From Zuni Folklore
Now, when the Zuni had departed, there came from the west, behold! Two strangers seeming, guided by the Salamopia, and all the fleet runners of the Kaka then first seen of men and feared as by children now, for they were fierce and scourged people from their pathways to make room for those they guided. For know that these were the two brothers Anahoho who had returned to the desolate cities of their people. Therein had they sought in vain for those living in the blackened houses. They even tore down the chimneys and peered in, seeking for their brother K’yaklu, and when they found him not they smote their faces and held their noses in grief, and all black as were their hands with soot, lo! Thus became their faces, flat and masked with the black hand-mark of dismay, and as they held their faces they cried dismally and long.
No sooner did they come into the village of our fathers than they began turning over the things from which the people had fled, and casting them down where the Salamopia stamped them into the earth or otherwise destroyed them that their lives might go the way of the dead for the dead and the Kaka. And when the people saw this, they brought forth vessels and baskets and other things without stint, all of which, as though all were chimneys, the Twain Anahoho took up, and peering into them lifted their faces and cried their dreary mournful cry, casting these things straightway to the ground. Thus to this day they follow their brother, seeking ever, finding never, sending after their brother the souls of men’s possessions that all may be well int eh after time, in the after time of each age of man.
Long sojourned the people in the town on the sunrise slope of the mountain of Ka’hluelawan, and though the earth in time began to groan warningly anew, loath were they to leave the place of the Kaka and the lake of their dead. But the rumbling grew louder apace, and at last the Twain Beloved called, and bade the people arise, and all together – now that their multitudes were in part diminished – follow them eastward, seeking once more the palace of the Middle. Not without murmuring among themselves did the people obey; but after they had fared forward a certain distance they came to a place of fair seeming and great promise, so much so, indeed, that it was said, “Let us tarry in this favored spot, for perchance it may be the place of the Middle.”
And so they builded for themselves there greater houses than ever they had builded, and more perfect withal, for they were still great and strong in numbers and wittier than of old, albeit yet unperfected as men; and the place wherein they so builded was Han’hlipink’ya, “The Place of Sacred Stealing,” so named in after time for reasons we wont of.
Long did the people abide therein, prosperously; but with waxing ever wiser and stronger their condition changed, so that little suited to it – with their tails and beast clothing – were our wonderful, magical, yet rude, ugly feathers. Being beast-like, they were sore-inconvenienced both at home and abroad, in the chase or at war; for now and again they still in their wanderings met older nations of men and man-beings, with whom they needs must strive, so they thought, forsooth, thereby gaining naught save great danger with increase of anger and stubbornness. Thus not any longer in fear only of the gods and great monsters, but in fear now of the wars they themselves provoked, contending the world with their own kind and with man-beings, changed yet otherwise were they. Of the elders of all their folk-kins the gods therefore called a council.
“Changed, verily and yet more changed shall ye be, oh our children!” cried the Twain gods in such fashion and voice that none failed of heeding in all that great council:
Men now, shall ye be,
Like the men of first nations,
Like the perfect Corn Maidens;
Walking straight in the pathways
And full in the sunlight;
Clothed in garments, and tailless
(That ye straight sit in council
And stand the more seemly).
And your feet shall be webless,
And hands void of talons,
Yet full-furnished, for fighting.
Then ranged were the clans
In processions like dancers;
First, the fronts of their faces
Were shorn of their forelocks
By the Twain with their weapons,
And fires of the lightning,
That the Sun on his journeys
Might know them, his children,
And warn them of shame.
Again in processions,
Their talons were severed
And webbed fingers slitted;
And again in processions
Their webbed toes were parted
With the knives of the lightnings.
Then sore was the wounding
And loud cried the foolish;
But the Gods bade them “bear it”
That they and their children
“Be fitter as men.”
When lastly the people
Were ranged in procession
And their tails were razed sharply,
There were many who cried
(Little heeding the foremost
Who recked now, no longer
The pain they had suffered),
And these, in their folly,
Shrinking farther and farther
Fled away, in their terror,
Crazed, and chattering loudly,
Climbing trees and high places,
And bereft of their senses
Wandered far (seeking safety,
Sleeping ever in tree-tops)
To the south Summer-country.
Seen again by far walkers –
“Long of tail and long handed
Like wizened man-children,
Wild, and noisy of mouthing.
