HOPI LEGENDS

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

BIG HEAD AND GOAT HORN

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Halíksai! In Oraíbi they were living. East of the Kwan kiva a youth lived, by the name of Big Head (Wuyákqötö), Away south are the Hopi Buttes, and on the westernmost butte lived Goat Horn (Chiwákala). These two were friends, but as they lived so far apart they did not visit each other often; but one time Goat Horn visited his friend in Oraíbi. After they had eaten and talked together, towards evening Goat Horn wanted to return home. "My friend," he said to Big Head. "What is it?" the latter replied. "You must come and visit me sometime, too," Goat Horn said; whereupon he went home. After a while Big Head visited his friend, and stayed all night there. In the morning Goat Horn killed a goat for his friend, cut it in two, and gave him one-half, which Big Head took with him to the village; and that is the reason why Hopi, when they kill a goat, cut it up.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

THE CHILD WHO TURNED INTO AN OWL

Alíksai! They were living in Shupaúlavi, and one time a child was crying bitterly. Its mother did not pity it and beat it. "You are crying," she said: "I am going to throw you out doors. I am going to throw you out to the Owl." Hereupon she dragged the child out of the house. A large Owl had been close by and had heard the moaning of the child. He came to the child and when he saw the latter still crying he put him on his back and carried him off. He lived in a little cave at the side of the bluff on which the village of Bayúpki was situated. To this cave he took the child. The Owl had little children in the cave that were living there nicely.

When the mother of the child no longer heard the crying, she came out of the house and looked for her child, but it was gone. "Where has that child gone now?" she said. ''It seems somebody came and got it," whereupon she went through the houses and inquired everywhere, but no one had it. In the morning she again went through the houses hunting her child, but could not find it, "Where may that child be?" she said. So she was without children.

Sometime after some men went after wood north of the village, some of them passing the cave where the Owl lived. They heard some one in a moaning voice sing the following song:

Chavayo chavayo,
Chavayo piva, chavayo piva,
A hmhm, a hmhm.

Looking up they saw a child in the cave, which had already feathers, and the white spots of the Owl began to appear all over the body. The eyes of the child also began to become yellow. "Oh!" the men said, "whose child may that be?" One of the men then suggested that it might be the child that had disappeared, so when they returned to the village they said: "There in the cave of an owl, at Bayúpki, is a child. It already has feathers and spots all over, and its eyes are already yellow. It is turning into an owl. Whose child may that be?" "It must be the child of that woman," the people said right away, so they told them about it. "Now, bestir yourself, bestir yourself, because that child is turning into an owl." So they hurried up and the mother and father and the men who had found the child then proceeded to the place.

When they arrived there the men who had found the child climbed up to the cave. In the back part of the latter was the Owl and his children. The little owl child was sitting alone. The men took it, brought it down and handed it to its father. The mother also took hold of it. The Owl did not come out, but said: "You take the child with you, but when you get to your village you put the child into a room and keep it locked up there for four days. On the fourth day when the sun rises you open the door and let the child come out. It will then be a Hopi again. If you do not do that and open the door before that, the child will remain an Owl and come back again."

So they took the child to the village, put it into a room, placed some food in it and locked the door. The father watched in front of the door, keeping watch there during the four days. He heard his
child move about in the room. After the first day the mother was anxious to open the door, but the father forbid her, saying that they were not to do that, because the Owl had forbidden it. So she waited and on the third day she was very anxious for her child and could hardly await the third day. During the night also, and it seemed to her as if the morning was very slow coming. Finally when it became light she went to the door, which, like the old Hopi doors, that were not made very well, had cracks. "It is light already," she said, "let us open the door." Hereupon she shaded her eyes and looked through one of the cracks. She saw her child walking up and down, but also noticed that it began to change into an owl again. "Let us open the door," she urged, "it is already light." Her husband protested, saying, that the sun had not yet risen, but she opened the door, and out rushed an Owl which immediately rose up and flew towards Bayúpki to the place where it had come from. "Well, now," the man said, "there you looked in before the sun had risen, and yet the Owl had told us not to do so. You have done this, now you have done it and we have no children now. We were just getting our child back again, and now you looked in and it has turned into an Owl, and it will now remain an Owl."

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

THE CROW AND THE HAWK

Alíksai! At Macáhtoika the Crow was living. She had three children. South of Muñáovi lived the Hawk. He had four children. They were always hunting some food for their children, the Hawk hunting rabbits, little squirrels, etc., while the Crow hunted lizards, snakes, mice, etc. One time as they both were hunting some food for their children, they met in the valley east of Oraíbi. "Come here," the Crow said. "Very well," the Hawk replied. "What do you want with me?" "What do you think?" the Crow said, "We want to be friends, and that is the reason I have called you." "Very well," the Hawk replied. "You come and visit me to-morrow", the Crow said, and I shall prepare something good to eat for you."

