The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi by Hattie Greene Lockett
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Hattie Greene Lockett >> The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi
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Quahongva was a good story-teller. Some of his tales were long enough to
occupy an evening. His best story took two and a half days for the
telling and recording, so can not be included here.
=A Bear Story,= as told by Quahongva
"Long ago at Shipaulovi there lived a woman with her husband and two
little children, two and four years old. The husband died. For a long
time the woman stayed alone and had to do all the work herself, bring
wood and make the fire and everything.
"One day she went to a little mesa a good ways off for wood, for there
was dry wood in that place. One of the children wanted to go with her
and cried, but the mother could not take her, she was too little. So she
told her to stay at home and play and watch for her return.
"The two little ones were playing 'slide down' on a smooth, slanting
rock, and from quite a distance the mother looked back and saw them
still playing there. Then she went around a little hill to find her
wood.
"She gathered a big bunch and tied it up, making a kind of rack that she
could carry on her back. Now she leaned her load up on a big rock so she
could lift it to her back, and as she turned around just ready to take
up the load, she saw a bear coming. She was terribly frightened and just
stood still, and the bear came closer and made big noise. (Note: A good
imitation was given, and the children listeners first laughed and then
became comically sober. H.G.L.)
"She said, 'Poor me, where shall I hide! What am I going to do!'
"She was so frightened she could not think where to go; but now she saw
a crevice under the rock where she was leaning, so she crawled in and
put the rack of wood in front of her.
"From behind the wood she could still see the bear coming and hear his
great voice. Soon he reached the rock and tore the wood away with his
great paws. Then he reached in and pulled the woman out and ripped her
open with his terrible claws and tore her heart out and ate it up.
"By this time the sun was nearly down; it was soon dark and the poor
children were still waiting for their mother just where she had left
them, but she never returned. Some one came to them and asked, 'What are
you doing here?'
"'We are watching for our mother, who went for wood, and we are waiting
for her,' they said.
"'But why does she not come when it is so late?' they said. Then they
said, 'Let's all go home; something must have happened.' So they took
the children home with them and sent some others to look for the mother.
"They followed her tracks and found the place, the mother dead, and her
heart gone. So they came back home in the dark night.
"Next day, they returned to the place and followed the bear tracks to
the woods where his home was, but never found the bear. So they went
home.
"The poor little children were very lonely and not treated very well by
the neighbors, and both children died, first the younger, and then the
older; and this is a true story." (Note: One could well imagine from the
faces of the young listeners that something like a resolution to stay
pretty close around home was passing unanimously. H.G.L.)
* * * * *
Don Talayesva of Upper Oraibi was the only one of my story-tellers who
spoke without the aid of an interpreter. He is a tall, good-looking man
of less than forty, with an expressive face and a pair of merry dark
eyes that hold a prophesy of the rich sense of humor one soon discovers
in both his conversation and his stories.
This particular tale rather gives away some state secrets as to how Hopi
children are persuaded to be good, and Don chuckled and paused to lower
his voice and see that his own small son was out of hearing, when
explaining certain parts of the story.
=The Giant and the Twin War Gods,= as told by Don Talayesva
"Well, once upon a time more people lived here in Old Oraibi--many
people, many, many children, and the children getting pretty bad. People
tried every way to punish and correct them and at last the head governor
got tired of this business, and so he thought of best way to fix them.
They were all time throwing stones at the old people and pinning rags on
the back of somebody and don't mind their parents very good.
"Now this head governor is very powerful and very wise. He went out to
where there is many pinon and cedar trees and he gathered much pinon
gum. Next day he called an old lady, a Spider Woman, to come and help
him out.
"She asked what she can do. He explained about the naughty children and
their disrespect for the old people and their parents.
"He asked her to make a Giant out of the gum. She greased her hands and
molded a big figure about a foot thick and four feet high with head and
arms and legs. Then she covered it up with a white wedding blanket, and
then she take whisk-broom and she patted with the broom, in time to her
singing, on this doll figure, and it began to live and grow larger.
"When she finished singing he was enormously wide and tall, and he got
up and uncovered himself and he sat there and said, 'What can I do to
help you?'
"Then the governor said, 'I hired the old lady to make you and make you
come to life so you can do a job for me. Now you go and make your home
over here near by.'
"The governor gave him as weapons a hatchet, bow and arrow, a rabbit
stick, and a big basket to carry the children away in, and a big wooden
spear.
"'Now you go over there,' the governor said, 'and make your home. On the
fourth day you come down and catch the first child you see playing on
trash piles.'
"So on the fourth day the Giant came over early before sunrise and got
to Oraibi by sunrise and got up here on top of the mesa and saw two
brothers playing on the trash pile. They were facing west and he slipped
up behind and tied them together and put them in his basket and carry
them to his home.
