The Nyohaiva Tale
1. Nyohaiva came to life at Miakwa’orve.1 That place was the first one to be dry. All about, the world was still wet. She thought: “I do not know which is the best way to go. I wonder in what direction is the best place for me, so that everyone will know me and I can tell what I know. I have dreamed well. I wish to tell what I know so that everyone will understand it.” Now the day and the sun and everything else already existed. Then she thought: “There is the sun. It is already gone down as far as that.”2 (3 songs.)
2. Then she said: “Now I know what to do. I will not go elsewhere than south. I will cross the river and go to Iδô-kuva’īre.”3 Then, when she came to Iδô-kuva’īre, she thought: “I will tell about this place and that I am here.” (2 songs.)
3. When she was about to start from there, she said: “I will tell further what I know, so that everyone will learn what I say. Let everyone listen to me and take my words.” As she said this she took a handful of sand. “I am a person who has dreamed well. When you Mohave sing, you will sing Nyohaiva. There is another name for singing that, Av’alyunu,4 but it is the Yuma who will learn that. It will be the same singing, but I give it another name.” (1 song.)
4. She said: “Well, I have told everything here. I have finished. I will go.” Then she went to Ahtšyê-aksāmta.5 When she had gone a little to the south from there she saw a hill of sand, Selye’aya-kumītše.6 Then she said: “All will come to this place. They will come here to play and sing and have a good time. That is how I want you to become married.”7 All the people there looked at her, but did not know who she was. “I am the person called Yanaθa-kwe-’ataye,”8 she said; “Do you not know me?” Then all said: “Yes, we know you. We have heard of that person. That is one who sings and from whom we learn singing. Her name is Nyohaiva.” Now they all knew who she was. (4 songs.)
5. Nyohaiva said: “There are people living below. I must go down. I want to talk to them and teach them to sing. I want to talk to others as well as to you.” Then she went. She came to Kamahnūlye.9 When she arrived there, she said: “I do not tell you anything else. I teach you only singing. I do not tell you what you are to do, but only how you are to sing.” (4 songs.)
6. She said: “That is what I teach you. Listen to me.” As yet she did not teach other tribes. She taught only the Mohave. Then she went on downward to Savêt-tôhe.10 (3 songs.)
7. As she stood there she heard someone speaking or shouting in the east. She thought: “I hear people to the east. I think I will go there.” Thus she said and went east. She went up over the mesa and far up into the mountains A’ī-kumnau-tšumī. There there was a spring, Aha-kuvilye.11 Someone lived there. She said: “I know you. Your name is Hamaθôle-viya.12 Well, I will tell of your body. I will tell about you.” (4 songs.)
8. Then she was ready to return. “I am going back now,” she said. She got up. Then she said again: “You can live here by hunting, but you cannot hunt without having the things with which to hunt.” Then she took13 a bow and four arrows and threw them on the ground, and those living there picked them up. “Now you are provided. You can hunt and shoot,” she said. She also took a stone knife with a wooden handle and gave it to them, then she started to go back. (She did not sing about what she did there. She only instructed those people, the Walapai.) As she returned toward the river, everything had been made, both sky and earth, and all was quiet and still. She thought of that as she came, and sang about it. (4 songs.)14
9. Now she went downstream along the edge of the river. She said: “The way that I have come will be a trail. I am making a trail for people. When they want to go, they will travel by this.” It was when she came to Hotūrveve15 that she said this. (1 song.)