Their kind still abide there,
Eating raw things like creatures”
Say the words of the ancients.
“Thus wise fared it ever
With those who feared greatly
The words of the fathers,
Yet feared not their warnings!”
Say the words of the ancients.
Thereafter more and more goodly of favor became the people, for they dwelt long in Han’hlipink’ya, where, lo! That this might be so, their useless parts had in sacred theft been stolen, as it were, from them, and they gained great strength, and in the fullness thereof they sought more often than ever to war with all strangers (whereby they became still more changed in spirit), which the Two Beloved watched amain, nor said they aught!
But there came a day when the people grew vain and waxed insolent, saying, “Look now, we are perfect of parts and surely have attained to the Middle place or unto one equal thereunto. Go to, let us build greatly and lay up store, nor wearily wander again even though the earth tremble and the Twain bid us forth. Think ye we shall not be strong and defy even the Fearful?” cried the Men of the Knife, the stout warriors of the Twain. But what of all that? This! Even whilst they were wont to speak in this brave fashion the mountains trembled often, and although afar sounding, much did it abate these boastings!
Well aware of this temper of people, changed also in spirit became the Twain Beloved. “Verily a time hath come,” said they, “and this is the time.” Forthwith they called the fathers to council again, as many of them as there were of the Midmost and of all the folk kins, they and the Men of the knife – brave of mouth yet weak of danger – called they together, and thus spake unto them:
Lo! Long have ye dwelt here
At rest from far journeys
Sooth! Ye stronger have waxed,
And like cubs of the puma
Grown lusty, seek living
Apart from your fathers!
Ye have changed, O, ye children!
Ye have changed been, to men!
Whilst far from the Middle,
The world’s stable Middle,
Still ye boast to have found it,
And ye think upon warfare!
Nay, proven ye shall be
And it shall be tested!
Thus far have we led ye
In peace, and with counsel
Of wisdom controlled ye.
But we too have changed been,
By wounding our children
With weapons of magic.
Thus, of blood we have tasted the hunger,
Henceforth by the power of war,
And the hazard of omens and chance,
Shall we open the ways for our people
And guide them in search of the Middle!
And our names shall be known as the Twain
Who hold the high places of earth –
Ahaiyuta, the elder and main;
Matsailema, the younger of birth.
Come forth, ye War-men of the Knife,
Carve plume-wands of death and the spaces,
Bring out the great drum of the regions!
Come forth, master-priest of the north,
Thou first in the kin of the Bear,
Bring out the seed stuff of the hail-tempests!
Come forth, master-priest of the west,
Thou first in the kin of Coyotes,
Bring out the seed stuff of beast-slaying!
Come forth, master-priest of the south,
Thou first in the kin of the Badger,
Bring out the shell trumpets of fire!
Come forth, master-priest of the east,
Thou first in the kin of the Turkey,
Bring out the great crystal of light.
Come forth, master-priest of the high,
Thou first in the kin of the Eagle, Lay before us the streaked stone of lightning!
Come forth, master-priest of below,
Thou first in the kin of the Serpent,
Lay out the black stone of earth thunder.
Sit aloof, O ye priests of the Middle,
Ye first in the kin of All People,
Watch well o’er your seed-things and children!
Speak wisely to these our new children;
Henceforth they shall be your first speakers,
And the peace-making shields of your people,
Through wasting the blood of all foeman
And feeding the soil with its substance!
Thus much.
Then the Twain gave directions:
They named the eight days for preparing.
The people returned to their houses,
The priests to their fastings and labors,
The Twain to their high mountain-places.
And when the eight days had been counted
And all had been done as commanded,
Around the deep pool in the valley,
That leads from the walled Han’hlipink’ya
The sacred seed-contents were gathered.
And full in their midst the great drum jar
Was placed by the summoned clan-fathers.
Then each took his place in the circle,
And the Twain Gods still further instructed
The kin-priests, and knife-bearing warriors.
Soft they chanted the sacred song-measure,
The magic and dread Shomitak’ya,
And whispered the seven fell names!
Then they painted the round mark of thunder
And the wavering trail of the lightning
Around the great drum, in the middle,
And on the hooped drum-stick of thunder.
And over the drum-head, with prayer-dust
They marked out the cross of the quarters,
As on the cloud-shield they had leveled
Fire-bolts to the four earthly regions.
