Story 22—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Hat Mountain Pause

The whole Wooshkam [tribe] moved on and came down to a certain mountain which is called Wonnum (Hat).^[d] (Its location is unknown.) They were getting close to where we [telling and recording this story] are today (Snaketown). When they stopped at Wonnum, they placed some of their youngest medicine people, who had never performed because they were very young. These young ones sang a song:

I am acting
Like a medicine man
I am surrounding many people
With beads.

These two young medicine people looked over here and saw that among the [Hohokam] people there

[d] Wonam , 'hat', perhaps from Spanish "sombrero."

was a leader who knew that some trouble was coming. He was getting ready. He would go each morning to look at the rising sun, and he had two of the rocks that the Hohokam medicine people used at that time. These rocks shone bright and were terrifying.

So one morning he went out and stood on top of his house and sang:

It was a white morning
In this I came out
With a shining heart.

The green evening (hod nuk)^[e
] It is shaped like a windbreak  (oon ma, old word ; uk
     sa, new word)^[f
]And in that I came out
With the green mind.^[4]

This man looked dangerous, like fire, to the Wooshkam medicine men.

And all this time Earth Doctor, who was left on the other side of the world, knew that the Wooshkam were scared of the Hohokam and that they were staying a long time at this place [Hat Mountain] where they had stopped. He got his cane and shot it through the earth. It came out where the Wooshkam were camping, and it had eyes on it, like a person.

Remember, now, that the Wooshkam had sent an owl to find out what was ahead [story 18]. All this time the owl had been among the Hohokam making noises at night and making signs that they would be destroyed soon. Also remember that the

[e] Hudnig^[*] , 'descent', 'sundown', 'evening', 'west'.

[f] O:nma, u:ksa^[*] , two words for roofless, windbreak enclosures.

Wooshkam sent a gopher among the Hohokam to destroy all the fighting weapons that they had [story 16]. All this time the gopher was working among the Hohokam, breaking their bowstrings and chewing the feathers on their arrows. When a man sat down to make a bowstring, the next morning it would be all chewed and broken.

When the Wooshkam people saw this cane, they sang:

Come all you people
And see
A green cane has come.

The cane went back in the ground and came out over here, under the Hohokam, looking around. The Wooshkam then sang another song:

My crooked stick went
And came out toward the setting sun
And it came out
Over there.
And my enemies saw it
And they talked about it
And they laughed at it.

Then:

It was my thin stick
Which went toward the setting sun
And came out over there
It was my enemy, a woman
Who came and saw it and
Laughed at it.

When it came out over here, it destroyed all the power of the medicine men who had the two terrifying shining rocks.

That's why some of those rocks are found here [Snaketown archaeological site]. They don't look dangerous anymore because the power has been taken away frm them, so they don't look like they did.

The next thing they [invaders; Siuuhu's people] sent here was a rattlesnake. It went on top of the house

where the medicine man went every morning. The next morning, when he went to look for the Wooshkam, the rattlesnake bit and killed him.

Just before the Wooshkam started to come this way, they told their children how they should live if they [parents] were killed or destroyed, and they set a rule for their children and wives. And they sang:

Sivain i vah ki (Siivan, man ; vahki, house; so
"Siivan's house")^[g]  is
Making me mad
It is far away
We have many days to go yet.
Siivan i vahki, you are
Making me mad
Away ahead of us
We can see dimly
Many mountains.

They hadn't moved yet. They asked two more medicine men to work for them. One of them made a raven which he sent to the Siivan, and he sang:

You have made a raven out of me
I am now hanging above vahki
And I am making my enemies' heart
To go to sleep.

[g] Sivañ , 'chief'. This is the same word that was spelled "Sivain" earlier in the manuscript. There it appeared to be the personal name of a man living in Vahki in the Mesquite, near Glendale, Ariz.; wa 'aki , 'great-house'. In this passage, it seems that the Pima village Casa Blanca is identified as a chief's great-house.

The raven came down where Siivan was. The siivan had some sons who ran out of the house and tried to shoot the raven down, but this raven was not a real bird.

The other (Wooshkam) medicine man worked and pulled some komitch kaduk (hair from the temple, an old word) and made a snake out of it. He sang:

You have made a snake out of me
I am tying
The hands of my enemies.

This snake came down where Siivan was and tied his hands together.

The evening before they were to start, the Wooshkam held a meeting to plan how they would fight the people down here. Some said that they must kill all the people that they had already captured, or these people might turn around and help the Hohokam. They finally decided they must not kill them but watch them very carefully Then they [invaders] asked another medicine man to work for them. He had the power of the bluebird and sang:

Bluebird medicine man
You called me
To the land that lies before me
I am breathing.
I am tying the hands
Of my enemies.