Well aware of this temper of the people, the Twin Beloved changed also in spirit. "Truly, the time has come," they said, "and thls is the time." Immediately they called the fathers to council again, as many of them as there were of the Midmost and of all the folk kins, they and the Men of the Knife—brave of mouth yet weak of dange—called they together, and spoke to them in this way,
See! you have lived here a long time
At rest from far journeys,
True! you have become stronger,
And like cubs of the puma,
Growl lusty, and seek living
Apart from your fathers!
You have changed, children
You have changed to men!
While far from the Middle,
The world's stable Middle,
Still you boast to have found it,
And you think about warfare!
No, you shall be proven
And it shall be tested!
Thus far have we led you
In peace, and with counsel
Of wisdom controlled you.
But we too have been changed,
By wounding our children
With weapons of magic
Thus, of blood we have tasted the hunger,
Heneeforth by the power of war,
And the hazard of omens and chance
,
Shall we open the ways for our people
And guide them in search of the Middle!
And our names shall be known as the Two
Who hold the high places of earth—
Áhaiyuta, the elder and main;
Mátsailema, the younger of birth.
Come forth, you War men of the Knife,
Carve plume wands of death and the spaces,
Bring out the great drum of the regions!
Come forth, master priest of the north,
You first in the kin of the Bear,
Bring out the seed stuff of the hail-tempests!
Come forth, master-priest of the west,
You first in the kin of Coyotes,
Bring out the seed stuff of beast-slaying!
Come forth, masterpriest of the south,
You first in the kin of the Badger,
Bring out the shell trumpets of fire!
Come forth, master-priest of the east,
You first in the kin of the Turkey,
Bring out the great crystal of light.
Come forth, master-priest of the high,
You iirst in the kin of the Eagle,
Lay before us the streaked stone of lightning!
Come forth, master-priest of below,
You first in the kin of the Serpent,
Lay ont the black stone of earth thunder,
Sit aloof, O, you priests of the Middle,
You first in the kin of All People,
Watch well over your seed-things and children!
Speak wisely to these our new children;
Henceforth they shall be your first speakers,
And the peace-making shields of your people,
Through wasting the blood of all foemen
And feeding the soil with its substance!
Thus much.
Then the Two gave directions:
They named the eight days for preparing.
The people returned to their houses,
The priests to their fastings and labors,
The Two to their high mountain-places.
And when the eight days had been counted
And all had been done as commanded,
Around the deep pool in the valley,
That leads from the walled Hán'hlipínk'ya
The sacred seed-contents were gathered.
And full in their midst the great drum jar
Was placed by the summoned clan-fathers.
Then each took his place in the circle,
And the Twin Gods still further instructed
The kin-priests, and knife-bearing warriors.
Soft they chanted the sacred song-measure,
The magic and dread Shómitâk'ya,
And whispered the seven cruel names!
Then they painted the round mark of thunder
And the wavering trail of the lightning
Around the great drum, in the middle,
And on the hooped drum-stick of thunder.
And over the drum-head, with prayer-dust
They marked out the cross of the quarters,
As on the clond-shield they had leveled
Fire-bolts to the four earthly regions.
With black of shell-corpse-scales that glitters,
They painted the eyes of the leaders;
With blood of their own tinged their cheeks;
With pollen of sleep sealed their lips.
With blood of their own thus they painted
The cheeks of the warriors assembled;
With black of shell-corpse-scales that glimmers
They shaded their eyelids and eyebrows,
That their lives might endure through the trial
Aud their eyes not be blighted by lightning.
And the nostrils of each they did breathe in,
That their own wind might mingle with man-wind,
Give power to men's voices in battle
And strengthen men's wills with endurance.
Then said they to the drummer and singers:
"See, now! You shall sing our dread song-line.
Like beetles that fall in hot ashes
You shall perish, you singers and drummer.
But see! in the lightnings and wind-storms
Your beings shall join the beloved.
Your breaths, too, shall strengthen the warrior
And give power to the voice of the warrior,
Bringing peace to the Seed-priests and women.
And you shall be foremost forever
Of our Chosen, the Priests of the Bow.
See! The people shall see that we dread not
The coming of fire-blasts and thunder
With our namefathers, fiercer than any,
The Storm gods of all the six regions:
Hä'hl'tunk'ya, Wind God of the North;
Ú-heponolo, Wind of the West;
Óloma, Wind God of the South;
Tsailútsanok'ya—of the East;
Saúshuluma, Wind from Above;
Saíshiwani, Blast from Below;
Unáhsinte, Whirlwind of All!
By their breaths and cruel power
We shall be changed in being;
Made black and mis-shapen;
Made stronger with fierceness;
Made swifter with hurling;
Made crafty with turning;
Plunged deep in the waters,
And renewed of their vigor;
Clothed anew with their foam-dress!
