Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Part 11

And all the time they were dancing they were moving across country, and getting nearer the cave where she lived, and other people at the same time were ahead of them carrying lots of wood to her cave. And when they arrived at her cave in the mountain of Tahtk.u.m they laid her sleeping body down inside, and placed the wood in the cave between her and the door, filling it all to the entrance, which they closed with four hurdles, such as the people fasten their doors with, so that she could not run out.

And then they set the wood on fire, and it burned fiercely, and when the fire reached Hawawk she waked and cried out. "My grandchildren, what have I done that you should treat me this way!"

And the fire hurt her so that she jumped up and down with pain, and her head struck the ceiling of the cave and split the rock. And when the people saw it they called to Ee-ee-toy, and he went and put his foot over the crack, and sealed it up, and you may see the track of his foot there to this day.

But Ee-ee-toy was not quick enough, and her soul escaped through the crack.

And then for a while the people had peace, but in time her soul turned into a green hawk, and this hawk killed the people, but did not eat them.

And this made the people great trouble, but one day a woman was making pottery and she had just taken one pot out of the fire and left another one in the furnace, on its side, when this hawk saw her and came swooping down from high in the air to kill her, but missed her, and went into the hot pot in the fire, and so was burned up and destroyed.

And one day they boiled greens in that pot, the greens called choo-hook-yuh, and the greens boiled so hard that they boiled over, and splashed around and killed people. And they boiled all day and stopped at night, and at daybreak began again to boil, and this they did for a long time; boiling by day and stopping at night.

And the people sent for Toehahvs who lived in the east, and Gee-ah-duk Seeven, or Strong Bow Chief, who lived where is now the ruin of Aw-awt-k.u.m Vah-ahk-kee, to kill the pot for them.

And when they arrived Geeahduk Seeven enquired if the pot slept. And the people said: "Yes, it sleeps all night." Then said Geeahduk Seeven, "We will get up very early, before the pot wakes, and then we will kill it."

But Toehahvs said; "That is not right, to go and kill it at night. I am not like a jealous woman who goes and fights her rival in the darkness. I am not a woman, I am a man!"

And Toehahvs said to Geeahduk Seeven: "I will go in the morning to attack the pot and I want you to go on the other side, and if the pot throws its fluid at me, so that I cannot conquer it, then do you run up on the other side and smash it."

Then Toehahvs took his s.h.i.+eld and his club, in the morning, and went to attack the pot. But the pot saw him, and, altho he held up his s.h.i.+eld, it boiled over, and threw the boiling choohookyuh so high and far that some of it fell on Toehahvs' back and scalded it. And Toehahvs had to give back a little. But at that moment Geeahduk Seeven ran in on the other side and smashed the pot.

And there was an old man with an orphan grandson, living near there, and when the pot was smashed these came to the spot and ate up the choohookyuh. And at once they were turned into bears, the old man into a black bear, the boy into a brown bear.

And these bears also killed people, and tho the people tried to kill them, for a long time they could not do so. When they shot arrows at the bears, the bears would catch them and break them up. And so the people had to study out other ways to get the better of them. There is a kind of palm-tree, called o-nook, which has b.a.l.l.s where the branches come out, and the people burned the trees to get these b.a.l.l.s, and threw them at the bears. And the bears caught the b.a.l.l.s, and fought and wrestled with them, and while their attention was taken by these b.a.l.l.s the people shot arrows at them and killed them.

And thus ended forever the evil power of Hawawk.

NOTES ON THE STORY OF HAWAWK

The Story of Hawawk opens with an interesting reference to the favorite Pima game of football. The ball was about two and one half inches in diameter, merely a heavy pebble coated thick with black greasewood gum. Sometimes it was decorated with little inlays of sh.e.l.l. It was thrown by the lifting of the naked or sandaled foot, rather than kicked. Astonis.h.i.+ng tales are told of the running power and endurance of the older Indians. White and red men agree in the testimony.

Emory says of the Maricopa interpreter, Thirsty Hawk, before alluded to, that he came running into their camp on foot and "appeared to keep pace with the fleetest horse." Whittemore, the missionary, says: "Some young women could travel from forty to fifty miles in sixteen hours, and there were warriors who ran twenty miles, keeping a horse on a canter following them." G. W. Mardis, the trader at Phoenix, told me he had known Indians to run all day, and my interpreter told me of Pimas running forty to seventy miles in a day, hunting horses on the mountains. Others ran races with horses and with a little handicap and for moderate distance often beat them. On these long runs after horses the men took their footb.a.l.l.s and kept them going, saying it made the journey amusing and less tiresome. And undoubtedly it was, in the practice of this sport, that their powers were developed. Beside the usual foot-races, in which all Indians delight, it often happened that two champions would, on a set day, start in different directions and chase their footb.a.l.l.s far out on the desert, perhaps ten miles and then return. The one who came in first was winner. The whole tribe, in two parties, on horseback as far as they could get mounts, followed the champions, as judges, a.s.sistants, critics and friends and there was profuse betting and picturesque excitement and display.