10. She went on. Then she heard someone far downstream. She thought: “I wonder whether I can jump four times and reach that place.” Then she tried to find how she could jump. She thought: “I think I am able to jump. I am light now: I can jump far. Perhaps if I stand and turn around four, five, six times I shall go far.” She stood there thinking, thus. Then she turned herself around four times. Then she arrived far down below, at Iveθīkwe-‘akyulye. Nyahunêm-kwayāve16 lived there. He said: “The person who has come is not like other people. He combs and spreads his hair,17 he does not roll it.18 What is the reason you do not roll your hair? Come among my people and live here and I will give you a name.” Nyohaiva said: “It is good. Give me a name. I will join you.” He told her: “Stand facing the south.” Then she faced the south. He sat behind her, looking at her back. “I give you the name Aθ’inkumeδī,” he said. When she received that name, Nyohaiva said: “Now I have a new name. Everyone has heard it. My name is Aθ’inkumeδī. I have learned something new.” Then she sang. (4 songs.)19
11. From there she went on slowly. She came near Amaṭ-ehê’-kwaδôske.20 The man who lived there saw her coming: he was called Hutšatš-mekulypuk.21 He said: “I heard that it was so: I think this is my sister. I think that I look like her.” When she arrived and stood before him, he said: “You are my sister.”22 Nyohaiva said: “No, you are not my brother.”22a “Yes, you are my sister,” he said. Then she told him: “Well, let us measure our feet. See, your feet are different. Let me see your arms. Yours are different from mine. Mine are short, yours are long. You are not my brother.” Still he insisted: “Yes, I am your brother.” But she said: “No, you are not like me. You are tall.” Then she went away from that place. (3 songs.)
12. She went to Hô’aunye-vatše. Hutšatš-matillaye23 lived there. When she arrived, he also said to her: “You are my sister.” She stood opposite him, saying: “I do not think I am your sister.” “Yes, you are my sister,” he said. Then she told him: “I have heard of you. You have been away. No one knew it; no one saw you; but I heard it: I know you have been away; I know you and what your name is. You are Hutšatš-matillaye.” (3 songs.)
13. So she went on. When she arrived at a place where there was no one, she passed by. She reached Ahmo-kutšeθīlye.24 There she stood on a rock. Then she heard people singing at Amaṭa-kwitše. She thought: “When I come to them they will not know me. I am afraid they will kill me. How shall I go there? I do not know.” (2 songs.)
14. She wanted to go to that place. She thought: “What shall I be? I will become something.” Then she walked, and jumped about. She put three feathers on herself. Then she became an arrow. She jumped up.25 She arrived where she had heard the noise, at Amaṭa-kwitše, and there she stuck in the ground. Little boys were playing about and found the arrow. One of them said: “I have often been here but I have never seen an arrow sticking in the ground.” He did not take it, but went back and told the old man who lived in that place. The old man’s name was Haltoṭ-amītš-kwisāma.26 When the boy told him, this old man said: “Be careful: that is no arrow. Perhaps it is a person who has become an arrow.” Nyohaiva heard that and thought: “I will change back. I want to go to that old man’s house.” Then she turned human again, and went to the house. The old man saw her coming and said: “See, she is coming. I told you that it was no arrow. It is a person who is coming.” When she reached the house, the old man said: “Give her to eat: give her pumpkins and corn.” They had food ready and gave it to her. But she did not know that it was food and would not eat it. She had never eaten that kind before. They wanted her to eat and said: “Why do you not eat?” But she said: “No, I do not want to.” She was afraid. She thought: “If I eat it, perhaps it will kill me.”27 She wanted to go on and did not even sit down. She only squatted and sang. (3 songs.)
15a. She wanted to go on to Aqwāqa-have.28 So she started. Now she came to Aqwāqa-have. There were four brothers who lived there, old men: Nyahamo-vetaye,29 the oldest, Otšôuta,30 the next, Hiδô-kwitara,31 the next, and Kīm-ku-sumā,32 the youngest.
15b. Nyahamo-vetaye had a daughter. He said to her, as Nyohaiva arrived: “When a traveler comes, you must talk to her. You must make her come to the house and be her friend. That is the way you should do.” When the old man said that, his daughter went to Nyohaiva, took her by the hand, and brought her to the house. Nyohaiva would not go in, but sat outside at the corner of the house. The four men did not know her. “I wonder who she is,” they thought. She was ashamed and did not look up. She kept her face down.
