At a place called Cobowin there was a large rock with a hole in it, and many rattlesnakes lived inside this hole. Nearby at Kalesima there was a village with four large houses, and in the one with a center pole lived a girl. In the spring when clover was just right to eat, this girl went out to gather some. While she was working, she was watched by a rattlesnake.

The snake followed her back to the village, and close to her house he transformed himself into a handsome young man with a net on his head and fine beads around his neck. Then he climbed up onto the top of the house and came down the center pole. The family was surprised to see him, but he told the girl that he wanted to marry her. He remained with the family overnight and the following morning went home again. He arrived and left like this for four days; then on the fifth evening he came back, but this time he did not change his form. He simply slithered into the house and began conversing just as before. The girl’s mother, waiting for her daughter’s suitor, said she heard someone talking in the house. She took a light and looked in the place where she heard the sound, and there was Rattlesnake. He shook his snake’s head, and she dropped the light and ran in terror.

On the following morning Rattlesnake took the girl home with him, and there she remained. In time she bore him four boys. Whenever these children saw any people from the village, they would coil to strike, but heir mother would say, No, you mustn’t bite your relatives.” And the children would obey her.

As the four rattlesnake boys grew older, they also grew more curious, and one day they came in from playing and asked their mother, “Why don’t you talk the way we do? Why are you different?” “I’m not a rattlesnake, like you and your father,” she replied. “I’m a human being.” “Aren’t you afraid of our father?” asked the boys, and she shook her head.

Then the oldest said that he had heard the other rattlesnakes discussing her differences and deciding to crawl over her body to find out what kind of creature she was. While this might have alarmed another human, the rattlesnake’s wife was not at all afraid. When the other rattlesnakes came, she calmly let them crawl over her.

Then she said to her oldest boy, “It’s impossible for you to become a human being, and though I’m not really human any longer, I must go back to my parents and tell them what has happened.” Ad so she returned to the house with the center pole and said to her parents, This is the last time that I will be able to talk to you and the last time that you will be able to talk to me.” Her father and mother were sad, but they said nothing until their daughter started to leave. Then her mother ran and caught her by the door, brought her back into he house, and wept over her because she was so changed. But the girl shook her body, and suddenly she was gone. No one ever knew how or where she went, but they think she returned to Rattlesnake’s house and has lived there ever since.

Based on a legend recorded by Samuel Barrett in 1933).

(California)

http://home.online.no/~arnfin/native/lore/leg239.htm

(Story from a Flathead Indian Woman – Montana)

One day when she was a girl just about six or seven winters, her mother told her they were going berrying in the mountains. They rode double on her horse and went high into the mountains. It was getting late in the evening. The girl saw a patch of bushes and told her mother, “Look, there are some berries and plenty of them.”

Her mother said, “Child have patience, a little farther up is the place where we will get our berries.”

So they went on and on until the sun was just about going down when her mother stopped their horse and said “Here is the place where we are going to pick.”

They got off their horse, her Mother picked some berries, put them on the ground for the young girl and said, “Sit here and eat on these berries while I go down here to see if there are more below.”

Her mother spread out the young girl’s robe and the girl began eating the berries. Her mother got on the horse and reminded the young girl to stay where she was and said she would be back soon. Then she disappeared in the bushes. The young girl was not afraid. She ate berries and talked to herself about the trees. Soon she saw night was coming and her Mother had still not returned. She became frightened and began calling for her mother. She called and called but saw no sign of her. Then she became increasingly frightened and began crying, all the time calling and calling for her mother. She cried all night long but her mother still did not return. She was sure her Mother had left her, gone back home leaving the little girl alone in the high mountains.

Finally when she could not cry any longer, she got up and too her robe and walked not knowing where she was going. It was still night and very, very dark. She walked on and on until she got very tired and sleepy and lay down and went to sleep. When she woke up the sun was way p already, it was nice and warm. At first she thought she was sleeping with her mother at home. Then she remember she was high in the mountains and her mother was not there. She started to cry again.

When she stopped crying, she began to walk and eat the berries growing there on the mountain. She kept on until she got to a deep gulch fully covered with trees. While she sat there she thought of her home and her mother. She began to cry again. Then she barely heard a sound that she thought was human voices. She listened closely but heard nothing and thought it must be the cry of a bird or something. Then she heard the sound again, and as she listened she heard it again and again and knew it was the sound of humans laughing and talking loudly way down in the bottom of the gulch. She could not see them as it was covered all over with trees and bushes but she could tell they were coming toward her.

