Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Part 12

Starvation must have often stared them in the face, and the references to hunger, and the prophecies of plenty, and of visits to relatives whose crops were good, are scattered pathetically all thru these legends.

And indeed, until very recently, mezquite beans and the fruit of various cactus plants were staple articles of food.

Mezquite beans grow in a pod on the th.o.r.n.y mezquite trees. The gathering of them was quite a tribal event, large parties going out. The beans when brought home were pounded in the chee-o-pah, or mortar, which was made by burning a hollow in the end of a short mezquite log, set in the ground like a low post. A long round stone pestle, or vee-it-kote, was used to beat with, and sometimes the cheeopah itself was of stone. But stone mortars were usually ancient and dug from out the vahahkkee ruins.

The beans, crushed very fine and separated from the indigestible seeds, packed into a sweet cake that would keep a year.

Various cactus fruits were eaten. They warned me that for a novice to eat freely of p.r.i.c.kly pears produced a lame, sore feeling, as if one had taken cold or a fever. I noticed no symptoms however. The fruit of the giant cactus is gathered from the top, around which it grows like a crown, by a long light pole, made from the rib of the same cactus, with a little hook at its end made by tying another short piece, slant-wise, across. They called the constellation of Ursa Major, Quee-ay-put, or The Cactus-Puller, from a fancied resemblance to this familiar implement.

The giant cactus, or har-san, was eaten ripe, or dried in the sun, or boiled to a jam and sealed away in earthern jars. They also fermented it by mixing with water, and made their famous tis-win or whiskey from it. They had "big drunks" at this time, in which all the tribe joined in a general spree.

A sort of large worm (larva) was also gathered in large quant.i.ties, boiled and eaten with salt.

The confusion in the Pima thought on religious matters is well revealed in this tale, in which Ee-ee-toy, who may be regarded as a G.o.d, frankly admits that in some matters an old woman may be wiser and more powerful than he. Nothing appears to have been very clearly defined in their faith except that a mahkai might be or do almost anything.

HOW NOOEE KILLED EE-EE-TOY

Ee-ee-toy lived in the Salt River Mountain, which is called by the Awawtam Moehahdheck, or the Brown Mountain, and whenever the girls had ceremonial dances because of their arrival at womanhood he would come and sing the appropriate songs. And it often happened that he would tempt these young girls away to his mountain, to be his wives, but after keeping them awhile he would grow tired of them and send them back.

And the people disliked Ee-ee-toy because of this. And when they had crops, too, Ee-ee-toy would often shoot his hot arrows thru the fields, and wither up the growing things; and tho the people did not see him do this, they knew he was guilty, and they wanted to kill him, but they did not know how to do it.

And the people talked together about how they could kill Ee-ee-toy. And two young boys, there were, who were always together. And as they lay at the door of their kee they heard the people talking of sending bunches of people here and there to kill Ee-ee-toy, and one said: "He is only one, we could kill him ourselves." And the other one said: "Let us go and kill him, then."

So the two boys went to Moehahdheck, and found Ee-ee-toy lying asleep, and beat him with their clubs, and killed him, and then came back and told the people of what they had done. But none of the people went to see the truth of this and in the morning Ee-ee-toy came again, just as he used to do, and walked around among the people, who said among themselves: "I thought the boys said they had killed him."

And that same night all the people went to Moehahdheck, and found Ee-ee-toy asleep, and fell upon him and killed him. And there was a pile of wood outside, and they laid him on this and set fire to the wood and burned his flesh. And feeling sure that he was now dead, they went home, but in the morning there he was, walking around, alive again.

And so the people a.s.sembled again, and that night, once more, they killed him, and they cut his flesh up into little bits, and put it into a pot, and boiled it, and when it was cooked they threw it all away in different directions. But in the morning he was alive again and the people gave it up for that time.

But after awhile they were planning again how to kill him; and one of them proposed that they all go and tie him with ropes and take him to a high cliff, and push him off, and let him fall. And so they went and did this, but Ee-ee-toy was not hurt at all. He just walked off, when he reached the bottom, and looked up at the people above him.

The next scheme was to drown him. They caught him and led him to a whirlpool, and tied his hands and feet and threw him in. But he came up in a few minutes, without any ropes on, and looked at the people, and then dived, and so kept on coming up and diving down. And the people, seeing they could not drown him, went home once more.

Then Nooee called the people together and said: "It is of no use for you to try to kill Ee-ee-toy, for you cannot kill him. He is too powerful for men to kill. He has power over the winds, and all the animals, and he knows all that is going on in the mountains, and in the sky. And I have power something like him."

