The Story of Ee-ee-toy's Resurrection is perhaps the most poetic in the
series, and the opening picture of him lying on the ground, lifeless,
with the elements lamenting over him and the little children playing
on him, might challenge the genius of a great artist.
It is particularly rich in the mystical element also.
I confess that I am not very confident of my rendering of those of the
opening sentences of Ee-ee-toy's speech between "And he had made an
earth" and the statement "And they shot him," etc. My Indians seemed
to get hopelessly tangled over archaic words and other impediments here
and not at all sure of what they told me. The rest I think is correct.
Here we came to the mystic colors of the four quarters, North, South,
East and West and of the zenith, the Above, which the Pimas reckoned
evidently as a cardinal point. If their mystic power was derived
from the cardinal points, might not their inclusion of the zenith
make five also sometimes a mystic number? I think that it perhaps was.
Brinton says that among the Mayas of Yucatan, East is Red, West is
Black, North is White and South is Yellow.
The Speaker: It was customary in the villages of the Awawtam for some
individual, perhaps a chief, or a mahkai, or some representative
of these, to mount on a kee, or other high place, and in a loud
voice shout news, orders, advice, or other important matters to the
people. This was the Speaker, a sort of town crier.
To step on the rushing young maid who gathered the cactus fruit was
a blow at the enemy's subsistence.
It seems to have been a custom among the mahkais to have pet animals
to assist them in their magic.
A circle of bushes, stood up in the earth, forming a screen for shelter
or privacy, was called an onum. One or more may be found near almost
any Pima hut.
To work witchcraft on a foe, so that he be left weaponless and
helpless, and off his guard against attack, seems to have been the
favorite dream of whoso went to war. Treachery was idolized. There
was no notion of a fair fight.
Stories of mythical beings who, tho repeatedly killed, persist in
coming to life again, are common among many Indian tribes.