FURTHER READING
C. Darryl Forde's Ethnography of the Yuma Indians, besides being a primary source of Quechan (Yuma) cultural information, is full of songs and ethnographic texts. Joe Homer, the narrator of this myth, was the principal consultant for Edward Gi ord's “Yuma Dreams and Omens,” which contains extensive dream narratives and related commentary. Leanne Hinton and Lucille Watahomigie's bilingual anthology, Spirit Mountain, contains a selection of Quechan oral literature, including songs and reminiscences. Frances Densmore's Yuman and Yacqui Music is a classic study of California and Southwestern song traditions. Abraham Halpern published a much shorter version of part of the Quechan creation cycle, “Kukumat Became Sick—a Yuma Text,” in Margaret Langdon's Yuman Texts.
An Account of Origins
[The Age of Kwikumat]
1. There was water everywhere. There was no land. Kwikumat and another man who at that time had no name kept moving at the bottom
2. All was dark. There were neither sun, nor moon, nor stars. Kwikumat was not pleased. He took four steps north, and four back. He then stepped in like manner west, south, and east. This made the water subside. He stirred the water with his forefinger as he sang four times—
| I am stirring it around, I am stirring it around. | |
| It will be dry land, it will be dry land. |
The place about which he stirred became an island.
3. “Aqa,” said Blind-Old-Man, “it is too small. There will not be room enough for the people.”—“Be patient, you old fool!” said Kwikumat. Blind-Old-Man seated himself on the ground and took up some mud. He shaped out of it clay dolls (hantapáp) such as boys now make. He made them after his own fashion, asking Kwikumat for no instruction. He stood them in a row. Kwikumat stood behind Blind-Old-Man. “What are you trying to make?” asked he. “People,” said Blind-Old-Man. “You must first watch how I make them,” said Kwikumat. Blind-Old-Man said nothing. He was angry.
4. Kwikumat said, “I will make the moon first.” He faced the east. He placed spittle on the forefinger of his right hand and rubbed it like paint on the eastern sky until he made a round, shiny place. Said Blind-OldMan, “Something is coming.”—“I call it the moon (haly'á),” said Kwikumat. He made just one star at the same time. Kwikumat said, “This moon shall not stand still. It shall move toward the west.” Blind-Old-Man said, “But it will go into the water, and how will it get out again?”—“I shall turn the sky, so that the moon will move along the northern horizon and thus reach the east again.”
5. “I do not believe that,” said Blind-Old-Man, as he continued working on his mud people. Kwikumat sat down also and took up some mud.
6. Blind-Old-Man showed Kwikumat some of the people he had made. They had feet but not toes, hands but no fingers. “They are not right,” said Kwikumat, “the fingers are webbed. How can your man use his hands? Like you, I made hands, but I also made fingers and fingernails; like you, I made feet, but I also made toes and toenails.” BlindOld-Man felt grieved at this. “But my man is better, because, if he wishes to pick up anything, he can pick up plenty of it.”—“No,” said Kwikumat, “your man is not right. I made ten fingers. If my man injures some of them, he has still some left, and can use his hands; but when your man hurts his hand, it will become sore all over.”
Saying this, he sprang toward Blind-Old-Man and kicked the figures which he had made into the water. Blind-Old-Man, raging with anger, sank into the water after them, making a great whirlpool which emitted all kinds of sicknesses. Kwikumat promptly placed his foot upon the whirlpool. But some foul wind still escaped. If none had escaped, there would be no sickness in the world. Blind-Old-Man remained beneath the water, emitting sickness. Kwikumat stood long on the shore, watching and listening.
7. When Kwikumat returned to the people he had formed, he picked up the Yuma man. Lifting him by the armpits, he swung him far north and back, west and back, south and back, east and back. Previously this man had been as long as a human hand. Now he was as long as we are. This man had all his senses, but he could not talk. Kwikumat commanded him to keep his eyes closed. Then Kwikumat animated the other people in the same way. He swung the Cocopa man south first, then east, west, but did not swing him north, for he was to dwell in the south. He swung the Maricopa man east, north, south, but did not swing him west, for he was to dwell in the east.
8. Kwikumat next gave the people speech. He took the Yuma man aside and thrice commanded him to speak. He understood, but could not speak. At the fourth command he spoke a few words. Then Kwikumat
9.The Yuma man looked into the face of the Diegueño, and the two became friends. The Cocopa man stood close to the Maricopa, and the two became friends.
10. The Yuma woman meditated, “Why did Kwikumat make women di erent from men? How shall children be born?” A man overheard her and said, “I will ask Kwikumat.” But Kwikumat said to the woman, “I know already the thoughts which you are hiding in your heart. Why be bashful? Women alone cannot conceive children. You must marry that Yuma man.” Hearing this, the woman felt happy. But she meditated again, “I want a good-looking husband. I do not want that Yuma man. The Cocopa man is handsomer.” She wished to marry the Cocopa man. She looked very sweetly at him. Kwikumat said, “Do not marry the Cocopa man, for you and he are destined to dwell in di erent places.”
The woman did not believe Kwikumat. She went aside and sulked. Blind-Old-Man arose out of the water and found her here. He said, “Do not believe what Kwikumat tells you. He can do nothing for you. But if you believe in me, you will have many possessions and eat six meals each day.” Kwikumat had become aware of Blind-Old-Man's presence, although he did not see him. As he sprang toward the woman, Blind-OldMan disappeared in the ground. Kwikumat said to the woman, “You did not believe what I told you. Therefore I shall destroy you and all the other people.”
