The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
History
The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))
Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
Zia Indians
When the elder sister left, she said to Ût´sĕt, “To-morrow you come
to my house,” and all night she was busy arranging things for the
morning, and in the morning Ût´sĕt hastened to her sister’s house. (She
was accompanied by Sûs´sĭstinnako, who followed invisible close to
her ear.) Now´ûtsĕt asked, “What have I there?” pointing to a covered
object, and Ût´sĕt replied, “I can not tell, but I have thought that
you have under that blanket all things that are necessary for all time
to come; perhaps I speak wrong.” “No,” replied Now´ûtsĕt, “you speak
correctly,” and she threw off the blanket, saying, “My sister, I may be
the larger and the first, but your head and heart are wise; you know
much; I think my head must be weak.” The younger sister then said:
“To-morrow you come to my house;” and in the morning when the elder
sister called at the house of the younger she was received in the front
room and asked to be seated, and they talked awhile; then the younger
one said: “What do you think I have in the room there?” pointing to the
door of an inner room. Four times the question was asked and each time
Now´ûtsĕt replied, “I can not tell.” “Come with me,” said Ût´sĕt, and
she cried as she threw open the door, “All this is mine, when you have
looked well we will go away.” The room was filled with the Ka´ᵗsuna
beings with monster heads which Ût´sĕt had created, under the direction
of Sûs´sĭstinnako.
Sûs´sĭstinnako’s creation may be classed in three divisions:
1. Pai´-ä-tä-mo: All men of Ha´arts (the earth), the sun, moon, stars,
Ko´-shai-ri and Quer´-rän-na.
2. Ko´-pĭsh-tai-a: The cloud, lightning, thunder, rainbow peoples, and
all animal life not included under the first and
third heads.
3. Ka´ᵗsuna: Beings having human bodies and monster heads, who
are personated in Sia by men and women wearing
masks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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