So Nooee told the people to come in, that evening, to his house. He said: "I will show you part of my power, and I want everyone to see it."

And Nooee lived not far from where Ee-ee-toy did, south of the Moehahdheck mountain, at a place called Nooee Vahahkkee, and that was where he invited the people to come.

And so, when the people a.s.sembled at Nooee Vahahkkee, Nooee made earth in his habitation, and mountains on it, and all things on it, in little as we say, so that the people could see his power; for Juhwerta Mahkai had made him to have power, tho he had not cared to use it. And he made a little world in his house for them to look at, with sun, moon and stars working just as our sun and stars work; and everything exactly like our world.

And when night came, Nooee pushed the darkness back with his hands, and spread it on the walls, so that the people could see his little world and how it worked. And he was there four days and four nights, showing this wonder to the people.

And after this Nooee flew up thru the openings in the roof of his house, and sat there, and saw the sun rise. And as soon as the sun rose Nooee flew towards it, and flew up and up, higher and higher, until he could see Ee-ee-toy's heart. And he wore a nose ring, as all the brave people did, a nose ring of turquoise. But from his high view he saw that everything looked green and so he knew he could not kill Ee-ee-toy that day.

And the next day he did the same thing, only he wore a new nose-ring, made of a sparkling sh.e.l.l. And when he got up high enuf to see Ee-ee-toy's heart he saw that the ground looked dry, and he was very much pleased, for he knew that now he would, someday, kill Ee-ee-toy. And he went home.

And the third morning Nooee again put on his nose ring of glittering sh.e.l.l, and flew up to meet the Sun, and he flew up and up until he came to the sun himself. And Nooee said to the Sun: "You know there is a Person, on earth, called Ee-ee-toy, who is very bad, and I want to kill him, and I want your help, and this is the reason I come to you."

And Nooee said to the Sun: "Now you go back, and let me s.h.i.+ne in your place, and I will give just as much light as you do, but let me have your vi-no-me-gaht, your gun, to shoot with, when I get around to your home." And the Sun said: "Moe-vah Sop-hwah, that is all right. But I always go down over yonder mountain, and when you get to that mountain just stop and look back, and see how the world looks."

And Nooee took the Sun's place, and went down, that evening, over the mountain, stopping, as he was told, to see how wonderful the world looked; and when he came to the Sun's home, the sun gave him the weapon he shot with.

And the next morning Nooee rose in place of the Sun, and after rising a little he shot at the earth, and it became very hot. And before noon he shot again, and it was still hotter. And Ee-ee-toy knew, now that he was going to be killed, but he tried to use all his power to save himself. He ran around, and came to a pond where there had always been ice, and he jumped in to cool himself, but it was all boiling water.

And when it was nearly noon Nooee shot again, and it became terribly hot, and Ee-ee-toy ran for a rock which had always been cold, but just before he got there the heat made the rock burst.

And he ran to a tree, whose cool shade he often enjoyed, but as he came near it the tree began to burst into flame, and he had to turn back. And now it was noon, and Nooee shot again.

And Ee-ee-toy ran to a great post, all striped around with black and white, which had been made by his power, and which had a hollow that was always cool inside, and was about to put his arms around it when he fell down and died.

So Ee-ee-toy was dead, and Nooee went down to his setting, and returned the weapon to the Sun, and then went home to his vahahkkee.

THE SONG OF NOOEE WHEN HE WENT TO THE SUN

The Rising (Sun) I am going to meet.

(Repeated many times)

WHEN NOOEE KILLED EE-EE-TOY [4]

(A Song)

The gun, he gave it to me as a cane; With it I killed the Brother's heart.

NOTES ON HOW NOOEE KILLED EE-EE-TOY

The hot arrows of Ee-ee-toy, that withered the crops, remind us of Apollo.

The idea often comes up in these stories that a person possessing the powers of a mahkai was hard to kill, having as many lives as a cat. It would also appear that there was a confusion as to what const.i.tuted killing, anyway. They perhaps regarded mere unconsciousness as death. Both Ee-ee-toy and Nooee are "killed," but after an interval are alive again. And Whittemore relates: "An Apache, seeing Louis, the Pima interpreter, came to him in high glee. Taking his hand, he said: 'You are the Pima who killed me years ago.' Louis then recognized him as the man to whom he had dealt a heavy blow with a warclub, and then left him for dead on the battle-field."