Native American Legends
How the Pö'okongs destroyed Cóoyoko and his Wife
A Hopi Legend
Halíksai! In Oraíbi the people were living, but there
were a great many people at that time living there, and it frequently
happened that when the men or women would get wood, some of them
did not return, and the people were thinking about it and wondering
what became of these people, whether they had gone away or whether
they had been killed. They were worried about it. So one time a
man again went after wood. He took his straps, tied them around
his body and went to Hótvâla (a spring about five miles
northwest of Oraíbi). North of this spring he gathered some
wood, made the usual frame-work of wooded sticks into which he piled
the wood, put the wood on his back, and went to the path leading
to Oraíbi, when he heard a voice. Somebody was singing the
following song:
Iya yahina kilicina hanaa,
Iya yahina kilicina hanaa,
Honayish pichiya cakicta,
Koovna ahinahina,
Toyâshkakolita Cooyokooo.
[These words are archaic and are not understood by the Hopi.]
It was the Cóoyoko. When he saw that somebody came with
wood, he said: "Now then, I shall feast upon that one."
The man carrying the wood, however, quickly threw down his large
burden of wood and crawled under it. When the Cóoyoko arrived
at the place he could not find the man, and thought he had escaped.
''Let me go on farther, I may find some one else," he said,
and so proceeded to another place in the woods singing the same
song again. Here he found a woman getting a burden of wood ready.
"Now then, I shall feast upon that one," he said again.
When the woman saw him she was very much afraid and ran and climbed
a juniper-tree, micturating as she did so. When the Cóoyoko
arrived at the tree he noticed some moisture on the ground and said:
"There must be clouds somewhere, it has been raining."
So he left the place and went westward saying: "I shall hunt
somebody else," and as he went along he sang the same song
again. The man whom he had met first, had in the meanwhile escaped,
and the woman also climbed down, when the Cóoyoko had left
her, and ran away to the village. These two informed the people
in the village that it was Cóoyoko who killed the Oraíbi
people. When the village chief heard this he was very sorry and
was thinking. He was thinking in the night who could help him.
So the next morning he went over to the shrine of Achámali
(about one-eighth of a mile north of Oraíbi), where the Pö'okongs
(Pöokónghoya and Balö'ongawhoya) lived with their
grandmother, Spider Woman. Spider Woman told him to come in and
sit down. The two brothers were playing with their ball and did
not hear the chief enter. The woman told them to stop, as some one
had come in, but they would not listen, so she struck one over the
back. "What Is It?" he said, but continued to play. She
finally grasped him by both arms and told him to stop as somebody
had come in. So they stopped their playing. Hereupon she said to
the chief: "Now, what is it? You certainly have come for some
reason." "Yes," he said; "these, my children
here in Oraíbi when they get wood they are killed, and it
is Cóoyoko who kills them, and I want you to take revenge
on him. That is the reason why I have come here.'' "Yes,"
they said, "he does it. He is our uncle and he is bad, but
we shall help you. We shall go there." Hereupon the chief asked
them what they would want for it. They said that he should make
some of those balls, when they had killed him, because those were
what they wanted.
The chief hereupon returned to the village. The next morning the
two brothers took their bow, their arrows, which consisted of lightning,
and their ball. As they went along they kept striking their ball
before them. One of them struck it forward, and the other one backward,
and in this way they slowly proceeded. They finally arrived at the
Cóoyoko's house. This was located at Muñaovi on top
of the mesa, a short distance east of Oraíbi (about four
miles). When they came here they looked into the house, but Cóoyoko
was gone. His wife, Cóoyok Wuhti, had also gone away. They
followed the tracks of the latter westward, and found her at a place
sitting and killing white lice in her dress. "There is somebody
sitting," they said to each other, and laughed at her. "Now
let us do something to her," the elder brother said, "because
she does not notice us." Hereupon they both shot a lightning
arrow at her, which shattered 'her to pieces. "Now, let, us
go to the house," they said, which they did.
When they arrived there Cóoyoko had not yet returned, so
they went in and looked around. They found in one of the rooms still
fresh human flesh that had just been fried, and they found hanging
on the wall a great many beads, clothing, and scalps that had been
taken from the Hopi whom the Cóoyoko had killed. Here they
now waited for the return of Cóoyoko. Soon they heard him
come. He was singing the same song that he had been singing before.
"He is coming now," the youths said to each other, and
when he carne upon the roof of the house or kiva they heard him
throw down some, thing. "He has killed somebody again, because
he is throwing down something," they said to each other. When
Cóoyoko came into the kiva he found no one there, and said
to himself: ''She has not yet returned," referring to his wife,
"because there is no fire at the fireplace." He laid down
his bow and arrows and his stone axe, and hunted for something to
eat.
The Pöokónghoyas had hidden themselves behind the mealingbin.
When they saw him walking around there they said to each other:
"Now let us kill him." So each one shot lightning arrows
at him and he was killed. The Pöokónghoyas hereupon
took his knife, scalped him, and then took many beads and a great
many other things that they found in the house, and returned to
their home. So they were now very wealthy. Going home they did not
strike their ball before them because they had so many things to
carry. When they had arrived in their home they had a dance, swinging
the scalp of the Cóoyoko while they were dancing and singing
the following song:
Aynikohinahina,
Aynikohinahina,
Aynikohinahina,
Hataina, hataina,
Aynikohinahina
Pö'okonghoyo, Cóoyoyoko
(The) Pö'okongs, (the) Cóoyoko
.
Taalcha, hataina hataina
Aynikohina hina.
The words are archaic and no longer understood except the two proper
names and the word taalcha. The last word is said to be the Navaho
word for kill.
When the village chief heard that they had returned he cut two
round pieces out of a large buckskin and made two nice balls of
these two pieces. He also made a ball stick for each one. These
he took and went to the house of the Pö'okongs. What have you
found out?" he asked them. "We have killed them."
they replied. "Thanks," he said, "that you have killed
them." Hereupon he handed them the balls and sticks. After
that the Hopi always returned when they went after wood.
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