And thus Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai became famous for the killing of
game; and there was another young man, named Van-daih, who wanted to
be his friend. So one day Vandaih made him four tube-pipes of cane,
such as the Indians use for ceremonious smoking, and went to see the
young hunter. But when he entered the young man was lying down, and he
just looked at Vandaih and then turned his face away, saying nothing.
And Vandaih sat there and when the young man became tired of lying
one way and turned over he lit up one of his pipes. But the young man
took no notice of him. And this went on all night. Every time there
was a chance Vandaih tried his pipe, but Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai
never spoke, and in the morning Vandaih went away without the friend
he desired having responded to him.
The next evening Vandaih came again and sat there all night, but
the friend he courted never said a word, and in the morning he went
away again.
And he slept in the daytime, and when evening came he went again,
and sat all night long, but the young man spoke to him not at all.
And the third morning that this happened the wife of Ahahnheeattoepahk
Mahkai said to him: "Why are you so mean to Vandaih as never to
speak to him? Perhaps he has something important to say. He comes
here every night, and sits the whole night thru before you, and you
do not speak to him. And maybe he will come tonight again, and I feel
very sorry for him that you never say a word to him when he comes."
And the young man said: "I know it is true, what you have said, but I
know, too, very well, that Vandaih is not a good man. He gambles with
the gains-skoot, he is a liar, a thief, licentious, and is everything
that is bad. I wish some other boys would come to see me instead of
him, and better than he, for I know very well that he will repeat
things that I say in a way that I did not mean and raise a scandal
about it."
And the next night Vandaih came again and sat in the same place;
and when Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai saw him he just looked at him and
then turned over and went to sleep. But along in the night he awoke,
and when Vandaih saw he was awake he lit one of his pipes. Then
Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai got up. And when he got up Vandaih buried
his pipe, but the other said: "What do you bury your pipe for? I want
to smoke."
Vandaih said: "I have another pipe," and he lit one and gave it
to Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai, and then he dug up his own pipe, and
relighted it, and they both began to smoke.
And Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai said: "When did you come?" And Vandaih
replied: "O just a little while ago."
And Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai said: "I have seen you here for four
nights, now, but I know you too well not to know you have a way
to follow," ["a way to follow" means to have some purpose behind]
"but if you will quit all the bad habits you have I will be glad to
have you come; but there are many others, better than you, whom I
would rather have come to see me.
And now I am going to tell you something, but I am afraid that when
you go away from here you will tell what I have said and make more
of it, and then people will talk, and I shall be sorry.
I will tell you the habits you have--you are a liar, a gambler with
the dice-game and the wah-pah-tee, a beggar, you follow after women
and are a thief.
Now I want you to stop these bad habits. You may not know all that
the people say about you: They say that when any hunter brings in
game you are always the first to be there, and you will be very apt
to swallow charcoal [3] if you are so greedy.
Wherever you go, when the people see you coming, they say: 'There
comes a man who is a thief,' and they hide their precious things. When
you arrive they are kind to you, of course, but they do not care much
about you.
I don't know whether you know that people talk thus about you, but
it is a great shame to me to know, when I have done some bad thing,
that people talk about it.
Now if you quit these things you will be happy, and I want you to
stop them. I am not angry with you, but I want you to know how the
people are talking about you.
Now I want you to go home, but not say anything about what I have
told you. Just take a rest, and tomorrow night come again."
And the next night Vandaih came again, and Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai was
in bed when he came, but he got right up and received him, and said:
"Now after this I mean to tell you what is for your good, but I want
you to keep quiet about it. There are many people that gamble with
you. If they ask you again to gamble with them, do not do it. Tell
them you do not gamble any more. And if they do not stop when you
tell them this, but keep on asking you, come to me, and tell me,
first, that you are going to play. And if I tell you, then, that I do
not want you to gamble, I want you not to do it, but if I tell you
you may gamble & you win once, then you may bet again, but I do not
want you to keep on after winning twice. Twice is enough. But if the
other man beats you at first, then I do not want you to play any more,
but to quit gambling forever."
And after this a man did want to gamble with Vandaih, but Vandaih said:
"I have nothing to wager, and so cannot play with you."
And still another man wanted to gamble with him, and he made him the
same answer, but this man kept on asking, and at last Vandaih said:
"Perhaps I will play with you, I will see about it. But I must have a
little time first." And he came to Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai and said:
"There is a man who keeps on asking me to gamble with him, and I have
come to tell you about it as you told me to do."
And Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai told him to gamble, and gave him things
to wager on the game, but said: "If he beats you I do not want you
to gamble any more."
And Vandaih took the things which had been given him, and went & played
a game with this man who was so persistent, and won a game. And he
played another game and won that, and then he said, "That is enough,
I do not want to play any more;" but the other man kept on asking
him to play.
But Vandaih refused & took the things which he had won to
Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai and gave them all to him.
And the next morning he gambled again, and won twice, and he stopped
after the second winning, as before.
And thus the young man kept on winning and Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai
made gainskoot (dice-sticks) for him, and this was one reason why he
won, for Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai was a powerful doctor & the dice
were charmed.
And he beat every one who played against him till he had beat all
the gamblers of his neighborhood, and then distant gamblers came &
he beat them also. And so he won all the precious things that were in
the country and gave all to Ahahnheeattoepahk Mahkai & kept nothing
back. But one man went to Ee-ee-toy, who was living at the Salt River
Mountain (Mo-hah-dheck) and asked him to let him have some things
to wager against Vandaih. And Ee-ee-toy said: "You can have whatever
you want, and I will go along to see the game."
But when Ee-ee-toy got there he found the dice were not like common
dice, and it would be difficult for any one to win against them,
they were made by so powerful a man.
And Ee-eetoy went westward and found a powerful doctor who had a
daughter, and said to the father: "I want your daughter to go around
to all the big trees and find me all the feathers she can of large
birds, not of small birds, and bring them here. And I will come again &
see what she may have found."
And her father told her, and the very next morning she began to
hunt the feathers, and when Ee-eetoy came again she had a bundle,
and Ee-eetoy took them and took the pith out of their shafts and
cleansed every feather which she had brought him.
And Ee-ee-toy threw away the pith and cut the shafts into small
pieces and told the girl to roast them in a broken pot over a fire;
and she got the broken pot & roasted them, and they curled up as they
roasted till they looked like grains of corn. And then he told her
to roast some real corn & mix both together and grind them all up
very fine, and Ee-ee-toy told her to take some ollas of this pinole
in her syih-haw to the reservoirs.
And she did so, and passed by where Vandaih was going to play, and
Vandaih said: "Before I can play I must drink." But the man who was
playing with him said: "Get some water of some one near," but Vandaih
said, "I would rather go to the reservoir."
And Ee-ee-toy had prepared the girl before this, telling her that when
she passed the players Vandaih would follow her to the reservoir and
want to marry her. "Be polite to him," he said "and ask him to drink
some of the pinole, and to see your parents first."
And the man who was going to gamble with Vandaih asked him not to
go so far, for he wanted to gamble right away, but Vandaih replied:
"I would rather go there. I will come right back. You be making holes
till I get back."
So the girl went to the reservoir, and Vandaih followed her and asked
her to be his wife, and she said: "I want you to drink some of this
pinole, and in the evening you may go and see my folks and ask them
about it."
So Vandaih mixed some pinole and drank it, and it made him feel
feverish, like one with a cold; and the second time he drank the
goose-flesh came out on his skin; and the third time he drank feathers
came out all over him; and the fourth time long feathers grew out on
his arms; and the fifth time he became an eagle and went and perched
on the high place, or bank of the reservoir.
Then the girl went to the place where the other man was waiting to
play the game and told all the people to come and see the terrible
thing which had happened to Vandaih.
And the people, when they saw him, got their bows and arrows and
surrounded him and were going to shoot him.
And they fired arrows at him, and some of them struck him, but could
not pierce him, and then all were afraid of him. And first he began
to hop around, and then to fly a little higher, until he perched on
a tree, but he broke the tree down; and he tried another tree and
broke that down; and then he flew to a mountain and tumbled its rocks
down its side, and finally he settled on a strong cliff. And even the
cliff swayed at first as if it would fall,--but finally it settled
and stood still.
And this was foretold when the earth was being made, that one of the
race of men should be turned into an eagle. Vandaih was a handsome
man, but he had a bad character, and ever since the beginning parents
had warned their children to practice virtue lest they be turned into
eagles; because it had been foretold that some good-looking bad person
should be thus transformed, and it was to be seen that good-looking
people were often bad and homely ones good characters.
And Vandaih took that cliff for his residence and hunted over all the
country round about, killing jack-rabbits, deer and all kinds of game
for his food. And when the game became scarce he turned to men and
one day he killed a man and took the body to his cliff to eat. And
after this manner he went on. Early in the morning he would bring
home a human being, and sometimes he would bring home two.
