Zuni Folktales quotes

Then it was that the maiden suddenly saw her sister, and became hot with anger, for she knew her wicked plans.

“Ah, thou foolish sister, why didst thou come?”

she said. But the other only replied:

Alas! alas! Thus it was in the days of the ancients. Maybe had the young man not kissed her yonder toward the Lake of the Dead, we would never have journeyed nor ever have mourned for others lost. But then it is well!

If men and women had never died, then the world long ago had overflown with children, starvation, and warring.

But then it is well! If men and women had never died, then the world long ago had overflown with children, starvation, and warring.

Thus shortens my story.

So poor was she that she herded Turkeys for a living; and little was given to her except the food she subsisted on from day to day, and perhaps now and then a piece of old, worn-out clothing.

Like the extremely poor everywhere and at all times, she was humble, and by her longing for kindness, which she never received, she was made kind even to the creatures that depended upon her

, and lavished this kindness upon the Turkeys she drove to and from the plains every day. Thus, the Turkeys, appreciating this, were very obedient.

The latter are the song that the Turkeys sang, graven in the rocks; and all over the plains along the borders of Zuni Mountains since that day turkeys have been more abundant than in any other place.

After all, the gods dispose of men according as men are fitted; and if the poor be poor in heart and spirit as well as in appearance, how will they be aught but poor to the end of their days?

“Yes,” said he, “they are all gone—every solitary one of them.”

“Oh, you foolish, foolish, disobedient fellow! I am all alone in the world, and if you should go to some of those fearful places some time and not come back, who would hunt for me? What should I do?”

said the mother.

“Oh, my younger brother!” said the elder. “These will not be acceptable to the girl at all; she would not have them in the house!”

“Oh, yes, she would,” said the younger; “we will take them along as a present to her.”

So they went on, and it was hardly noon when they arrived with their strings of rats at the white cliffs on the southern side of the canyon opposite the village where the maiden lived.

“Oh, no,” said the younger, “let us go along now. I am in a hurry! I am in a hurry!”

“You are a fool!” said the elder brother; “you should not think of going courting before evening. Stay here patiently.”

So they sat down in the shade of the cliff.

and, if we have lost our grandmother, whom we loved much, but who loved us more, men have gained a new food, which, though it burn them, shall please them more than did the heat of her discourse please us.

Poor old grandmother! Men will little dream when they eat peppers that the seed of them first arose from the fiery heart of the grandmother of Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma.

”

Yet she would none of them. She would shake her head with a saucy smile, and reply to everyone, as well as to every recommendation of one from her elders:

“A hero for me or no one! Any one of these young men may win my affections if he will, for who knows until the time comes whether a man be a hero or not?”

So she made a proposition. She said to all the youths who came suing for her hand: “Behold! our nation is at enmity with the Zunis, far off to the eastward, over the mountains.

then, wheeling about and darting down, they would dip themselves in the broad spring which flows out at the foot of the mountain, and return to their dancing place on the rocky slopes.

A Coyote was out hunting (as if he could catch anything, the beast!) and saw them, and was enraptured.

“You beautiful creatures!” he exclaimed. “You graceful dancers! Delight of my senses! How do you do that, anyway? Couldn’t I join in your dance—the first part of it, at least?”

“There, you wretched beast!” said the old Turtle with a sigh of relief and satisfaction.

“Ingenuity enabled me to kill a deer. Ingenuity enabled me to retain the deer.”

It must not be forgotten that one of the little Coyotes ran away.

only it was observed when he returned to his companions in the Canyon of the Cedars that he had yellow eyes instead of black ones, which everybody knows Coyotes and all other creatures had at first.

Thus it was in the days of the ancients, and hence to this day coyotes have yellow eyes, and are not always quick to see things.

The other kind is somewhat heartier, but makes young men feel depressed and very humble. It need not be asked which kind was laughed by the women when they saw this ugly, ragged, miserable-looking young man.

He had bright twinkling eyes, however, and that means more than all else sometimes.

Now, this young man came to hear of what was going on. He had no present to offer the girl, but he admired her as much as—yes, a good deal more than—if he had been the handsomest young man of his time.

Now, there are two kinds of laugh with women.

One of them is a very good sort of thing, and makes young men feel happy and conceited.

The other kind is somewhat heartier, but makes young men feel depressed and very humble. It need not be asked which kind was laughed by the women when they saw this ugly, ragged, miserable-looking young man.

He smiled, and said he would certainly try to the best of his ability, but this was a very hard thing she asked.

“I know it is,” said the girl; “that is why I ask it.”

Now, the young man left the house forthwith. The next day he very quietly went down into the cornfields belonging to the girl, and over toward the northern mesa, for that is where her cornfields were—lucky being!

“Why, they were all there except the Coyote,” said the young man; “but I must tell you the truth, and somehow he got out or didn’t get in.”

“Who cares for a Coyote!” said the girl. “I would much rather marry a man with some ingenuity about him than have all the Coyotes in the world to kill.”

Whereupon she accepted this very ugly but ingenious young man; and it is notable that ever since then pretty girls care very little how their husbands look, being pretty enough themselves for both.

“What’s that?” asked the Bear.

“Whoever is certain of his rights on this plateau and the things that grow on it must prove it by not being scared by anything that the other does,” said the boy.

“Ha, ha!” laughed the Bear, in his big, coarse voice. “That is a good plan, indeed. I am perfectly willing to stand the test.”

A few believed in what the boy said; and some, because he was ugly, would not believe it and would not go; and thus were as much hindered from gathering grass-seed and nuts for daily food as if the Bear had been really there.

You know people nowadays are often frightened by such a kind of Bear as this.

Thus it was in the days of the ancients. And therefore the Zuni Mountains to this day are filled with bears;

“Shtchu!” exclaimed the elder sister derisively.

“Younger sisters always are as timid as younger brothers are bad-tempered.”

“Ah, well, then; as you will, sister elder. I will not quarrel with your wish, but I fear to go.”

He wore over his shoulders whole skins of the mountain lion and bear clasped with buttons of wood.

Now, although Átahsaia was ugly and could not speak without chattering his teeth, or laugh without barking like a wolf, he was a very polite demon. But, like many ugly and polite people nowadays, he was a great liar.

Átahsaia that morning woke up and stuck his head out of his hole just as the two maidens went down to the spring. He caught sight of them while his eyes travelled below, and he chuckled.

When they began to brown and sizzle a little they writhed and howled with pain, but they were tough and quite bad, as you know, and this did not kill them.

Who can hide a thing from the eyes of the gods?

The elder brothers of these two foolish little War-gods, Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma, those who dwelt on Thunder Mountain, became aware of what was going on.

“Ha!” exclaimed she. “Now, child, I will cure thee, but thou hast been so long that thy head will always be welted and covered with proud-flesh, even though healed. Still, it must ever be so.

Doing right keeps right; doing wrong makes wrong, which, to make right, one must even pay as the sick pay those who cure them.

Go now, and bide whither I bid thee.”