Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 7 | Page 9

to womanhood under their care, and her charms
attracted the great manitou that rides on a white horse and carries the
sun for a shield. He wooed and married her, and their children slew the
giants that had destroyed the Navajos. After a time the manitou carried
his wife to his floating palace in the western water, which has since
been her home. To her the prayers of the people are addressed, and
twelve immortals bear their petitions to her throne.

THE ARK ON SUPERSTITION MOUNTAINS
The Pima Indians of Arizona say that the father of all men and animals
was the butterfly, Cherwit Make (earth-maker), who fluttered down
from the clouds to the Blue Cliffs at the junction of the Verde and Salt
Rivers, and from his own sweat made men. As the people multiplied
they grew selfish and quarrelsome, so that Cherwit Make was disgusted
with his handiwork and resolved to drown them all. But first he told
them, in the voice of the north wind, to be honest and to live at peace.
The prophet Suha, who interpreted this voice, was called a fool for
listening to the wind, but next night came the east wind and repeated
the command, with an added threat that the ruler of heaven would
destroy them all if they did not reform.
Again they scoffed, and on the next night the west wind cautioned them.
But this third warning was equally futile. On the fourth night came the
south wind. It breathed into Suha's ear that he alone had been good and
should be saved, and bade him make a hollow ball of spruce gum in
which he might float while the deluge lasted. Suha and his wife
immediately set out to gather the gum, that they melted and shaped
until they had made a large, rounded ark, which they ballasted with jars
of nuts, acorn-meal and water, and meat of bear and venison.
On the day assigned Suha and his wife were looking regretfully down
into the green valleys from the ledge where the ark rested, listening to
the song of the harvesters, and sighing to think that so much beauty
would presently be laid waste, when a hand of fire was thrust from a
cloud and it smote the Blue Cliffs with a thunder-clang. It was the
signal. Swift came the clouds from all directions, and down poured the
rain. Withdrawing into their waxen ball, Suha and his wife closed the
portal. Then for some days they were rolled and tossed on an
ever-deepening sea. Their stores had almost given out when the ark

stopped, and breaking a hole in its side its occupants stepped forth.
There was a tuna cactus growing at their feet, and they ate of its red
fruit greedily, but all around them was naught but water. When night
came on they retired to the ark and slept--a night, a month, a year,
perhaps a century, for when they awoke the water was gone, the vales
were filled with verdure, and bird-songs rang through the woods. The
delighted couple descended the Superstition Mountains, on which the
ark had rested, and went into its valleys, where they lived for a
thousand years, and became the parents of a great tribe.
But the evil was not all gone. There was one Hauk, a devil of the
mountains, who stole their daughters and slew their sons. One day,
while the women were spinning flax and cactus fibre and the men were
gathering maize, Hauk descended into the settlement and stole another
of Suha's daughters. The patriarch, whose patience had been taxed to its
limit, then made a vow to slay the devil. He watched to see by what
way he entered the valley. He silently followed him into the
Superstition Mountains; he drugged the cactus wine that his daughter
was to serve to him; then, when he had drunk it, Suha emerged from his
place of hiding and beat out the brains of the stupefied fiend.
Some of the devil's brains were scattered and became seed for other
evil, but there was less wickedness in the world after Hauk had been
disposed of than there had been before. Suha taught his people to build
adobe houses, to dig with shovels, to irrigate their land, to weave cloth,
and avoid wars. But on his death-bed he foretold to them that they
would grow arrogant with wealth, covetous of the lands of others, and
would wage wars for gain. When that time came there would be
another flood and not one should be saved--the bad should vanish and
the good would leave the earth and live in the sun. So firmly do the
Pimas rely on this prophecy that they will not cross Superstition
Mountains, for there sits Cherwit Make--awaiting