Native American Legends
The abandoned children
A White Mountain Apache Legend
Long ago they say. Porcupine, a woman, was living with her two
children, one a girl and the other, the younger one, a boy. She
was a widow and was the only one of the children's relations still
living. They were living in a camp like this one of mine here. Later
on this widow started in to gamble at tse'dil (a dice game played
with three sticks). Both her children were still small, but they
followed her all the same, wherever she went. Then that woman said
to her children, "You smell. Stay away from me." She kept
on telling them to stay away from her. Finally she abandoned her
children, ran off some place and did not come back.
At the same time one old woman and her son were living at that
place by themselves. This old woman saw the two children the mother
had abandoned. The little girl was coming along with her brother
and both were crying. The son of the old woman told his mother,
"Let them stay with us," but she said no. Still the boy
asked her to let them stay with them. But the old woman said, "I
told you these two smell too much, and that's why I don't want them
here." The boy kept on asking his mother and saying, "But
those two children are getting too poor. That is why I want them
to live with us." Then the old woman said, "All right,
call them over." So the boy called them. When the two children
got there, they washed them all over with warm water.
Then these two children had been living with the old woman and
her boy for quite a while. They were growing up and getting tall.
The two boys went out together to hunt, along with the other men.
They killed deer all right. The girl was tall and strong. She gathered
all kinds of wild seeds, fruits and mescal and brought them into
camp. Now she was getting lots to eat and they had lots of food
on hand. They were all living well. Later on the girl was old enough
to marry and the old woman's son was old enough also. They had all
the food they needed on hand, so the old woman made them marry and
they lived together.
After they were married, the boy hunted and killed lots of deer.
They had lots of meat on hand. The girl also gathered lots of seeds
and mescal and other foods. This way all the people who were living
close by came there and were given lots of food. They all felt good
over this. {Note the typical stress on diligence in procuring food
supplies, also the pattern of the rich and industrious giving away
food.} After a while people who were living far off heard about
it and they came there because they heard that this family was giving
away lots of food to eat. Then that woman who was the real mother
of the two children and who had abandoned them long ago, heard about
this. So she thought she would come there to see for herself. She
heard they had lots of food and that was why she wanted to go. But
her two children felt badly about the way their mother had acted
and they did not want to see her ever again.
Lots of people went to their camp and that woman followed behind.
She got mad because all the other people were in front other and
she said, "You have no children there. You travel fast, but
I am the one who has children there. I ought to be the one in the
front. Pretty soon that woman got to the camp. Then her daughter
had a baby. The woman sat far off from the camp and called to her
daughter, "My child, bring that baby to me." {She wished
to avoid her son-in-law, the common practice.} The daughter got
mad, when she heard this because her mother was asking for the baby.
She heard what her mother said all right, but she would not go to
her. The people that the woman came with were given lots of food.
The woman tried to get her daughter to come to her all that day
till sundown, but she would not go to her. They would not give her
any food either. Then that woman called to them, "Why don't
you just throw me the scrotum," so the daughter put some rocks
inside the scrotum and threw it at her mother. It hit the woman
on the head, but it did not kill her, only knocked her over. The
woman picked it up and walked under a tree. There she started to
cook and eat it.
My yucca fruits lie piled up.
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