But the fine old athletic games seem to have all died out now.

Stories of miraculous conception are not uncommon in Indian tradition, and this story of the bewitching of the young girl into motherhood thru the agency of the football is an instance.

This gruesome and graphic tale is full of insight into Indian thought and fancy. In reading it we are reminded of many familiar old nursery tales of kidnapped child, pig or fowl ("the little red hin" of Irish legend for instance) and of Were-Wolf and Loup-Garou.

And here reappears the old myth of some G.o.d's or hero's footstep printed in solid rock.

Here is a hint, too, of transmigration in the various adventures of the soul of Hawawk.

My Indian hosts cooked me a pot of choohookyuh greens, and I found them very palatable.

The reference to the pottery making reminds me of Pima arts. Today the Maricopas have almost a monopoly of pottery making, tho the Quohatas make some good pottery too. It is shaped by the hands (no potters wheel being known) and smoothed and polished by stones, painted red with a mineral and black with mezquite gum and baked in a common fire. It is often very artistic in a rude way, in form and decoration.

The Papagoes do most of the horse-hair work, chiefly bridles, halters and lariat ropes, and make mats and fans from rushes.

The Pimas make the famous black and white, watertight baskets, which are too well known to need description. The black in these is shreds of the dead-black seed pod of the devil-claw and not some fibre dyed black, as some suppose.

There seems to have been no original bead work among Pima Indians.

THE STORY OF TAWQUAHDAHMAWKS AND HER Ca.n.a.l

And after this the people had long peace, increased in numbers, and were scattered all around. Some lived where the old vahahkkees now are in the Gila country, and some lived in the Papago country, and some in the Salt River country. And those who lived where the mound now is between Phoenix and Tempe were the first to use a ca.n.a.l to irrigate their land. And these raised all kinds of vegetables and had fine crops. And the people of the Gila country and the people of the Salt River country at first did not raise many vegetables, because they did not irrigate, and they used to visit the people who did irrigate and eat with them; but after a while the people who lived on the south side of the Salt River also made a ca.n.a.l, and you can see it to this day.

But when these people tried their ca.n.a.l it did not work. When they dammed the river the water did not run, because the ca.n.a.l was uphill. And they could not seem to make it deeper, because it was all in a lime rock.

And they sent for Ee-ee-toy to help them. And Ee-ee-toy had them get stakes of ironwood, and sharpen them, and all stand in a row with their stakes in their hands at the bottom of the ca.n.a.l.

And then Ee-ee-toy sang a song, and at the end of the song the people were all to strike their stakes into the bottom of the ca.n.a.l to make it deeper. But it would not work, it was too hard, and Ee-ee-toy gave it up.

And Ee-ee-toy said: "I can do no more, but there is an old woman named Taw-quah-dahm-awks (which means The Wampum Eater) and she, tho only a woman, is very wise, and likely can help you better than I. I advise you to send for her."

And the people sent for her, and she said: "I will come at once."

And she came, as she had promised, but she did not go to where the people were a.s.sembled, but went right to the ca.n.a.l. And she had brought a fog with her, and she left the fog at the river, near the mouth of the ca.n.a.l. And she went up the course of the ca.n.a.l, looking this way and that, to see how much up-hill it ran.

And when she reached where the ca.n.a.l ran up-hill she blew thru it the breath which is called seev-hur-whirl, which means a bitter wind. And this wind tore up the bed of the ca.n.a.l, as deep as was necessary, throwing the dirt and rocks out on each side.

And then the fog dammed up the river and the water ran thru the ca.n.a.l.

Then the old woman did not go near the people, but went home, and in the morning, when one of the people went to see why the old woman did not come, he saw the ca.n.a.l full of water and he yelled to everybody to come and see it.

And in this way these people got water for their crops and were as prosperous as the others below them.

NOTES ON THE STORY OF TAWQUAHDAHMAWKS

In this story we find proof that the oldest digging utensil was a sharpened stake.

Before these people became agricultural they must have subsisted mainly on the game and wild fruits of the desert. They showed me several seed-bearing bushes and weeds which in old time had helped to eke out for them an existence.