Just where she was sitting was on a ridge and below on the hillside was an open bald place. The sound came from that way and she was watching closely and was surprised with joy to see a woman with two little ones coming. She thought it was someone from her tribe. They were running and chasing each other. Laughing and shouting, they came pretty close. She saw the woman was a very handsome woman, well clothed all in buckskin and clean. One of the children was a boy and one was a girl. They were also well dressed, all in buckskin.

This woman said to the girl, “Poor girl, this is not the place for you especially to be alone. I am sure you are thirsty by this time. Come, we will bring you down to the stream to drink.” Then she told her children, “Do not bother your little sister, she is thirsty and tired.”

When they got to the stream, they all had a good drink. The little girl was the last to finish her drink and when she stood and looked, instead of seeing her little sister and brother and mother, there was sitting there a grizzly bear and two cubs. She was afraid. The bear spoke, “Do not be afraid, little child. I am your mother bear and here is your little brother and sister. We will not hurt you.”

Then the Bear told her her: “Listen closely. I am going to give you medicine power by which you will be a great help to your people in the future. This time will come after you pass middle age. But do not try to do more than I am allowing you or granting you because, if you do, it will be nothing more than false and you will be responsible for sufferings and even death. One of my gifts is that you are going to be helpful to women especially those that are having hard times and suffering giving the birth of a child.” She said this. Then the grizzly bear mother and her cubs took the young girl back to her people.

Gĭnĭni lived with his grandmother who was very old. She said to him, “Go for wood.” “All right.” “Get gray wood (i. e., seasoned). It is far away. If it gets dark, lie down wherever you are when it is too dark to travel.” “All right.” On the way up to the mountains he remembered what his grandmother said, to get “gray wood.” He found the old bones of a dead horse and he brought back a load to his grandmother. When he was nearing the house the sun set. He was two steps up the ladder. He remembered that she had said, “When it gets dark lie down,” so he lay down and slept on the second rung. Early in the morning she went to the fireplace to start the fire. She gathered up a few ashes to throw out. She climbed up to the roof and then down. She stepped on something. She turned and looked. She cried, “Goodness! What is this? My grandchild, why are you sitting here? Did you stay here all night?” “Yes; you told me wherever I was when the sun set, lie down.” “Only if the sun went down when you were far away. You don’t understand what I say. You are always doing things like this.” “I did what you said, and I’m always doing what you tell me.”

Again that night the grandmother said to him, “Are you willing to go to Sia? They will have a give-away dance, at Sia.” “Yes.” The boy started to go to Sia. His grandmother gave him a bit of skin to carry whatever he caught (at the dance). As he was going he thought, “Where is Sia?” He went wondering. He came to an ant hill.[2] He watched the ants working. He said to himself, “I guess this is what Grandmother meant; this is Sia Pueblo.” So he spread out the skin and took what the ants brought him and put it in his skin. The ants bit him. He said, “At Sia they do nothing but bite me.” Toward evening he had gathered all the presents and he took up the skin and started toward home. When he arrived he told his grandmother how he had passed the day. “At Sia they were angry at me, and bit me all over my hands.” He showed her what he had brought. She began to scold him and said, “You always do foolish things. I told you to go to Sia, not to an ant hill.” “I took the ant hill for Sia.”

Again the grandmother told the boy, “It is the season for gathering locusts. Up in the piñon trees you will find the biggest and fattest.” The boy started after locusts. He came to the hills where the piñon trees grow. He thought to himself, “What is it grandmother means that I should gather?” He looked and looked. He saw somebody sitting in a tree. It was a Jemez Indian gathering pitch. Gĭnĭni’ went and got a piece of wood and said, “You’re a good locust.” He struck the Indian and he fell to the ground. “My, what a meal grandmother will have!” he exclaimed. The Jemez Indian moaned, “Ai-ai-aili-i,” and died. “What do you mean by, ‘ai-ai-aili-i’? You are a good Indian locust.” The boy was glad that he had killed a good locust and started home carrying the man on his back. When he got home he called to his grandmother, “Here come your locusts.” “Yes; I hope that you have had good luck.” He let the body fall into the house. Down went his locusts. She cried, “My grandchild, what have you done now!” “You told me that I would find the locusts on the piñon trees. I found him on the tree and hit him with a club and killed him.” “Take the man right back!” The next day the boy took his big locust on his shoulder and went back and put him where he had found him.