Kwikumat then faced the north and talked rapidly four times. Then it rained for four days. Water covered the earth. The people were still swimming about when the rain ceased. Kwikumat picked them up, and said, “I will make you into wild beasts.” He made from the Cocopa the mockingbird (sukwily lá); from the Diegueño the deer (akwák); from the Maricopa the buzzard (asé). The Yuma man only he retained in human form, and named him Marxókuvék.
[*] Ancestor and especial friend of the Yuma Indians. In Yuma and Mohave, marxó means ‘groundsquirrel’.
“I cannot accomplish much thus alone in the world,” said Marxókuvék. Kwikumat said, “I will teach you| This water is not deep. I could drink all this water. | |
| This water is good. I could drink it. |
He told Marxókuvék to close his eyes. As he did so, the water went down until they stood on the ground.
11. “I made eight people,” said Kwikumat, “and they had no faith in me. This time I shall make twenty-four. And I shall make them right.” He kept wandering about. He went west, then east. At last he said, “Here is the center of this world. Here I shall build my dark-house.”
[*] In Yuma, avakutinyám—a house without openings, used, according to this myth, like any other Yuma house, both as a dwelling and for religious purposes.
He picked four head-lice (ny iíly) o himself and threw them on the mud. They became little black-abdomened ant (xurú), little red piss-ant (xanapúk), big red ant (tcy amadhúl y), and big black ant that lives on the mesa (tcy amadhuly avi). They dug holes. They drained the mud dry. “How will you build your house?” asked Marxókuvék. He did not have a stick or a pole or a cottonwood trunk. He created these by thought. Four posts were born in the darkness, then other material. Then he built his dark-house. “I call this place Cottonwood Post (Axavoly pó),” he said.12. Marxókuvék made a man out of mud. He asked for no instruction. His man looked good to ride on, so he jumped on his back. Kwikumat cried, “Now that you have ridden on him, he will never walk on his hind legs only. I call him the burro (alavúr).”
13. Kwikumat created a woman and a man. The man asked the woman, “Has Kwikumat told you any secrets?”—“None,” said the woman, “but I am going to ask him.” The woman went to the dark-house, and Marxókuvék called Kwikumat thither. “I want you to marry the Yuma man whom I have just made,” said Kwikumat. “But I want to bear a child,” said the woman, “and he does not know what to do.” Kwikumat said, “I will show you, but do not tell anybody.” He told Marxókuvék to prevent the Yuma man from coming about. The woman was frightened.
Kwikumat then named the woman Xavasumkulyí, and the man Xavasumkuwá. In four days the woman became sick. She wanted a doctor. There was none to be had. But the baby within her was already a wise doctor. He told her, “Lie down!” Then he made himself very small, so that he would not cause the woman pain. In a few days he could walk and talk. Kwikumat named him Kumastamxó, and told him that he was his son and assistant in fixing up the world.
14. “Is it to be dark always?” asked Kumastamxo. “The moon and the star shine dimly.” Kumastamxo spit on his fingers and sprinkled the spittle over all the sky. Thus he made the stars. Then he rubbed his fingers until they shone, and, drawing the sky down to himself, he painted a great face upon it, rubbing till it shone brightly. “What are you going to call that?” asked Kwikumat. “This is the sun (inyá). The moon goes west and returns, it dies and in two days it is born again. But I have made the sun at a di erent time, and it shall move di erently.” Kumastamxo allowed Marxókuvék to make daylight and darkness. “Both eternal darkness and eternal daylight would strain our eyes. Therefore one half of the time it shall be night (tinyám), and one half day (inyáme k). Some creatures will sleep by day, some by night.”
15. Kwikumat made another Yuma man and a Diegueño man and instructed them in the dark-house. Then he made a Cocopa man, a Maricopa, an Apache, a Wallapai, a Havasupai, a Chemehuevi, and a Kawia, and a wife for each. Marxokuvek said, “These are enough. If you make more people, this earth will be too small for them.” Kwikumat told him that the earth was growing bigger all the time.
16. Kumastamxo stamped until he shook earth and sky. Everything was frightened. Kwikumat was in the dark-house. He knew that Kumastamxo was trying to make cracks in the earth, so that plants and trees might grow up. The arrow-weed (isáv) was the first plant to grow up through the cracks in the mud.
17. Kumastamxo talked north four times. He said, “It will hail.” But the sky-kernels (amainy etadhítc) which fell were not hail-stones, but grains
18. Kumastamxo then made seeds of the gourd (axmá) and melon (tsemetó). He made them out of spittle. He gave them to the Cocopa. He gave seeds of the prickly pear (aá) to the Maricopa. The people planted the seeds in the wet ground.
19. Nobody knew how to make it rain. “To the Maricopa man alone I give power to produce and to stop rain,” said Kumastamxo. “When the people thirst, let them remember me, for I have power to cover up the face of the sun with a rain-cloud and to send a rain-wind every day. When a man plants upon dry ground, let him remember me. If he calls my name and sees me, it will rain four or five days, and he can plant his seed.”
20. Kwikumat said, “I am tired. I think I shall take a rest. It is about time to have some darkness.” Kumastamxo said, “I will give you all the darkness you want.” He fastened the sky so that the sun could never rise again. But Kwikumat stamped four times. This jarred the sky free, and the sun came up. Kumastamxo was in the dark-house. He said, “I see the daylight coming. Who did that?”—“I did,” said Kwikumat.
