Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Part 23

There was a powerful mahkai who had a daughter, who, tho old enuf, was unmarried, and who grew tired of her single life and asked her father to bury her, saying, we will see then if the men will care for me.

And from her grave grew the plant tobacco, and her father took it and smoked it and when the people who were gathered together smelled it they wondered what it was, and sent Toehahvs to find out.

But, altho the tobacco still grew, the woman came to life again and came out of her grave back to her home.

And one day she played gainskoot with Corn, and Corn beat her, and won all she had. But she gave some little things she did not care for to Corn, and the rest of her debt she did not pay, and they quarreled.

She told Corn to go away, saying; "n.o.body cares for you, now, but they care a great deal for me, and the doctors use me to make rain, and when they have moistened the ground is the only time you can come out."

And the Corn said: "You don't know how much the people like me; the old as well as the young eat me, and I don't think there is a person that does not like me." And Corn told Tobacco to go away herself.

There were people there who heard them quarreling, and tho Tobacco staid on, whenever she would be in a house and hear people laughing she would think they were laughing at her. And she became very sad, and one day sank down in her house and went westward and came to a house there.

And the person who lived there told her where to sleep, saying, "Many people stop here, and that is where they sleep."

But she said: "I am travelling, and no one knows where I am, and if any one follows me, and comes here, you tell them that you saw me, that I left very early in the morning and you do not know which way I went." And she told him that she did not know herself which way she would go, and at night, when she went to bed, she brought a strong wind, and when she wanted to leave she sank down and went westward, and the wind blew away all her tracks.

And she came to the Mohaves and lived there in a high mountain, Cheof Toe-ahk, or tall mountain, which has a cliff very hard to climb, but Tobacco stood up there.

And after Tobacco had gone, Corn remained, but when corn-planting time came none was planted, because there was no rain. And so it went on--all summer, and people began to say: "It is so, when Tobacco was here, we had plenty of rain, and now we have not any, and she must have had wonderful power."

And the people scolded Corn for sending Tobacco away, and told him to go away himself, and then they sent for Tobacco to come back, that they might have rain again.

And Corn left, going toward the east, singing all the way, taking Pumpkin with him, who was singing too, saying they were going where there was plenty of moisture.

And the next year there was no water, and a powerful doctor, Gee-hee-sop, took the Doctor's Stone of Light, and the Doctor's Square Stone, and some soft feathers, and eagle's-tail feathers, and went to where Tobacco lived, asking her to come back, saying "We are all suffering for water, and we know you have power to make it rain, And every seed buried in the ground is begging for water, and likely to be burned up, and every tree is suffering, and I want you to come."

Then Tobacco said: "What has become of Corn? He is still with you, and corn is what you ought to eat, and everybody likes it, but n.o.body cares for me, except perhaps some old man who likes to smoke me, and I do not want to go back, and I am not going!"

But Geeheesop said: "Corn is not there now, he has gone away, and we do not know where he is." And again he asked Tobacco to come back but she refused, but gave him four b.a.l.l.s of tobacco seed and said to him: "Take these home with you, and take the dirt of the tobacco-worm, and roll it up, and put it in a cane-tube and smoke it all around, and you will have rain, and then plant the seed, and in four days it will come up; and when you get the leaves, smoke them, and call on the winds, and you will have clouds and plenty of rain."

So Geeheesop went home with the seed b.a.l.l.s, and tobacco-worm dirt, and did as Tobacco had told him; and the smoking of the dirt brought rain, and the seeds were planted in a secret place, and in four days came up, and grew for a while, but finally were about to die for want of rain.

Then Geeheesop got some of the leaves and smoked them, and the wind blew, and rain came, and the plants revived and grew till they were ripe.

When the tobacco was ripe Geeheesop gathered a lot of the leaves and filled with them one of the gourd-like nests which the woodp.e.c.k.e.r, koh-daht, makes in the har-san, or giant-cactus, and then took a few of these and put them in a cane-tube pipe, or watch-kee, and went to where the people gathered in the evening.

And the doctor who was the father of Tobacco said: "What is this I smell? There is something new here!"

And one said, "Perhaps it is some greens that I ate today that you smell," and he breathed toward him.

But the mahkai said, "That is not it."

And others breathed toward him, but he could not smell it.

Then Geeheesop rolled a coal toward himself, and lit up his pipe, and the doctor said: "This is what I smelled!"