With black of shell-corpse-scales that glitters,
They painted the eyes of the leaders;
With blood of their own tinged their cheeks;
With pollen of sleep sealed their lips.
With blood of their own thus they painted
The cheeks of the warriors assembled;
With black of shell-corpse-scales that glimmers
They shaded their eyelids and eyebrows,
That their lives might endure through the trial
And their eyes not be blighted by lightning.
And the nostrils of each they did breathe in,
That their own wind might mingle with man-wind,
Give power to men’s voices in battle
And strengthen men’s wills with endurance.
Then said they to the drummer and singers:
“Lo, no! Ye shall sing our dread song-line.
Like beetles that fall in hot ashes
Ye shall perish, ye singers and drummer.
But lo! In the lightnings and wind-storms
Your beings shall join the beloved.
Your breaths, too, shall strengthen the warrior
And give power to the voice of the warrior,
Bringing peace to the Seed-priests and women.
And ye shall be foremost forever
Of our Chosen, the Priests of the Bow.
Lo! The people shall see that we dread not
The coming of fire-blasts and thunder
With our name-fathers, fiercer than any –
The Storm gods of all the six regions:
Ha’hl’tunk’ya, Wind God of the North;
U-heponole, Wind of the West;
Oloma, Wind God of the South;
Tsailuhtsanek’y – of the East;
Saushuluma, Wind from Above;
Saishiwani, Blast from Below;
Unahsinte, Whirlwind of All!
By their breaths and fell power
We shall changed be, in being;
Made black and mis-shapen;
Made stronger with fierceness;
Made swifter with hurling;
Made craft with turning;
Plunged deep in the waters,
And renewed of their vigor;
Clad anew with their foam-dress!
Yea, the power of the weapons
The Sun-father gave us
And the Foam-mother made us,
That ye be led upward,
Shall multiplied be
In the means of destruction
For the hands of our children,
Ye Priests of the Bow,
That men be kept living!
But to rock, age-enduring,
Grouped in song for our chosen,
O, drummer and singers!
Ye shall changed be forever!
The foot-rests of eagles
And signs of our order!”
The fathers in thought bowed their faces,
And secretly prayed, in their hearts.
The people who watched them, held breath,
And covered their mouths with their robes.
In dread of the powers of magic
And in woe for the doom of their fathers.
The gods, to the right and the left
Took their stand by the side of the waters,
At erst they had stood by the cloud-shield,
Their weapons of magic between them,
The plumes of the warriors placed duly
In liues, to the east before them;
The warriors made ready for travel,
Apart from, but circling around them.
Then the Twain gave the word of beginning!
The master of words raised his song-staff,
On its shoulder the plume-wand of man-folk;
The drum-master lifted his sound-hoop,
In its circle the symbol of thunder,
On its handle, the red sign of lightning;
Six times did they lift up in silence
The song-staff and hoop of the drum,
Then stuck, with the might of their sinews.
The sound shook the valley with thunder
And above and below echoed thunder;
The meal on the drum-head was lifted
And danced as a rain-cloud around them.
Then the water below moved and bubbled,
And mists like a cold breath ascended;
As wind in a vase the song sounded;
Black cloud-steps rose up from the quarters
And darkened the day with their shadows.
When the first name was named by the singers,
The world rocked with earthquake and thunder
And the roar of swift storms in the northland.
Ha’hl’tunk’ya, with dire eyes and starting –
Gleaming yellow as firelight in winter –
And teeth with rage gnashing, and yellow
As shucks of the corn-plant grown aged –
Tumbled down from the north with his hail-balls,
And, mingling with mud the deep water,
In a voice like the sound of a torrent,
Bellowed loud to the Twain and the singers:
“Why call ye, small worms of the waters
And spawn of the earth and four quarters,
Ye disturbers of thought, lacking shame;
Why call ye the words of my name?”
“Thy feet start with patience, grandfather;
We are small, but we joy in thy fury,
Whence we yearn for thy counsel and spirit;
For we long to smite foes from the pathways
As thou canst the trees from the highlands.”
“Being so, it is well,” said the ancient.
Lo! the seed-stuff of hail, bound with treasure,
Gleamed with ice from the breath of his answer.
When they named the next name of the song strand,
Uheponolo rolled from the westland
In sand-blasts and dust-clouds like mountains,
And stayed fast their feet with his driftings;
And said as the first had,
Receiving the same reply.