21. Marxókuvék tried to make some people. He made the coyote (xatal y wí). Coyote began at once to look for something to eat. He would not stand still. Marxókuvék also made the raven (akák), the mountainlion (numéta), and the cougar (axatakúl y). Kwikumat appointed Coyote as head man (piipá xe l tanák) over these three. Marxókuvék next created a girl and a boy. He was about to name them when Coyote said that he wished to. Coyote named the girl Sakily kily namá,
[*] Joe Homer tells a very long myth about Sakily kily namá, who weds Madhemkwisám.
and the boy Ax'aly esmetny itcyót.22. Kwikumat noticed that none of these people were behaving properly. Mountain-lion tried to catch Sakily kily namá. Kwikumat told him to stop. After that he prowled about, trying to catch Marxókuvék and Kumastamxo, and even Kwikumat himself. “I must get rid of these animals,” said Kwikumat. He assembled all the good people in the darkhouse. He talked rapidly at each of the four corners, invoking a flood.
23. Raven flew up to heaven. He hung by his beak at the very top of the sky. The water rose until it wet his tail. One can see where the water touched it. Then Kumastamxo caused the water to subside, for he did not want to drown this bird, for he was so pretty. Raven was black at first, and was then called akák; but Kumastamxo gave him many-colored feathers, and then named him kukó.
[*] In Wallapai, kukwóka means ‘woodpecker’.
Kumastamxo built him a cage, and in this he floated on the subsiding waters. Kumastamxo built the cage out of nothing, because he loved Kuko so much. When the cage rested on the earth, Kuko wished for freedom. In return for his freedom, he promised to be a faithful servant of Kumastamxo. He accompanied Kumastamxo everywhere he went. He would ascend high in the air and, descending, report to him what he saw. He could hear the tread of an enemy a day's journey distant.[†] In Joe Homer's version of the Kwiyu myth, Kuko guides Kumastamxo to the dwelling of Axalykutatc.
24. When the water had subsided and the earth began to grow dusty again, Kwikumat told the people that they might go outside the darkhouse. Far in the west the storm was disappearing over the ocean.
25. The water sank so low that little was left in the ocean. Blind-OldMan feared it would dry up. He crawled out upon the northern shore. He found Xavasumkulyí and Xavasumkuwá in the dark-house. He promised them many things if they would renounce Kwikumat. He told them, “Kwikumat is going to kill you by and by.” Xavasumkuwá believed him. But Xavasumkulyí showed that she did not believe him, and feared him. Blind-Old-Man tried to seize her. She ran. He caught her. He promised her six meals a day. “Bring them here, then,” she said. “I would like to,” he said, “but I fear Kwikumat.” Kwikumat approached, and Blind-Old-Man sank into the earth. “He had a tail, and claws on his fingers,” said Xavasumkulyí. “He wishes to take you down under the earth,” said Kwikumat. “How could you catch anything to eat down there?”
26. Xavasumkulyí walked over to where the people were standing, and told them how to produce children. They did not believe her. Nec invitus unus ex viris conatus est ea agere quae ipsa dixisset. Penem autem in anum et non in vaginam inseruit. “Mox pariam aliquid,” dixit femina. Exspectavit parere infantem paene eodem temporis momento. Cum id non accederit ea femina et ceterae ira commotae sunt. “Cur in me incensae estis?” inquit Xavasumkul yí. Atque iterum explicavit, “Vaginae penem insere!” At ille vir in vaginam quidem non penem sed testes inseruit.
Turn rediens ea marito dixit illas mulieres numquam concepturas esse. Kwikumat eam incusavit quod dixisset ceteris ea quae ipse eam occultim docuerat. “Nec metuo ne intellegant,” Xavasumkul y í inquit. Kwikumat jussit: “Duc has mulieres gradus quattuor ad septentriones, ad occidentem, ad meridiem, ad orientem et ego, item, viros ducam.” Hac saltatione facta imperavit omnibus ut humi jacerent et copularent. [See p. 488, B.]
27. Because Kwikumat had wearied in his work and had stamped the sun loose again, Kumastamxo felt anger against him and boasted that he was the greater of the two. Kwikumat said, “You are only my little boy, too young to do better.” Kumastamxo went into the dark-house and dreamed Kwikumat and Marxókuvék sick.
28. Kwikumat became crazy. He tried to turn the sky north instead of west. Then he walked from the dark-house out into the desert. He walked east, then west. Since he had turned the sky the wrong way, it got stuck, and would not turn at all. “Can I assist you?” asked Kumastamxo.
29. Kwikumat seated himself on a mountain and thought that he would make some more people. So he picked up a little stick, and, taking mud on his forefinger, he plastered it upon one end. Then he threw the stick away. This made it angry. It became the rattlesnake (av e '). The mud became the rattle. Rattlesnake feared the people, and they feared him. But the people discovered him and surrounded him. He tried to catch a woman. But the Apache Indian seized him and tied him around his waist. Kwikumat gave him power to do this, and he in turn gave power to his friends. Rattlesnake bit several persons. Among those bitten was Marxókuvék. Everybody said, “Kill that snake.” But Marxókuvék was unwilling to kill it, for he knew that this would displease the Apache. “I suppose that I am going to die,” said Marxókuvék.
30. The people asked Kumastamxo, “If we fall sick, who will cure us?”—“Men who have been instructed,” said Kumastamxo. “We do not believe that,” said the people, “for when you get sick, you cannot even cure yourself.” Kumastamxo called all the Yuma men into the dark-house. “You are my favorite people,” said he, “and I will tell you all secrets.” He then made a dust storm arise in the east. It covered up the sun. It became like night. “Now sleep,” said Kumastamxo. Dreams came. One man noticed that Kumastamxo's eyes were sore. He rubbed spittle on them and cured them. Another man saw that Kumastamxo had rheumatism. He found the pain and pressed it out. To another man Kumastamxo appeared to have the diarrhea. Kumastamxo sang, and this man sang with him, till it became cured. When a man talked wrongly, Kumastamxo stopped him, and asked another man to talk. “Most of you fellows talk right,” he said, “and will be great doctors. If a man gets sick, let him call a Yuma doctor.”
