Story 7—
Origin of Cactus Wine
After this sin was committed, Siuuhu thought he would make some kind of food for the people that would be delicious and healthy. He picked up a man, gave him some of his power, and ordered him to do
Map 2.
Hohokam canals in the Salt River Valley. Granite Reef Dam is in the extreme northeast corner.
(Drawn by Frank Midvale, a Phoenix archaeologist)
this thing for him. When the man received the power, he felt proud. He got his brother-in-law and went to the west. When they started to go, they sang:
I went out
And I'm sadly going
Toward the west.
I'm looking at saguaro blossoms
And I'm sadly handling the cactus.
He went a little distance, turned back, and started toward the east. In the east, he sang:
I am going toward the east.
I am sadly looking at young cactuses,
With ripe fruit on it.
I am sadly handling them.
He went just a little ways east. He was making the cactuses, and if anyone goes that way they will see that the cactuses don't extend very far from here to the east.
When the man saw that the cactuses were good, he thought that Siuuhu was very wise. Then he took care of himself for four times four days.
When the cactus fruit was ripe, the man didn't think very right about how he would use the fruit. He made plans to make a wine that would make people drunk. So when the fruit was ripe, they
gathered it, made wine, and kept it for four days to ferment.
When it was ready, they called four powerful medicine men to drink the wine. They called the people together and took one of the medicine men and sat him on the north side, another on the west side, another on the south, and another on the east. When the sun was just coming up, two men put some wine in vessels and took it and gave it to the man who was sitting at the east. They gave him four full vessels to drink. When he drank the wine, he felt pretty proud, as though he was the wisest medicine man of any of them. He sang(the "drunkard's song"):
Some blooming, blooming wind (like pretty perfumed
flowers)
I'm sending my wind (power)
I'm making the earth turn yellow.
Of the two that were distributing the wine, one next went to the north and the other went to the south. The next man to get the wine was the one that was sitting at the north. When this man drank and got drunk, he sang:
They have come to their blooming,
Wine,
I drink it and am drunk (noda)[a]
[a] 'Dizzy', 'crazy', or 'drunk', but there is another word, navam that only means drunk.
So I am sending out clouds
And everything it's turning green.
The other one who carried the wine, who turned to the south, gave the wine to the one who was sitting on the south side. He drank it and sang:
They gave me that red water to drink,
And when I drink it
I am drunk,,
And I am making
Some rainbows.
Both of the two men who were distributing the wine came to the man sitting on the west side. They gave him the wine, he drank it, and sang:
You have given me
Some crazy water (nodigum schrodek)[b
] And you have made me drunk.
This ground is getting damp (he makes rain).
All the people got drunk and were running all around, and it happened that one old man was dead drunk, was lying down someplace, and they stepped on his head and smashed it.
The people that did this thing of drinking were three different kinds, or were related to each other in three different ways:
[b] Nodaggam su:dagi[*] , 'dizzy [crazy, drunk] water'.
1. A-pa-pa-gum,[c] a certain way of calling father, like in English "Daddy," "Papa," etc.,[d]
2. Va-va-gum,[e]
3. O-galt.[3]
These three groups of people were there at the first drinking.
When Siuuhu saw this drinking, he didn't like it. The people did not use the fruit as he had planned for them, as food. So he changed it so it would be ripe only at one season of the year, and he commanded that the cactus would take a long time to grow before it would start giving fruit.