15c. Then Kīm-ku-sumā, the youngest of the four, said: “Do you not know her? Have you not heard of her? Her name is Nyohaiva. When she came to one place, she changed her name and took a new one. I heard that she was coming. Now that she has come, I can tell from the way she sits, squatting without sitting down, and from her not looking at us, that when she goes below where there are many people, she will stir up trouble and there will be war and you will not sleep well.”33 He was afraid of her and wanted her to be killed.
15d. Then Hiδô-kwitara, the next oldest brother, said: “Well, if you will kill her, you must send word to all, so that they will come and all our people may know it. Send a man to Haltoṭ-amītš-kwisāma to tell him that we wish him to come; that everyone should be here in four days. I want to roast her alive. I do not want only to kill her: I want her blood, and her bones to crush and mix with what we eat. We will do that on the fourth morning.” Nyohaiva heard them say that; and they, though saying it, nevertheless gave her to eat; but she would not eat it. She had heard them say that they would kill her in four days.
15e. After two days she went outside and dug down in the ground. There she found a kneecap. “That is my father’s bone,” she said. She dug on and found a foot bone. “That is my mother’s bone,” she said. She dug on and found a rib. Then she said: “That is my brother’s34 bone. The people here have killed them. I think that they will try to kill, me in the same way. They recognize me from my face. They knew me because my face was like my father’s and my mother’s and my brother’s. How will they kill me? I would like to know how they will do. They will make me bet my body against something that they put up and then they will kill me. They will bet something against me.”
15f. Then in four days everyone came there. Nyohaiva had kept under the belt of her skirt the bones that she had found. Now, taking the foot bone35 in her hand, she said: “If you can take it away from me, you can kill me. If you cannot take it away from me, you shall not kill me. If I am not able to keep and hold it, you may kill me. I do not think you will be able to take it away from me, and if you cannot take it away, I will go off. I will try to run to Avi-’itšôrinyêne and there I will be free. But if you can take it away from me, and bring it to Kunyāvatš-yampeve, you can have my bones and blood.” Then they prepared to take from her the ball of bone. But she had dug a little hole36 and there she buried the ball and stood on it. Then she waved her hands and made it appear as if she were hiding the bone as she folded her arms. She said: “If you do not take it away from me before I come as far south as Avi-’itšôrinyêne, I shall win; but if you can get the bone to Kunyāvatš-yampeve, then I shall lose.” Then they all came toward her. She ran south, holding the bone between her toes where they did not see it. They reached her, seized her arms, looked for the bone in her hands, but could not find it. Again they pursued her, seized her, held her fast, tore off all her clothes. She fell, got up again, and ran on, scratched all over, but they did not find the bone. Then, when she came to Avi-‘itšôrinyêne, she threw the bone up, and they all stopped. So this one woman had beaten those people. “I have beaten you all. I have dreamed well. In four days we shall have war,” she said, and stretched out her arm towards them with four fingers extended (spread in defiance). They stood and looked at her and thought: “Did I not know it? You cannot overcome her. She is Nyohaiva. Now we have made trouble for ourselves. Everything will be turned over.” (4 songs.)
16. From there Nyohaiva went down the river to Avi-haly’a.37 There she saw Amaly-kapaka38 who had come to that place with many people. She said to him: “I can tell about your body and about you. I can tell about another thing too: I say there will be war in four days.” (4 songs.)
17. She went on again. As she traveled she kept saying that there would be war in four days. There was no one there and she was all alone, nevertheless she told of the war. Then she came to Avê-ny-eva. Two men lived there, Ahma-kunuhwilye and Tšem-korrave,39 his younger brother. She came to the house in which they were. She stood at the door and did not say a word. They did not know her, so they said: “Who is it?” Then she told them: “I am Aθ’inkumeδī. I have come to announce war: I say it will be in four days. That is why I have come here: I have come to tell you in how many days there will be war.” The two men said: “I know Aθ’inkumeδī: she is Nyohaiva. I know her.” (1 song.)
