—Told by one of the Strange Owl family in Birney, Montana, 1972, and recorded by Richard Erdoes.
ROLLING HEAD
[WINTU]
Among the Wintu a menstruating woman was considered unclean, but at the same time she was recognized as having extraordinary magical powers which she could use to harm others, purposely or not. Proper rituals were needed to prevent disaster and to restore her.
Long ago there was a village filled with people. They lived in the flat-lands on both the west and the east sides of the river. The younger of the chief’s two daughters had just reached puberty, and her parents were planning to call a puberty dance.
In the evening the father spoke to the other women. “Early in the morning go strip bark for a maple-bark apron,” he said. “But don’t take my younger daughter with you. Go secretly.”
So the women got up very early and stole away. Quite far north they went, and some even climbed uphill and crossed the ridge to the north.
Later the girl who had reached puberty woke up and, though it was forbidden, followed the others. When she reached them, they were stripping bark. She went up to them and began cutting maple bark too.
All at once she struck her little finger with a splinter. Her older sister came up to her and wiped the blood with dead leaves. The other women said, “When will it leave off? The blood cannot stop flowing.” Afraid of what had happened, they ran back to the village. They reached the house and told the father, “She got stuck with a splinter while stripping bark.” And the old man said, “She doesn’t listen to me.”
The girl and her older sister were left behind alone. The younger one, who stood downhill to the north, now sucked blood and spat it out. Then more blood came, and though she sucked and sucked, she could not stop the flow. Meanwhile the sun began to set. She kept on sucking until early evening, unable to help herself. Suddenly she happened to swallow blood and smelled the fat. It tasted sweet. So she ate her little finger, and then ate her whole hand. Then devoured both her hands. Then she ate her leg, ate both her legs. Then she ate up her whole body. Then her head alone was left. It went rolling over the ground, with her sister still beside her.
In the village the chief said, “From the north she’ll come. Put on your clothes, people. Get your weapons. We must go.” And the people dressed themselves and got their weapons. And from the north they saw her come, rolling toward her father’s house. She arrived in the early evening and lay there. After she had rested a while, she bounced up to the west across the river to the flat on the west, where she threw the people into her mouth. Without stopping, she turned the village upside down as she devoured them all. Then she fell to the east across the river and lay there, and the next morning she threw the people who lived on the eastern flat into her mouth and ate them, devoured them all. Only her eldest sister she left for a while. And she went about the world, and when she saw people, she threw them into her mouth and ate them. Each evening she came home, each morning she went about the world looking for people. Always she went searching.
One day she climbed up to the northern edge of the sky and looked all over the world, but she saw no one. So in the evening she came home, and the next morning she got up and threw her sister into her mouth. Then she went on her way until she reached the edge of a big creek which she did not know how to cross. A man was sitting on the other side. She called to him, and he threw a bridge over. She was crossing, and when she had gone halfway he jerked it, and it went down at Talat. And she fell into the river, and a riffle pike jumped and swallowed her. And it is finished. That is all.
—Based on a myth reported by Cora DuBois and Dorothy Demetracopoulou in 1931.
SON OF LIGHT
KILLS THE MONSTER
[HOPI]
Man-Eagle, a frightful monster, had laid waste to the whole country. With his sharp talons he seized women and girls, wives and maidens. He flew off with them to his home above the clouds, where he abused them for four nights before eating them up.
Among those abducted by Man-Eagle was the young wife of Son of Light. Within hours this hero was on their trail, and along the way he met the Piñon Maidens, dressed in grass and piñon bark. With them were Spider Woman and Mole.
“Where are you going?” these spirit people asked Son of Light. “Man-Eagle has stolen my wife,” he answered. “I am going to rescue her, but I have to get there in a hurry before he kills her.”
“This is bad,” said Spider Woman, “but never fear, I’ll help you.” And to the Piñon Maidens she said: “You girls gather piñon resin and shape it into a copy of Man-Eagle’s flint-arrowhead shirt that no weapon can penetrate. Be quick.”
