Story 16—
Siuuhu's Revenge:
Omens at Mesquite Vahki
After crossing the ocean, the people settled down just where they had come out, and they sang:
The land is getting closer,
And my enemy is getting closer.
And:
The mountains are getting closer,
And our enemies are waiting for us.[11]
The man who was sent to look over the land worked like a gopher, and he sang:
Yellow Gopher is going and comes out.
Four times
My enemies' arrow feathers
He chewed up, which makes them go straight.
Then he sang:
Yellow Gopher is going and comes out
Four times.
My enemies' bow strings he has chewed up
Which makes them go straight.
When the [upper world] people [who were to be attacked
When the sun rose, they [attackers; see below] put something with it which is called the medicine man's stone, and the brightness of this stone shone all over the earth in different colors. At that time there was a man living somewhere northwest of Glendale [Arizona] at a place called Vahki[e] in the
[e] Va'aki , 'great-house'.
Mesquites, and this man's name was Sivain,[f] a strong medicine man. He found out that some enemies were coming to destroy them, so he was sad and afraid.
He told one of his sons to go to a man who lived at Casa Blanca and ask if he felt or knew anything about what was going to happen. The boy got to the man and told him what he was sent to find out. The man said, "I am well and happy here at my home, and there is only one thing that I know that is happening, which I think must be good luck. When the sun came up over my house, there was a bright pink light. I believe it's a sign we'll have plenty of saguaro fruit and squaw berries (qua wult )[g] to eat, and so will you."[12]
The boy returned and told what he'd been told. Sivain said there was some kind of trouble behind those signs. He felt sorry because his brother [at Casa Blanca] didn't understand them. Then he sang:
The sun is coming up
And it is shining
Through the houses.
The sun is going down
And the lights are shining
In blue streaks.
[f] Sivañ , 'chief'. Note the use here as a personal name. For Smith there was only one Sivañ.
[g] Kwawul , a shrub (Licium fremontii ) that seems to grow particularly well in Pima rather than Papago territory and is a popular Pima wild food item.
While he sang, one of the Wooshkam[h] dreamed what he was singing about. These Wooshkam were divided into two parts, called Ap p ki kan and Ap pa pa kan.[13] These people[14] lived together close to the ocean for one year.[15] During that year they practiced how to shoot and how to use their shields for protection, and they practiced a power called chu dun ki[i] which is more powerful [than bows or shields], and their medicine men also used lightning (weu pa ki )[j] and thunder (Wee hun ).[k] The man [must be Siuuhu] who was taking care of these people, who had brought them up to fight the earth people, watched and sang these songs:
In the rising of the sun
We are coming out
And the sound of our weapons
Sounds frightening.
Toward the west
We are shooting
And the sound of our shooting
Is frightening.
[h] Wu:skam[*] , 'emerger', 'emergent', the people brought by Siuuhu from the underworld.
[i] Unknown word, probably related to ceden[ *] , 'to thump', 'to hit'.
[j] Wepgi 'lightning'.
[k] Wuihom , usually also considered to be a kind of lightning, especially the crashing, flashing, white lightning that strikes things in rainstorms, as opposed to the glowing red lightning (normally called wepgi ) that one sees in the distance.