Then the people sent a messenger to Ee-eetoy, to his home on
Mohahdheck, asking him to kill for them this man-eagle. And Ee-ee-toy
said to the man: "You can go back, and in about four days I will
be there." But when the fourth day came Ee-eetoy had not arrived,
as he had promised, but Vandaih was among the people, killing them,
carrying them away to the cliff.
And the people again sent the messenger, saying to him: "You must tell
Ee-ee-toy he must come and help his people or we shall all be lost."
And the man delivered his message and Ee-ee-toy said, as before,
that he would be there in four days.
And this went on, the people sending to Ee-ee-toy, and Ee-ee-toy
promising to come in four days, until a whole year had passed. And not
only for one year, but for four years, for the people had misunderstood
him, and when he said four days he meant four years, and so for four
years it went on as we have said.
(Now Ee-ee-toy and Vandaih were relatives, and that was one reason
why Ee-ee-toy kept the people waiting so long for his help and worked
to gain time. He did not want to hurt Vandaih.)
But when the fourth year came Ee-ee-toy did go, and told the people
to get him the "seed-roaster."
And the people ran around, guessing what he meant, and they brought
him the charcoal, but Ee-ee-toy said: "I did not mean this, I meant
the 'seed-roaster'!"
So they ran around again, and they brought him the long open earthen
vessel with handles at each end, used for roasting, and with it
they brought the charcoal which is made from ironwood. But he said:
"I did not mean these. I mean the 'seed-roaster.'"
And they kept on guessing, and nobody could guess it right. They
brought him the black stones of the nahdahcote, or fire place, and
he said: "I do not want these. I want the 'seed-roaster.'"
And the people kept on guessing, and could not guess it right, and so,
at last, he told them that what he wanted was obsidian, that black
volcanic stone, like glass, from which arrow heads are made. And this
was what he called the "seed-roaster."
So the people got it for him.
Then he told them to bring him four springy sticks. And they ran and
brought all the kinds of springy sticks they could find, but he told
them he did not mean any of these.
And for many days they kept on trying to get him the sticks which
he wanted. And after they had completely failed Ee-ee-toy told them
what he wanted. It was a kind of stick called vahs-iff, which did not
grow there, therefore they had not been able to find it. And beside
vahsiff sticks were not springy sticks at all, but the strongest kind
of sticks, very stiff.
So they sent a person to get these, who brought them, and Ee-ee-toy
whittled them so that they had sharp points. And there were four
of them.
And Ee-ee-toy said: "Now I am going, and I want you to watch the top
of the highest mountain, and if you see a big cloud over it, you will
know I have done something wonderful. But if there is a fog over the
world for four days you will know I am killed."
When he started he allowed one of the dust storms of the desert to
arise, and went in that, so that the man-eagle should not see him.
For many days he journeyed toward the cliff, and when sunset of the
last day came he was still a good way off; but he went on and arrived
at the foot of the cliff after it was dark, and hid himself there
under a rock.
About daybreak the man-eagle got up and flew around the cliff four
times and then flew off. And after he was gone Ee-ee-toy took one of
his sticks and stuck it into a crack in the cliff, and climbed on it,
and stuck another above it and so he went on to the top, pulling out
the sticks behind him and putting them in above.
And when he got to the home of the man-eagle, Vandaih, on the top of
the cliff, he found a woman there. And she was the same woman who had
given Vandaih the pinole with eagles' feathers in it. He had found her,
and carried her up there, and made her his wife.
When Ee-ee-toy came to the woman he found she had a little boy, and he
asked her if the child could speak yet, and she replied that he was
just beginning to talk; and he enquired further when the man-eagle
would return, and she said that formerly when game was plenty he had
not stayed away long, but now that game was scarce it usually took
him about half a day, so he likely would not be there till noon.
And Ee-ee-toy enquired: "What does he do when he comes back? Does he
sleep or not? Does he lie right down, or does he go looking around
first?"
And the wife said: "He looks all around first, everywhere. And even
the little flies he will kill, he is so afraid that some one will come
to kill him. And after he has looked around, and finished eating,
he comes to lay his head in my lap and have me look for the lice in
his head. And it is then that he goes to sleep."
So Ee-ee-toy turned into a big fly and hid in a crack in the rock,
and asked the woman if she could see him, and she said: "Yes, I can
see you very plainly."
And he hid himself three times, and each time she could see him, but
the fourth time he got into one of the dead bodies, into its lungs,
and had her pile the other dead bodies over him, and then when he
asked her she said: "No, I cannot see you now."
