Part 3—
New Creation and Corn
Here begin the Hohokam chronicles with the creation of that people by the now-senior Siuuhu. After a brief discussion of different versions of what became of the original creation, we will move to the real matter of this part, the Corn and Tobacco stories that were mentioned in connection with the Font text.
First, what happened to the old creation. According to Smith-Allison, these people all died. They spoke Pima-Papago, the Hohokam will speak Pima-Papago, and the people who will conquer the Hohokam, who will emerge from the underworld, spoke it, too. Smith-Allison hold that these last people were created by Earth Doctor after he sank to the underworld. Other narrators hold that the conquerors were the first-created people. Thus, Thin Leather, the Papagos consulted in the 1930s by Underhill (1946: 8–12), the Papagos I now know around Santa Rosa Village, and possibly Dolores[1] all hold that Earth Doctor used his cane (solid or hollow) to open a subterranean escape passage for a portion of the original people. Thus they entered the underworld, a kind of master womb analogous to Siuuhu's earth gum jar of the flood myth. Symbolically, they, too, were leveled with the gods, but their rebirth will come much later, in Smith-Allison's story 14.
Such are the conquest mythologies' answers to the question of what became of the first creation. I should mention that practically all Pima-Papago mythologies of record have a flood and new creation, and all but Font's (the oldest one) have a Hohokam conquest. There are about a dozen such mythologies. I have discussed the few, possibly misrecorded exceptions to the trinity of flood, re-creation, and conquest in a paper (1971).
Once Siuuhu creates people, he makes various plants for them: corn, cotton, pumpkins (or squash), various beans, nettle leaf goosefoot, and tobacco. Recall that the earlier creation was provided by Earth Doctor with the wild plant malva, deer, and rabbits, which, since they still exist, must have survived the flood. We can now note that the new plants place agriculture in the province of Siuuhu, not Earth Doctor. Of these new plants, only corn and tobacco receive further mythological attention. Smith and Allison dedicate much of the second creation story and the remaining two myths of this part to them, making the part more concerned with the new peoples' relation with the plants than with Siuuhu's concern with the people.
Really, the first problem of Hohokam existence is to establish a stable relation with the plants. The relation is a loss or, better stated, a double separation. From an initial state (delivered by Siuuhu) of union between the plant and a human, in which the plant-person lives with the Hohokam, (1) the plant-person becomes separate from the plant-object (i.e., the botanical plant), and (2) the plant-object remains in human hands while the plant-person goes to live somewhere else, far from humanity.
As stated in discussing the Font text, there are Pima-Papago versions of this story with Rain and Wind in the place of Smith-Allison's Corn and Tobacco. Two of these myths are placed in the supplement to this part, as is Thin Leather's single text version of what Smith-Allison treat as two myths ("Corn and Tobacco Leave" and "Corn Returns").
Also stated earlier was the fact that most of the preseparation persons do not marry, but they seem to wish to do so, and perhaps they could not do so while retaining their paradisiacal relation with humanity. Here is the testimony, including two more versions of Rain and Wind that are not given in this supplement. Smith-Allison's Corn leaves without sexual or marital desires, but he returns to marry a human woman. The couple have a child who is nurtured in the woman's womb but was engendered by the woman's eating a worm that she picked from Corn's hair. The child is killed: Siuuhu causes the mother to drop it while walking. Corn-man leaves, but corn-object stays. Smith-Allison's To-
bacco leaves without sexual or marital desires, and he stays away. He sends seeds back to the people.
Thin Leather's Corn does the same as Smith-Allison's, but this time the child turns into a saguaro from which the Hohokam will gather fruits to make wine for rain ceremonies. Thin Leather's Tobacco, a woman, leaves because no man likes her. She stays away but supplies seeds to humans. In the Thin Leather version of Wind and Rain (included in the supplement), Wind and Rain are expelled because, following a bet, Wind exposes the crotch of a virgin for Rain's viewing. Humanity wants the two back. They will only return periodically, not as men but as fickle wind and rain. The two additional versions tell essentially the same story (Wright 1929: 55–61; Saxton and Saxton 1973: 317–340).
