Kotharian Lightning

From Zuni Folklore

Before the beginning of the new-making, Awonawilona (the Maker and Container of All, the All-father Father), solely had being. There was nothing else whatsoever throughout the great space of the ages save everywhere black darkness in it, and everywhere void desolation.

In the beginning of the new-made, Awonawilona conceived within himself and thought outward in space, whereby mists of increase, steams potent of growth, were evolved and uplifted. Thus, by means of his innate knowledge, the All-container made himself in person and form of the Sun whom we hold to be our father and who thus came to exist and appear. With his appearance came the brightening of the spaces with light, and with the brightening of the spaces the great mist-clouds were thickened together and fell, whereby was evolved water in water; yea, and the world-holding sea.

With his substance of flesh (yepnane) outdrawn from the surface of his person, the Sun-father formed the seed-stuff of twain worlds, impregnating therewith the great waters, and lo! In the heat of his light these waters of the sea grew green and scums (k’yanashotsuyal-lawe) rose upon them, waxing wide and weighty until, behold! They became Awitelin Tsita, the “Four-fold Containing Mother-earth,” and Apoyan Ta’chu, the “All-covering Father-sky.”

From the lying together of these twain upon the great world-waters, so vitalizing, terrestrial life was conceived; whence began all beings of earth, men and the creatures, in the Four-fold womb of the World (Awi-ten Tehu’hlnakwi).

Thereupon the Earth-mother repulsed the Sky-father, growing big and sinking deep into the embrace of the waters below, thus separating from the Sky-father in the embrace of the waters above. As a woman forebodes evil for her first-born ere born, even so did the Earth-mother forebode, long withholding from birth her myriad progeny and meantime seeking counsel with the Sky-father. “How,” said they to one another, “shall our children, when brought forth, know one place from another, even by the white light of the Sun-father?”

Now like all the surpassing beings (pikwaiyin ahai) the Earth-mother and the Sky-father were ‘hlimna (changeable), even as smoke in the wind, transmutable at thought, manifesting themselves in any form at will, like as dancers may by mask-making.

Thus, as a man and woman, spake they, one to the other. “Behold!” said the Earth-mother as a great terraced bowl appeared at hand and within it water, “this is as upon me the homes of my tiny children shall be. On the rim of each world-country they wander in, terraced mountains shall stand, making in one region many, whereby country shall be known from country, and within each, place from place. Behold again!” said she as she spat on the water and rapidly smote and stirred it with her fingers. Foam formed, gathering about the terraced rim, mounting higher and higher. “Yea,” said she, “and from my bosom they shall draw nourishment, for in such as this shall they find the substance of life whence we were ourselves sustained, for see!” Then with her warm breath she blew across the terraces; white flecks of the foam broke away, and, floating over above the water, were shattered by the cold breath of the Sky-father attending, and forthwith shed downward abundantly fine mist and spray! “Even so, shall white clouds float up from the great waters at the borders of the world, and clustering about the mountain terraces of the horizons be borne aloft and abroad by the breaths of the surpassing of soul-beings, and of the children, and shall hardened and broken be thy cold, shedding downward, in rain-spray, the water of life, even into the hollow places of my lap! For therein chiefly shall nestle our children mankind and creature-kind, for warmth in thy coldness.”

Lo! even the trees on high mountains near the clouds and the Sky-father crouch low toward the Earth-mother, cold the Sky-father, even as woman is the warm, man the cold being!

“Even so!” said the Sky-father; “Yet not alone shalt thou helpful be unto our children, for behold!” and he spread his hand abroad with the palm downward and into all the wrinkles and crevices thereof he set the semblance of shining yellow corn-grains; in the dark of the early world-dawn they gleamed like sparks of fire, and moved as his hand was moved over the bowl, shining up from and also moving in the depths of the water therein. “See!” said he, pointing to the seven grains clasped by his thumb and four fingers, “by such shall our children be guided; for behold, when the Sun-father is not night, and thy terraces are as the dark itself (being all hidden therein), then shall our children be guided by lights – like to these lights of all the six regions turning round the midmost one – as in and around the midmost place, where these our children shall abide, lie all the other regions of space! Yea! And even as these grains gleam up from the water, so shall seed-grains like to them, yet numberless, spring up from thy bosom when touched by many waters, to nourish our children.” Thus and in other ways many devised they for their offspring.

