She bade the Piñon maids to gather piñon gum, wash it, and make a
garment in exact imitation of the flint arrow head armor which
rendered Man-Eagle invulnerable. So did they, and the Spider Woman
gave it, with charm flour, to the Youth. As a spider, then, so small
as to be invisible, she perched on the right ear of the Youth that she
might whisper advice. Mole led the way to the top of the mountains,
but the Piñon maids remained behind.
When they reached the summit, Eagle swooped down; they got on his back
and he soared aloft with them till he was tired. Hawk came close by,
and on his back he carried them still higher in the sky. When he was
weary, Gray Hawk took them and mounted to the heavens with them till
he could go no farther, and Red Hawk received the burden; thus, for an
immense distance, upward they flew, until the adventurers reached a
chasm in the sky through which the Youth, Spider Woman, and Mole
passed, and saw the great white house in which Man-Eagle lived.
The ladder which led into the house had for rungs sharp flint knives.
The Spider Woman advised the Youth, before mounting the ladder, to
gather a handful of sumach berries and give them to Lizard, who
received them with thanks, chewed them and gave him back the cud. The
Youth rubbed the sharp rungs with the chewed berries and they became
dull at once, and he was able to climb the ladder without cutting
himself. When he entered the house of Man-Eagle he saw hanging the
monster's flint arrow head armor, on a peg in a recess, and he at once
exchanged it for the false armor the Piñon maids had given him. In
another recess he saw Man-Eagle and his lost wife. He called out to
her that he had come to rescue her from the monster, and she replied
that she was glad, but that he could not do so, as no one ever left
the place alive. The Youth replied, "Have no fear; you will soon be
mine again."
The Spider Woman's charm was so powerful that the Man-Eagle did not
hear what was said, but he soon awoke, and put on the imitation flint
armor without detecting the fraud. He then for the first time became
aware of the Youth's presence, and demanded what he wished. "I have
come to take my wife home," answered the hero. Man-Eagle said, "We
must gamble to decide that, and if you lose I shall slay you," to
which the Youth agreed. Man-Eagle brought out a huge pipe, larger than
a man's head, and having filled it with tobacco, gave it to the hero,
saying, "You must smoke this entirely out, and if you become dizzy or
nauseated, you lose." So the Youth lit the pipe and smoked, but
exhaled nothing. He kept the pipe aglow and swallowed all the smoke
and felt no ill effect, for he passed it through his body into an
underground passageway that Mole had dug. Man-Eagle was amazed and
asked what had become of the smoke. The Youth, going to the door,
showed him great clouds of dense smoke issuing from the four cardinal
points, and the monster saw that he had lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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