Sacred Texts Native American Southwest Index Previous Next
Arrow Boy was hunting in the north. He found two girls sitting together. Arrow Boy said, "Are you sitting here, girls?" "Yes; we are sitting. Where do you come from?" "I am hunting around here, and I happened to come in this direction." The girls said, "Come and sit beside us." "Where is your home?" "Up on a cliff." Arrow Boy said, "But I can't climb a cliff. How will I get up there?" "Oh, you will get up some way." "But I don't see how I can climb." "We will take you up" "What if you should drop me?" "No, Arrow Boy, we won't drop you." The elder sister said to Arrow Boy, "Sit on my shoulder." He sat and she tried to fly. She wasn't able to lift him. She said to her younger sister, "Hold Arrow Boy on my shoulder and help me." "You are not strong enough to carry him." "Yes; I am strong enough." They got ready. They said, "Shut your eyes, Arrow Boy." He shut his eyes and they flew up.
They got to the top of the cliff. "Open your eyes." He looked and he was sitting under a porch. The elder sister said, "We are all alone. Our father and mother are off hunting buffalo." Pretty soon the girls heard a noise. "I think our father and mother are getting back." They told Arrow Boy to be careful and they hid him. They saw their father coming carrying a buffalo. The girls
set out the food. As they were eating the younger sister said, "Father! father!" The elder sister poked her with her elbow and she stopped eating. Again the younger sister said, "Father! father." The elder sister poked her and she stopped talking. The father noticed. "What has happened while we were gone?" he said. "What wrong did you do?" At last the younger said, "It wasn't I. It was my elder sister. She brought Arrow Boy to our cliff." The father said, "How is it you got him up safely?" "She brought him up on her shoulder." The father said, "Bring him out. Do not be afraid." As soon as the father called him he came out from under the buffalo skin lying on the floor. They gave him a stool and told him: "Eat with us." The father said, "My daughters are mischievous and they might have hurt you bringing you up the cliff. Do not be afraid of any danger here in our house. You are welcome to stay with us. Where were you when they found you?" "I was hunting in this country. I came across your daughters sitting under a tree. They invited me to come to their house, and brought me up." "You are welcome as long as you wish to stay. You may hunt in any direction from here." Arrow Boy was happy that they had received him with all their hearts. Whenever he wished to hunt they took him down the cliff and brought him back. He married the two girls and he never went back to the pueblo.
At last the elder sister was about to have a child. A little boy was born to Arrow Boy. Arrow Boy went hunting big game, antelope and elk, in order to provide for his child. At last Arrow Boy said to his wife, "Grind meal very fine, finer than anyone has ever ground it. If you grind it very fine we shall be married forever." So, when Arrow Boy went out hunting, his wife got the flour ready. Her younger sister said, "Shall I help you?" They ground together. "Is this fine enough?" she asked. The elder answered, "Throw it against the side of the grinding stone and if it sticks we will call it fine enough." They threw it against the sides and at last it began to stick. 14 They said, "Now it is as Arrow Boy wanted it ground." The elder girl said, "We have ground the meal very fine. I think it is as fine as you wanted." Arrow Boy said, "I will tell my father and mother (in-law) that we are returning to my home. Take this meal for us to eat on our journey." So, Arrow Boy was going to take his wife and child back to the pueblo. Arrow Boy told his father-in-law and mother-in-law, "I am going to take my wife and child to my house." The father said, "It is your family. You are the head. Take them where you wish, but
we shall always wait for you here, and if at any time you wish to return you are welcome. Always provide for your family as wen as you can."
They started off. They came to the pueblo and lived there happily and the boy grew to be a man and had the power of the eagles. The girl joined the pueblo people and lived there all her life.
45:3 Informant 1. Notes, p. 216.