31. Marxókuvék had died from the snakebite. Kwikumat said, “Come here, you doctors, and cure this man. It is a difficult case. He is already dead. Well, I will show you how.” He grasped Marxókuvék's hands. He then made himself imagine that Marxókuvék was breathing. “This man is not dead, but sleeps. I shall awaken him.” He then took a stride in each of the four directions, reaching the ocean which surrounds the earth each time. Then a whirlwind came and breathed upon Marxókuvék. He stood up with closed eyes. Kwikumat then called the thunder from the west. All the places about grew bright. Marxókuvék opened his eyes. “You were sleeping too long,” said Kwikumat, “so I awakened you.”—“The snake bit me, and I felt drowsy,” said Marxókuvék. “You died,” said Kwikumat, “but the whirlwind came and cured you.” When the people
32. All the women asked one another, “What is coming within me?” They asked Xavasumkulyí what was to happen, but she would not tell. All the children were born on the same day. The women were disappointed in them. “Why so small?” they said. “We wished to bear big men and women. These have not even hair on their heads, and cannot stand erect on their hind legs.” They did not know that babies have to grow up. Kwikumat told them, “You will bear no more children unless you cohabit again.”
33. Kwikumat created four more men—the Wallapai, Mohave, White, and Mexican. Some of these held themselves aloof from the other people. Kwikumat stamped four times in anger, and fire sprang up all over the earth. Kumastamxo saved the good people by covering them up with snow. The Mexican and the White escaped by flight. “This will not do,” said Kumastamxo. “You make people and then destroy them, only because you yourself did not make them right.” Kwikumat felt ashamed, and quenched the fires by rain.
34. Kwikumat took two whitish sticks. One he threw east, where it became a horse. The other he threw into the water, where it became a boat. He gave boat and horse to the whites.
35. Kumastamxo told the whites that if they would enter the darkhouse, he would instruct them. But they distrusted him. They were rich and stingy. Kumastamxo told the Indians to drive them away. When the latter hesitated to do this, Kumastamxo invoked a hot windstorm, and the whites fled far to the west in a boat.
36. The people heard a great noise in the water. It seems that the figures made by Blind-Old-Man which Kwikumat had kicked into the water had come to life. The people were the duck (xanamó), the beaver (apén), the turtle (kupéta), and the wild goose (yelák). Their fingers and toes were webbed. “I fear they will kill us,” said Kwikumat.
37. Kumastamxo made bow and arrows and gave them to the people. He then threw a handful of mud north, where it became a bird. “Shoot that,” he said. The Cocopa man shot at it. But the arrow broke, for the bird was hard as stone. The man felt sad. He had no more arrows. Kumastamxo pulled up an arrow-weed and showed how to make arrows.
38. Kwikumat made another flood. The waves made the mountains and the high places as they now are. Before then the earth was flat. Kumastamxo lifted one man and one woman of each kind of people upon his shoulders. Nonnulli refugium petierunt in ejus anum ascendentes. [See p. 488, C.] Others stood on the top of Avihaatác Mountain. When these entreated Kumastamxo to save them, he turned them into rocks. It rained forty days. Kumastamxo spread his arms four times. The waters went down.
39. When the earth was dry again, Kwikumat created just one person more, Akoikwitcyán (‘Yuma-Old-Woman’). She belonged to the Xavtsats nation.
[THE DEATH OF KWIKUMAT]
40. Kwikumat had no wife, but he had a daughter, Xavasúmkulapláp (‘Blue-Green-Bottom-of-her-Foot’). People now call her the Frog (Xanyé). She was born in the water, like Kwikumat himself. They lived in the darkhouse. Kwikumat lay at the north wall of the house. Frog lay naked by the door. Kwikumat felt sick. He staggered outside to defecate. As he passed Frog, he touched her private parts with his hand. He went south and defecated. Frog straightway turned over and burrowed under the earth. Coming up under Kwikumat, she opened wide her mouth, into which fell four pieces of excrement. She then burrowed back to the hut and lay down as before. Kwikumat came back into the house dizzy and groaning. All his strength had left him. Frog said, “Father, what ails you?”
| “I am sick, I am sick. | |
| What made me sick? What made me sick? |
| Did rain-cloud make me sick? | |
| Did foul-wind make me sick? | |
| My head is sick, my belly is sick, | |
| My limbs are sick, my heart is sick.” |
Kwikumat lay with his head turned successively in all four directions. The people squatted around. All the doctors together could not cure him.
41. The Badger (Maxwá) fetched cool sand and placed it on his breast. Although Badger was not a doctor and did not know the reason for his own action, Kwikumat said, “I think I am getting better.” Then he grew sicker. He said, “I do not think I shall live long, I am going to die. But I shall feel all right again sometime, somewhere.” The people did not understand what he meant by “die.” His was the first death. Kwikumat sweated. His sweat is white pigment. They get it north of Yuma. Beaver threw some clothes over him, for he felt cold. That is why people wear clothes. Kwikumat called to Kumastamxo, “Little boy, come here!” The fourth time Kumastamxo heard him. Kwikumat told him, “I am going far away. I leave everything in your care. Complete my works! I have taught you long. Do everything right.” Frog said, “He is nearly dead. I will flee from here.” She burrowed under the earth.