And Geeheesop, after smoking a few whiffs, pa.s.sed the pipe around to the others, and all smoked it, and when it came back to him he stuck it in the ground.

And the next night he came with a new pipe to the place of meeting, but the father of Tobacco said: "Last night I had a smoke, but I did not feel good after it."

And all the others said: "Why we smoked and enjoyed it."

But the man who had eaten the greens kah-tee-k.u.m, the day before, said: "He does not mean that he did not enjoy the smoke, but something else troubled him after it, and I think it was that when we pa.s.sed the pipe around we did not say 'My relatives,' 'brother,' or 'cousin,'

or whatever it was, but pa.s.sed it quietly without using any names."

And Tobacco's father said "Yes, that is what I mean."

(And from that time on all the Pimas smoked that way when they came together, using a cane-tube pipe, or making a long cigarette of corn-husk and tobacco, and pa.s.sing it around among relatives.)

So Geeheesop lit his pipe and pa.s.sed it around in the way to satisfy the doctor.

And the people saved the seeds of that tobacco, and to day it is all over the land.

And the Corn and the Pumpkin had gone east, and for many years they lived there, and the people they had left had no corn, and no pumpkins; but after a while they returned of themselves, and came first to the mountain Tahtk.u.m, and lived there a while, and then crossed the river and lived near Blackwater, at the place called Toeahk-Comalk, or White Thin Mountain, and from there went and lived awhile at Gahkotekih or, as it is now called, Superst.i.tion Mountain.

While they lived at Gahkotekih there was a woman living near there at a place called kawt-kee oy-ee-duck who, with her younger brother, went to Gahkotekih to gather and roast the white cactus, and while they were doing this Corn saw them from the mountain and came down.

And the boy saw him and said: "I think that is my uncle coming,"

but his sister said, "It cannot be, for he is far away. If he were here the people would not be starving as now."

But the boy was right, it was his uncle, and Corn came to them and staid with them while the cactus was baking. And after awhile, as he sat aside, he would shoot an arrow up in the air, and it would fall whirling where the cooking was, and he would go and pick it up.

Finally he said to the woman: "Would you not better uncover the corn and see if it is cooked yet?" And she said: "It is not corn, it is cactus."

Again, after a while, he said: "Would you not better uncover the pumpkin and see if it is done?" And she replied: "It is not pumpkin, we are baking, it is cactus." But finally he said "Well, uncover it anyway," and she uncovered it, and there were corn and pumpkin there, together, all nicely mixed and cooked, and she sat staring at it, and he told her to uncover it more, and she did so and ate some of it.

And then he asked about the Tobacco woman, if she were married yet, and she said, "No, she is not married, but she is back with us again, now."

Then he asked her to send the little boy ahead and tell the people that Corn was coming to live with them again. But first the little boy was to go to the doctor who was the father of Tobacco, and see if he and his daughter wanted Corn to return. If they did he would come, and if they did not he would stay away. And he wanted the boy to come right back and tell what answer he got.

So the little boy went, and took some corn with him to the doctor, and said: "Corn sent me, and he wants your daughter, and he wants to know if you want him. If you do he will return, but if you do not he will turn back again. And he wants me to bring him word what you say."

And the mahkai said "I have nothing to say against him. I guess he knows the people want corn. Go and tell him to come."

And Corn said: "Go back to the doctor and tell him to make a little kee, as quick as he can, and to get the people to help him, and to cover it with mats instead of bushes, and to let Tobacco go there and stay there till I come.

And tell all the people to sweep their houses, and around their houses, and if anything in their houses is broken, such as pots, vahs-hroms, to turn them right side up. For I am coming back openly; there will be no secret about it."

So the little boy went back and told the doctor all that Corn had told him to say, and the doctor and the people built the kee, and Tobacco went there, and the people swept their houses and around them as they were told.

And before sunset the woman came home with the corn and pumpkins she had cooked at the mountain, but Corn staid out till it was evening.

And when evening came there was a black cloud where Corn stood, and soon it began to rain corn, and every little while a big pumpkin would come down, b.u.mp. And it rained corn and pumpkins all night, while Corn and his bride were in their kee, and in the morning the people went out and gathered up the corn from the swept place around their houses.

And so Corn and Pumpkin came back again.

The people gathered up all the corn around their houses, and all their vessels, even their broken ones, which they had turned up, were full, and their houses were soon packed full of corn and pumpkins.