18. Then she went on and came to a place to which she gave the name Qapotaq-iv’auve. She stood there and said: “I can tell where I am: I have dreamed well.” Now she was there alone, but she said: “I say we shall have war.” Then she tried what she could do. She trotted, to the south one step (sic). Then she came back. Then she trotted one step to the west and returned, then one to the north, then one to the east.40 Then she pulled out one hair on her right side and threw it to the west, and it began to rain. She said: “I thought I should do that. I dreamed about war: that is my power; I know that.” (4 songs, one about each direction.)
19. She went on down again until she came to Avi-tuva’auve. There she stood and said: “I thought the sky was far off. I thought the earth, too, was far around, and that its end could not be told. But now, when I have arrived here, the sky is not far away, and the (end of the) earth is near.” Thus she thought. (2 songs.)
20. She went on again and came to Ak’ulye-tšakapāva, a high hill, on which she stood. From there she heard and saw many men. She said: “They have been away a long time. I heard of that; I see it now. They are ready to make war. I see them prepared with feathers, with bows and arrows and war clubs, and with paint, ready to fight.” (2 songs.)
21. From there she went on, running. When she had gone part of the way to where she had seen the people, she came to a rock. She stood on this. This rock had no name. She said: “I give it a name. I call it Avi-tšitše.” From there she again saw the people all ready for war. “I am glad,” she said, as she saw them playing and wearing feathers and carrying bows and clubs. (4 songs.)
22. She went on down along the river again. Four times she ran and rested. Then she began to be near the place. Now she had long hair41 and wore a dress of willow bark.42 Then she thought: “How shall I approach them?” Then she took some of the strands of her dress from one side and the other and tied them across the front like a belt. She did not tie her hair, but grasped it on both sides and twisted the two masses into a knot behind.43 “And I want to do something to look pretty,” she said. She took a handful of dirt and rubbed it across her jaw and her forehead. “That will not do: it will not show,” she said. Putting her hands down to the ground once more, she dug. Then she reached into the hole and took out white earth paint. From a handful she made four horizontal stripes across her face. These were white and plain. “That is better. Now I look well. And I will give a name to this place. I will call it Amaṭ-ehê’-iδauve.44 Now it has a name.” (4 songs.)
23. Then she started and ran again. She ran twice and rested. Then she arrived where those people were. She did not go in among them, but stood off at a little distance. She saw that they were prepared and ready for war, with feathers and bows and clubs and all weapons. Then Hivilyk-kemohakwe,45 a man who was there, called to her, “Come!” She came nearer but soon stood still. “Come!” he called again. Again she came but stopped. “Come!” he said once more, and again she came but stood. Again he said, “Come!” This time she came in among the crowd. She still held white paint in her hand. When the people saw this, they all took some from her, put it into their own hands, spat on them, rubbed them together to make them white, then drew their finger-tips over their palms, and with their fingers painted white marks on their hair. They said: “We will fight. We want to prepare because we will fight.” They all did that. Then Nyohaiva said to them: “It is well. But wait: I will think about it. I will tell you how to go, how to arrive, how to fight. Now I want to give a name to this place so that all will know from where we started to go to war. The name of this place is Ava-tšohai.46 Now all will know it.” (4 songs.)
24. Then she said: “Who dreamed about war? Who knows how to fight? Who will be leader? The first will be Horrave-sakamīm.47 The next will be Aqāqa-suverevere-ketukupanye.48 The next will be Ampot-ahwaṭe.”49 She herself was to be the fourth. Horrave-sakamīm was to be the leader and go first and kill. All wanted to go along. (3 songs.)
25. Now they were ready and wanted to cross the river. They gathered, tied driftwood into bundles, and put their weapons on them.50 Then they crossed to the west side of the river and came to Ahpe-hwêlyeve.51 “When we arrive there I will tell you more,” Nyohaiva said. (4 songs.)
