The Indians of the Painted Desert Region: Hopis, Navahoes, Wallapais, HavasupaisJames, George Wharton
Religion
The Indians of the Painted Desert Region: Hopis, Navahoes, Wallapais, Havasupais
James, George Wharton
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New
As soon as they had become a little used to being on the earth,
Kathat-a-kanave called his people together and informed them that
he must lead them to their future home. They came down Eldorado
Canyon, and then crossed Hackataia (the Grand Canyon) and reached
a small but picturesque canyon on the Wallapai reservation, called
Mat-ta-wed-it-i-ta. This is their "Garden of Eden." Here a spring of
water supplies nearly a hundred miners' inches of water, and there are
about a hundred acres of good farming land, lying in such a position
that it can well be irrigated from this spring. On the other side
of the canyon is a cave about a hundred feet wide at its mouth, and
perched fully half a thousand feet above the valley.
Now Kathat-a-kanave disappears in some variants of the story, and
Hokomata and Tochopa take his place at Mattaweditita. The latter is
ever the hero. He gave the people seeds of corn, pumpkins, melons,
beans, etc., and showed them how to plant and irrigate them. In the
meantime they had been taught how to live on grass seeds, the fruit
of the tuna (prickly pear), and mescal, and how to slay the deer,
antelope, turkey, jack-rabbit, cottontail, and squirrel.
When the crops came Tochopa counselled them not to eat any of
the product except such as could be eaten without destroying the
seeds,--the melons and pumpkins,--so that when planting time came they
had an abundance. When the next harvest was ripe the crops were large,
and after picking out the best for seeds, some were stored away in the
cave as a reserve and the remainder eaten. As the years went on they
increased in numbers and strength. Tochopa was ever their good friend
and guide. He taught them how to dance and smoke and rattle when they
became sick; he gave them _toholwa_--the sweat-house--to cure them
of all evil; he taught the women how to make pottery, baskets, and
blankets woven from the dressed skins of rabbits. The men he taught
how to dress buckskin, and hunt and trap all kinds of animals good for
food. Thus they came almost to worship him and be ever singing his
praises. This made Hokomata angry. He went away and sulked for days at
a time. In his solitude he evidently thought out a plan for wreaking
his jealous fury upon Tochopa and those who were so fond of him. There
was one family, the head of which was inclined to be quarrelsome, and
Hokomata went and made special friends with him. He taught the children
how to make pellets of clay, and put them on the end of sticks and then
shoot them. Soon he showed them how to make a dart, then a bow and
arrow, and later how to take the horn of a deer, put it in the fire
until it was softened so that it could be moulded to a sharp point.
This made a dangerous dagger. Finally he wrapped buckskin around a
heavy stone, and put a handle to it, thus making a war-club; took a
rock and made a battle-hammer of it; and still another, the edge of
which he sharpened so that a battle-axe was provided. In the meantime
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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