in each of the four corners of the room or at the four bed-posts, and the first corner seen in the morning will tell you which wish will materialize. (T, B.) 88. Throw kisses at the first star you see at night, and make a wish, and it will come true. (R.) 89. Two girls sleeping together may make their wishes come true by tying their big toes together. (Wn.) 90. Make a wish and swallow a four-leaved clover, and the wish will come true. (R.) 91. People saying the same thing at the same time touch thumbs, make a wish, and name some author. (R2, Wn, S, T.) 92. Dream of seeing a snake, if you try to kill it and it gets away, you are going to be attacked by an enemy; if you kill it, you will be a conqueror. (R2, K, W, Cb, C.) 93. Dream over a piece of wedding-cake, and the dream will come true. (C, R, K, T.) 94. Any dreams you may have when sleeping in a strange house for the first time, will come true. (R, T, Wn.) 95. I often placed a four-leaved clover in my shoe when I was a child, believing that good luck would accompany me as long as the clover remained in my shoe. 96. It is considered good luck to find a horse-shoe. (B, C, Ws, R, Wn, K, S, T.) 97. If there is one fire, there will be two more. (B, C, Ws, R, S, K.) 98. If you start away and have to come back, you will have bad luck. (Ws, T.) 99. If you start away and have to come back, you must sit down in a chair before starting on, or you will have bad luck. (R, K, C, Wn, S.) (a) Some say you must count ten while sitting in the chair. (C, Wn, S.) 100. If you stumble, it is bad luck unless you go back and walk over again. (W.) 101. Do not give any one a sharp-pointed gift, for it will cut your friendship in two. (Wn, Ws, R, B, W, C, K, T.) (a) A penny accompanying the sharp-pointed gift will counteract evil. (C, K.) 102. When two people are walking along the street, if an object comes between them, they will be enemies unless they say, "bread and butter." (R2, S, Wn, R, C, Cb.) 103. See a pin, pick it up, All that day you'll have good luck. See a pin, let it lay, Bad luck follows all that day. (C, T, Wn, S, Ws,R, W, K.) 104. See a pin, let it lie, You'll want a pin before you die. (Ws.) 105. It is good luck to pick up a pin with the point towards you, and bad luck if the head is towards you. (Ws, R, K, C, B, T.) 106. You will get a ride if you pick up a pin sideways. (R, C.) 107. Some say you will get a kiss if you pick up a pin sideways. (Wn.) (C.) 108. It is bad luck to go under a ladder. (S, R2, B, C.) 109. It is bad luck to twirl a chair or an umbrella. 110. If you do not wish the teacher to see you whisper, knock on a tree on your way to school. (Tb.) III. Knock on wood to counteract evil. (R2, B, T.) 112. If a person gets out of bed on the side opposite the one he got in on, he will be cross all day. (Wn, R, S, C, B, T.) 113. Hang a hairpin on a rusty nail for good luck. (C, R2.) 114. If you find a hairpin, it is a sign that you will soon have a new friend. (K, C.) 115. A scratch is a sign of a ride to come. (R2, C.) 116. If you have one unexpected guest, you will have two more. (C.) 117. A whistling girl and a crowing hen will soon come to some bad end. (T, Wn, Ws, S, B.) 118. It is bad luck to break a looking-glass. (B, K, T.) (a) Some say it is bad luck for seven years. (R2.) 119. It is good luck to find a four-leaved clover. (S, R2, B, T.) 120. If the initials of your name spell a word, it is a sign that you are going to be rich. (R2, T, R.) 121. A large hazel-nut crop is a sign of a cold winter. (T.) 122. Put a horseshoe with ends up over a door for good luck: if the ends are down, the luck will run out. (Wn.) 123. The direction a burning match points indicates the direction from which company will come. LA HARPE, ILL. (Wn.) PUEBLO-INDIAN FOLK-TALES, PROBABLY OF SPANISH 6. Forgetting the Song: The Empty Masks (Zuñi) 7. Forgetting the Song: Inside the Lizard (Acoma) 8. Water-Carrier: The Empty Skins (Laguna) 222 225 226 9. Fatal Imitation: Misleading Comment: Holding up the Cave (Acoma) 227 10. Getting Rid of the Other: The Tricky Disposal (Mock Plea): The Watcher Injured (Laguna) . 