This entire collection of failed and un-marriages is significant in light of where the Smith-Allison stories fit in those authors' larger mythology. The stories—stories of this type—come immediately after "Destruction Through Sex" and immediately before "The Whore." The latter treats a succession of too-short marriages (and without children) between a flighty human woman and various birdlike or bird-man husbands. Thus Smith-Allison place their Corn and Tobacco text in a series on marriage. Before it is the story of a man who has too many women and ultimately reproduces through his own penis; and he indirectly makes a salty flood, and oozing superabundance of water that even in moderation is not good for earthly life. No irrigation god (relative to the discussion of Font's text), he is an ejaculation god. After the Corn and Tobacco text comes the story of a woman who is not a god or a goddess but a threat to mundane Hohokam family values.
In conclusion, from the details of Smith-Allison's crop myths and from the myths' position in the larger mythology, it is evident that to Smith-Allison the origin of crops is continuous with the origin of marriage. In fact, one can say that they are more interested in the latter than the former.
Story 3—
Second Creation
Earth Doctor came down and came to the two persons, Siuuhu and Coyote. The three made plans on how they would make more people. They decided that the first thing they should make is ants who would only work in the summer and would show how they are powerful, good workers. They could not decide for a while how they would make man again. Finally they decided to make them the same way as before, in their own likeness.
The next thing they made was just two quails (cokaycho ).[a] Then they made a roadrunner (tata ),[b] only one. Then they got pieces of mesquite leaf and placed them on top of the quails' heads.
They sent the quails to the west to find how far the water had gone to the west, and they sent the roadrunner to the east to find how far the water had gone that way. Coming back, they would find the middle of the earth. When the quails and roadrunner came back, they met right at the center.
The three persons sat down in the middle of the earth. They got some water and made clay and formed persons. While forming them, they did not
[a] Kakaicu .
[b] Tadai[*]
work together. One person making his man was facing the east, one was to the north, and one was to the west. When Siuuhu found how Coyote was making his people, he didn't like them, because they were no good, he said. So Siuuhu picked up the people that Coyote had made and threw them into the ocean. Those were the fishes and ducks, and he told Coyote that they were just food for people.
Earth Doctor felt sorry about what had happened between Siuuhu and Coyote, so he got up, got his cane, and pointed it to the heavens, meaning that he was to drop the heavens and smash the earth. Jeoss spoke up [from the sky] and told him it was not right to do that. Then Siuuhu worked and placed his hand against the heavens.
While Siuuhu held this above him, Earth Doctor was going down in the earth. He went down to his neck. When Siuuhu saw this, he reached to grab him. Earth Doctor just spit all kinds of sickness in Siuuhu's hand.
When Siuuhu saw that he held something nasty in his hand, he waved the hand all over the earth, and sprinkled sickness all over.
Siuuhu said he didn't intend to give the world such painful diseases, and he worked and gave men power to overcome sicknesses. This is the power of
[c] Matk , 'palm of hand', 'hand and fingers'. The constellation Pleiades, as Hayden was told by the Papago Juan Havier.
medicine men who sometimes will heal sickness and sometimes won't do it.
While Earth Doctor was going down into the earth, he made four kinds of liquid in the earth (oil), which would take fire quickly. When he got to the other side of the earth, he made some more people.
Siuuhu stayed up on this earth, and he changed everything that he had decided to do. He made his people, and he had them talk many different languages. He sang two songs:
The earth is spinning around
The earth is spinning around
And my people are spinning around with the earth.
The earth is spinning faster
The earth is spinning faster
And my people are spinning faster with the earth.[2]
The first people that talked were the Apaches. When Siuuhu heard them, he got some ice and splashed it on them. This was to show them that they could stand the cold and make clothes out of deer skins. The second people that talked were the Yaquis. The third people were the Ju:kcum,[d] a kind of Indian.
The fourth that spoke were the Pimas, Ohtum .[e] They got cold and were crying, so Siuuhu got a cotton blanket and spread it over them. The next people
[d] Ju:kam, sing.; Juckam, pl.; 'Mexican'.
[e] O'odham.
who spoke were the Obniu (the Maricopas and Yumas, those who can understand each other).[3] To the people who spoke Obniu he gave tree bark, that they should make their clothing from. From this time, all those different kinds of talking people would know how to take care of themselves.