Again his grandmother told him, “Go to the fields. I did not finish the hoeing (i. e., ‘throwing up’), I will stay home and do the grinding.” “I will go finish it.” The grandmother explained everything so that he wouldn’t get into mischief. There was very little hoeing left to be done. “Throw up the rest,” she told him. The boy went out to the field. He didn’t know what to throw up. He looked and looked. “But Grandmother wants me to throw up,” he thought. He found a snake. “I guess this is what Grandmother wants me to throw up,” he said. He caught it and all day he threw up the snake and caught him again. In the evening the boy came home and said to his grandmother, “I did what you said. I have thrown it up.” “I am happy. I will go down and see it.” So the next morning his grandmother went down to her little field and found that it had not been hoed. She thought, “What was my grandson. doing all day yesterday? He must have done some mischief. He never does what I tell him.” She found the snake and thought, “I guess this is what he must have been throwing.” The snake was all bruised. In the field she could trace where he had been jumping and running all over it. That is the way she discovered what he had thrown up. She told him that he had done mischief again. He said, “I looked and looked to find what to throw up and I found a snake. It didn’t die right away. That’s why I trampled all over the field throwing it up.” “It was the earth that I wanted you to throw up by hoeing.” She felt pity for the snake because he had killed it.

VARIANT

The people were living on the mesa. Two men were together, one was blind and the other lame. The blind man carried the lame man on his back when they went hunting, and the lame man guided him. They came to a place where there were lots of birds. The blind man put the lame man down and he gave him a hair. He put one end in his mouth and made, bird calls (with the hair). The birds came and he called, “Kill them, kill them!” The lame man killed lots and took them home for dinner. He made a fire and cooked the birds. They burst with a great noise. They were frightened. They both jumped.

The blind man could see and the lame man could walk.

The lame man said, “Don’t go near the fire again or you will be blind.” And the blind man said, “Don’t go near the fire or you will be lame.”

They were both well. The birds all flew away.

Again they went to hunt locusts. They came to a place where there were lots of piñons. They looked up and saw a man in the tree. He was an Indian from Jemez. The blind man called, “See the big locust.[3] Let’s catch him to eat.” They struck at him and killed him. He cried out, “Ai li li yi!” “Don’t say ‘ai li li yi.’ We are going to eat you up, you are a locust.” They took him home and ate him. That is why locusts always say “ai li li yi.”

The next day they were going hunting. They killed nothing. One of them said, “To-morrow there is to be a feast in Sia. I’ll go and get some bread at the give away.” He started out. He found an ant hill, and he saw that the ants were all carrying something. He sat and watched them, and he thought it was bread. He took it away and came home bringing the “bread.” He was all bitten by the, ants. “You didn’t bring anything home. You have been gone all day and have brought nothing back.”

In the morning the brother said, “Go to the, field and ‘throw up’ (hoe).” He went to the field and found a snake. He thought, “This is what my brother must have meant me to throw.” He picked up the snake and threw it up in the air. The snake jumped at him and tried to bite him. He didn’t hoe at all. He went home in the evening and his brother asked, “Have you finished the hoeing?” “You told me to ‘throw up.’ I found a snake and threw it up. Finally I had to kill him. It was too hard to throw him around all day.” “You didn’t do what I told you to do.”

The next day his brother sent him for wood. “Bring in nice white (i. e., dry) sticks. If the sun sets before you get back, stay where you are.” He went out and found some old bones. He got lots and made a bundle of them and brought it in. He got to the rungs of his ladder just as the sun set, and he lay down and slept. His brother got up early. He came down the ladder and stepped on him. He was scared. He scolded him hard. “You told me to stay where I was when the sun set.” He brought in the bones. His brother said, “These are not what I sent you for.” “You told me to bring in nice white ones.”

Next day his brother told him to go to the old ruins (Washushrotra–beamed houses) to see if there was any smoke coming out. His brother said, “Hunt around there.” He went. He found an old woman firing pots. He went up and killed her and brought her home. His brother scolded him.

Footnotes:
[2] A pun. ts’ia, the pueblo; si’a, ant.