And Ee-ee-toy told her: "As soon as he goes to sleep, whistle, so
that I may know that he is surely asleep."
At noon Ee-ee-toy heard the man-eagle coming. He was bringing two
bodies, still living & moaning, and dropped them over the place
where Ee-ee-toy lay. And the first thing the man-eagle did was to
look all around, and he said to his wife: "What smell is this that I
smell?" And she said: "What kind of a smell?" And he replied: "Why,
it smells like an uncooked person!" "These you have just brought in
are uncooked persons, perhaps it is these you smell."
Then Vandaih went to the pile of dead bodies and turned them over &
over, but the oldest body at the bottom he did not examine, for he
did not think there could be anyone there.
So his wife cooked his dinner, and he ate it and then asked her to
look for the lice in his head. And as he lay down he saw a fly pass
before his face, and he jumped up to catch it, but the fly got into
a crack in the rock where he could not get it.
And when he lay down again the child said: "Father! come!" And Vandaih
said: "Why does he say that? He never said that before. He must be
trying to tell me that some one is coming to injure me!" But the wife
said: "You know he is only learning to talk, and what he means is
that he is glad that his father has come. That is very plain." But
Vandaih said: "No, I think he is trying to tell me some one has come."
But at last Vandaih lay down and the woman searched his head and sang
to put him to sleep. And when he seemed sound asleep she whistled. And
her whistle waked him up and he said: "Why did you whistle! you never
did that before?" And she said: "I whistled because I am so glad about
the game you have brought. I used to feel bad about the people you
killed, but now I know I must be contented & rejoice when you have
a good hunt. And after this I will whistle every time when you bring
game home."
And she sang him to sleep again, and whistled when he slept; and waked
him up again, and said the same thing again in reply to his question.
And the third time, while she was singing, she turned Vandaih's head
from side to side. And when he seemed fast asleep she whistled. And
after she had whistled she turned the head again, but Vandaih did
not get up, and so she knew that this time he was fast asleep.
So Ee-ee-toy came out of the dead body he had hidden in, and came to
where Vandaih was, and the woman laid his head down & left him. And
Ee-ee-toy took the knife which he had made from the volcanic glass,
obsidian, and cut Vandaih's throat, and beheaded him, and threw his
head eastward & his body westward. And he beheaded the child, too,
and threw its head westward and its body eastward.
And because of the killing of so powerful a personage the cliff
swayed as if it would fall down, but Ee-ee-toy took one of his
sharpened stakes and drove it into the cliff and told the woman to
hold onto that; and he took another and drove that in and took hold
of that himself.
And after the cliff had steadied enuf, Ee-ee-toy told the woman to
heat some water, and when she had done so he sprinkled the dead bodies.
The first ones he sprinkled came to life and he asked them where
their home was & when they told him he sent them there by his power.
And he had more water heated and sprinkled more bodies, and when he
learned where their home was he sent them home, also, by his power.
And this was done a third time, with a third set of bodies.
And the fourth time the hot water was sprinkled on the oldest bodies
of all, the mere skeletons, and it took them a long time to come to
life, and when they were revived they could not remember where their
homes were or where they had come from. So Ee-ee-toy cut off eagles'
feathers slanting-wise (pens) and gave them, and gave them dried
blood mixed with water (ink) and told them their home should be in
the East, and by the sign of the slanting-cut feather they should
know each other. And they are the white people of this day. And he
sent them eastward by his power.
And in the evening he & the woman went down the cliff by the aid of
the sharpened stakes, even as he had come up, and when they reached
the foot of the mountain they stayed there over night. They took some
of the long eagle feathers and made a kee from them, & some of the
soft eagle feathers and made a bed with them. And they stayed there
four nights, at the foot of the cliff.
And after a day's journey they made another kee of shorter eagle
feathers, and a bed of tail feathers. And they staid at this second
camp four nights.
And then they journeyed on again another day and build another kee,
like the first one, & stayed there also four nights.
And they journeyed on yet another day and built again a kee, like
the second one, and stayed there four nights.
And on the morning of each fourth day Ee-ee-toy took the bath of
purification, as the Pimas have since done when they have slain
Apaches, and when he arrived home he did not go right among the people
but stayed out in the bushes for a while.
And the people knew he had killed Vandaih, the man-eagle, for they
had watched and had seen the cloud over the high mountain.
And after the killing of Vandaih, for a long time, the people had
nothing to be afraid of, and they were all happy.