a feast.

"My poor little children," he said.

But he spoke to aged priests and white-haired matrons.

"Good-night to you all," he said, though it was in full dawning.

So he perplexed them with his speeches.

"We beseech thy favor, oh father, and thy aid, in finding our beautiful Maidens."

So the priests mourned.

"Oh, that is all, is it?

But why find that which is not lost, or summon those who will not come?"

Then he reproached them for not preparing the sacred plumes, and picked up the very plumes he had said were not there.

Then the wise Pekwinna, the Speaker of the Sun, took two plumes and the banded wing-tips of the turkey, and approaching Paiyatuma stroked him with the tips of the feathers and then laid the feathers upon his lips....

Then Paiyatuma became aged and grand and straight, as is a tall tree shorn by lightning.

He said to the father: "Thou are wise of thought and good of heart.

Therefore I will summon from Summer-land the beautiful Maidens that ye may look upon them once more and make offering of plumes in sacrifice for them, but they are lost as dwellers amongst ye."

Then he told them of the song lines and the sacred speeches and of the offering of the sacred plume wands, and then turned him about and sped away so fleetly that none saw him.

Beyond the first valley of the high plain to the southward Paiyatuma planted the four plume wands.

First he planted the yellow, bending over it and watching it.

When it ceased to flutter, the soft down on it leaned northward but moved not.

Then he set the blue wand and watched it; then the white wand.

The eagle down on them leaned to right and left and still northward, yet moved not.

Then farther on he planted the red wand, and bending low, without breathing, watched it closely.

The soft down plumes began to wave as though blown by the breath of some small creature.

Backward and forward, northward and southward they swayed, as if in time to the breath of one resting.

"'T is the breath of my Maidens in Summer-land, for the plumes of the southland sway soft to their gentle breathing.

So shall it ever be.

When I set the down of my mists on the plains and scatter my bright beads in the northland(7), summer shall go thither from afar, borne on the breath of the Seed Maidens.

Where they breathe, warmth, showers, and fertility shall follow with the birds of Summer-land, and the butterflies, northward over the world."

Then Paiyatuma arose and sped by the magic of his knowledge into the countries of Summer-land,--fled swiftly and silently as the soft breath he sought for, bearing his painted flute before him.

And when he paused to rest, he played on his painted flute and the butterflies and birds sought him.

So he sent them to seek the Maidens, following swiftly, and long before he found them he greeted them with the music of his songsound, even as the People of the Seed now greet them in the song of the dancers.

When the Maidens heard his music and saw his tall form in their great fields of corn, they plucked ears, each of her own kind, and with them filled their colored trays and over all spread embroidered mantles,--embroidered in all the bright colors and with the creature-songs of Summer-land.

So they sallied forth to meet him and welcome him.

Then he greeted them, each with the touch of his hands and the breath of his flute, and bade them follow him to the northland home of their deserted children.

So by the magic of their knowledge they sped back as the stars speed over the world at night time, toward the home of our ancients.

Only at night and dawn they journeyed, as the dead do, and the stars also.

So they came at evening in the full of the last moon to the Place of the Middle, bearing their trays of seed.

Glorious was Paiyatuma, as he walked into the courts of the dancers in the dusk of the evening and stood with folded arms at the foot of the bow-fringed ladder of priestly council, he and his follower Shutsukya.

He was tall and beautiful and banded with his own mists, and carried the banded wings of the turkeys with which he had winged his flight from afar, leading the Maidens, and followed as by his own shadow by the black being of the corn-soot, Shutsukya, who cries with the voice of the frost wind when the corn has grown aged and the harvest is taken away.

And surpassingly beautiful were the Maidens clothed in the white cotton and embroidered garments of Summer-land.

Then after long praying and chanting by the priests, the fathers of the people, and those of the Seed and Water, and the keepers of sacred things, the Maiden-mother of the North advanced to the foot of the ladder.

She lifted from her head the beautiful tray of yellow corn and Paiyatama took it.

He pointed it to the regions, each in turn, and the Priest of the North came and received the tray of sacred seed.

Then the Maiden of the West advanced and gave up her tray of blue corn.

So each in turn the Maidens gave up their trays of precious seed.

The Maiden of the South, the red seed; the Maiden of the East, the white seed; then the Maiden with the black seed, and lastly, the tray of all-color seed which the Priestess of Seed-and-All herself received.

And now, behold!

The Maidens stood as before, she of the North at the northern end, but with her face southward far looking; she of the West, next, and lo!

so all of them, with the seventh and last, looking southward.

And standing thus, the darkness of the night fell around them.

As shadows in deep night, so these Maidens of the Seed of Corn, the beloved and beautiful, were seen no more of men.

And Paiyatuma stood alone, for Shutsukya walked now behind the Maidens, whistling shrilly, as the frost wind whistles when the corn is gathered away, among the lone canes and dry leaves of a gleaned field.

(7) Dew drops.

Hasjelti and Hostjoghon Navajo (New Mexico) Hasjelti was the son of the white corn, and Hostjoghon the son of the yellow corn.

They were born on the mountains where the fogs meet.

These two became the great song-makers of the world.

To the mountain where they were born (Henry Mountain, Utah), they gave two songs and two prayers.

Then they went to Sierra Blanca (Colorado) and made two songs and prayers and dressed the mountain in clothing of white shell with two eagle plumes upon its head.

They visited San Mateo Mountain (New Mexico) and gave to it two songs and prayers, and dressed it in turquoise, even to leggings and moccasins, and placed two eagle plumes upon its head.

Then they went to San Francisco Mountain (Arizona) and made two songs and prayers and dressed that mountain in abalone shells with two eagle plumes upon its head.

They then visited Ute Mountain and gave to it two songs and prayers and dressed it in black beads.

