Desert Hawk Books

 

Spider Woman Stories

G. M. Mullett

 

 

Paperback
142 pages
5.5" x 8.5"

Quantity: $12.95 & S/H

 

"This is a fine introduction to Hopi mythology and values. It recreates an authentic poetic spirit and makes the reader eager to read more Hopi tales" - New Mexico Humanities Review

Partial excerpt from book......

The Children and the Hummingbird

WHEN THE GODS withhold rain for one year it is bad, but when a drought lasts for four or five years hope grows weak and tired like corn plants without rain. That is how it was at Oraibi one time long ago.

The first year the ears of the corn had just begun to ripen when the frost came and killed them. The next year the drought delayed the growth so that the ears were just beginning to form when the frost destroyed the plants. By frost the next year the ears had not even formed, and the fourth year the drought had lasted so long that the plants were spindling and weak from the first. It was a terrible time! All the corn stored in previous bountiful years had at last been eaten, and there was nothing left. Thoroughly disheartened, many left the village to seek new homes, feeling that they could not be much worse off even though they did not better themselves much. The ones who remained planted their corn the fifth year, praying to Muiyinwuh to remember their need and cause the corn to thrive. But alas! the drought was worse if anything, and the corn grew tired and withered almost before it was out of the ground.

There was nothing to do now but leave their houses and see if they might not find food among some more fortunate people, and famine sped them on in desperation. In that terrible time of hunger and fear, two little children-a brother and sister-were left behind in that gaunt, deserted village. They knew not what to do-they knew no place to go, for encircling this poor place where they had always lived lay the vast Unknown. There was nothing to do, after their first mad panic of running as far into the wilderness as they dared, but to stay where they were and hope that they would be missed and someone would return for them. They thought surely that Masauwuh had snatched their parents and was driving the others so closely that the children had been forgotten.

The lad set himself bravely to the task of caring for his little sister, here and there gleaning some root or berry that kept them from absolute starvation and trying to cheer and comfort her. One day he thought he might make her forget how lonely and hungry she was, so he fashioned a little bird from the pith of a dry sunflower stalk.

"The great Spider Woman made all the birds of clay and made them come alive, so thus have I made one for you, and when you toss it into the air the breeze will make it look as if it too were alive," he said handing her the plaything. "Would that the tender Earth Mother might see us, or that we had her gift for making a tiny morsel of food increase."

The child was delighted with her plaything, and seeing that she was playing joyously he left to see if he could not find some root or forgotten seeds that would serve to stay their hunger. After playing with the bird in various ways, the girl began to pretend that it was a real, live one and tossed it high in the air to watch it flutter about before dropping back to her hand or falling to the earth. Imagine her surprise then when at last she threw it and it stayed in the air, skimming hither and thither, a real hummingbird, until at last it flew from her sight.

When the boy returned he found his little sister, whom he had left playing so gaily with her sunflower pith bird, now sitting quiet and sad. "Hao, little sister, where is the pretty bird I made you?"

"Yes, the bad little thing flew away and left me all alone," she complained.

At first he thought that she meant she had lost it in her play, and he could not believe her when she kept insisting that the bird had come to life and really flown away. It looked as if everything had determined to desert them, even the poor toy that had brought his sister a moment's happiness. In addition, he was very sad because he had been unable to find a scrap of anything they could eat, and he knew no new place to search.

The next morning, as the two sat together while the lad tried to comfort and amuse his sister the best he could, the tiny bird returned and darted into one of the crannies in the stone walls of their house.

Copyright © 1979