26. Nyohaiva said: “Men who are at war do not stay long in one place; they do not rest, but go on. Let us go at once.” Then they went north along the west side of the river. They continued to go on to Amaṭ-tato’itše. Then she said: “Let us rest: all sit in the shade.” Now Hivilyk-kemohakwe went off from them up on the mesa to see if there was anyone to fight. As he looked north to see if there were smoke or dust, he stepped on an ataṭa (Mamillaria) cactus. The thorns entered his foot, hurt, and he was unable to walk. He returned crawling on his knees. Then Nyohaiva said; “See, we have bad luck. If we had good luck, the thorn would not have entered you: now your luck is bad.” Then she drew out all the thorns. “Now you are well again: you will walk. Let me see you!” He tried to walk but could not yet. Then she spoke and sang once more, and now he had no pain and could walk again. “Let us go on,” she said. (2 songs.)
27. They went northward. When they came to Aqwāqa-mūnyô, they saw dust and smoke and heard noise. Nyohaiva said: “That is near the place. That is near my father’s and mother’s and brother’s bones. I came by there. I know they are there, those whom we go to fight. Now all do as I want you to. I wish all tribes to fight. If I did not fight, no one in future would fight.” She thought of what she was about to do, and how pleasant it would be, and that they were all to learn how to make the war dance. (3 songs.)
28. They started on again. Now they were near, at Matha-tše-kwilyeve,52 and stopped. There were hills there and a wash and a little mesa. Someone was standing on the mesa. He ran down toward them. Nyohaiva saw him coming and said: “I think they are sending a message to us. They are sending someone as a spy. Or perhaps he is coming to meet me, to tell me that there will be war. I see him: he is coming.” Now that person came among the crowd. He was not afraid. Nyohaiva saw him and said: “Oh, you are my brother.”53 Then he said: “There where you see the smoke and hear the noise they killed my father and mother and brother and took their bones and played with them. They enslaved me. Now they have let me go. ‘He is going to become something,’ they said of me.” His body was a person’s, but he had horns. He wore skin clothing. Then Nyohaiva took his shirt, his leggings, and his moccasins from him. She sent him away to the west to eat grass and become a mountain sheep.54 “Go that way,” she said. “The mountains there will be full of sheep. East of the river there will be no sheep in the mountains. When you find grass, eat that. I call you hômô.55 Now you are hômô.” (4 songs.)
29. Then they went on again until they came to Koθîlye. There Aθ’inkumeδī (Nyohaiva) entered the river up to her knees. The water rushing about her legs made a noise and frightened her. She said: “I will tell of this water. Then the river will not run fast. It will flow slowly. I will make it be like that, not as it is now.” So she told56 about the river. When she had sung three times, the river flowed smoothly and they crossed to the eastern side once more. (3 songs.)
30. Now when they had arrived on that side, all took up their feathers and paint, and Nyohaiva said: “Put on your feathers and paint. Paint yourselves black, but your hair red. I will tell you what to do. I will sing about you.” (4 songs.)
31. Then, when all were dressed, they went on. They went without stopping, and as they walked Nyohaiva continued to talk. The four leaders57 went ahead; the others were behind. Nyohaiva said: “I will reach them first. I will begin the fight.” As she walked she sang about their steps, and as their arms swung she sang of those. For a little distance she sang thus. (5 songs.)