This rule was given to the Pimas, that they were the first to learn to lay out their land and plant crops in it, to farm. The farm [sing.] that the Pimas made at that time didn't have ditches. They were raising crops from the rains. So Siuuhu planted some cotton for the Pimas. Song (what the little seed was singing):
You have planted me now
And now I am coming up with a load of earth
And I have thrown the earth down
And now I have got blue leaves on
And now I have yellow blossoms.[5]
The cotton kept growing. Finally it was ripe. The cotton sings another song:
Now you are working very nice with me
You are spinning me by a stick.
When Siuuhu saw that his children were doing pretty well with the cotton, he decided to do more for them. He put out the rule that his children should dream certain signs on how to use their cotton in more ways. Everybody was asleep, and he sang two more songs:
I just now made the world
And in that world I have gotten everybody to sleep
And the breath of man in that darkness
went out with more understanding.
I have made the mountains
And in among those mountains
I have put my people to sleep
And the understanding of those people has gone out
And dwells there.
So a man slept and dreamed that he would make fine cloth. Not all of those people were going to make cloth. Another slept and dreamed that he would be a good hunter. A woman slept and dreamed she was going to make a fine straw mat (of tules, for bedding), and a fine carrying basket. This woman also dreamed that she would be a good picker of all the kinds of fruit that they used at that time for food. Then a man slept and dreamed he would be a good maker of arrowheads. And when the smaller things were made, the beads and so forth, the man and woman planned out and made them.
Everything was finished and was good for man and woman to make a living on. Next Siuuhu rubbed his breast with his hands and brought out two corn seeds and put them in the ground. Song:
You look in the fields
And you will see corn coming out
The leaves are swaying back and forth
Made by the wind.
Second verse:
You look in the fields
And you see the pumpkin is coming out
The leaves of the pumpkin are like clouds
And the decoration on the pumpkin is like decorated
clouds.
Siuuhu's second [corn] song:
(Literal translation of the second corn song)
Evening red
Inside is singing
Corn tassels plume
Plume have in his hand
Pointing this way and that way
And singing.
(Free translation)
The sunset is red
And the seeds are gathered together
They will go and plant the seeds again.
This corn has tassels on top
And it is swaying back and forth
And singing
And the blossoms of the pumpkin
Are swaying back and forth
And singing.
The next morning they planted this corn and pumpkin and saw it turned out to be good. The next thing that Siuuhu made was the little Indian white bean. Then he made another kind of bean that they used to call speckled beans (you don't see them anymore now). Corn song:
(Literal translation)
He e yana heo(lt) vava heo(lt)
Is singing
Farms in is singing
This little white beans and the corn are singing
Then the speckled bean and the pumpkin are singing
together.
Vava heo(lt) is singing
Haich e ya.
Ya ee na.
Another song:
Hay ee yana heo(lt)
Water breeze come out far away
The breeze runs a long ways
It reaches far away
The corn tassels it breaks to pieces
Haych ee ya ya ee na.
The water clouds come out far away
It came from far away
And reached, pumpkin leaves
It breaks to pieces
Haych ee ya ya ee na.
Then the black-eyed peas were made but didn't have any song. The next thing made was some kind of food, called koff ,[f] that is raised on a farm.
All these things were made to be used for food. So one [man] was given this corn and was called the corn man. The next thing made was tobacco (coyote tobacco) that is called in Pima "green tobacco," and it was only for the old people. So it [receiver
Story 4–
Corn and Tobacco Leave
At a certain time the corn and tobacco met together, and the people decided the corn man and tobacco man should play a game of gins .[7] Corn and tobacco believed what the people said, so they started the game.
[f] Kof or ko:f , nettle leaf goosefoot plant (Chenopodium murale ), an annual weed actually introduced from Europe (if murale; C. desiccatum is native—Parker 1972: 104–105) whose seeds can be gathered in early summer, parched, and made into pinole (Russell 1908: 73). The plant grows on moistened, "disturbed" ground in or near fields. It is a semidomesticate. Saxton and Saxton do not list kof, ko:f , or ko:w in their Papago dictionaries, nor does Mathiot list it. Perhaps it is more a Pima than a Papago plant.
They cheated each other. That was the first time that madness [anger] came into the world. Corn spoke up to Tobacco. Corn said, "You are nothing, Tobacco, only the old people smoke you. For my part, men, women, and children eat me. I am raising the young people."
Tobacco said, "I think the same about you. You are nothing, but medicine men smoke me and doctor 'the people."