"At breakfast the families missed the children and traced them to where
the Giant picked them up, but saw no tracks farther.
"Every morning he comes over looking for some more children and got away
with many before parents know where they went.
"This kept going on till there were very few children left and the
parents were very sad. Giant leaves no tracks, so nobody knows what to
do. At last parents decide to do something.
"The second chief decided to go to the two little War Gods, who live
with their grandmother, a Spider Woman, and see if they would help them.
"So then the second chief cut two round pieces out of strong buckskin,
and made two big balls and stuffed them hard and painted them with a red
face, a mask like Supais. He made a strong bow and many strong arrows
and put them in a--something like an army bag. All this he made for the
Twin War Gods, who are small but powerful and their medicine too.
"Then he took these presents and started off to the home of these two
little War Gods.
"At early sunrise he arrived there and peeked down into their house,
which was like a big kiva, and there were the two boys playing shinney.
"The grandmother received the man kindly and told the rough, unruly boys
to stop their playing and be quiet. But they don't stop their playing,
so she picked up a big stick and hit the boys a good lick across the
legs. Now the boys see the man and his two fine balls and sticks. They
say to each other, 'We like to have those things!'
"After a good breakfast she asked the man, 'What can we do for you?'
"'Yes,' he said, 'a Giant at Oraibi has been carrying away more than
half the children from our village.'
"She said, 'Yes, we know all about this and just waiting for you to come
to ask our help. I have dreamed that you would come today for our help.'
"Then the man gave his nice presents to the boys and said, 'Tomorrow you
come over to Oraibi and meet the Giant when he comes at sunrise for
children.'
"The boys said, 'Sure, we kill him!'
"But the grandmother said, 'Don't brag, just say you do your best!'
"Next morning both boys forget all about it, but grandmother wake them
up and started them off.
"They got to Oraibi Mesa and waited for the Giant, but they got to
playing with their balls and sticks and forgot to watch for him.
"Soon the Giant came slipping up, but the boys saw him and they said,
'Here's that Giant, let's hit the ball hard and hit him in the head and
kill him.' So they did, and knocked him off the mesa.
"It didn't kill him though, but he got mad, and he said, 'You wait and
see what I do to you!' And he came back and picked them up, one at a
time, and put them in his basket and started off with them.
"As they were going along, the boys told the Giant they have to get out,
for just a minute please. So the Giant let them get out of the basket,
but he held on to the rope that he has tied around them.
"So the boys stepped behind a big rock and untied themselves and
fastened the rope to the rock. Then the Giant got mad and pulled the
rope hard and the big rock rolled over on him and hurt his legs.
"Then that Giant was sure mad, and he catch those boys again and he put
them in his basket and take them right home and make oven very hot for
cooking boys.
"But the boys had some good medicine with them that their grandmother
gave them, and each took some in his mouth and when the Giant threw the
first boy in the oven, he spit a little of the medicine out into the
oven and cooled it off, so that it was just warm enough for comfort. So
the boys told stories and had fun all night.
"Next morning the Giant made pudding to go with his meat, and he opened
the oven and there were the boys smiling.
"Giant was very hungry, so he said, 'You come out and I challenge you to
fight it out and see who is more powerful.'
"So the Giant threw his rabbit stick at the bigger boy, but the boy
jumped up and the stick caught fire as it passed under him. Then the
Giant threw at smaller boy just high enough to hit his head, but he
ducked down and the stick passed over his head like a streak of fire.
Then he tried bow and arrows, but nothing hurt the boys.
"Then the Giant said, 'Well I have used all my weapons and failed, so
now you can try to kill me.'
"So both boys threw their rabbit sticks at the same time. One broke the
Giant's legs, the other cut off his head. Then the boys smelled the pine
gum that he was made of, so they burned him up and he sure did make a
big blaze.
"They just saved his head, and carried it to the Hopi at Oraibi. They
arrived just when the people were having breakfast, at about ten in the
morning. So they reported to the second chief and presented him with the
Giant's head.
"The second chief was well pleased and said he was glad and very
thankful, and then he said, 'I don't know what I can give you for a
proper gift, but I have two daughters and, if you want them, you can
take them along.'
"The boys smiled and whispered, 'They look pretty good, let's take them
for squaws.' So they said they would take them.
"'All right,' said their father, 'come on the fourth day and get them.'
"So they went home and told their grandmother, and on the fourth day
they came back and got their wives.
"The Hopi always kept the head of this Giant to use as a mask in some
dances.