32. Now they were near, and all of them ready, painted and wearing feathers and holding their clubs. Then Nyohaiva said: “I dreamed well: no one can surpass me.” She wanted to do something. She spat on her hand, rubbed her hands together to make a ball magically, and threw it towards the people at Aqwāqa-have. “That will make them sleep,” she said. What she threw entered Nyahamô-vetaye’s house and hit a post. It was nearly sundown and Nyahamô-vetaye’s people were still outdoors; but now they all came in; everyone went in. Nyohaiva said: “See, they are all entering. We shall overcome them. They can do nothing against us. I am able to make them all go into the house. You will see that they all sleep. Now we four will go in: the rest of you stay here.” Then the four leaders went on and entered the house. They were looking for one man. In the dark Nyohaiva put her hand on the legs and faces of the sleepers in order to find him. As she touched them she made them weak and sleepy. Then she found the man in the middle of the house. She put her hand on his body and on his ear and knew him because he lacked one ear. His hair was long and he had it coiled in a large bunch, on which his head was resting.58 Nyohaiva said: “This is he for whom I was looking: this is Otšôuta, who wanted to kill me.59 Now I have found him and will kill him.” Then the four carried him outside. Nyohaiva said to him: “I will take your head from you alive. I will tell you about it before I kill you.” As Otšôuta sat there,60 she seized his hair and pulled it. Four times she moved him as she pulled it. The fourth time she said: “Now I will behead you. I have no knife, but I can kill you with my thumbnail.” Then she felt about his neck. She knew where the bones joined: there she cut him with her thumbnail. She cut entirely around his neck, cut off his head, and held it up. The body lay there, jumped up, walked, fell down, jumped again, fell, and died only after a time. Then Nyohaiva said: “Now we will tell about this head.”61 (4 songs.)
33. Then she said to her people: “Let us go northward on this side of the river. I have heard that people live here; but we will not go near them. They want war with us, but we will not stay.” So they went. They came to Aha-δekupīδa.62 They went on past that place, on up the river until they came to Sama’ôkusa. Many people lived there. There were four men63 there, Alyha’-tuyāme, Alyha’-tokwīme, Alyha’-tšaôre, and Alyha’-mīṭ-kusāma.63a Many people wanted to see the head that she brought, but Nyohaiva said: “No, I will not show it to you now. I will let you see it, but not now. You will see it in time.” She hid the head under her dress. She would not show it to them. She said: “When I show it and you sing, all will know what to do with it.” Then she marked a ring on the ground. She stood in the center and waved her hand to the people to come. “Come, all of you, and see this head,” she said. All came and stood about. Then she threw the head up so that it fell on the ground: she threw it up four times. Then she said: “Now you have seen the head: you all know it. Now we will sing about it.” Then she sang about its bones, its eyes, its eyelashes, its tongue, its mouth, its teeth, and its nose. (4 songs.)
34. She said: “Now you have all seen what I do. That is how I want you to do. After I am dead,64 you will do the same. But there is another thing.” She made four heaps of sand. Then she ran to the south, returned, and with her right foot stirred in one of the heaps. She ran east and returned and stirred in another heap; then north, and stirred in another heap; then west, and stirred in the fourth.65 As she stirred that one, she took out from it66 a sandbar-willow (ihore) stick, a long wand. On the end of it she tied the hair of the head so that it waved.67 “That is how I do,” she said. “That is how I want you to do.” (4 songs.)
35. When they had finished that, she said: “When there is war and a scalp is taken, people will do as I have done. They will dance and enjoy themselves. All will be happy and will play and sing. I have done that. Now I wonder what I shall be. I wonder where I shall go.” As she thought, she was holding the skull of the head in her hand. She went eastward two steps and stood there. “The name of this place is Amaṭ-ya’āma,”68 she said. Then, standing there, she threw Otšôuta’s skull far south, nearly to Yuma. “I want it to become a rock,” she said. Then it became the rock called Avi-melyekyête.69
36. Now the people there stood in a circle about her. She was thinking about her own body. “I wonder what color I shall be: white or blue or yellow? Well, I will turn black. I shall be a rock, but all will know me, that I am Nyohaiva. My name will be Avi-soqwīlye.70 All will know that rock and that it is Nyohaiva.” (No songs.)
Notes
1 Opposite Fort Mohave and upstream from it; therefore in Nevada.
2 It was anya-tonya’im, afternoon.
3 Iδô-kuva’īre is upstream from Fort Mohave and frequently mentioned. Iδô is the black willow.
4 Ava-lye means in the house. Some Mohave sing Av’alyunu, but as something learned from the Yuma.
5 Two to three miles from Fort Mohave, a little east of north. Aksamta is one of the “wild” seeds planted by the Mohave; cf. Mastamho, VII, 36-42, below.