Anon in the nethermost of the four cave-wombs of the world, the seed of men and the creatures took form and increased; even as within eggs in warm places worms speedily appear, which growing, presently burst their shells and became as may happen, birds, tadpoles or serpents, so did men and all creatures grow manifoldly and multiply in many kinds. Thus the lowermost womb or cave-world, which was Anosin tehuli (the womb of sooty depth or of growth-generation, because it was the place of first formation and black as a chimney at night time, foul too, as the internals of the belly), thus did it become overfilled with being. Everywhere were unfinished creatures, crawling like reptiles one over another in filth and black darkness, crowding thickly together and treading each other, one spitting on another or doing other indecency, insomuch that loud became their murmurings and lamentations, until many among them sought to escape, growing wiser and more manlike.

Then came among men and the beings, it is said, the wisest of wise men and the foremost, the all-sacred master, Poshaiyank’ya, he who appeared in the waters below, even as did the Sun-father in the wastes above, and who arose from the nethermost sea, and pitying men still, won upward, gaining by virtue of his (innate) wisdom-knowledge issuance from that first world-womb through ways so dark and narrow that those who, seeing somewhat, crowded after, could not follow, so eager were they and so mightily did their strive with one another! Alone, then, he fared upward from one womb (cave) to another out into the great breadth of daylight. There, the earth lay, like a vast island in the midst of the great waters, wet and unstable. And alone fared he forth dayward, seeing the Sun-father and supplicating him to deliver mankind and the creatures there below.

Then did the Sun-father take counsel within himself, and casting his glance downward espied, on the great waters, a Foam-cap near to the Earth-mother. With his beam he impregnated and with his heat incubated the Foam-cap, whereupon she gave birth to Uanam Achi Piahkoa, the Beloved Twain who descended; first, Uanam Uhkona, the Beloved Preceder, then Uauam Yaluna, the Beloved Follower, Twin brothers of Light, yet Elder and Younger, the Right and the Left, like to question and answer in deciding and doing. To them the Sun-father imparted, still retaining, control-thought and his own knowledge wisdom, even as to the offspring of wise parents their knowledge is imparted and as to his right hand and his left hand a skillful man gives craft freely surrendering not his knowledge. He gave them, of himself and their mother the Foam-cap, the great cloud-bow, and for arrows the thunderbolts of the four quarters (twain to either), and for buckler the fog-making shield, which (spun of the floating clouds and spray and woven, as of cotton we spin and weave) supports as on wind, yet hides (as a shadow hides) its bearer, defending also. And of men and all creatures he gave them the fathership and dominion, also as a man gives over the control of his work to the management of his hands. Well instructed of the Sun-father, they lifted the Sky-father with the great cloud-bow into the vault of the high zenith, that the earth might become warm and thus fitter or their children, men and the creatures. Then along the trail of the sun-seeking Poshaiyanjk’ya, they sped backward swiftly on their floating fog-shield, westward to the Mountain of Generation. With their magic knives of the thunderbolt they spread open the uncleft depths of the mountain, and still on their cloud-shield – even as a spider in her web descendeth – so descended they unerringly, into the dark of the under-world. There they abode with men and creatures, attending them, coming to know them, and becoming known of them as masters and fathers, thus seeking the ways for leading them forth.

Now there were growing things in the depths, like grasses and crawling vines. So now the Beloved Twain breathed on the stems of these grasses (growing tall, as grass is wont to do toward the light, under the opening they had cleft and whereby they had descended), causing them to increase vastly and rapidly by grasping and walking round and round them, twisting them upward until lo! They reach forth even into the light. And where successively they grasped the stems ridges were formed and thumb-marks whence sprang branching leaf-stems. Therewith the two formed a great ladder whereon men and the creatures might ascend to the second cave-floor, and thus not be violently ejected in after-time by the throes of the Earth-mother, and thereby be made demoniac and deformed.