"Really the most important thing we do with this kind of a mask is for
the men to wear when they go round the village and call out the children
and scare them a little bit and tell them to be good so they don't have
to come back with the basket and carry them off. Sometimes they act like
they were going to take some naughty children with them right now, and
ask the parents if they have any bad ones, and the parents are supposed
to be very worried and hide the children and tell the Giants their
children are good, and always the parents have to give these Giants that
come around some mutton and other things to eat, in order to save their
children; and then the children are very grateful to their parents.
"You see, the parents always tell the men who are coming around,
beforehand, of a few of the things the children have been doing, so when
they come looking for bad children they mention these special things to
show the children that they know about it. And parents tell children a
Giant may come back for them if they are pretty bad, and come right down
the chimney maybe.
"My brother is a pretty tall man, and I am the tallest man in Oraibi, so
we are sometimes chosen to act the part of Giants. Then we paint all
black and put on this kind of a mask. It is an enormous black head with
a big beak and big teeth. The time when the Giants go around and talk to
the children is in February.
"There were a good many of these masks, very old and very funny ones.
But a beam fell, killing many giant masks and leaving only two of the
real old ones. So now we have to use some masks made of black felt; one
of these is a squaw mask.
"I don't know if we can wait till February, or not, mine is getting
pretty bad already." (Note: This last was said with a big laugh and a
look around to see where his own boy was. And just then the tall little
son, aged eight, let out a yell exactly like any other little boy who
has cut his finger on Daddy's pocket knife. The buxom mother and two
aunts went scrambling down the ladder to see what was the matter. The
father got up, too, but laughed and remarked, "He be all right," and
came back and sat down. H.G.L.)
* * * * *
One of the most pleasant memories the writer has kept of her Hopi
story-tellers is that of wholesome Mother Sacknumptewa of Oraibi. She
must be middle-aged, and is surprisingly young-looking to be the mother
of her big family of grown-up sons and daughters. She wore a brand-new
dress of pretty yellow and white print, made in the full Hopi manner,
and her abundant black hair was so clean and well brushed that it was
actually glossy. Her house was spic and span and shining with a new
interior coat of white gypsum.
Her long Indian name, Guanyanum, means "all the colors of the
butterflies."
It was late afternoon, and she sat on the clean clay floor of her house
and husked a great pile of young green corn for supper, as she told me
the two little fables that follow. There was a poise and graciousness
about this woman, quite outstanding; yet she was a simple, smiling,
motherly person who often laughed quietly, or broke into a rhythmic
crooning song as she imitated her characters.
Several of her grown children gathered round and laughed with hearty
approval at her impersonations, and at last her husband came in smiling
and sat near, joining in the songs of the frog and the locust, to the
great merriment of their children.
=The Coyote and the Turtle,= as told by Guanyanum Sacknumptewa
"A long time ago, there were many turtles living in the Little Colorado
River near Homolovi, southeast of Winslow, where Hopi used to live. And
there was a coyote living there too, and of course, he was always
hungry.
"Now one day the turtles decided they would climb out of the river and
go hunt some food, for there was a kind of cactus around there that they
like very much. But one of the turtles had a baby and she didn't like to
wake it up and take it with her because it was sleeping so nicely. So
they just went along and left the baby asleep.
"After a while the little turtle woke up and he said, 'Where is my
mother? She must have gone somewhere and left me. O, I must go and find
her!'
"So the baby turtle saw that the others had crawled up the bank, and he
followed their tracks for a little way. But he soon got tired and just
stopped under a bush and began to cry. (Note: Her imitation of the
crying was good. H.G.L.)
"Now the coyote was coming along and he heard the poor little turtle
crying. So he came up and said, 'That's a pretty song; now go on and
sing for me.'
"But the baby turtle said, I'm not singing, I'm crying.'
"'Go on and sing,' said the coyote, 'I want to hear you sing.'
"'I can't sing,' said the poor baby, 'I'm crying and I want my mother.'
"'You'd better sing for me, or I'll eat you up,' said the big hungry
coyote.
"'O, I can't sing--I just can't stop crying,' said the baby, and he
cried harder and harder.
"'Well,' the big coyote said, 'if you don't sing for me I'm going to
eat you right up.' The coyote was mad, and he was very hungry. 'All
right, then, I'll just eat you,' he said.
Now the little turtle thought of something. So he said, 'Well, I can't
sing, so I guess you'll have to eat me. But that's all right, for it
won't hurt me any; here inside of my shell I'll go right on living
inside of you.'
"Now the coyote thought about this a little bit and didn't like the idea
very well.
"Then the baby turtle said, 'You can do anything you want with me, just
so you don't throw me into the river, for I don't want to drown.'
"Now the old coyote was pretty mad and he wanted to be as mean as
possible. So he just picked that baby up in his mouth and carried him
over to the river and threw him in.