42. When the dawn came, Kwikumat died. He lay in the dark-house. His head was toward the west. All the people were silent. They thought he was asleep. Wren (Xanavtcíp) said, “He is dead. He is a shadow. He is a wind. You will never know him more.”
43. Kwikumat, when dying, told Coyote, “Since I placed you as chief over three, you must behave yourself and set a good example.” Kwikumat knew that Coyote intended to steal his heart, and all the others knew it also. Wren said to Coyote, “You take my heart as a substitute” (‘Inyép iwá madháuk matsin yóxa’).
[*] Often said at cremations in a figurative sense.
And the people understood that Coyote would take Wren's heart instead of Kwikumat's.44. Wren deliberated silently how he might thwart Coyote in his purpose. He asked himself, “Shall we hide the body? Shall we throw it into the water? Shall we burn it up?” Wren said to the people, “We must burn him up.” Wren then told Beaver, “Fetch cottonwood-logs from the north,
45. There was no door nor opening in the dark-house. “Which side shall we tear open in order to take the body out?” asked Kumastamxo and Marxókuvék. They decided to bear it south. Wren said, “Because some of us are born in the north, bear it north.” Wren said, “Lift him up!” They seized the body with their hands. They took one step north. Then they laid it down. They were still inside the house. Kumastamxo broke open the north wall without touching it. Then they took another step north and laid it down again. Thus with four steps they laid it, head south and face down, on the pyre, and piled wood and arrow-weed over it.
46. All was ready. But they had no fire. Wren sent Coyote east to get fire. He told him to run to the place where Kumastamxo had rubbed his spittle on the sky. He did not wish to have Coyote about. Coyote reached the dawn with four bounds. He rubbed his tail in the white fire. Meanwhile Wren directed two women to make fire. They were the House-Fly (Xalesmó) and Big-Blue-Fly (Kwixvacó). They took turns at twirling a dry arrow-weed stalk on a piece of willow-wood. They fed the sparks with willow-bark. Kumastamxo said that all people would make fire thus. Lizard (Kwaatuly) lighted a wisp of arrow-weed. He lighted the southeast corner of the pyre first, and last of all the southwest corner.
Coyote came bounding back, his tail all light. He leaped straight for the burning pyre. He was angry. The light on his tail went out. That is why it is black on the end. “Stand close together!” all the people cried, “for he is going to jump.” They crowded thickly about the fire. Badger and Squirrel (Xomir) were the shortest men. Coyote sprang over these, seized Kwikumat's heart in his teeth, and then, springing back again, ran swiftly southwest. Chicken-Hawk (Its'óra) was the best runner in the crowd. They sent him after Coyote. But Coyote left Chicken-Hawk far behind. Still he did not stop. Only when he had reached the Maricopa country did he lay the heart down and eat it. The heart became a mountain.
47. After Coyote ate that heart, his mouth was black and his tongue blood-red. They were burnt by the heart. Kumastamxo said, “Coyote is not worthy of being called a man. He shall be wild. He shall have neither a friend nor a home. He shall sneak about the mountains and sleep with the jack-rabbits. I call him Xuksaraviyöu.”
Coyote was crazy. He tried to marry his own daughter. One day he noticed a girl among the bushes cui erat vagina ulcerosa et putrida, quam omnes fugerent. Cum ad eam lupus decurreret, exterrita in manus genuaque descendit. Tum lupus cum ea copulavit. [See p. 489, D.] He could not disengage himself. The girl carried him with her up to the sky. Coyote may still be recognized as the dark spot on the moon.
48. All sat in silent grief about the burning pyre. The old people felt saddest, for they knew they must soon share Kwikumat's fate. But none knew about crying. It was the Yuma man who cried first. His name was Xanavá. He is now a kind of red bug which cries, “Tci-tci!” He was sitting on a mesquite-tree, looking at the ground. He raised his little voice, and cried, “Tci-tci-tci-tci!” Then Tiny amxworxwár joined in. He cried, “Xwurrxwurr!” He was sitting on a willow-tree. He is now a green bug. All the people began to cry, everything cried. The wind cried. The sky cried. Kumastamxo shouted, “Because we have lost our father, all people will lose their fathers. Our father dies. Everybody dies. People are born and must die. Otherwise there would be too many people. They would have to sleep on top of one another. Maybe somebody would defecate all over you.” As he said these words, all the people trimmed their hair (or feathers) and threw it into the fire. Deer (Akwák), Jack-Rabbit (Akúly), Cotton-Tail (Xalyáw), and Bear (Maxwát) cut their tails o and threw them in. They found it hard to make their tails grow again. Roadrunner (Taly pó) was the only man who kept his tail long. He needed it.
49. A whirlwind now blew all about. The people thought that Kwikumat was about to appear again. “No,” said Kumastamxo, “that is the holy spirit-wind. Sometimes it will come very near you. But you will see nobody, only dust-laden wind.” He sang four times—
| The wind is wandering, is wandering. | |
| The wind is wandering, is wandering. |
Then all the people cried anew.