Hereupon they parted and continued their hunt. In the evening they both arrived at their homes. The Hawk brought for his children a rabbit, which he cut up for them and fed them. They enjoyed the prey and then slept well all night. The Hawk was thinking about the visit that he was to make at his friend's house the next day, and he was thinking about the good food that the Crow had promised to prepare. Early in the morning, before he had eaten, the Hawk went over to his friend. The latter was cooking some food already, and when it was done he placed it before the Hawk. It was a lölö'okong, cut up into pieces. The lölö'okong had been very fat so that it was very fatty food, but the Hawk did not relish it. It smelled very strong. So, he only pretended to eat, reaching his hand towards the vessel and back to his mouth without taking any food. After he had done that for a while he said to his friend that he was satisfied, as he had eaten much, but he spoke a falsehood.

After they had eaten they conversed together a long time, talking especially about their hunting. The Crow had a great many lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, and beetles in her house, which filled the house with odor. The Hawk, not being used to this odor, did not enjoy his stay there at all, because it smelled so strongly. Towards evening he returned to his house, first inviting his friend, the Crow, to come and visit him the next day, and promising that he would also prepare some good food for her. In the evening, when the rabbits are out, he hunted some rabbits and brought them to his children, who were very happy over them. After they had eaten them, they slept. The Crow was thinking during the night about her visit at her friend's house, and about the good food that she was promised. Early in the morning, without having partaken of any food, she proceeded to her friend's house.

The Hawk, remembering the food that he had received at the Crow's house, and which he had not relished, only cooked the skins and intestines of the rabbits, preparing a food of these for his friend. When the latter arrived she asked: "Is somebody at home?" "Yes," the Hawk replied, "come in. Sit down." Hereupon he set the food which he had prepared before the Crow, and as the Crow likes almost anything, she relished the food very much. The Hawk had thought she would not eat any of the food, but she ate heartily of it. They talked all day together, and then in the evening the Crow returned to her house and she is still living there, hatching her young, while the Hawk is still living at the same place, where he also hatches his broods.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

THE JUG BOY

In the village of Háno the people were living. The Háno know how to make the earthen jugs, and one time a handsome young woman also made an earthen jug. She kneaded the clay and when her hands were tired she trampled it with her feet, so that the wet clay spurted all around.[2] By and by this woman bore a child, but it was an earthen jug, inside of which was a little boy, who cried when he was born. The women who were present were happy. "Ishuní!" they said, "you have borne a child," whereupon they washed the jug child, and in that way the child grew up. But the mother nursed it, holding her breast over the opening of the jug when the child nursed.

By and by the child grew up and began to talk like the Háno, and from that time on the child refused to take the mother's breast; it asked for some food, and from there on it ate food which the mother put into the jug. Thus the child grew to be a young man. One time it rained and then it snowed, and the young men then went hunting. In the evening they came home carrying the rabbits. That jug youth envied them. He had a grandfather, and said to the grandfather, "My grandfather." "Hay!" the latter replied. "I want to go hunting, too." "Very well," he replied, and then the grandfather made a bow for him and arrows, and tied feathers to the arrows, and when he had made them he tied them to the jug handles. He also tied some food to the jug and a burden band with it. These things he made.

Then the grandfather lifted the jug up, carried it down from the village and left it there. He said to him, "Now go on; there in the field they are hunting, hence when you proceed and find rabbit tracks somewhere you follow them. This kind of tracks they have," whereupon he drew them for him. Now then he (the jug youth) moved forward in a wabbling manner and descended somewhere along the path. When he had descended he went somewhere northward from the village. Then he moved up and down that way, and sure enough somewhere found some tracks. He followed them and there, sure enough, a rabbit was running. Now that jug youth moved very fast, so that the mouth of the jug whistled. He circled around the rabbit once, then the rabbit jumped into the wash. The jug youth also came and jumped down. When he landed on the ground he burst into two and a Hopi came bouncing out of it.

After that he at once untied the bow and arrows and burden band. He now took the burden band, the bow and arrows, and followed the rabbit. The rabbit became tired and sat down. When the youth found him he shot it. He then followed another one and killed it. Thus he killed four. He now tied them up and carried them on his back and then went home from there. When it was evening he came to his mother carrying the rabbits, and she was truly happy. "Oh my! Thanks that you have killed them, thanks, thanks," she said. The grandfather now also said: "Thanks, thanks, why you have fixed yourself up somewhere, and hence you are now a Hopi and have carried these here to me. Thanks! Why now subsisting on your account I shall live here." When he had thus spoken to him, after that that one lived as a Hopi, and after that he always provided something for his mother, and then subsisting on his account (by his assistance) they lived there.