Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Part 10

There is a suggestion of Thor in the Story of Wayhohm, and also of Prometheus. Wayhohm's house must have been the hall of the clouds.

How true to nature, here, is the touch describing the Coyote-person, Toehahvs. The excessive caution of the coyote, making it impossible for him, however eager, to force himself into any position he suspects, here stands out before us, contrasted in the most dramatic way with the das.h.i.+ng boldness of the road-runner.

When we reached the end of this story Comalk Hawk-Kih took two pieces of wood to rub them together to make fire. But he was old and breathless, and "Sparkling-Soft-Feather," the mother of my interpreter, took them and made the fire for me. I have the implements yet.

There were two parts to the apparatus. Gee-uh-toe-dah, the socket stick was of a soft dry piece of giant cactus rib, and a notch was whittled in one side of this with a small socket at the apex, that is on the upper side.

This was placed flat on the ground, with a bit of corn husk under the notch, and held firmly in position by the bare feet. The twirling stick, eev-a-dah-kote, was a hard arrow weed, very dry and sc.r.a.ped smooth. The end of this was engaged in the little socket, at the top of the cactus rib, and then, held perpendicularly, was twirled between the two hands till the friction rubbed off a powder which crowded out of the socket, and fell down the notch at its side to the corn-husk. This little increasing pile of powder was the tinder, and, as the twirling continued, grew black, smelled like burned wood, smoked and finally glowed like punk. It was now picked up on the corn husk and placed in dry horse dung, a bunch of dry gra.s.s, or some such inflammable material, and blown into flame.

It looked very simple, and took little time, but I never could do it.

THE STORY OF HAWAWK

And when Dthas Seeven had gotten better he meditated on what had happened to him, and studied out that Seeollstchewadack-Seeven was the cause of his trouble, and planned how to get the better of him.

Now the Indians have a game of football in which the ball is not kicked but lifted and thrown a good ways by the foot, and Dthas Seeven made such a ball, and sent a young man to play it in the direction of the city of Seeollstchewadack-Seeven. And the young man did so, and as he kept the ball going on it came to the feet of a young girl, who, when she saw the ball, picked it up and hid it under the square of cloth which Indian girls wear.

And the young man came up and asked her if she had seen the ball, and she answered no, she had not seen it, and she kept on denying it, so at last he turned back and said he might as well go home as he no longer had a ball to play with. But he had not gone far before the girl called to him: "Are you not coming back to get your ball?" And he went back to her, and she tried to find the ball, but could not.

But the ball was not lost, but it had bewitched her.

And after a time this girl had a baby, a tall baby, with claws on its hands and feet like a wild animal.

And the people did not know what this meant, and they asked Toehahvs, and Toehahvs knew because this had been prophesied of old time. And Toehahvs said: "She is Haw-awk."

And Hawawk grew and became able to crawl, but people were afraid of handling her because of the scratching of her claws. Only her relatives could safely handle her. And as she grew older, still, she would sometimes see other children and wish to play with them, but in a short time they would get scratched by her in her gambols and would run home crying and leave her alone. And it got so that when the children saw her coming they would tell each other and run home and she could get none of them to play with her.

She claimed Ee-ee-toy as her uncle, and when he had been rabbit-hunting and came in with game she would run and call him "uncle!" and try and get the rabbits away from him; and when he cleaned the rabbits and threw away the entrails she would run and devour them, and the bones of the rabbits the people threw away after the feasts she would eat, too.

And when Hawawk grew older she would sometimes complain to Ee-ee-toy if he came in without game. "Why is it you sometimes come in without rabbits?" she would say, "And why do you not kill a great many?" And he would reply: "It is not possible to kill a great many, for they run very fast and are very hard to shoot with a bow and arrow." "Let me go with you," she would say, "and I will kill a great many." But he would tell her: "You are a girl, and it is not your place to go hunting. If you were a boy it would be, but as it is you cannot go."

And she kept on begging in this way, and he kept on refusing, she saying that she could kill a great many, and he saying that only a man or a boy could shoot many rabbits, because they ran so fast.

But as she grew older still she began to follow the hunters, and when the hunting began she would be in the crowd, but she tried to keep out of her uncle's way so that he would not see her. And sometimes when she would thus be following the hunt a rabbit would run in her direction, and she would run fast and jump on it and kill it, and eat it right there; and after a while she could do this oftener and caught a good many; and she would eat all she wanted as she caught them, and the others she gave to her uncle, Ee-ee-toy, to carry home. And Ee-ee-toy came to like to have her with him because of the game she could get. But after a time she did not come home anymore, but staid out in the bushes, living on the game she could get. But when the hunters came out, she would still join them and after killing and eating all she wanted she would give the rest of her kill to her uncle, as before.

And so she contrived to live in the wild places, like a wild-cat, and in time became able to kill deer, antelopes, and all big game, and yet being part human she would tan buckskin like a woman and do all that a woman needs to do.

And she found a cave in the mountain which is called Taht-k.u.m, where she lived, and that cave can be seen now and is still called Hawawk's Cave.

But she had been born near where the ruins of Casa Grande now are and claimed that vahahkkee for her own. And when she knew a baby had been born there she would go to the mother and say, "I want to see my grandchild." But if the mother let her take the baby she would put it over her shoulder, into her gyih-haw, and run to her cave, and put the baby into a mortar, and pound it up and eat it. And she got all the babies she could in this way; and later on she grew bolder and would find the larger children, where they were at play, and would carry them off to eat them. And now she let all the rabbits and such game go, and lived only on the children she caught, for a long time.

