Creation Myths of Primitive America: In relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of MankindCurtin, Jeremiah
Religion
Creation Myths of Primitive America: In relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind
Curtin, Jeremiah
Creation -- Mythology; Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
Metsi made buckskin rings around his arms and legs, turned himself
into an old, very old woman, all bent and wrinkled, with a buckskin
petticoat. He put the rusty basket on his back.
Putokya was hurrying on; the roar grew louder and nearer. Metsi knew
that Putokya was very dangerous, and that he must be careful. He took
white clay, painted his face, made a regular old woman of himself.
Putokya came near. Metsi was ready, the basket on his back and a stick
in his hand. He was walking along slowly, a very old woman and
decrepit. The old woman began to cry, "En, en, en!"
Putokya stopped on the road, made no noise, listened to the old woman.
"He has stopped; he is listening to me," said Metsi; and he cried
more, cried in a louder voice and more pitifully.
Putokya was quiet. Metsi walked right up to him, looked at him, and
said, "I came near stepping on you." Metsi was crying more quietly
now.
"Are you a dead person?" asked Metsi.
Putokya was silent.
"I heard you from where I was," said Metsi; "when you had a bad dream,
I heard you in the south, heard you everywhere, heard you when you
turned to be a Putokya, one of the head people, and wanted to kill
everybody. You used to be good, you used to be wise, but now you are
sick; you will die, and be among people no longer unless you are
cured. That is why I started to come south; I started south to find
you, to see you. It is a good thing that you came up here; now I see
you. I am your relative, your cousin. I want you to be healthy, to be
as you were before; to have your arms and legs again, to feel well. I
want to cure you."
Metsi was sobbing all this time. He pretended to be awfully sorry; he
wasn't, for Metsi wasn't sorry for any one, didn't care for any one on
earth; he only wanted to put Putokya out of the way, to kill him.
Metsi was a great cheat.
"A good while ago," said Metsi, "I met a man like you. He had had a
dream, and he was nothing but a head, just like you. I travelled then
as I am travelling to-day, and met this man just as I meet you now on
this road. If you believe what I tell you, all right; if you don't
believe, it's all the same to me. I will tell you what I did for that
man, how I cured him. Do you want me to tell you what I did for him?"
Putokya was looking all the time with great wildcat eyes at the old
woman. Now he spoke, saying: "Talk more, tell me all, old woman. I
want to hear what you have to say."
"Well, I made a man of that head," said the old woman. "I cured that
Putokya; I made him over. I made him new, and he walked around as well
as before; I gave him legs and arms; all the bad went out of him; I
made him clean and sound and good again."
"How did you do that, old woman?" asked Putokya. "How can you make a
man over again? I want to see that."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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