Up this ladder, into the second cave-world, men and the beings crowded, following closely the Two Little but Mighty Ones. Yet many fell back and, lost in the darkness, peopled the underworld, whence they were delivered in after-time amid terrible earth shakings, becoming the monsters and fearfully strange beings of olden time. Lo! In this second womb it was dark as is the night of a storm season, but larger of space and higher than had been the first, because it was nearer the navel of the Earth-mother, hence named K’olin tehul (the Umbilical-womb, or the Place of Gestation). Here again men and the beings increased and the clamor of their complainings grew loud and beseeching. Again the Two, augmenting the growth of the great ladder, guided them upward, this time not all at once, but in successive bands to become in time the fathers of the six kinds of men (the yellow, the tawny gray, the red, the white, the mingled, and the black races), and with them the gods and creatures of them all. Yet this time also, as before, multitudes were lost or left behind. The third great cave-world, whereunto men and the creatures had now ascended, being larger than the second and higher, was lighter, like a valley in starlight, and named Awisho tehuli – the Vaginal-womb, or the Place of Sex-generation or Gestation. For here the various peoples and beings began to multiply apart in kind one from another; and as the nations and tribes of men and the creatures thus waxed numerous as before, here, too, it became overfilled. As before, generations of nations now were led out successively (yet many lost, also as hitherto) into the next and last world-cave, Tepahaian tehuli, the Ultimate-uncoverable, or the Womb of Parturition.

Here it was light like the drawing, and men began to perceive and to learn variously according to their natures, whereupon the Twain taught them to seek first all our Sun-father, who would, they said, reveal to them wisdom and knowledge of the ways of life – wherein also they were instructing them as we do little children. Yet like the other cave-worlds, this too became, after long time, filled with progeny; and finally at periods, the Two led forth the nations of men and the kinds of being, into this great upper world, which is called Tek’ohaian ulahnane, or the World of Disseminated Light and Knowledge or Seeing.

Eight years made the span of four days and four nights when the world was new. It was while yet such days and nights continued that men were led forth, first in the night, that it might be well. For even when they saw the great star (moyachun ‘hlana), which since then is spoken of as the lying star (mokwanosona), they thought it the Sun himself, so burned it their eyeballs! Men and the creatures were nearer alike then than now:black were our fathers the late born of creation, like the caves from which they came forth; cold and scaly their skins like those of mud-creatures; goggled their eyes like those of an owl; membranous their ears like those of cave-bats; webbed their feet like those of walkers in wet and soft places; and according as they were elder or younger, they had tails, longer or shorter. They crouched when they walked, often indeed, crawling along the ground like toads, lizards and newts; like infants who still fear to walk straight, they crouched, as before-time they had in their cave-worlds, that they might not stumble and fall, or come to hurt in the uncertain light thereof. And when the morning star rose they blinked excessively as they beheld its brightness and cried out with many mouth-motionings that surely now the Father was coming; but it was only the elder of the Bright Ones, gone before with elder nations and with his shield of flame, heralding from afar (as we herald with wet scales or crystals) the approach of the Sun-father! And when, low down in the east the Sun-father himself appeared, what though shrouded in the midst of the great world waters, they were so blinded and heated by his light and glory that they cried out to one another in anguish and fell down wallowing and covering their eyes with their bare hands and arms. Yet ever anew they looked afresh to the light and anew struggled toward the sun as moths and other night creatures seek the light of a camp fire; yea, and what though burned, seek ever anew that light!

Thus ere long they became used to the light, and to this high world they had entered. Wherefore, when they arose and no longer walked bended, los! It was then that they first looked full upon one another and in horror of their filthier parts, strove to hide these, even from one another, with girdles of bark and rushes; and when by thus walking only upon their hinder feet the same became bruised and sore, they sought to protect them with plaited soles (sandals) of yucca fiber.

