Native American Legends
Arrow Boy's Son
A Cochiti Legend
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. 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 we 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.
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