50. Kumastamxo said, “Wren was a poor manager. Henceforth I will attend to everything myself.”
51. Frog kept burrowing beneath the earth with guilt and fear in her heart. She felt that she must emerge in order to open her mouth and cool it, for it was burning hot from the excrement which she had eaten. But hearing the wailing of all things, she burrowed under again, lest the people discover and kill her. She emerged four times—(1) at Amatkoxwítc, a round pit near Mellen, Arizona; (2) at Samkótcave,
[*] In this hole the Yavapai are said to have married.
a hole in the ground near Bill Williams Fork, three miles above its confluence with the Colorado; (3) at Avixaá, Cottonwood Mountain, a mile east of Yuma, Arizona; (4) at Avixanyé, Frog Mountain, near Tucson, Arizona. Frog was transformed into this mountain.[THE AGE OF KUMASTAMXO]
52. Rattlesnake remained in the ocean. He feared to come on shore, lest the people take vengeance upon him for having bitten Marxókuvék. He grew to such enormous size that he could encircle the earth with his body. The people feared that if Kumaiavěta were allowed to grow much larger, he might come on land and kill them all. Kumaiav;ta was a powerful doctor. Kumastamxo feared that he might send forth pestilence from under the water, or that he might eat somebody's excrement, as Frog had done. Therefore Kumastamxo resolved to destroy Kumaiavěta. “We will summon him to Axavoly po,” said Kumastamxo, “and I will manage the rest.” Kumastamxo sent Spider (Xaly tót) to request Kumaiavěta to come to Axavoly po in order to cure a sick man there. Spider darted down and back. “Kumaiavěta says that he does not wish to come.”—“Tell Kumaiavěta that the man will die if he does not hasten hither,” said Kumastamxo to Spider.
When Spider delivered this message, Kumaiavěta said, “It is my duty as doctor to go, although I know exactly what you fellows are trying to do. I have, however, one request. Grind corn and place some of it at four places on my way, that I may not famish on the long journey.” When Kumaiavěta reached the first stopping-place, he found more corn there
Kumastamxo stood inside the house, west of the door. In his hand he held a great stone knife. There was no sick man there. He had merely thrown up earth in the center of the floor, so as to resemble a sick man. Kumaiavěta tried in vain to wedge his heads through the door. Kumastamxo made the door wider. Kumaiavěta then caught scent of Kumastamxo. He pushed his four heads inside the house. With a single blow Kumastamxo severed all four heads from the neck. Then he sprang outside, leaving the heads in the room. He brandished his knife before the people. “When you want to kill somebody, use this.” This is why people have knives. He tossed it up and caught it. Kumastamxo said, “Because Kumaiavěta has been killed, other bad doctors will be killed.” There is blood and spittle in the mountains all along where Kumaiavěta's body lay. The whites call the red “gold” and the white “silver.” Kumastamxo took the four heads, cut them apart, and pounded up each one separately west of Axavoly po. They are now gravel-beds.
Kumastamxo said, “I know you all fear that there will be another flood. There have been four floods. There will never be another; for I shall take this great body and place it along the shore about the whole world, and above it the water shall not rise. But if you kill my bird Kuko, I will make the water rise and drown you all.” When Kumaiavěta was killed, he urinated freely. The ocean is his urine. That is why it is salty, has foam on [it], [and] is not good to drink.
53. Kumastamxo said, “This place is unclean. I shall burn the house.” Marxókuvék said, “No, leave it there; for I will call the birds and wild animals, and they will dwell about there when we have already journeyed forth.” [Song, repeated four times:—]
| The house will burn, will burn. | |
| The house will be crackling, will be crackling. | |
| It will blaze. | |
| We are going to [dance?]. | |
| It is going to be lighted. | |
| It is going to be lighted. | |
| It will blaze. | |
| We are going to [dance?]. | |
| Something bird-like is coming. | |
| Bird-like tracks will be about the place. [*] When a man dies, and his house is burned, seeds are thrown into the fire. Birds come later and pick them up. | |
| We are going to light this unclean house. | |
| It will blaze, blaze. |
Kumastamxo took four steps, lighting the house at the four corners. Then they all danced. When they ceased, Kumastamxo called NightHawk (Wiú). He taught Night-Hawk to sing when the dawn is coming, so as to awaken the people. Kumastamxo promised him great wisdom if he would do this regularly. “Let me sleep a little longer,” said Night-Hawk. After a while Night-Hawk called out, “Qrr8 rr8 rr8 rr8!” When he calls thus, the people know it is time to wake up.
54. Kumastamxo said, “Let us leave this place!” He took four great strides to the north. The people moved with him. He had a wooden spear. He made it out of nothing. He pressed the sharp end into the ground and moved the other end toward and from himself four times. Then he pulled it out toward the north. Water gushed forth and started to flow north. He stopped it without touching it. A second time he drew the spear out toward the west. He stopped the water. Then toward the east. He stopped the water. Then he threw it out toward the south. He let the water flow freely. He took four strides south. At each stride he made a great scratch with his spear in order to guide the water to the ocean. Where he held the spear-blade flat, the river is broad. Where he held it sidewise, the river-channel is narrow, and most of the water flows on one side. At Yuma he cut the mountains asunder to let the river through. Taking four more steps, he returned to the source. [Song, repeated four times:—]
| This is my water, my water. | |
| This is my river, my river. | |
| We love its water. | |
| We love its driftwood [foamwood]. | |
| It shall flow forever. | |
| It shall flow forever. | |
| When the weather grows hot, | |
| It shall rise and overflow its banks. | |
| It shall flow forever. |
55. Kumastamxo made a raft of cottonwood-logs out of nothing. On it he placed four medicine-men—a Maricopa, Yuma, Diegueño, and Cocopa. On a second raft he placed four more medicine-men. One of these was a Mohave. The other people walked down.
56. They stopped first at a whirlpool near Kwiyuhitáp, north of Mellen, Arizona.
[*] Mohave, Kwayuhitápmave (‘place [ave] where Kwayu was killed [hitap]’). Kwayu was a gigantic cannibal.