6 About a mile north of Fort Mohave; a sand hill.
7 Merrymaking and dancing lead to courtship. Compare the “Supplement” of the Mastamho myth.
8 This insect, of which Nyohaiva is so to speak the impersonation, is described as being red-spotted and as coming out of the ground when this is dry. Hence no doubt the allusion to Nyohaiva’s place of birth being the first to become dry. The Mohave call yanaθa-kwe-‘atāye a “spider,” but it spins no web. The element -ataye means many, atai-k; yanaθa-, the narrator suggested, was from δanuθa, tears, alluding to the spotted appearance of the animal.
9 Kamahnūlye is at the foot of the mesa (valley edge) in Arizona, 4 miles south of Fort Mohave, near the Lamp ranch.
10 Savêt-tôhe, a sandy place, is across the river from Needles, due east, at the foot of the mesa. Another place of the same name, but rocky, is said to occur farther down the river.
11 “Stinking water.” She is in Walapai land now.
12 Hamaθôle is a Walapai buckskin shirt; viya, ham-vaya-k, to turn, revolve. “All will see him as he stands in his shirt and turns about to display it.”
13 Produced magically, hiwaksoāmim.
14 She evidently returned to Savêt-tôhe after her eastern excursion, for the songs are credited to that place. Note that the songs are about the completion and stillness of the world on her main journey, not about the episodic side trip of instituting Walapai customs.
15 Unidentified.
16 Nyahunêm-kwayāve: hune is the Mohave name of a crook used by the Yavapai for pulling fruit from the tall sahuaro or giant cactus; it consists of a pole with a small stick tied at an angle at the end. Kw-ayave, ayave-k, bent, crooked.
17 Like a woman. There is of course no pronominal gender in Mohave, so “his” is ambiguous.
18 Into pencils or strands, like a man.
19 It is characteristic that it was at this point in the story that the interpreter first realized that Nyohaiva was a woman, not a man.
20 Amaṭ-ehê’ is white earth paint.
21 Evidently a myriapod or centipede. Described as a white underground insect or worm, longer than a finger, with legs along both sides of the body, and able to run fast. “Hutšatš, white-haired; pukel-pukim, wriggle, travel like a snake.”
22, 22a They use the term havīkwek, defined by the narrator as a man or a woman’s older or younger brother or sister, viz., any sibling. The word has not been secured as kinship term. It is obviously from havīk, two; hence probably “one of a pair.”
23 Apparently also an insect. It jumps awkwardly, sometimes falling. For matillaye, compare ke-layi-m, fall.
24 Ahmo’ is a mortar.
25 And flew.
26 Haltoṭ, given as meaning himake, his back, more likely is the word for spider; amitš, far; kw-isam, see.—This is also an insect, a small rough bluish or gray beetle that feigns death when handled.
27 The Mohave are averse to strange food; it may bring sickness.
28 Aqwāqa is deer.
29 Nyahamo “from ahmo’, mortar” (?); vetaye, atai-k, large, much. Cf. Nyahaim-, wet, moist, in ritual names.
30 From itšou-k, to make (?). “He was well-made, good looking.”
31 Hiδô, his eyes; kwi-tara, compare δo-tara-k, blind. “He always looked down.”
32 Kīm-, cf. akyêm, shoot; ku-sumā, dream. He dreamed of bows and arrows and instructed people in successful hunting, and told how he could shoot the sky and make his arrows stick in it. He shot at ammo, the mountain sheep (the three stars of Orion’s belt); hence people hunt mountain sheep. Two or three small stars in a row in Orion are his arrow.