Then they returned to their own mountain where the fogs meet and said, "We two have made all these songs."

Other brothers were born of the white corn and yellow corn, and two brothers were placed on each mountain.

They are the spirits of the mountains and to them the clouds come first.

All the brothers together made game, the deer and elk and buffalo, and so game was created.

Navajos pray for rain and snow to Hasjelti and Hostjoghon.

They stand upon the mountain tops and call the clouds to gather around them.

Hasjelti prays to the sun, for the Navajos.

"Father, give me the light of your mind that my mind may be strong.

Give me your strength, that my arm may be strong.

Give me your rays, that corn and other vegetation may grow."

The most important prayers are addressed to Hasjelti and the most valuable gifts made to him.

He talks to the Navajos through the birds, and for this reason the choicest feathers and plumes are placed in the cigarettes and attached to the prayer sticks offered to him.

The Song-Hunter Navajo (New Mexico) A man sat thinking.

"Let me see.

My songs are too short.

I want more songs.

Where shall I go to find them?"

Hasjelti appeared and perceiving his thoughts, said, "I know where you can get more songs."

"Well, I want to get more.

So I will follow you."

They went to a certain point in a box canon in the Big Colorado River and here they found four gods, the Hostjobokon, at work, hewing cottonwood logs.

Hasjelti said, "This will not do.

Cottonwood becomes water-soaked.

You must use pine instead of cottonwood."

The Hostjobokon began boring the pine with flint, but Hasjelti said, "That is slow work."

He commanded a whirlwind to hollow the log.

A

cross, joining at the exact middle of each log, a solid one and the hollow one, was formed.

The arms of the cross were equal.

The song-hunter entered the hollow log and Hasjelti closed the end with a cloud so that water would not enter when the logs were launched upon the great waters.

The logs floated off.

The Hostjobokon, accompanied by their wives, rode upon the logs, one couple sitting upon each arm.

Hasjelti, Hostjoghon, and the two Naaskiddi walked upon the banks to keep the logs off shore.

Hasjelti carried a squirrel skin filled with tobacco, with which to supply the gods on their journey.

Hostjoghon carried a staff ornamented with eagle and turkey plumes and a gaming ring with two humming birds tied to it with white cotton cord.

The two Naaskiddi carried staffs of lightning.

The Naaskiddi had clouds upon their backs in which the seeds of all corn and grasses were carried.

After floating a long distance down the river, they came to waters that had a shore on one side only.

Here they landed.

Here they found a people like themselves.

When these people learned of the Song-hunter, they gave him many songs and they painted pictures on a cotton blanket and said, "These pictures must go with the songs.

If we give this blanket to you, you will lose it.

We will give you white earth and black coals which you will grind together to make black paint, and we will give you white sand, yellow sand, and red sand.

For the blue paint you will take white sand and black coals with a very little red and yellow sand.

These will give you blue."

And so the Navajo people make blue, even to this day.

The Song-hunter remained with these people until the corn was ripe.

There he learned to eat corn and he carried some back with him to the Navajos, who had not seen corn before, and he taught them how to raise it and how to eat it.

When he wished to return home, the logs would not float upstream.

Four sunbeams attached themselves to the logs, one to each cross arm, and so drew the Song-hunter back to the box canon from which he had started.

When he reached that point, he separated the logs.

He placed the end of the solid log into the hollow end of the other and planted this great pole in the river.

It may be seen there to-day by the venturesome.

In early days many went there to pray and make offerings.

Sand Painting of the Song-Hunter Navajo (Explanatory of frontispiece) The black cross bars denote pine logs; the white lines the froth of the water; the yellow, vegetable debris gathered by the logs; the blue and red lines, sunbeams.

The blue spot in the centre of the cross denotes water.

There are four Hostjobokon, with their wives, the Hostjoboard.

Each couple sits upon one of the cross arms of the logs.

The gods carry in their right hands a rattle, and in their left sprigs of pinon; the goddesses carry pinon sprigs in both hands.

Hasjelti is to the east of the painting.

He carries a squirrel skin filled with tobacco.

His shirt is white cotton and very elastic.

The leggings are of white deerskin, fringed, and his head is ornamented with an eagle's tail; at the tip of each plume there is a fluffy feather from the breast of the eagle.

The projection on the right of the throat is a fox skin.

Hostjoghon is at the west.

His shirt is invisible, the dark being the dark of the body.

His staff is colored black from a charred plant.

Two strips of beaver skin tipped with six quills of the porcupine are attached to the right of the throat.

The four colored stars on the body are bead ornaments.

The top of the staff is ornamented with a turkey's tail.

Eagle and turkey plumes are alternately attached to the staff.

The Naaskiddi are north and south of the painting.

They carry staffs of lightning ornamented with eagle plumes and sunbeams.

Their bodies are nude except the loin skirt.

The hunch upon the back is a black cloud and the three groups of white lines indicate corn and other seeds.

Five eagle plumes are attached to the cloud-back, since eagles live among the clouds.

The body is surrounded by sunlight.

The lines of blue and red which border the cloud-back denote sunbeams penetrating storm clouds.

The black circle zig-zagged with white around the head is a cloud basket filled with corn and seeds of grass.

On each side of the head are five feathers of the red-shafted flicker.

The Rainbow goddess, upon which these gods often travel, partly encircles and completes the picture.

These sand pictures are drawn upon common yellow sand, brought in blankets and laid in squares about three inches thick and four feet in diameter.

The colors used in decoration were yellow, red, and white, secured from sand stones, black from charcoal, and a grayish blue made from white sand and charcoal mixed with a very small quantity of yellow and red sands.

(From eighth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, abridged from description of James Stevenson.

)