And Ee-ee-toy told the people what to do in this great trouble. He told them to roast a big lot of pumpkin seeds and to go into their houses and keep still. And when the people had roasted the pumpkin seeds and gone into their houses, Ee-ee-toy came around and stopped up the door of every house with bushes, and plastered clay over the bushes as the Awawtam still do when they go away from home.

After a time Hawawk came around, and stood near the houses, and listened, and heard the people cracking the pumpkin seeds inside.

And she said: "Where are all my grandchildren? They must have been gone for a long time, for I do not see any tracks, nor hear any voices, and I hear only the rats eating the seeds in the empty houses."

And she came several times and saw no one, and really believed the people had gone entirely away. And for a while she did not come any more, but after a time she was one day running by the village and she saw some children playing. And she caught two and ran with them to her cave. And from that day she went on stealing children as before.

And Ee-ee-toy made him a rattle, out of a wild gourd, and went and lay on the trail on which Hawawk usually came, and changed himself into the little animal called "Kaw-awts." And when Hawawk came along she poked him with a stick of her gyih-haw and said: "Here is a little kaw-awts. He must be my pet." And then Ee-ee-toy jumped up and shook his rattle at her, and frightened her so that she ran home. And then Ee-ee-toy made rattles for all the children in that place and when they saw Hawawk coming they would shake their rattles at her and scare her back again.

But after a while Hawawk became used to the rattles and ceased to fear them, and even while they were shaking she would run and carry some of the children off.

And one day two little boys were hunting doves after the manner of the country. They had a little kee of willows, and a hole inside in the sand where they sat, and outside a stick stuck up for the doves to light on. And when the doves came they would shoot them with their bows and arrows. And while they were doing this they saw Hawawk coming. And they said: "What shall we do! Hawawk is coming and will eat us up."

And they lay down in the hole in the sand and covered themselves with the dove's feathers. And Hawawk came and said: "Where are my grandchildren! Some of them have been here very lately." And she went all around and looked for their tracks, but could find none leading away from the place. And she came back again to the kee, and while she was looking in a wind came and swept away all the dove-feathers, and she sprang in and caught up the two boys and put them in her gyih-haw and started off.

And as she went along the boys said: "Grandmother, we like flat stones to play with. Won't you give us all the flat stones you can find?" And Hawawk picked up all the flat stones she came to and put them one by one over her shoulder into the basket.

And the boys said, again, after the basket began to get heavy, "Grandmother, we like to go under limbs of trees. Go under all the low limbs of trees you can to please us." And Hawawk went under a low tree, and one of the boys caught hold of the limb and hung there till she had gone on. And Hawawk went under another tree, and the other boy caught hold of a limb and staid there. But because of the flat stones she kept putting into her gyih-haw Hawawk did not notice this. And when she got to her cave and emptied her basket there were no boys there.

And when Hawawk saw this she turned back and found the tracks of the boys, and ran, following after them, and caught up with them just before they got to their village. And she would have caught them there, and carried them off again, but the boys had gathered some of the fine thorns of a cactus, and when Hawawk came near they held them up and let them blow with the wind into her face.

And they stuck in her eyes, and hurt them, and she began to rub her eyes, which made them hurt worse so that she could not see them, and then the boys ran home and thus saved their lives.

After that she went to another place called Vahf-kee-wohlt-kih, or the Notched Cliffs, and staid around there and ate the children, and then she moved to another place, the old name of which is now forgotten, but it is called, now, Stchew-a-dack Vah-veeuh, or the Green Well. And there, too, she killed the children.

And the people called on Ee-ee-toy to help them, and Ee-ee-toy said, "I will kill her at once!"

And Ee-ee-toy, being her relative, went to her home and said: "Your grandchildren want some amus.e.m.e.nt and are going to have dances now every night and would like you to come."

And she replied: "You know very well I do not care for such things. I do not care to come."

And Ee-ee-toy returned and told the people she did not care to come to their dances, tho he had invited her, but he would think of some other way to get her to come where they were, that they might kill her.

And he went a second time, and told her the people were going to sing the Hwah-guff-san-nuh-kotch Nyuee, or Basket Drumming Song, and wanted her to come. But she said: "I have heard of that song, but I do not care to hear it. I care nothing for such things, and I will not come."

So Ee-ee-toy returned and told of his second failure, but promised he would try again. And in the morning he went to her and said: "Your grandchildren are going to sing the song Haw-hawf-kuh Nyuee or Dance of the Bone-trimmed Dresses Song and they want you to come." But she said: "I do not care for this song, either, and I will not come."

And Ee-ee-toy told of his third failure, but promised the people he would try once more, and when the morning came he went to Hawawk and said: "Your grandchildren are going to dance tonight to the song which is called See-coll-cod-dha-kotch Nyuee," (which is a sort of ring dance with the dancers in a circle with joined hands) "and they want you to come."

And she said: "That is what I like. I will come to that. When is it going to be?"

And he said: "It will be this very night."

And he went and told the people she was coming and they must be ready for her.

Hawawk got ready in the early evening and dressed herself in a skirt of soft buckskin. And over this she placed an overskirt of deerskin, fringed with long cut fringes with deer-hoofs at the ends to rattle. And then she ran to the dancing place; and the people could hear her a long way off, rattling, as she came. And they were already dancing when she arrived there, and she went and joined hands with Ee-ee-toy.

And Hawawk was a great smoker, and Ee-ee-toy made cigarettes for her that had something in them that would make folks sleep. And he smoked these himself, a little, to a.s.sure her, but cautiously and moderately, not inhaling the smoke, but she inhaled the smoke, and before the four nights were up she was so sleepy that the people were dragging her around as they danced, and then she got so fast asleep that Ee-ee-toy carried her on his shoulder.