So they were talking, which was not right. They felt sorry for the mean words they said, and the people didn't help them out but just let them speak. So the tobacco left and went toward the west. He followed down the river (Gila), and when he got to a certain distance he felt sorry. He cried like this—song:
Black bobcat
Toward the sunset
is going
Hay ya ha'a hah (crying ).
He went and stopped at the west part of the Navajo country. Corn stayed here for four days, waiting for the older people to bring him soft feathers and beads, so he would not have to leave the country. The people didn't give him what he needed, so he sang this song:
I deep beat (deep win)
Tobacco was mad
And was talking.
The people, they will get [a
And give it to me
The people will get a bead
And give it to me.
So he went out, toward the east. He got all the corn that the people had and took it with him, and the people were hungry. The old people were also scarce in tobacco.
When Siuuhu saw this, he didn't like it. The people had learned how to get mad, and Siuuhu made a rule that every morning the old people were to talk to their young children and tell them what was right to do.
When the people wanted something to smoke really badly, they got a man to go after Tobacco and bring him back home. This man went and tried to tell him to come back, but Tobacco said he doesn't want to come back. He said, "Corn called me some mean things so I don't want to go back." The man prayed to Tobacco and said Tobacco should sympathize with him and go back home.
The tobacco didn't want to come home, but he gave the man one of his little seeds and told him to take the seed with him, prepare the ground, plant the seed, and sometimes the tobacco would come out pretty well and sometimes it won't.
The corn that went toward the east stopped there and sang two songs:
The big corn stalks
They called me corn
I have come out here.
My stalks are stout
And are standing straight up
My fruit is [are
And are standing straight up.
So the people were hungry here.
Story 5—
Corn Returns
Just southwest of here are signs of where people used to live, at the place called top-oiduk ,[g] or rabbit farm.
The reason why they called it top-oiduk is that there used to be a lot of rabbits there. When the people planted their crops, the rabbits would eat it all up.
From there one woman went to Superstition Mountain [40 miles eastward], gathered some [cholla] cactus fruit, and baked them in ashes, because they
[g] To:bi Oidag, 'Rabbit Field'.
were hungry. While the corn was standing in the east,[9] he saw what the woman was doing. The woman happened to be a young girl, very pretty, so the corn loved the girl and came toward her.
He came to a mountain, called Vatcum (means a hole)[10] at a certain place in the east, and at the base of the mountain he sang this song:
I have gone
I am going
And now I am passing by Vatcum
Flat-headed (corn, me)
Little bit crazy (I am).
Then he came to another mountain called White-thin and sang:
I am passing by White-thin (Stoa Kom)[11]
Flat-headed (corn)
(I am) little bit crazy chupa[h] (like a woman ).
As he gets closer to the woman he sings this song:
I went and met a girl
I ran and met this girl
A cliff which decorated itself very pretty
I'm getting closer to top-oiduk
Hay do way ha'an.[12]
So this corn man went and came to the girl's home and stayed with her for one day. He told the girl that
[h] Ce:pa'owi , 'prostitute', 'whore'.
his head felt itchy, so she looked for something in the corn man's hair and took out a worm. She put it in her mouth and chewed it up. The corn man was also decorated. When his clothes peeled off the front of his chest, he appeared to have kernels of corn on himself.
When the sun was about to set, he went out of the house with one of his arrows and stuck it in some cactus fruit that had been cooked. When they took this cactus fruit out [from the pit in which it had been cooked], it appeared that it wasn't cactus fruit but pumpkin and corn. The girl got this changed food and went away. She was glad and sang two songs:
You have made a woman out of me
And you have made a basket for me
Which is made of corn tassels.
You have made a woman out of me
And you have made a basket for me
Which is made of pumpkin blossoms.
The girl went to where her parents were and gave them the pumpkin and corn, and they ate it. This happened four times. She went back to where the corn man was and got the same thing from him four times.
The fourth time the corn man talked to her and told her that when she got back to her people, she could
talk to them and tell them to make a special house for him to live in. He was going to live with the people. He also told her to tell them to clean up their houses and get everything ready, such as dishes and pots, and they must turn them [face] up.
When the fourth day was up, the corn man went. As he started he sang two songs:
Toward the west
Closer to the setting of the sun
Where is much understanding
To this land I come
And over this land
It is raining corn.