The Piñon Maidens gathered the resin and made a shirt exactly like Man-Eagle’s, and when they had finished it, Spider Woman sprinkled sacred corn pollen over it and chanted an invocation. Then she turned herself into a tiny spider no bigger than a grain of salt and crawled up on Son of Light’s right ear. “Here I am,” she said, “Where I can tell you what to do if you get into trouble. The next step is up to Mole.”
Mole burrowed a passage through the mountain up to the top so that Son of Light could get to the summit without being seen. When they came out onto the mountaintop, they saw that they were still far below Man-Eagle’s home in the clouds. Spider Woman said, “I’ll call some good birds to help us.”
The first to answer her call was the spotted eagle. Son of Light, Mole, and Spider Woman climbed onto his back, and he spread his wings and began circling upwards. Higher and higher he flew, until at last he was exhausted. “I can go no farther,” he said.
Spider Woman then called on the hawk, who came at once, flying wing tip to wing tip with the spotted eagle. Mole and Son of Light, with Spider Woman still perched on his right ear, walked over the wings onto the hawk’s back. The hawk carried them higher, but after a while his strength gave out too. “This is as high as I can go,” he said.
Spider Woman called for the gray hawk to take over. Again Son of Light, Mole, and Spider Woman changed birds, and the gray hawk flew up higher than the others. Still it was not high enough, and the three friends transferred to the back of the red hawk, best of all fliers.
The red hawk flew through a hole in the clouds right to the white house that was the home of Man-Eagle. Thanking the red hawk for carrying them so far, Son of Light, Spider Woman, and Mole got down and walked boldly up to the house.
“Look at the ladder to the entrance,” said Spider Woman to Son of Light. “Its rungs are sharp obsidian knives. They’ll cut your fingers off if you try to get up there.”
“What shall we do?” asked Son of Light.
“Go pick some sumac berries,” Spider Woman said. Son of Light gathered the berries and returned to her. “Now feed them to Horned Toad over there,” she said.
Son of Light popped the berries into the wide mouth of Horned Toad, who chewed them into a gooey paste which he spit into the palm of Son of Light’s hand.
“Now smear what Horned Toad has given you on the sharp edges of the rungs,” Spider Woman told him. As Son of Light smeared the edges, they immediately became blunt so that he could climb up without having his fingers cut off. Spider Woman was still behind his right ear, while little Mole had buried himself in Son of Light’s hair. With his two hidden companions, Son of Light stepped inside Man-Eagle’s home.
The first thing he saw was Man-Eagle’s magic flint-arrowhead shirt hanging from a viga. Quick as a flash Son of Light hung the counterfeit shirt on that rafter and put the real shirt on. They were so alike that not even Son of Light could tell them apart. He went into the second room and found his wife, her hands tied behind her back.
“I’ve come to free you,” he told her.
“Flee!” she cried. “Run quickly! No one who enters here ever leaves alive.”
“Don’t be afraid,” he answered, untying her hands. “We’ll come out of here alive and happy.”
Man-Eagle was asleep in the next room, but Spider Woman was carrying a “hear
nothing” charm which prevented their noise from reaching his ears. Unaware that strangers were in his house, he awoke and put on his flint-arrow shirt, then went into the next room. “Now I will enjoy the beautiful girl,” he thought, but instead found himself face to face with Son of Light. “Who are you?” asked Man-Eagle. “How dare you come here!”
“You have stolen my wife, and I am taking her back now.”
“Maybe you will, and maybe you won’t,” said Man-Eagle. “You’re speaking big words, but first you’ll have a contest with me.”
“What kind of contest?” inquired Son of Light.
“A smoking contest,” said Man-Eagle. The monster brought out a huge pipe, as long as a good-sized man, and filled it with tobacco. “We will both smoke this,” he told Son of Light, “and whoever weakens and faints is the loser. If you lose, I have the right to kill you and possess your wife. If you win, you can take her back.”
