Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona | Page 4

who, aside from his competence for that work, had every facility for obtaining data of this kind. The tradition was dictated by Anawita, chief of the Pat-ki-ny?m? (Water house gentes) and is as follows:
We did not come direct to this region (Tusayan)--we had no fixed intention as to where we should go.
We are the Pat-ki-ny?-m?, and we dwelt in the Pa-l��t-kwa-b[(i] (Red Land) where the kw��-ni (agave) grows high and plentiful; perhaps it was in the region the Americans call Gila valley, but of that I am not certain. It was far south of here, and a large river flowed past our village, which was large, and the houses were high, and a strange thing happened there.
Our people were not living peaceably at that time; we were quarreling among ourselves, over huts and other things I have heard, but who can tell what caused their quarrels? There was a famous hunter of our people, and he cut off the tips from the antlers of the deer which he killed and [wore them for a necklace?] he always carried them. He lay down in a hollow in the court of the village, as if he had died, but our people doubted this; they thought he was only shamming death, yet they covered him up with earth. Next day his extended hand protruded, the four fingers erect, and the first day after that one finger disappeared [was doubled up?]; each day a finger disappeared, until on the fourth day his hand was no longer visible.
The old people thought that he dug down to the under world with the horn tips.
On the fifth day water spouted up from the hole where his hand had been and it spread over everywhere. On the sixth day P��-l��-l��-ko?a (the Serpent deity) protruded from this hole and lifted his head high above the water and looked around in every direction. All of the lower land was covered and many were drowned, but most of our people had fled to some knolls not far from the village and which were not yet submerged.
When the old men saw P��-l��-l��-ko?a they asked him what he wanted, because they knew he had caused this flood; and P��-l��-l��-ko?a said, "I want you to give me a youth and a maiden."
The elders consulted, and then selected the handsomest youth and fairest maid and arrayed them in their finest apparel, the youth with a white kilt and paroquet plume, and the maid with a fine blue tunic and white mantle. These children wept and besought their parents not to send them to P��-l��-l��-ko?a, but an old chief said, "You must go; do not be afraid; I will guide you." And he led them toward the village court and stood at the edge of the water, but sent the children wading in toward P��-l��-l��-ko?a, and when they reached the center of the court where P��-l��-l��-ko?a was the deity and the children disappeared. The water then rushed down after them, through a great cavity, and the earth quaked and many houses tumbled down, and from this cavity a great mound of dark rock protruded. This rock mound was glossy and of all colors; it was beautiful, and, as I have been told, it still remains there.
[Illustration: Plate XII. GROUND PLAN OF RUIN NEAR MOUTH OF LIMESTONE CREEK. RIO VERDE : ARIZONA]
The White Mountain Apache have told me that they know a place in the south where old houses surround a great rock, and the land in the vicinity is wet and boggy.
We traveled northward from Palat-kwabi and continued to travel just as long as any strength was left in the people--as long as they had breath. During these journeys we would halt only for one day at a time. Then our chief planted corn in the morning and the p��-to-la-tei (dragon fly) came and hovered over the stalks and by noon the corn was ripe; before sunset it was quite dry and the stalks fell over, and whichever way they pointed in that direction we traveled.
When anyone became ill, or when children fretted and cried, or the young people became homesick, the Co-i-yal Katcina (a youth and a maiden) came and danced before them; then the sick got well, children laughed, and sad ones became cheerful.
We would continue to travel until everyone was thoroughly worn out, then we would halt and build houses and plant, remaining perhaps many years.
One of these places where we lived is not far from San Carlos, in a valley, and another is on a mesa near a spring called Coyote Water by the Apache. * * *
When we came to the valley of the Little Colorado, south of where Winslow now is, we built houses and lived there; and then we crossed to the northern side of the valley and built