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
After closing the door on the boys the woman went into her house and
bathed all over in a very large bowl of yucca suds, washing her head
first, and taking a seat she said to herself, “All is well. I am most
contented and happy.” The boys were also contented. The woman, thinking
it was about time her supper was cooked, removed the stone which she
had placed in the doorway and secured with plaster. The boys had
secreted themselves in one side of the house, where they kept quiet.
What she supposed to be their flesh was i´isa (excrement) which the
boys had deposited there. The woman removed this with great care and
began eating it. (This woman had no husband and lived alone.) She said
to herself, “This is delicious food and cooked so well,” and again and
again she remarked to herself the delicious flavor of the flesh of the
boys. Finally Ma´asewe cried, “You are not eating our flesh but our
i´isa,” and she looked around but could see no one. Then U´yuuyewĕ
called, “You are eating our i´isa,” and again she listened and looked
about, but could see no one. The boys continued to call to her, but it
was sometime before she discovered them sitting in the far end of the
room. “What bad boys you are,” she cried, “I thought I was eating your
flesh.” The woman hastened out of the house and tickling her throat
with her finger vomited up the offal.
She again sent the boys for wood, telling them to bring much, and they
returned with large loads on their backs, and she sent them a second
time and they returned with another quantity. Then she again built a
fire in the small house and left it, and the two boys exclaimed, “What
a great fire!” and Ma´asewe called to the woman, “Come here and see
this fire; see what a hothouse; I guess this time my brother and I will
die;” and the woman stooped to look at the fire, and Ma´asewe said to
her, “Look away in there. See, we will surely die this time. Look!
there is the hottest point!” he standing behind the woman and pointing
over her shoulder, the woman bending her head still lower to see the
better, said, “Yes; the fire is best off there.” “Yes,” said Ma´asewe,
“it is very hot there;” and the Sko´yo was filled with interest, and
looked intently into the house. The boys, finally, inducing her to
stoop very low so that her face was near the doorway, pushed her into
the hot bed of coals, and she was burned to death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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