Now, Man-Eagle’s magic tobacco was poisonous enough to stun anyone who was not used to it, though it no longer had an effect on him. But while Man-Eagle explained the rules of the contest, Mole quickly burrowed a hole in the floor underneath the spot on which Son of Light was sitting. Mole made a passage all the way down through the earth to the outside, and as the man and the monster puffed away, the smoke passed right through Son of Light and through the hole into the outside air. The two smoked and smoked, until Man-Eagle got dizzy from his own magic tobacco and had to stop. Son of Light, on the other hand, was unaffected.
Filled to the bursting point with smoke, Man-Eagle stepped outside the house to clear his head. Son of Light followed, and they both saw dense clouds of smoke covering the whole sky. “I wonder how he did it,” thought Man-Eagle. Aloud he said: “Well, you win this contest, but this is only the first. Now comes the second.”
Man-Eagle brought forth two huge elk antlers. “Take this one,” he told Son of Light, “and I’ll take the other. Each of us will try and break his own in two. If you fail to break yours with your hands, I shall kill you and possess your wife.”
The antler that Man-Eagle had given his rival was actually a magical piece of stone—the hardest stone in the world. The antler that Man-Eagle had kept for himself was a false antler made of brittle wood.
Quick as a flash just before the contest began, Spider Woman exchanged the two elk antlers. She did it with such lightning speed that not even the eye of Man-Eagle could follow her. The rivals took up their antlers, and Son of Light broke his easily, but Man-Eagle could not break his however hard he tried. “I wonder how he did that,” thought the monster. He was not so sure of himself now.
“Well, this was just child’s play, something to warm us up,” said Man-Eagle. “Now for our third contest.”
“What is it this time?” asked Son of Light.
“Step outside with me,” said Man-Eagle. They went out, and the monster pointed to two huge pine trees near his house. “You choose one of these trees and I will choose the other, and he who fails to pull his tree up by the roots loses the contest. If I win, I’ll kill you and possess your wife.”
“So be it,” answered Son of Light.
Man-Eagle chose the tree which he thought had the shallower roots. “Remember,” he told Son of Light, “if you fail to pull up your tree—trunk, branches, roots, and all—you lose, no matter what I do.”
During these preparations, Mole had burrowed underneath Son of Light’s tree and gnawed through all the roots. Son of Light pulled it up easily, while Man-Eagle could not uproot his. “It pleased me to let you win once more,” he told Son of Light, “but you must win the fourth and last contest.” To himself he said: “I wonder how he did it. This young man is really strong.”
“What do you propose?” asked Son of Light.
“Watch me,” answered Man-Eagle. He began carrying into his biggest room heaps of food—meat of all kinds, piki bread and cornbread of all kinds, mush and gruel of all kinds, squash and bean dishes of all kinds—baskets, pots, cups, and dippers full of food. Making two mountains of it all, he told Son of Light: “This is your heap and that over there is mine. You must eat your heap all at once, without leaving a single scrap. If you can’t do it, I’ll kill you and possess your wife.” “I’m sure to win this one,” Man-eagle said to himself. “The young man is puny compared with me; he can’t absorb all this food.”
Again Mole had dug a tunnel underneath Son of Light. As quickly as Son of Light emptied a dish, the food passed through him and through the tunnel to some place outside the house. In no time Son of Light had eaten the whole mountain of meat, corn, squash, beans, piki, and mush. Man-Eagle tried to match him dish for dish, but could not.
“Well,” said Son of Light, “Now I’ll take my wife and go home.”
“Not quite yet,” said Man-Eagle. “In the end it comes down to this: Which of us is invulnerable? Which of us can withstand the flames of a mighty fire? I can. Can you? We shall see.”
Man-Eagle made two huge piles of dry wood. “You sit on this one, and I’ll sit on that,” he said. “Your wife can set fire to them once we’re in position. If you can withstand the fire, then I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Now,” thought Man-Eagle, “I can get rid of this upstart. My magic flint-arrowhead shirt is fireproof, but the young fellow will burn up.”