It was thus, by much devising of ways, that men began to grow knowing in many things, and were instructed by what they saw, and so became wiser and better able to receive the words and gifts of their fathers and elder brothers, the gods, Twain and others, and priests. For already masters-to-be were amongst them. Even in the dark of the under-worlds such had come to be; as had, indeed, the various kinds of creatures-to-be, so these. And according to their natures they had found and cherished things, and had been granted gifts by the gods; but as yet they knew not the meanings and right uses of the precious or needful things given them; nay yet the functions of their very parts! Now in the light of the Sun-father, persons became known from persons, and these things from other things; and thus the people came to know their many fathers among men, to know the by themselves or by the possessions they had.

Now the first and most perfect of all these fathers among men after Poshaiyank’ya was Yanauluha, who brought up from the under-world water of the inner ocean, and seeds of life-production and growing things; in gourds he brought these up, and also things containing the “of-doing powers.”

He who was named Yanauluha carried ever in his hand a staff which now in the daylight appeared plumed and covered with feathers of beautiful colors – yellow, blue-green, and red, white, black, and varied. Attached to it were shells and other potent contents of the under-world. When the people saw all these things and the beautiful baton, and heard the song-like tinkle of the sacred shells, they stretched forth their hands like little children and cried out, asking many questions.

Yanauluha, and other priests (shiwanateuna) having been made wise by teaching of the masters of life (god-beings) with self-magic-knowing (yam tsepan anikwanan), replied: “It is a staff of extension, wherewith to test the hearts and understandings of children.” Then he balanced it in his hand and struck with it a hard place and blew upon it. Amid the plumes appeared four round things, seeds of moving beings, mere eggs were they, two blue like the sky or turkis; two dun-red like the flesh of the Earth-mother.

Again the people cried out with wonder and ecstasy, and again asked they questions, many.

“These be,” said he who was named Uanauluha, “the seed of living things; both the cherishers and annoyancers, of summer time; choose ye without greed which ye will have for to follow! For from one twain shall issue beings of beautiful plumage, colored like the verdure and fruitage of summer; and whither they fly and ye follow, shall be everlastingly manifest summer, and without toil, the pain whereof ye ken not, fields full fertile of food shall flourish there. And from the other twain shall issue beings evil, uncolored, black, piebald with white; and whither these two shall fly and ye follow, shall strive winter with summer; fields furnished only by labor such as ye wot not of shall ye find there, and contended for between their offspring and yours shall be the food-fruits thereof.

“The blue! The blue!” cried the people, and those who were not hasty and strongest strove for the blue eggs, leaving the other eggs for those who had waited. “See,” said they as they carried them with much gentleness and laid them, as one would the new-born, in soft sand on the sunny side of a cliff, watching them day by day, “precious of color are these; surely then, of precious things they must be the seed!” And “Yea verily!” said they when the eggs cracked and worms issued, presently becoming birds with open eyes and with pin-feathers under their skins, “Verily we chose with understanding, for see! Yellow and blue, red and green are their dresses, even seen through their skins!” So they fed the pair freely of the food that men favor – thus alas! Cherishing their appetites for food of all kinds! But when their feathers appeared they were black with white bandings; for ravens were they! And they flew away mocking our fathers and croaking course laughs!

And the other eggs held by those who had waited by their father Yanauluha, became gorgeous macaws and were wafted by him with a toss of his wand to the far southward summer-land. As father, yet child of the macaw, he chose as the symbol and name of himself and as father of these his more deliberate children – those who had waited – the macaw and the kindred of the macaw, the Luka-kwe; whilst those who had chosen the ravens became the Raven-people, or the Kaka-kwe.

Thus first was our nation divided into the People of Winter and the People of Summer. Of the Winter those who chose the raven, who were many and strong; and of the Summer those who cherished the macaw, who were fewer and less lusty, yet of prudent understanding because they were more deliberate. Hence, Yanauluha their father, being wise, saw readily the light and ways of the Sun-father, and being made partaker of his breath, thus became among men as the Sun-father is among the little moons of the sky; and speaker to and of the Sun-father himself, keeper and dispenser of precious things and commandments, Pekwi Shiwani Ehkona (and Earliest Priest of the Sun). He and his sisters became also the seed of all priests who pertain to the Midmost clan-line of the priest-fathers of the people themselves “masters of the house of houses.” By him also, and his seed, were established and made good the priests-keepers of things.

Source:

Zuni Creation Myths, Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1896