When they named the third name of the song strand,
Oloma swirled up from the southland
Like a fire draught and crackled the pool-rim;
And said as the first had,
Receiving the same reply.
When they named the fourth name of the song strand,
Tsailuh’tsanok’ya shrieking shrilly,
Shot the mountains and valleys with dawn-frost;
And said as the first had,
Receiving the same reply.
When they named the fifth name of the song strand,
Saushulima streamed from the zenith,
And deluged the vale with swift water;
And said as the first had,
Receiving the same reply.
When they named the sixth name of the song strand,
Saishiwani ripped the earth open;
Ghosts, corpses, and demons of blackness
Writhed forth in hot flames from the chasm,
And hurled the gods into the water!
Black smoke rose and strangled the people,
Who fell, like the stricken of lightning!
It stiffened the drummer and singers
Whose song ceased to sound, when, all weakly,
They named the last name of the song strand –
Nor moved, when replied Unahsinte,
Whirling in (twisting trees as the spinner
Twists fiber of yucca), and rescued
The Twain from the hot, surging waters,
Dried the foam in their hair to war-bonnets,
Caught his brothers the Wind Gods in order
And hurled them, each one to his mountain
(In the north, in the west, and the southward;
In the east, and the upper, and under);
And rising, uplifted the smoke-clouds.
Lo! the world was alight with the sunshine,
And bending above was the Rainbow!
But the drummer and singers were sitting,
Lifted up by the power of the ancients;
Close enwrapped in the dust swept around them,
Made stark by the roar of the death-sounds,
Fixed in death by the shock of the lightnings,
Burned hard by the frost-mingled fire-draughts;
Still sat they, their drum in the middle,
As they sit evermore, in that valley.
Lo! dwarfed and hideous-disguised were the two gods Ahaiyuta and Matsailema, erst Unanamachi Piahkoa or the Beloved Twain who Descended – strong now with the full strength of evil; and armed as warriors of old, with long bows and black stone-tipped arrows of cane-wood in quivers of long-tailed skins of catamounts; whizzing slings, and death-singing slung-stones in fiber pockets; spears with dart dealing fling-slats, and blood-drinking broad knives of gray stone in fore-pouches of fur-skin; short face-pulping war-clubs struck aslant in their girdles, and on their backs targets of cotton close plaited with tucca. Yea, and on their trunks, were casings of scorched rawhide, horn-like in hardness, and on their heads wore they helmets of strength like to the thick neck-hide of male elks, whereof they were fashioned.
Small were they Twain,
small and misshapen;
Strong were they Twain,
Strong and hard favored;
Enduringly thoughtful were they Twain,
Enduring of will;
Unyieldingly thoughtful were they Twain,
Unyielding of will;
Swiftly thoughtful were they Twain,
Swift of wile;
Heartless minded were they Twain,
Wrathful of heart;
Strong were they of spirit,
Strong were they of breath,
Evil were they and bad,
Evil, both, and bad.
Lo! and of Chance and Fate were they the Masters of fore-deeming; for they carried the word-painted arrows of destiny (sholiweatsinapa), like the regions of men, four in number. And they carried the shuttle-cocks of divination (hapochiwe), like the regions of men, four in umber. And they carried the tubes of hidden things (iyankolotomawe), like the regions of men, four in number. And the revealed balls thereof, (iyankolote tsemak’ya moliwe), like the regions of men, four in number. Yea, and they bore with these other things – the feather-bow and plume-arrow of far-finding, tipper with the shell of heart-searching; and the race-sticks of swift journeys and way-winning (motikwawe) two of them, the right and the left, the pursuer and the pursued of men in contention. All of these things wherewith to divine men’s chance, and play games of hazard, wagering the fate of whole nations in mere pastime, had they with them.
Twain Children of terror and magic were they, and when they called with the voice of destruction the smitten warrior of these Twain Children stirred and uprose, breathing battle-cries as echoes answer cries in deep canyons, and swiftly they roused those who still lived, of the deep-slumbering people.