Toward the west
Close to the setting of the sun
There lies some land
Over this land
The clouds are roaring
And it's raining pumpkins
Over this land.
When Corn got to the land that he mentioned, just to give you an idea how he got [what he did] there, it [he] came like hail, it rained corn, it rained pumpkins in every dish, and it filled everything that they had turned up. When Corn got there, he went into the house that the people had made for him, and the girl that he had met came and lived with him.
When some people saw this thing happen, they couldn't believe that it was really corn and pumpkins. When Corn found this out, he sang two songs:
It is true that I am Corn
And you see that I have white kernels.
It is true that I am the Pumpkin
With white seeds.
When the people prepared and ate it, they were filled. They gathered it and stored it away for their food.
All this time the worm that the girl chewed had turned into a baby in the girl's womb. The girl stayed with the corn man four times four days. When the fourth fourth day was up, the baby was born. It was the child of corn man and was a girl.
When Siuuhu saw this, he didn't like it. The baby was taken care of for four days. Then the girl picked it up in her arms, to take it someplace. On the way, somehow she dropped it and the baby died. It was Siuuhu's scheme that this should happen. When the corn saw it, he got mad and went off to the east. This was the first time the people saw death.
The elder people, who were called wise men, went to Siuuhu and asked where the life of the child went to. Siuuhu said that out in the desert there is a mountain which is tossed back and forth by the wind. The wise people asked what he meant by
that. Siuuhu told them that he explained this to them because what happened to Corn and the girl was not right.
The next question that the people asked Siuuhu was, what was going to happen to that life [after death] in the future. Siuuhu told them it is not man's purpose to know what those lives were going to do, but it is Jeoss's business to know what he wants to do with them.
The people asked what was going to happen here, on earth. Siuuhu told them that in the earth there are four kinds of water with which the world will burn up with fire. The people asked him a stronger question, how the people would know when this thing [burning] was to come to pass. The reason they asked these questions was that they wanted more understanding, or to be more powerful, than Siuuhu.
Siuuhu told them that at this time they have one song, and when the end is near there will be all sorts of people dreaming all sorts of songs about birds and animals and everything. Also, when the time is coming, young men will grow old in a short time, and a young woman will grow old in a very short time. He also made a statement about the corn. When the time is near, they will plant corn and sometimes it will fail, and with the corn will come up all kinds of weeds. At that time, man must work
hard to get a good crop from that corn. He must clean the weeds and cultivate it to get a good crop. Then Siuuhu made a bitter pumpkin, and he told them that this would be a sign of what had happened, that corn's baby had died. It was right here, then, that Siuuhu made watermelons and musk melons. When he gave these melons to the people, they stopped being mad and were all right again.
Then Siuuhu made four commandments by which people should unite in marriage—not like corn did. The four commandments are that the father of the girl and mother of the girl should agree, and the mother of the boy and father of the boy should agree, which makes four commandments by which they should be married.
From then until now, when a person should die, the people should bury him in the ground. So the people were getting along nicely.
Supplement
The Story of Corn and Tobacco (Thin Leather)
There was a powerful mahkai [medicine man] who had a daughter, who, though old enough, 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 [Coyote] to find out.
Although the tobacco still grew, the woman came back to life and came out of her grave back to her home. One day she played gainskoot [gins, a dice game] with Corn, and Corn beat her and won all she had. But she gave some little things she didn't care for to Corn, and the rest of her debt she did not pay, and they quarreled.
She told Corn to go away, saying, "Nobody 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 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 who heard them quarreling, and although Tobacco stayed on, whenever she would be in a house and hear people laughing, she would think they were laughing at her. She became very sad and one day sank down in her house and went westward and came to a house there.
A 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 traveling, and no one
knows where I am, and if anyone 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 she did not know herself which way she would go, and at night, when she went to bed, she brought a strong wind. When she wanted to leave, she sank down and went westward, and the wind blew away all her tracks. She came to the Mojaves [Indians along the Colorado River] and lived there in a high mountain, Cheof Toe-ahk,[i] or tall mountain, which was a cliff, very hard to climb, and Tobacco stood up there.
After Tobacco had gone, Corn remained, but when corn-planting time came, none was planted because there was no rain. 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 don't have any, and she must have had wonderful power." The people scolded Corn for sending Tobacco away and told him to go away himself. Then they sent for Tobacco to come back, that they might have rain again.
