Sacred Texts Native American Southwest Index Previous Next
Gĭnĭni lived with his grandmother who was very old. She said to him, "Go for wood." "All right." "Get gray wood (i. e., seasoned). It is far away. If it gets dark, lie down wherever you are when it is too dark to travel." "All right." On the way up to the mountains he remembered what his grandmother said, to get "gray wood." He found the old bones of a dead horse and he brought back a load to his grandmother. When he was nearing the house the sun set. He was two steps up the ladder. He remembered that she had said, "When it gets dark lie down," so he lay down and slept on the second rung. Early in the morning she went to the fireplace to start the fire. She gathered up a few ashes to throw out. She climbed up to the roof and then down. She stepped on something. She turned and looked. She cried, "Goodness! What is this? My grandchild, why are you sitting here? Did you stay here all night?" "Yes; you told me wherever I was when the sun set, lie down." "Only if the sun went down when you were far away. You don't understand what I say. You are always doing things like this." "I did what you said, and I'm always doing what you tell me."
Again that night the grandmother said to him, "Are you willing to go to Sia? They will have a give-away dance, at Sia." "Yes." The boy started to go to Sia. His grandmother gave him a bit of skin to carry whatever he caught (at the dance). As he was going he thought, "Where is Sia?" He went wondering. He came to an ant hill. 2a He watched the ants working. He said to himself, "I guess this is what Grandmother meant; this is Sia Pueblo." So he spread out the skin and took what the ants brought him and put it in his skin. The ants bit him. He said, "At Sia they do nothing but bite me." Toward evening he had gathered all the presents and he took up the skin and started toward home. When he arrived he told his grandmother how he had passed the day. "At Sia they were angry at me, and bit me all over my hands." He showed her what
he had brought. She began to scold him and said, "You always do foolish things. I told you to go to Sia, not to an ant hill." "I took the ant hill for Sia."
Again the grandmother told the boy, "It is the season for gathering locusts. Up in the piñon trees you will find the biggest and fattest." The boy started after locusts. He came to the hills where the piñon trees grow. He thought to himself, "What is it grandmother means that I should gather?" He looked and looked. He saw somebody sitting in a tree. It was a Jemez Indian gathering pitch. Gĭnĭni' went and got a piece of wood and said, "You're a good locust." He struck the Indian and he fell to the ground. "My, what a meal grandmother will have!" he exclaimed. The Jemez Indian moaned, "Ai-ai-aili-i," and died. "What do you mean by, 'ai-ai-aili-i'? You are a good Indian locust." The boy was glad that he had killed a good locust and started home carrying the man on his back. When he got home he called to his grandmother, "Here come your locusts." "Yes; I hope that you have had good luck." He let the body fall into the house. Down went his locusts. She cried, "My grandchild, what have you done now!" "You told me that I would find the locusts on the piñon trees. I found him on the tree and hit him with a club and killed him." "Take the man right back!" The next day the boy took his big locust on his shoulder and went back and put him where he had found him.
Again his grandmother told him, "Go to the fields. I did not finish the hoeing (i. e., 'throwing up'), I will stay home and do the grinding." "I will go finish it." The grandmother explained everything so that he wouldn't get into mischief. There was very little hoeing left to be done. "Throw up the rest," she told him. The boy went out to the field. He didn't know what to throw up. He looked and looked. "But Grandmother wants me to throw up," he thought. He found a snake. "I guess this is what Grandmother wants me to throw up," he said. He caught it and all day he threw up the snake and caught him again. In the evening the boy came home and said to his grandmother, "I did what you said. I have thrown it up." "I am happy. I will go down and see it." So the next morning his grandmother went down to her little field and found that it had not been hoed. She thought, "What was my grandson. doing all day yesterday? He must have done some mischief. He never does what I tell him." She found the snake and thought, "I guess this is what he must have been throwing." The snake was all bruised. In the field she could trace where he had been jumping and running all over it. That is the way she discovered
what he had thrown up. She told him that he had done mischief again. He said, "I looked and looked to find what to throw up and I found a snake. It didn't die right away. That's why I trampled all over the field throwing it up." "It was the earth that I wanted you to throw up by hoeing." She felt pity for the snake because he had killed it.
The people were living on the mesa. Two men were together, one was blind and the other lame. The blind man carried the lame man on his back when they went hunting, and the lame man guided him. They came to a place where there were lots of birds. The blind man put the lame man down and he gave him a hair. He put one end in his mouth and made, bird calls (with the hair). The birds came and he called, "Kill them, kill them!" The lame man killed lots and took them home for dinner. He made a fire and cooked the birds. They burst with a great noise. They were frightened. They both jumped.
The blind man could see and the lame man could walk.
The lame man said, "Don't go near the fire again or you will be blind." And the blind man said, "Don't go near the fire or you will be lame."
They were both well. The birds all flew away.
Again they went to hunt locusts. They came to a place where there were lots of piñons. They looked up and saw a man in the tree. He was an Indian from Jemez. The blind man called, "See the big locust. 4 Let's catch him to eat." They struck at him and killed him. He cried out, "Ai li li yi!" "Don't say 'ai li li yi.' We are going to eat you up, you are a locust." They took him home and ate him. That is why locusts always say "ai li li yi."
The next day they were going hunting. They killed nothing. One of them said, "To-morrow there is to be a feast in Sia. I'll go and get some bread at the give away." He started out. He found an ant hill, and he saw that the ants were all carrying something. He sat and watched them, and he thought it was bread. He took it away and came home bringing the "bread." He was all bitten by the, ants. "You didn't bring anything home. You have been gone all day and have brought nothing back."
In the morning the brother said, "Go to the, field and 'throw up' (hoe)." He went to the field and found a snake. He thought, [paragraph continues]
"This is what my brother must have meant me to throw." He picked up the snake and threw it up in the air. The snake jumped at him and tried to bite him. He didn't hoe at all. He went home in the evening and his brother asked, "Have you finished the hoeing?" "You told me to 'throw up.' I found a snake and threw it up. Finally I had to kill him. It was too hard to throw him around all day." "You didn't do what I told you to do."
The next day his brother sent him for wood. "Bring in nice white (i. e., dry) sticks. If the sun sets before you get back, stay where you are." He went out and found some old bones. He got lots and made a bundle of them and brought it in. He got to the rungs of his ladder just as the sun set, and he lay down and slept. His brother got up early. He came down the ladder and stepped on him. He was scared. He scolded him hard. "You told me to stay where I was when the sun set." He brought in the bones. His brother said, "These are not what I sent you for." "You told me to bring in nice white ones."
Next day his brother told him to go to the old ruins (Washushrotra--beamed houses) to see if there was any smoke coming out. His brother said, "Hunt around there." He went. He found an old woman firing pots. He went up and killed her and brought her home. His brother scolded him.
163:1 Tales and incidents of European provenience occur in an the types of tales above, but often are strikingly acculturated. In this section, except in the noodle tales, acculturation is at a minimum.
163:2 Informant 1. Notes, p. 244.
163:2a A pun. ts’ia, the pueblo; si'a, ant.
165:3 Informant 3.
165:4 "In the spring locusts are black"; i. e., there is a suggested resemblance.