[3] “In the spring locusts are black”; i. e., there is a suggested resemblance.

Tales of the Cochiti Indians, by Ruth Benedict; U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin no. 98; US Government Printing Office; [1931] and is now in the public domain

Tzunuum, the hummingbird, was created by the Great Spirit as a tiny, delicate bird with extraordinary flying ability. She was the only bird in the kingdom who could fly backwards and who could hover in one spot for several seconds. The hummingbird was very plain. Her feathers had no bright colors, yet she didn’t mind. Tzunuum took pride in her flying skill and was happy with her life despite her looks.

When it came time to be married, Tzunuum found that she had neither a wedding gown nor a necklace. She was so disappointed and sad that some of her best friends decided to create a wedding dress and jewelry as a surprise.

Ya, the vermilion-crowned flycatcher wore a gay crimson ring of feathers around his throat in those days. He decided to use it as his gift. So he tucked a few red plumes in his crown and gave the rest to the hummingbird for her necklace. Uchilchil, the bluebird, generously donated several blue feathers for her gown. The vain motmot, not to be outdone, offered more turquoise blue and emerald green. The cardinal, likewise, gave some red ones.

Then, Yuyum, the oriole, who was an excellent tailor as well as an engineer, sewed up all the plumage into an exquisite wedding gown for the little hummingbird. Ah-leum, the spider, crept up with a fragile web woven of shiny gossamer threads for her veil. She helped Mrs. Yuyum weave intricate designs into the dress. Canac, the honeybee, heard about the wedding and told all his friends who knew and liked the hummingbird. They brought much honey and nectar for the reception and hundreds of blossoms that were Tzunuum’s favorites.

Then the azar tree dropped a carpet of petals over the ground where the ceremony would take place. She offered to let Tzunuum and her groom spend their honeymoon in her branches. Pakal, the orange tree, put out sweet-smelling blossoms, as did Nicte, the plumeria vine. Haaz (the banana bush), Op the custard apple tree) and Pichi and Put (the guava and papaya bushes) made certain that their fruits were ripe so the wedding guests would find delicious refreshments. And, finally, a large band of butterflies in all colors arrived to dance and flutter gaily around the hummingbird’s wedding site.

When the wedding day arrived, Tzunuum was so surprised, happy and grateful that she could barely twitter her vows. The Great Spirit so admired her humble, honest soul that he sent word down with his messenger, Cozumel, the swallow, that the hummingbird could wear her wedding gown for the rest of her life. And, to this day, she has. How did the humility of one long-ago hummingbird cause its descendants to sport brilliant colors?

Next day, the brothers changed themselves into giant kangaroos, and decided to kill Thoorkook and his savage dogs. They hopped about in sight of Thoorkook’s camp, and, when the dogs scented them, they gave chase. With great bounds the kangaroos hopped away, and the dogs followed, but one ran faster than the rest. When it was a long way from the pack, the kangaroos turned, and one of them struck the dog a heavy blow with its paw, which ripped the body from head to tail. They then carried the body and threw it in a deep water hole.

The kangaroos continued to hop away, and the dogs followed fast; red foam flecked their mouths and lolling tongues, the cruel white fangs glistened in the sun, their lean sides panted, and the noise of their deep, hoarse barking echoed through the bush like distant thunder. One dog again ran faster than the rest in this relentless chase. The kangaroos ran slower, as though they were growing tired, and, when the leading dog came within striking distance, they suddenly turned, and, with one swift stroke, ripped it from end to end. This terrible hunt continued until one by one the dogs were killed.

The kangaroos again changed themselves into men and went to Thoorkook’s camp to kill him. When he saw them approaching he seized his weapons and prepared to fight. They, however, made the sign of peace by placing their spears in the ground, and he did likewise.

The elder brother then spoke to him, saying: “While we were hunting, you crawled like an adder in the grass and killed our children with your dogs. We have killed your dogs, and the crows are whitening their bones. I am now going to kill you, not as you kill children, but as men kill men, and, when you are dead, I will change you into a bird that will live forever in the darkness of night, and never see the sun.”

Thoorkook did not answer; he knew that he would have to fight for his life. Picking up his spears and a wooden shield, he followed Byama to a clear space in the bush where the trial of skill was to take place.

Some Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines by William Jenkyn Thomas [1923] and is now in the public domain.