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.
[i] Cew Duag, 'Tall [or long] Mountain'.
The next year there was no water, and a powerful doctor, Gee-hee-sop,[j] took the Doctor's Stone [divining quartz crystal] of Light and the Doctor's Square Stone [possibly a flat slate], some soft [down] feathers, some eagle tail feathers, and went to where Tobacco lived, asking her to come back, saying, "We're all suffering for water, and we know you have power to make it rain. Every seed buried in the ground is begging for water and is likely to be burned up, and every tree is suffering, and I want you to come home."
The Tobacco said, "What has become of Corn
[j] Gi:supi, 'Black phoebe bird', Sayoris nigricans (Saxton, Saxton, and Enos 1983: 167). Saxton and Saxton (1969: 167) spell this bird name as gi:soki , and at that time they identified it as a large hummingbird. No doubt, the later 1983 spelling and identification are corrections. These "flycatcher"-type (at least to Americans) birds always live near water. They make their nests from leaves mixed with mud (Peterson 1961: 182).
call on the winds, and you will have clouds and plenty of rain."
So Geeheesop went home with the seed balls 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 gourdlike nests which the woodpecker, koh-daht ,[k] makes in the har-san [hasan[*] ], or giant cactus, and took a few of these and put them in a cane-tube pipe, or watch-Kee [uacki ], and went to where the people gathered in the evening.
The doctor who was the father of Tobacco said, "What's this I smell
[k] Might be hokkad[*] , 'cactus-wren' (Heleodytes brunneicapillus ).
Geeheesop, after smoking a few whiffs, passed the pipe around to the others, and all smoked it. When it came back to him he stuck it in the ground.
The next night he came with a new pipe to the place of the meeting, but the father of Tobacco said, "Last night I had a smoke, but I did not feel good after it. The man who had eaten the greens kah-tee-gum[l] the day before said, "He does not mean that he didn't enjoy the smoke, but something else troubled him after it, and I think it was that when we passed the pipe around we didn't say 'My relatives,' 'brother' or 'cousin' or whatever it was but passed it quietly without using any [relationship] names."
And Tobacco's father said, "Yes, that is what I mean." . . . So Geeheesop lit his pipe again and passed it around in the way to satisfy the doctor. The people saved the seeds of that tobacco, and today it is all over the land.[13]
Corn and Pumpkin had gone east, and for many years they lived there, and the people they had left had no corn and no pumpkins. After a while, they returned of themselves, and came first to the moun-
[l] Sounds like what I would spell as kadigam. In story 6, "The Whore," Hayden spells what is undoubtedly the same word as "Cadigum." Here in this text the word is apparently taken as the name of a plant with fragrant leaves, but Hayden was told it is the name of a kind of bird unfamiliar to Smith and Allison. I have not found anyone who knows the word, so I cannot confirm either interpretation. The word does not sound particularly Pima-Papago and may be adapted from another Indian language. In any case, it seems to be obscure.
tain Tahtkum[m] and lived there a while and then crossed the [Gila] river and lived near Blackwater, at a place called Toeahk-Comalk,[n] or White Thin Mountain, and from there went to Gahkotekih[o] or, as it is now called, Superstition Mountain.
While they lived at Gahkotekih, there was a woman living near there at a place called Kawt-kee oy-ee-duck[p] who, with her younger brother, went to Gahkotekih to gather and roast white [probably cholla] cactus, and while they were doing this, Corn saw them from the mountain and came down. The boy saw him and said, "I think that is my uncle coming," but his sister said, "It cannot be, for he is too far away. If he were here, the people would not be starving now."
But the boy was right, and it was his uncle, and Corn came to them and stayed while the cactus was baking. After a while, as he sat aside, he would shoot an arrow up into 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
Again . . . he said, "Would you not better uncover the pumpkin and see if it is cooked yet
[m] Ta:tkam, 'Feeler', a mountain east of Eloy, Ariz. See note 9.
[n] Toa Komalk, 'White Thin'.
[o] Gakodk[*] , 'Bent'.
[p] Probably Kokotk Oidag, 'Seashell Field'—To:bi [Rabbit] Field in Smith-Allison.