"Then the baby turtle was very happy; he stuck his little head out of
his shell and stretched out his feet and started swimming off toward the
middle of the river. And he said, 'Goodbye, Mr. Coyote, and thank you
very much for bringing me back to my house so that I didn't have to walk
back.' And the little turtle laughed at the old coyote, who got madder
and madder because he had let the little turtle go. But he couldn't get
him now, so he just went home. And the baby turtle was still laughing
when his mother got home, and she laughed too. And those turtles are
still living in that water. (Note: Here is manifest all the subtlety of
"The Tar Baby," though generations older. H.G.L.)
=The Frog and the Locust,= as told by Guanyanum Sacknumptewa
"Qowakina was a place where Paqua, the frog, lived. One day he was
sitting on a little wet ground singing a prayer for rain, for it was
getting very hot and dry and that was Paqua's way of bringing the rain,
so he had a very good song like this. (Note: Here she sang a pretty
little song, very rhythmic, and her body swayed gently in time to the
music. It occurred to the writer that this would make a good bedtime
story and the little song, a lullaby, for it went on and on with
pleasing variation. H.G.L.)
"Not far away Mahu, the locust, was sitting in a bush, and he was
singing too, for he was getting pretty dusty and the weather was very
hot, and so he, too, was praying for rain. He has a very nice song for
rain, and it goes this way. (Note: Here came a lovely little humming
song whose words could not be interpreted, since they were but syllables
and sounds having no meaning in English. However, these sounds had a
definite order and rhythm. At this point the husband smilingly joined in
the song, and the unison of both sounds and rhythm was perfect. H.G.L.)
"By and by the locust heard the frog, so he came over and asked him what
he was doing. The frog said he was hot and wanted it to rain; that's why
he was singing. Then the locust said, 'Now isn't that strange, that's
exactly what I do to make it rain, too, and that's the best thing to
do.' So they both sang.
"Pretty soon they noticed that the clouds had been coming up while they
were singing, and before long it rained, and they both were happy.
"After this they were always great friends because they had found out
they both had the same idea about something."
XII. CONCLUSION
* * * * *
For some years the writer has been merely a friendly neighbor to these
friendly people, and this past summer she spent some time among her Hopi
friends, studying their present-day life, domestic and ceremonial, and
listening to their stories. The foregoing pages record her observations,
supplemented largely by the recordings of well-known authorities who
have studied these people.
To her own mind it is clear that the Hopi are living today by their
age-old and amazingly primitive traditions, as shown by their planting,
hunting, house building, textile and ceramic arts, and their ceremonies
for birth, marriage, burial, rain-making, etc. Even their favorite
stories for amusement are traditional. Surely this can not last much
longer in these days when easy transportation is bringing the modern
world to their very door. Only a few years ago they were geographically
isolated and had been so for centuries. Culturally, the Hopi are not a
new, raw people, but old, mature, long a sedentary and peaceful people,
building up during the ages a vast body of traditional literature
embodying law, religion, civic and social order, with definite patterns
for the whole fabric of their life from the cradle to the grave and on
into Maskim, the home of Hopi Souls. It is because they have so long
been left alone, with their own culture so well suited to their nature
and to their environment, that we find them so satisfied to remain as
they are, friendly, even cordial, but conservative.
The Hopi is glad to use the white man's wagon, cook stove, sugar, and
coffee, but he prefers his own religion, government, social customs--the
great things handed down in his traditions. Their very conservatism is
according to one of their oldest traditions, which is:
=Tradition for Walking Beside the White Man But in Footsteps of Fathers=
In 1885, Wicki, chief of the Antelope Society at Walpi, told Mr. A.M.
Stephen one of the most complete and interesting variants ever collected
of the Snake myth.
One of its interesting details concerns a prophesy of the manner in
which the Hopitah are to take on the White man's culture. In plain words
the Spider Woman tells Tiyo that a time will come when men with white
skins and a strange tongue shall come among the Hopitah, and the Snake
Brotherhood, having brave hearts, will be first to make friends and
learn good from them. But the Hopitah are not to follow in the white
men's footsteps but to walk _beside them_, always keeping in the
footsteps of their fathers![36]
That is just what the Hopi are doing today.
[Footnote 36: Stephen, A.M., Hopi Tales: Jour. Amer. Folklore, vol. 42,
1929, p. 37.]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
More than to any one else, I am indebted to Dr. Byron Cummings for
guidance in the preparation of this study; to Prof. John H. Provinse for
material and suggestion; to Dr. H.S. Colton and Mary Russell F. Colton
for the generous use of materials; and to my Hopi friends, Sackongsie of
Bacabi, Don Talayesva of Oraibi, Guanyanum Sacknumptewa of Lower Oraibi,
Quentin Quahongva of Shungopovi, Dawavantsie of Walpi, and Mother Lalo
of Sichomovi, for Hopi stories.--H.G.L.
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