229 . 230 231 11. Playing Dead: The Watcher Injured: Getting Rid of the Other (Laguna) 12. Tail by Tail (Zuñi) 14. The Turkey-Herd (Zuñi) 15. White Bison (Zuñi) 16. The Two Beetles (Zuñi) 17. How Sheep and Horses and Burros came to the Ashiwi (Zuñi) I. THE BEHEADED GRANDMOTHER: BORROWED FEATHERS.1 Long ago at Akwetetacha there lived a coyote (suski) with his father's mother (wowa). At Kuchina lived the snowbirds (tsilo). The snowbirds were playing. They would fly high into the air and down again. They flew and flew. Their elder sisters (awan akyauu) searched for them. Their elder sisters said, "Let us go get yucca 1 Informant, Tsatiselu of Zuñi, about 80 years of age. Compare F. H. Cushing, Zuñi Folk-Tales (New York and London, 1901), 203 et seq.; C. F. Lummis, Pueblo Indian Folk-Stories (New York, 1910), No. II. The episode of killing the grandmother may be from the cycle of Big John and Little John. The pattern of flying with borrowed feathers is given more completely in the tale which follows, and which Tsatiselu also told in sequence. 2 Sons inote. With these words Zuñi tales (telapnawe) usually begin. Cushing translates sons inootona "Let us [tell of] the times of creation!" Telapnawe Cushing derives from tenalaa ("time or times of") and penawe ("words") (JAFL 5: 49 [note 1], 50 [note 1]). Inole means "long ago;" for sons inote I could get no other translation. Sons is just a meaningless prefix to inote, one informant insisted. - Acoma and Laguna tales begin with a word translated to me in the same way, tsikinomaha or hamaha; and Laguna tales are themselves referred to as hamaha. roots [hotsanna umoi]!" They wrapped the yucca-roots in their pitone. They hung their pitone around their necks, and they flew high into the air. "This is fun," said their elder sisters as they flew down again. At Akwetetacha, Coyote said, "Father's mother, I want to go out hunting." He went to Apchilokwe. He killed some rabbits. Then he went on to Kuchina, where the snowbirds were playing. He said, "Elder sisters, are you playing?" "Yes, we are playing," said the snowbirds. They flew up into the air. Coyote looked up after them. When they flew down, Coyote said, "May I play too?" They said, "Yes." Coyote said, "What have you on your backs?" They said, "We have the heads of our fathers' mothers on our backs." Coyote said, "I want to play too." They said, "You will have to cut off the head of your father's mother." Coyote went back to Akwetetacha. His father's mother was grinding. He began to search for a knife. His father's mother said, "What are you looking for?" He said, "I am looking for a stick." She said, "You will find one in the other room." As she was putting a pot on the fire, he said to her, "I wish to cut off your head." "Why?" asked she. "The snowbirds are playing; and they say if I am to play with them, I must first cut off your head." She said, "No, you must not cut off my head." — "But I will come back and make you alive again." Then Coyote bent back his father's mother's head and cut her throat. He took off her pitone, and in it wrapped her head. He went back to where the snowbirds were playing. When he arrived, he said, "How can I manage to fly?" They said, "We will give you some of our feathers." Some took feathers out of their wings and fastened them to his outstretched arms. Others took feathers from their tails and fastened them to his back. Their elder sisters said, "Let us fly! and as we fly, we must sing." They sang, "Tsilo, tsilo maiakwain, Tsilo, tsilo