"It's not pumpkin we are baking, it's cactus." Finally he said, "Well, uncover it anyway," and she uncovered it and there were corn and pumpkin there, . . . nicely mixed and cut. . . . 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 boy ahead to tell the people that Corn was coming to live with them again. First the boy was to go to 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. He wanted the boy to come right back and tell the answer that 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. He wants me to bring him word what you say."
The doctor 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 and tell the doctor to make a little house . . . and to cover it with mats instead of bushes, and let Tobacco go there . . . until I come. And tell the people to sweep their houses . . . and if anything in their house is broken, such as pots, . . .
to turn them right side up [outside]. For I am coming back openly. There will be no secret about it."
[So it was done and] before sunset the woman [who met Corn] came home with the corn and pumpkins she had cooked at the mountain, but Corn stayed out until evening. When evening came there was a black cloud where Corn stood, and soon it began to rain corn, and every little bit a big pumpkin would come down bump. It rained corn and pumpkins all night, while Corn and his bride were in their house, and in the morning the people went out and gathered the corn from the swept place around their houses.
. . . So Corn lived there with his wife, and after a while Tobacco had a baby. It was a little crooked-neck pumpkin of the sort that Pimas call dog-pumpkin. When the child had grown a little, one day its father and mother went to work in the garden, and they put the little pumpkin baby behind a mat leaning against the wall. Some children . . . found it there and began to play with it for a doll, carrying it on their backs as they do dolls. Finally they dropped it and broke its neck.
When Corn came back, he found his baby broken and was angry, and left his wife, and went east again, and stayed there a while, then bethought him of his pets the blackbirds, which he had left behind, and came back to his wife again. After a while he
went again to the east, taking his pets with him, scattering grains of corn so the blackbirds would follow him. Corn made this speech while he was in the house with Tobacco:
In the east there is the Tonedum Vahahkkee,[q] the Vahahkkee of Light where lives the great doctor, the kingfisher. And I came to Biveschool,[r] the kingfisher, and asked him for power, and he heard me asking, and flew up on his house, and looked toward the west, and breathed light four times, and flew and breathed again four times, and so on—flying four times and breathing after each flight four times, and then he sat over a place in the ground that was cut open.
And in the west there was a Bluebird, and when I asked him for power he flew up on his house and breathed four times, then flew toward the east, and he and Biveschool met at the middle of the earth.
And Biveschool asked the Bluebird to do some great thing to show his power, and the Bluebird took the blue grains of corn from his breast and
[q] Tondam Wa'aki, 'Shining Great-house'.
[r] Probably he:wacud , the "bluejay" according to Saxton, Saxton, and Enos 1983: 20. Saxton and Saxton spelled the word "he:wasjel " in 1969 (15) and identified it then as a "large blue bird." Kingfishers (Lloyd's identification) are large blue birds. Smith and Allison refer to this bird in their Whore story. They consider it a bluebird. Hayden spells the name as "her-va-chut."
then planted them, and they grew into beautiful tall corn, so tall that its tops reached the sky and its leaves bowed over and scratched the ground in the wind.
And Biveschool took white seeds from his breast and planted them, and they came up and were beautiful to be seen and came to bear fruit that lay one after another on the vine—these were pumpkins.
And the beautiful boys ran among these plants and learned to shout and learned to whistle, and the beautiful girls ran around these plants and learned to whistle.
And the relatives heard of these good years and the plenty to eat, and there came a relative leading her child by the hand, who said, "We will go right on, for our relatives must have plenty to eat, and we shall not always suffer with hunger." So these came, but did not eat it all, but returned. So my relatives, think of this, and we shall not suffer with hunger always.
And Corn made another speech at that time to Tobacco's father:
Doctor! Doctor! Have you seen that this earth that you made is burning
The mountains are crumbling, and all kinds of trees are burning down. And the people over the land, which you
have made run around, have forgotten how to shout, and have forgotten how to walk, since the ground is so hot and burning. And the birds, which you have made, have forgotten how to fly, have forgotten how to sing.
And when you found this out you held up the long pinion feathers, mah-cheev-a-duck,[s] toward the east, and there came the long clouds one after the other.
There in those clouds there were low thunderings, and they spread over the earth and watered all the plants and the roots of all the trees; and everything was different from what it had been.
Every low place and every valley was crooked, but the force of the waters straightened them out, and there was driftwood on all the shores: and after it was over every low place and every valley had foam in its mouth.