Son of Light’s wife set fire to the two woodpiles. Of course, son of Light was wearing the real magic flint-arrowhead shirt. Coated with ice, clear and cold like crystal, it protected him from the flames. In the process part of the ice melted and extinguished the fire. But the shirt of Man-Eagle made out of resin, ignited in a flash which so thoroughly consumed Man-Eagle that only his ashes remained.
Then Spider Woman whispered into Son of Light’s ear: “Take this wonderful medicine of mine in your mouth and spurt it all over Man-Eagle’s ashes.”
Son of Light did what Spider Woman said, and as he spat the medicine over the ashes, Man-Eagle arose, transformed into a good-looking man.
Spider Woman addressed this eagle turned into a man: “Have you learned your lesson? Will you stop killing and eating people? Will you stop stealing and abusing wives and maidens? Will you promise?”
Eagle-turned-into-Man said: “I promise. I will never do evil again, never.”
Son of Light joyfully claimed his wife, while Spider Woman brought all the Hopi people whom Man-Eagle had killed back to life again. Then they all got on the backs of the eagle, hawk, gray hawk, and red hawk, and these friendly birds carried them safely back to their homes.
—Retold from various nineteenth-century versions.
[MIWOK]
Bears sister-in-law, Deer, had two beautiful fawn daughters. Bear was a horrible, wicked woman, and she wanted the fawns for herself. So this is what she did.
One day she invited Deer to accompany her when she went to pick clover. The two fawns remained at home. While resting during the day after having gathered much clover, Bear offered to pick lice from Deer’s head. While doing so she watched her chance, took Deer unaware, and bit her neck so hard that she killed her. Then she devoured her, all except the liver. This she placed in the bottom of a basket filled with clover, and took it home. She gave the basket of clover to the fawns to eat.
When they asked where their mother was, she replied, “She will come soon. You know she’s always slow and takes her time in coming home.”
So the fawns ate the clover, but when they reached the bottom of the basket, they discovered the liver. Then they knew their aunt had killed their mother.
“We had better watch out, or she will kill us too,” they said to one another.
They decided to run away and go to their grandfather. So the next day when Bear was out, they got together all the baskets and awls which belonged to Deer and departed. They left one basket, however, in the house.
When Bear returned and found the Fawns missing, she hunted for their tracks and set out after them. After she had trailed them a short distance, the basket they had left at home whistled
. Bear ran back to the house, thinking the fawns had returned. But she could not find them and so set out again, following their tracks.
The fawns meanwhile had proceeded on their journey, throwing awls and baskets in different directions. These awls and baskets whistled. Each time she heard them, Bear thought that the fawns were whistling, and she left the trail in search of them. And each time that Bear was fooled in this manner, she became angrier and angrier.
She shouted in her anger: “Those girls are making a fool of me. When I capture them, I’ll eat them.”
The awls only whistled in response, and Bear ran toward the sound. No one was there.
Finally, the fawns, far ahead of Bear, came to the river. On the opposite side they saw Daddy Longlegs. They asked him to stretch his leg across the river so that they could cross safely, because Bear had killed their mother and they were fleeing from her. He did, and when Bear at last came to the river, Daddy Longlegs stretched his leg over again.
But just as the wicked aunt of the two fawns, walking on his leg, reached the middle of the river, Daddy Longlegs gave his leg a sudden twitch and threw her into the water.
However, Bear did not drown. She managed to swim to shore, where she again started in pursuit of the fawns. But the fawns were far ahead of their aunt and soon reached their grandfather’s house. Their grandfather was Lizard. They told him of the terrible fate which had overtaken their mother.
“Where is Bear?” he asked them.
“She is following us and will soon be here,” they replied.
Upon hearing this, Lizard threw two large white stones into the fire and heated them. When Bear arrived outside Lizard’s house, she could not find an entrance. She asked Lizard how she should come in, and he told her that the only entrance was through the smoke hole. She must climb on the roof and enter that way, he said, and when she did, she must close her eyes tightly and open her mouth wide.
AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS Page 26