A great snake (Xikwír) was traveling southward “behind the river.” He wanted to bite somebody. Kumastamxo caught him. That he might always stay in the water, and never become a man, Kumastamxo pulled the snake's teeth out.[†] My informant explains that his body is a red stratum on the California bank. Nearby is a cave. If one enters, Xikwír will not bite, but will make one sick. He stabs in the abdomen, and blood flows forth. All about lie Xikwír's teeth. They are shiny and as large as fingers.
57. At Avikarutát, south of Parker, they stopped a second time. Kumastamxo told the Yavapai to live there on the Arizona side. He forbade them to cross the river. They did not know how to swim. At last they crossed on a tule-raft. Kumastamxo made a bright light shine forth from Avikarutát Mountain. But the California side was dark.
58. Kumastamxo said to the people, “Because you are good people, I want you to find a good place to stay. We are going to move up to the top of a high mountain, and I shall teach you everything up there. From there we can see far over the earth.” He moved north with four steps. The people moved with him. “This is my homeland,” said he, “this is High Mountain (Avikwaamé).”
59. “Here is the place for the dark-house,” said he. He sent Beaver to bring four cottonwood-posts. Ant-Lion (Manisaár) dug four holes.
60. Kumastamxo stationed the learners in the northeast corner, the good doctors in the southwest corner. Dead people stayed in the southeast corner, for they go in that direction when they die. The door was in the northern side. Kumastamxo made the bad “speechers” sit down. He did not allow them to bewitch one another. Kumastamxo alone bewitched, and gave only those sicknesses which others had power to cure.
61. Kumastamxo said, “I should like to keep all of you in here all the time. But it is so crowded that you cannot learn well. So I ask you to go outside.” He sent them out. Only Ampota xasarkwitinyám remained within. Kumastamxo produced a great star and showed it to him there in the dark. “You are a good ‘speecher.’ With this find the road, with this find your own house in the darkest night. This is the great star (xamasé vatái).
[*] That is, the morning star.
Take this out when you cannot see well.” Kumastamxo called in each of the great doctors separately. He taught some of them how to kill a man in four days.62. Kumastamxo called all the people into the dark-house again. He made everything dark. All fell asleep. He ascended into the sky. The people could not find him. He entered the dark-house again, and they discovered him there. Then the sun, moon, and stars disappeared. There was consternation among the dreamers. Even Marxókuvék did not know how to make a light. But after a while a certain man pulled out the morning star. It shed light all about. Then Kumastamxo took the very sky away with him. They found him with it in the dark-house. He taught by alarming the people and then assisting them.
63. Kumastamxo made a cottonwood-tree grow up in the dark-house. He cut the roots with his mind. It fell toward the west. “Who wishes to have this tree?”—“We,” said the Yuma. “We will tie feathers along the sides of it and make the sacred sticks (xaukwíly) used in Yuma fiestas.”
64. Kumastamxo bade the people go outside. He taught them how to fix up and fight. He gave them bows and arrows and war-clubs as they went out.
65. He kept the people outside. He allowed only one Yuma man and one Diegueño man to enter. He taught them how to make fiesta houses (avakarúk).
[*] Shade-roofs built of cottonwood-poles and willow-branches for ceremonial use during the various “fiestas.”
That Yuma Indian was Pamavíitc, ancestor of all the women who bear the name Mavé. They had no cottonwood nor willow trees. They built it out of nothing. They made a shade-roof. Meanwhile all the other people were standing in a line east of the house, and facing east. Kumastamxo announced that all was finished. When the people turned about, they beheld not one but two fiesta houses, one for the Yuma, and one for the Digueño. Kumastamxo led one half of the Cocopa under the Diegueño house and taught them how to make one for themselves. These told the other Cocopa people. Kumastamxo said, “When you lose a big man, you will have a fiesta some months after he is dead.”66. It became dark. Kumastamxo detailed Ampota xasarkwitinyám to take charge of the speeches. Kumastamxo gave him many songs. Then Kumastamxo changed the darkness into daylight. He knew what each Yuma man could do. He called each man to him separately. He was in the dark-house. He said to each man, “You know to what tribe you belong. Kwikumat told you not to forget. For if you forget, you will not be swung into the right place [?].”
67. To the first man thus called into the dark-house Kumastamxo said, “Since Frog was eldest-born, I call you ‘Xavtsáts’; but since Frog fled, I call her ‘Xanyé’. Call your daughters ‘Xavtsáts’.”
[†] The informant at first stated, and later denied, that [the first man] was Ampota xasarkwitinyám. Each Yuma man has one or more names of descriptive or fanciful meaning. Each woman, however, bears an inherited name, which is the same as that of her full sisters, father's sisters, and father's father's sisters. The Indians, when talking English, call such names of women “nations.” A woman … is always known by the name of her nation, although this may be coupled with one or two other names which serve to distinguish her from other women of the same nation.
Then he called in Paxipátc and gave him his nation, too. He said, “Call your daughters ‘Hipá’. But I now call Coyote ‘Xatalwí’.”
To Pagelyótc [?] he gave the nation-name ‘t la ots’, which is connected with rain-cloud. Rain-clouds are now known as akwí.
To Pamavíitc he gave the name ‘Rattlesnake’ (Maav:). Rattlesnake is now called ‘Av:’.
To the next man he gave ‘Red-Ant’ (Ciqu pás). Red-Ant is now called ‘Ikwís’.
To the next man he gave ‘Roadrunner’ (Met'á). Roadrunner is now called ‘Taly pó’. Kumastamxo named him after he ran.
To the next man he gave ‘Mesquite-Beans’ (Aly mōs).