Some, like the drummer and singers, had stiffened been, to stone; not heard they the shrill death-cries than which in the night time naught is more dread-thrilling. Nay, years come and go, and sitting or lying where stricken the hunter sees them still. But others had endured in flesh and they were awakened. Then the priests led them back to rebuild their wrecked houses, and the Twain again assembling their warriors, said to them –
Know ye our chosen:
Lo! not long shall we tarry;
Prepare as for journeys;
Season wood for thy bow-strings
And face-breaking war-clubs;
Plait shields like to our shields,
And fashion strong garments –
For in such hard apparel
Shall consist thy adornment;
Attend to our teaching
At night, in close places,
For in such shall consist
The strength of straight thinking
In all tangled places!
Night after night the war-drum sounded, deep in the caves of the valley, and with it the tones of the words – all potent – forbidden and secret which the Twain gods were teaching unto the first Priests of the Bow.
Thus wise were the Priests of the Bow established by teaching of the Twain, whose breaths of destruction each one of them breathed in due part; whom none might gainsay; nay, not even the fathers whose speakers they were, and with whom none might contend; nay, not ever sorcerers, whose scourgers they were – nor yet the Fearful!
And so, when on a dark night thereafter the world groaned and the shells sounded warning, all together the Twain and these their new warriors sought the priest-fathers of the people, bidding them take in hand for carrying, their tabernacles of precious possessions. And swiftly and sternly too they wakened all sleepers, old ones and young, and those who obeyed them were gathered in clan-lines and led off to safety, for Ahaiyuta, the elder, and his warriors journeyed before them, and Matsailema, the younger, and his warriors followed behind – shields of the people, makers and destroyers of pathways! But those who loved sleeping or who murmured like children were left to their evil; they were choked by the black fumes, or buried in the walls of their houses, which fell when presently the earth heaved with dire fumes, fire and thunder. Their bones are still digged by the gopher and marmot.
Thus, from country to country journeyed the people, their fathers the priests and the keepers of the mysteries, with the women and children in their midst, while before them, from valley to valley, the Bow-priests swept danger away.
At last the people neared, in the midst of plains to the eastward, great towns built in the heights. But in these times the thoughts of their warriors were always those of the eagle or mountain-lion or other fierce creatures of prey. Of those they met it was “Lo, now! If I can but seize him and utterly overthrow him and eat of his substance, feeding therewith also my kind!” Thus, only, thought they.
Great were the fields and possessions of this people, for they knew how to command and carry the waters, bringing new soil; and this too without hail or rain. So, our ancients, hungry with long wandering for new food, were the more greedy, and gave them battle. Now as these people of the highlands and cliffs were of the elder nations of men and were allied toe the Akaka-kwe (the Man-soul Dance-gods) themselves, these our people, were they had done, were well nigh finished of fighting. For it was here that the K’yakweina Ok’yatsiki, or Ancient Woman of the K’yakweina, who carried her heart in her rattle and was deathless of wounds in the body, led the enemy, crying out shrilly; all of which, yea and more, beyond the words of a sitting, is told in other speeches of our ancient talks, those of the Ka’ka. Thus, it fell out ill for the fighting of our impetuous ancients; for, moreover, thunder raged and confused their warriors, rain descended and blinded them, stretching their bow-strings of sinew, and quenching the flight of their arrows as the flight of bees is quenched by the sprinkling-plume of the honey hunter. But the strong ‘Hleetokwe devised bow-strings of yucca, and the Two Little Ones sought counsel of the Sun-father, who revealed the life-secret of the Demoness and the magic power over the under-first (koline) of the dwellers in the mountains and cliffs; so that after certain days the enemy in the mountain town were over-mastered. And because our people found in that great town some survivors hidden deep in the cellars thereof, and plucked them forth as rats are pulled from a hollow cedar, and found them blackened by the fumes of their own war-magic, yet comely and wiser than the common lot of men withal, they spared them and called them the Kwinikwa-kwe (Black people), and received them into their kin of the Black Corn.
Now for once even the Warriors of the Bow were fully surfeited of fighting, and paused to rest. Thus, warm hands of brothers elder and younger were clasped with the vanquished; and in time (for at first these people were wild of tongue) speech was held with them, whereby our fathers gained much knowledge, even of their own powers and possessions, from these Black people, in like manner as they had gained knowledge from the People of the Dew, whence in like manner also they grew wiser int eh ways of living, and loved more to cherish their corn and corn virgins that they might have life and abundance rather than cause death and hunger. Yet were their journeyings not ended. Again, and anon, the shell sounded warning.
Source:
Zuni Creation Myths, Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1896
Kotharian Lightning 