And in the mouth stood the Doctor, and [he] took the grains from his breast and planted them, and the corn grew and was beautiful. And he went on further, to another low valley,
[s] Ma:cwidag literally "learning-thing" [for medicine men], the long wing or tail feathers primarily of eagles, perhaps also of owls, hawks, and buzzards. The feathers, usually two, always of the same species, are mounted with their bottoms lashed together, so that they curve apart to form a "Y." Medicine men fan things with them.
and planted other seeds, and the pumpkin grew and was beautiful.
And its vine to the west was black and zigzag in form, and to the south was blue and zigzag in form, and to the east was white and zigzag in form, and to the north was yellow and zigzag in form.
So everything came up, and there was plenty to eat, and the people gathered it up, and the young boys and girls ate and were happy, and the old men and the old women ate and lengthened even their few days. So think of this, my relatives, and know that we are not to suffer with hunger always.
And the Dog-Pumpkin Baby lay there broken, after Corn went away, but after a while [the baby] sank down and went to Gahkotekih and grew up there and became the Harsan, or Giant Cactus.
The mother and grandfather could not find the Dog-Pumpkin Baby and called the people together, and Toehahvs [Coyote] was asked to find it, and he smelled around where it had been and went around in circles.
And he came to where the Giant Cactus was and thought it was the baby but was not sure, and so he came back and told them he could not find it. They wanted Nooee [Buzzard] to go, and Toehahvs said to
Nooee, "I did see something, but I was not quite sure, but I want you to examine that Giant Cactus."
So Nooee flew around and around and examined the Giant Cactus and came back, and when the people questioned him he said, "I have found it and it is already full-grown, and I tell you I think something good will happen because of it."
When the cactus had fruit the people gathered it and made tis-win [local Spanish name for cactus wine and other kinds of homebrew] and took the seeds and spread them out in the sun. And Badger stole these seeds, and when the people knew it they sent Toehahvs after the thief.
Toehahvs went and saw Badger ahead of him in the road, and he saw him go out and around and come into the road again and come toward him. When they met, Toehahvs asked him what he had in his hand, and Badger said, "I have something, but I'm not going to show you." Then Toehahvs said, "If you'll only just open your hand so I can see, I'll be satisfied." Badger opened his hand and Toehahvs hit it with a slap from below and knocked the seeds all around, and that is why the giant cactus is so scattered. (Lloyd 1911: 217–230)
Supplement
How Morning Green Lost his Power over the Winds and the Rain Gods (Thin Leather)
Morning Green [mythic successor to Siba] is reputed to have had special magic power over two supernatural beings known as Wind-man and Rain-man. It happened at one time that many people were playing a game with canes in the main plaza of Morning Green's settlement (Casa Grande), on the south side of the compound; among these were Rain-man and Wind-man. The latter laid a wager that if he lost, his opponent should look on the charms of a certain maid. When Wind-man lost, in revenge he sent a great wind that blew aside her blanket, at which indignity she cried and complained of Wind-man to Morning Green, who was so angry that he made Rain-man blind, obliging him to be led about by his servant, the wind; and he also banished both from Casa Grande. They went to the San Bernardino Mountains in what is now California and lived at Eagle Mountain, near the present town of Wadsworth, where as a consequence it rains continuously.
After the banishment of these two the rain ceased at Casa Grande for four years, and Morning Green sent Hummingbird to the mountains where Wind-man and Rain-man resided. Hummingbird carried with
him a white feather, which he held aloft to detect the presence of the wind. Three times he tried to discover Wind-man by the movement of this feather but was not successful. When at last Hummingbird came to a place where there was much green grass, he again held up the feather to see whether it showed any movement of air. It responded by indicating a slight wind, and later he came to the spot where Wind-man and Rain-man were but found them asleep.
Hummingbird dropped a little medicine on the breasts of Wind-man and Rain-man, which caused them after a time to move and later to awake. When they had risen from their sleep, Hummingbird informed them that Morning Green had sent him to ask them to return and again take up their abode with him at Casa Grande. Rain-man, who had no desire to return, answered, "Why did Morning Green send us away
started for Casa Grande when it began to rain, and for four days the downpour was so great that every roof leaked. Morning Green vainly used all his power to stop the rain, but the magic availed him but little. (Fewkes 1912: 47–48)