[*] An old woman of this nation bears the additional name ‘Akoiitchámál’ (‘Old-Woman-Something-White’), because the mesquite beans referred to by Kumastamxo were ripe and white.
To the next man he gave ‘Deer-Hide’ (Siny kwál).To the next man he gave ‘a kind of Brown Bug’ (Èstamadhún), not an ant-lion.
When the next man came in, Kumastamxo had to stop and think. All the good names had been given. He gave him ‘a bunch of shreds of willow-bark which had been soaked at least ten days in water’ (Kwickú).
When the next man came, Kumastamxo said, “‘Xaly p$o$'t’, call your girl thus.” Xaly p$o$'t means “already done.”
One lone man came running up. “Am I too late?”—“No, I call your nation ‘Hard-Ground’ (Xakcí).”
68. Kumastamxo then called out the stones and trees, and gave each its nation.
69. Kumastamxo gave each man a gourd rattle and taught him to “throw the gourd.” Then they all danced. They stood east of the house, grouped in tribes. Inside the house the Yuma stood north, the Diegueño west, the Cocopa south, the Maricopa east. Kumastamxo told the Wallapai and the Havasupai to go northeast, and he told the Chimehuevi to go northwest, and the Kawia to go west. Then he said to the others, “I send you four kinds of people south. Because I send you, you must remember me wherever you stay, for I am going to turn into something.” The Mohave alone stayed there with Kumastamxo. They were little children, too young to march.
70. Marxókuvék led the Yuma and Diegueño people away first. The Cocopa and Maricopa followed. They marched west across the desert, crossing many mountains. When the Yuma and Diegueño reached Aviivéra, east of Riverside, they found the eastern slope wooded, and they held a fiesta there. There the Cocopa overtook them. Kumastamxo did not want them to fight. But soon they began to shoot at the Yuma and Diegueño. The Maricopa Indians stood close to the Cocopa and sided with them.
71. Kumastamxo tried to produce a thunderstorm. Only a few drops of rain fell. Then he said, “I must return to Avikwaamé.” He took Marxókuvék
[*] Now Castle Dome, on the Arizona side, near Laguna.
Marxókuvék said, “This is my homeland. Here we shall live. Burn my body by yonder mountain.” Then he died, with his head to the south.They burned him at the base of Mokwintaórv Mountain, at a place called Aaux'rakyámp.
[†] Meaning ‘fire all around’
The rocks are still red from the fire. The people cried loudly, “He is dead, he is dead!” referring to Kwikumat and Kumastamxo, as well as to Marxókuvék. They burned Marxókuvék on top of that mountain. The Yuma go to that place,.[‡] In their dreams.
and Marxókuvék shows them how to do wonderful things. He tells us everything. Men also climb this mountain. It takes four days to climb it. On its summit they fall into visions at midnight. Marxókuvék asks them what they want and satisfies them. But great doctors go up to Avikwaamé and see Kumastamxo. It takes four days to go up there. No songs are taught at Mokwintaórv.72. Kumastamxo said, “Havíirk,” meaning, “It is finished.” He stood there. He thought, “I will sink into the ground.” He sang four times—
| Into the earth I go down, go down. | |
| Nothing but earth will I be seeing, will I be seeing. | |
| I sink down into the old riverbed, | |
| Down into the interior. |
The first time he sang thus, his feet sank into the earth; the second time, his thighs sank into the earth; the third time, his neck sank into the earth; the fourth time, he sank out of sight, and remained there in the interior of the earth four days.
73. Then he came up again. He stood there. He said, “I am going to ascend.” He extended his arms horizontally toward either side. Then he sang four times—
| I am springing, springing. | |
| Wing-feathers! |
| Body-feathers! | |
| On my hands, wing-feathers. | |
| On my body [?], body-feathers. |
He flew awkwardly into the air as he sang this the fourth time. He flapped his wings four times. He said, “I shall be called ‘the black eagle’ (aspakwaanyíl y) in the west,
[*] This eagle protects the whites. That is why they have it on their money.
‘the high eagle’ (aspakwaamaí) in the east,[†] High eagle lives in the Maricopa country. It is seen by medicine-men only.
‘fish eagle’ (aspaatsikwítc) in the south,.[‡] About the gulf.
‘white eagle’ (aspahamál) in the north.”LATIN PASSAGES
A. So that the virgin might fully understand, he himself demonstrated to her what should be done. Indeed, he lay down on the ground and copulated four times. The woman, sweating profusely, four times wiped away the sweat from her body with her hands.
B. Not unwillingly, one of the men tried to do those things which [Xavasumkily i] herself had described. However, he inserted his penis into [his woman's] anus, not into her vagina. “Soon I will bear something,” said the woman. She expected to bear a child at any moment. When it did not happen, she and the other women became greatly agitated. “Why are you all inflamed against me?” asked Xavasumkuly i. And so she explained again, “Insert the penis into the vagina.” This time, though, the man inserted not his penis but his testicles into her vagina.
Returning, [Xavasumkily i] told her husband that the women would never conceive. Kwikumat scolded her because she had told to the others those things that he himself had taught her in secret. “I am not afraid that they should learn,” said Xavasumkuly i. [Then] Kwikumat ordered: “Lead these women four steps toward the north, toward the west, toward the south, toward the east, and I will lead the men likewise.” When this dance was done, he ordered everybody to lie down on the ground and copulate.
C. Some sought refuge by rising up into his anus.
D. One day he noticed a girl among the bushes whose vagina was ulcerous and putrid, from which everything fled. When Coyote ran toward her, she fell down on her hands and knees, terrified. Then Coyote copulated with her.