maiakwain, Topinte oto, topinte chonchin. Tsi! cho cho cho cho.” 4 "Snowbird, snowbird crests, Ho, tsanna, "small." The giant yucca is called hokaipa, kaipa ("wide"). Suds are made of the roots of the popularly called "soap-weed" for hair-washing. In Cushing's version of the tale the birds are carrying bowls of suds on their head, and his birds were dancing. I have heard the flight of the Isililigo, a species of hawk, referred to by the Zuñi as its "dance." It is indeed a very apt comparison. This tale was known to Marmon of Laguna. In the outline he gave me (the details he could not remember), the birds were carrying the yucca-root suds (mu'sh in Laguna). The square of silk or cotton which all Pueblo-Indian women wear tied in front and hanging down their backs. * Such continuing use of a kinship term is characteristic. ♦ Tsatiselu sang their song as he did all the little songs in his tales. Unfortunately I was not able to record the music, nor was my phonograph at hand. Coyote sang (in a lower scale and ponderously),1 "Tsilo, tsilo maiakwain, Tsilo, tsilo maiakwain, Topinte oto, topinte chonchin. Tsi! cho cho cho cho.” His sisters would take him high into the air and down again. When they were tired flying, they said, "Let us rest. We are tired. Give us back our feathers." They asked Coyote, "What is that you have on your back?" Coyote said, "That is the head of my father's mother." The snowbirds said, "On our backs we do not carry the heads of our fathers' mothers. We carry yucca-roots." Then Coyote wept. He carried his father's mother's head to her house. On arriving, he found his father's mother's body lying on the ground. He raised up her body, and he tried in vain to fasten the head to the body. He said, "Maybe if I fasten it with piñon-gum, it will stay in place." He went to Apchilak and gathered a lot of gum. He tried to gum on the head, but he failed again. "What if I were to sew it on!" said he. He took some yucca-fibre and he sewed on the head, but his father's mother did not come back to life. So he went to live at Suskachokta ("Coyote-Bowl"). As for the snowbirds, they said, "We must not stay here. The coyote might come and harm us." So they flew away, flying all over the country (ulonan templa). That is why there are snowbirds everywhere. Thus it happened long ago.2 2. BORROWED FEATHERS.3 4 Long ago at Kyakima the bluebirds (klaialutke) were playing. They flew high in the air and down again. At Tomaakwen there lived a coyote with his mother's mother (hota). He said, "Mother's mother, I want to go out hunting." He went over to the hills. He became thirsty, and he went to Kyakima to get a drink. The blue 1 Just as sings his analogue, Wolf, in the Portuguese Negro tales I have collected. Inote lenateatiki, one of the regular endings of telapnawe. The other is lewi semkonike ("that is all, story short"). "Thus shortens my story," Cushing translates. At such conclusion all present stretch their arms above their heads, or at times out sideways, saying, "Make my corn so high," or, "my melons so round!" A child might say, "May I grow so tall!" 3 Informant, Tsatiselu of Zuñi. Compare Cushing, l. c., 237 et seq.; H. R. Voth, The Traditions of the Hopi (FM 8: 197, 201-202); J. A. Mason, "Myths of the Uintah Utes" (JAFL 23: 310–311; T. Braga, Contos tradicionaes do Povo Portuguez [Porto, 1883]), 67; E. C. Parsons, "Ten Folk-Tales from the Cape Verde Islands" (JAFL 30 : 231–234); A. J. N. Tremearne, Hausa Superstitions and Customs (London, 1913), 265-266; R. R. Sutherland, Hausa Folk-Lore, Customs, Proverbs, etc. (Oxford, 1913), 2:94–96; W. Jekyll, "Jamaican Song and Story" (Pub. Folk-Lore Soc., 55 [1904]), No. XL. 4 Their feathers are used in Zuñi in prayer feather-sticks. Bluebird-feathers are similarly used by the Keresans and the Navaho. |