Supplement
Black Sinew Chief, his Basket, and Kokoñip (Thin Leather/Russell)
[The Pima-Papago army moved toward the great-house at Casa Blanca, home of Black Sinew Chief.] They then attacked Tcotcuk Tatai Sivan,[w] who was the most powerful of all the chiefs who ventured to oppose them. He knew that they would defeat him, yet he struggled bravely to save his people and at the last to save himself.
He first took some soot from his chimney, powdered it in the palm of his hand, blew it into the air, and darkness immediately fell so dense that Elder Brother's warriors could see nothing.
Tcotcuk Tatai Sivan then threw down his dwelling and made his way through the midst of his enemies.
But the god of darkness [i.e., the lightmaker, working for the invaders] dispelled the night, and the escaping leader was seen in the distance. Elder Brother's warriors succeeded in getting ahead of him and were about to surround and kill him when he wiped the tears from his eyes and blew the drops among the men about him. This produced a mirage which concealed him from view. But the god of mirage [the heatmaker, evaporator of moist mirages] caused the veil to lift, and again he was seen fleeing in the distance.
Again Tcotcuk Tatai Sivan was headed [off] and in danger; but this time he took out his reed cigarette and blew puffs of smoke, which settled on his pursuers like a heavy fog through which he continued his flight. The god of fog [dispelling] drove it into the sky and he was seen escaping.
He now realized that he had but one more chance for his life. When the fog had formed clouds in the sky he took his belt and threw it upward and climbed up and laid himself against the clouds as a rainbow. It was impossible for the god of the rainbow unaided to bring him down; he made several unsuccessful attempts before he hit upon the expedient of making some spiders, which he sent after the rainbow. They formed a web over the bow and brought it to earth and destruction.
Elder Brother's soldiers were so astonished at the prowess of Tcotcuk Tatai Sivan that they thought he
must have a strange heart, so they cut it open to see, and, sure enough, they found within it a green stone about the size of a bullet. The stone is kept to this day in a medicine basket which they captured with his grandson.
Before he had undertaken his flight he had told the boy, Kakanyip, to go with his basket and hide under a bush; after the grandfather should be killed the lad should come, touch him, and swallow the odor of the body, and he would acquire the power of the Siwañ. But a warrior named Shohany discovered the little Kakanyip, and after a time sold him to the Papago chief Kak Sisiveliki,[x] Two-Whirlwinds. The box is yet kept by the Papagos living 30 miles south of Gila Bend. If it is disturbed a severe storm is produced and cold weather prevails in Pima Land. (Russell 1908: 227–228)