33 From fear of night or dawn attacks.
34 Havīkwek, of note 22.—Finding and playing with bones of kinsfolk who have been killed by people that are plotting to kill the hero also, is a stock episode in Mohave mythology, and a standard motive for fighting. Cf. the Cane myth. A game and bet are also a usual preliminary to war. There is a seeming contradiction in the fact that Nyohaiva, who grows from the ground while the earth is still new, should have parents killed long before. Most Mohave myths, however, begin with the growth or birth of the hero; and if fighting later occurs, it is motivated in the way just explained. Both incidents conform to the conventional pattern according to which myths are constructed, so the logical inconsistency does not jar.
35 Perhaps a heel bone, as it is later spoken of as a ball.
36 With her toes.
37 Moon-rock, or moon-mountain. It was recorded as -hily’a (Yuma form?), whereas the Mohave for moon is haly’a.
38 Again an insect. Amaly-kapaka are small flies such as settle on horses.
39 Both brothers are green worms or caterpillars that live in cottonwood trees. They have a bitter taste. The ordinary name of Ahma-kunuhwilye is hamasukwenpa. A similar black worm is called amiθe. Ahma, quail, is also a small bitter melon, not good to eat; ku-nuhwilye is to drag. Korrave, or kw-irrave, means pain. Tšem-korrave was thinking of his food, hukθara-nyamely-a’uva, coyote’s-food-tobacco, a strong, pungent, wild tobacco.
40 Sunwise circuit, beginning with the south. This is unusual, but she is traveling south.
41 Halfway down her thigh.
42 Reaching below the knee.
43 Tšumkwinevek.
44 Amaṭ-ehê’, white earth paint.
45 Evidently a bird, like the other leaders among his people. Hivi-lye, on my shoulder; kemohakwe, “cf. hakehake, many-colored.”—“His other name was Itoke-pilyuwake,” (a small, red-bellied, sharp-billed bird).
46 In Arizona, above Yuma, well below Parker. This is as far south as she travels. Ava is house.
47 The blackbird with a white spot behind its eye. Horrave-sakamīm means “lighting-extinguish.”
48 A similar bird with an erect crest. Aqāqa, raven or crow; su-verevere, rope or band of erect trimmed raven feathers; ke-tukupánye, tie on the head.
49 The red-winged blackbird. Ampot-ahwaṭe, red-dust. He painted each shoulder red before fighting.
50 Improvised ferriage to keep bowstrings dry.
51 Ahpe’, metate or grinding slab.
52 Matha-, wind, also north.
53 Navīkwek, sibling or twin, as ante, notes 22, 34. “She was the older.”
54 Ammo.
55 Said to be “the Chemehuevi word” for mountain sheep. This however is naah. Hômô is not the form in any known Yuman dialect. It may represent distorted Mohave as it is supposed to be pronounced by the Chemehuevi.
56 Sang?
57 Nyohaiva and the three blackbirds.
58 Evidently using a coil of his long plastered pencils of hair as a pillow, a sleeping habit not specifically reported before.
59 The story has mentioned only his two younger brothers as urging her death.
60 He was apparently awake now, but unable to move.
61 Such a head, their usual war trophy, is commonly called a “scalp” in English by the Mohave.
62 “Owl water.”
63, 63a Alyha’ is a transvestite, a man living a woman’s life. Such people would be likely to be prominent in a dance in which women participated. Tuyame, tayām-k, walk in a circle; -tokwīme, stand in one place; tšaôre, said to be connected with kavaôrem, to step on, as on the heel of one in front; -mīṭ-kusāma, perhaps from amītš, far, kw-isam, see.
[64] Have become transformed.
65 Anti-sunwise circuit, beginning at south.
66 By magic.
67 Now a true scalp.
68 About four miles east of the Mohave Reservation Agency at Parker, in Arizona.
69 A sharp upright rock at Picacho at the foot of the Chocolate mountains, above Yuma. According to Ford, Ethnography of the Yuma, p. 102, there was a historic Yuma village here.
70 A black rock, “as large as a house,” on which soqwīlye hawks nest. It is about a quarter of a mile from Amaṭ-ya’āma. The transformation is appropriate for the leading character of a war cycle, because dreaming of soqwīlye hawks is what makes warriors.