When the tremblings grew stilled for a time, the people were bidden
to gather and pause at the First of Sitting-places, which was named
K’éyatiwankwi (Place of upturning or elevation). Yet still poor and
defenseless and unskilled were the children of men, still moist and
ever-anon unstable the world they abode in. Still also, great demons
and monsters of prey fled violently forth in times of earthquake
(_ánukwaík‘yanak‘ya_) and menaced all wanderers and timid creatures.
Therefore the Beloved Twain took counsel one with the other and with
the Sun-father, and instructed by him, the elder said to the younger,
"Brother, behold!
That the earth be made safer for men, and more stable,
Let us shelter the land where our children be resting,
Yea! the depths and the valleys beyond shall be sheltered
By the shade of our cloud-shield! Let us lay to its circle
Our firebolts of thunder, aimed to all the four regions,
Then smite with our arrows of lightning from under.
Lo! the earth shall heave upward and downward with thunder!
Lo! fire shall belch outward and burn the world over,
And floods of hot water shall seethe swift before it!
Lo! smoke of earth-stenches shall blacken the daylight
And deaden the senses of them else escaping
And lessen the number of fierce preying monsters!
That the earth be made safer for men, and more stable."
"It were well," said the younger, ever eager, and forthwith they made
ready as they had between themselves devised. Then said the elder to
the younger,
"Wilt thou stand to the right, or shall I, younger brother?"
"I will stand to the right!" said the younger, and stood there.
To the left stood the elder and when all was ready,
‘Hluáa they let fly at the firebolts, their arrows!
Deep bellowed the earth, heaving upward and downward.
"It is done," said the elder. "It is well," said the younger.
Dread was the din and stir. The heights staggered and the mountains
reeled, the plains boomed and crackled under the floods and fires, and
the high hollow-places, hugged of men and the creatures, were black and
awful, so that these grew crazed with panic and strove alike to escape
or to hide more deeply. But ere-while they grew deafened and deadened,
forgetful and asleep! A tree lighted of lightning burns not long!
Presently thick rain fell, quenching the fires; and waters washed the
face of the world, cutting deep trails from the heights downward, and
scattering abroad the wrecks and corpses of stricken things and beings,
or burying them deeply. Lo! they are seen in the mountains to this day;
and in the trails of those fierce waters cool rivers now run, and where
monsters perished lime of their bones (_áluwe_--calcareous nodules in
malpais or volcanic tuff) we find, and use in food stuff! Gigantic were
they, for their forms little and great were often burned or shriveled
and contorted into stone. Seen are these, also, along the depths of
the world. Where they huddled together and were blasted thus, their
blood gushed forth and flowed deeply, here in rivers, there in floods;
but it was charred and blistered and blackened by the fires, into the
black rocks of the lower mesas (_ápkwina_, lava or malpais). There
were vast plains of dust, ashes and cinders, reddened as is the mud
of a hearth-place. There were great banks of clay and soil burned to
hardness--as clay is when baked in the kiln-mound,--blackened, bleached
or stained yellow, gray, red, or white, streaked and banded, bended or
twisted. Worn and broken by the heavings of the under-world and by
the waters and breaths of the ages, they are the mountain-terraces of
the Earth-mother, "dividing country from country!" Yet many were the
places behind and between these--dark canyons, deep valleys, sunken
plains--unharmed by the fires, where they swerved or rolled higher--as,
close to the track of a forest-fire, green grow trees and grasses, and
even flowers continue to bloom. Therein, and in the land sheltered
by the shield, tarried the people, awakened, as from fearful dreams.
Dry and more stable was the world now, less fearsome its lone places;
since, changed to rock were so many monsters of prey (some shriveled
to the size of insects; made precious as amulets for the hunter and
warrior, as told in other talks of our ancient speech).
THE BEGINNING OF THE SEARCH FOR THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD, AND THE SECOND
TARRYING OF MEN.
But ever and anon the earth trembled anew in that time, and the people
troubled.
"Thus, being, it is not well," said the Two. "Let us again seek the
Middle." So, they led their myriads far eastward and tarried them at
Tésak‘ya Yäla (Place of nude mountains).