Yes, the power of the weapons
The Sun-father gave us
And the Foam-mother made us,
That you be led upward,
Shall be multiplied
In the means of destruction
For the hands of our children,
You Priests of the Bow,
That men be kept living!
But to rock, age-enduring,
Grouped in song for our chosen,
O, drummer and singers!
You shall be changed forever!
The foot-rests of eagles
And signs of our order!"
The fathers in thought bowed their faces,
And secretly prayed in their hearts.
The people who watched them, held breath,
And covered their mouths with their robes
In dread of the powers of magic
And in woe for the doom of their fathers.
The gods, to the right and the left
Took their stand by the side of the waters,
As before they had stood by the cloud-shield,
Their weapons of magic between them,
The plumes of the warriors placed duly
In lines, to the eastward before them;
The warriors made ready for travel,
Apart from, but circling around them.
Then the Two gave the word of beginning!
The master of words raised his song-staff,
On its shoulder the plume-wand of man-folk;
The drum-master lifted his sound-hoop,
In its circle the symbol of thunder,
On its handle, the red sign of lightning;
Six times did they lift up in silence
The song-staff and hoop of the drum,
Then struck, with the might of their sinews.
The sound shook the valley with thunder
And above and below echoed thunder;
The meal on the drum-head was lifted
And danced as a rain-cloud around them.
Then the water below moved and bubbled,
And mists like a cold breath ascended;
As wind in a vase the song sounded;
Black cloud-steps rose up from the quarters
And darkened the day with their shadows.
When the first name was named by the singers,
The world rocked with earthquake and thunder
And the roar of swift storms in the northland.
Hä'hl'tunk'ya, with dire eyes and staring—
Gleaming yellow as firelight in winter—
And teeth with rage gnashing, and yellow
As shucks of the corn-plant grown aged—
Tumbled down from the north with his hail-balls,
And, mingling with mad the deep water,
In a voice like the sound of a torrent,
Bellowed loud to the Twain and the singers:
"Why do you call, small worms of the waters
And spawn of the earth and four quarters,
You disturbers of thought, lacking shame;
Why do you call the words of my name?"
"Stay your feet with patience, grandfather;
We are small, but we joy in your fury,
Whence we yearn for your counsel and spirit;
For we long to smite foes from the pathways
As you cast the trees from the highlands."
"Being so, it is well," said the ancient.
See! the seed-stuff of hail, bound with treasure,
Gleamed with ice from the breath of his answer.
When they named the next name of the song strand,
Úheponolo rolled from the westland
In sand-blasts and dust-clouds like mountains,
And stayed fast their feet with his driftings;
And [etc.].
When they named the third name of tbe song strand,
Óloma swirled up from the southland
Like a fire draught, and crackled the pool-rim;
And [ete.],
When they named the fourth name of the song strand,
Tsaíluh'tsanok'ya shrieking shrilly,
Shot the mountains and valleys with dawn-frost;
And [ete.].
When they named the fifth name of the song strand,
Saushúlima streamed from the zenith,
And deluged the vale with swift water;
And [etc.]
When they named the sixth name of the song strand,
Saishíwani ripped the earth open;
Ghosts, corpses, and demons of blackness
Writhed forth in hot flames from the chasm,
And hurled the gods into the water!
Black smoke rose and strangled the people,
Who fell, like the stricken of lightning!
It stiffened the drummer and singers
Whose song ceased to sound, when, all weakly,
They named the last name of the song strand—
Nor moved, when Únahsinte replied,
Whirling in (twisting trees as the spinner
Twists fiber of yucca), and rescued
The Twins from the hot, surging waters,
Dried the foam in their hair to war-bonnets,
Caught his brothers the Wind Gods in order
And hurled them, each one to his mountain
(In the north, in the west, and the southward;
In the east, and the upper, and under);
And rising, uplifted the smoke-clouds.
See! the world was alight with the sunshine,
And bending above was the Rainbow!
But the drummer and singers were sitting,
Lifted up by the power of the ancients;
Close enwrapped in the dust swept around them,
Made stark by the roar of the death-sounds,
Fixed in death by the shock of the lightnings,
Burned hard by the frost-mingled fire-draughts;
Still sat they, their drum in the middle,
As they sit evermore, in that valley.
See! dwarfed and hideous-disguised were the two gods Áhaiyuta and Mátsailema, before Uanamachi Píahkoa or the Beloved Twins who Descended—strong now with the full strength of evil; and armed as warriors of old, with long bows and black stone-tipped arrows of cane-wood in quivers of long-tailed skins of catamounts; whizzing slings, and death-singing slung-stones in fiberpockets; spears with dart dealing fling-slats, and blood-drinking broad-knives of gray stone in fore-pouches of fur-skin; short face-pulping war-clubs stuck aslant in their girdles, and on their backs targets of cotton close plaited with yucca. Yes, and on their trunks, were casings of scorched rawhide, horn-like in hardness, and on their heads they wore helmets of strength like the thick neckhide of male elks, from which they were fashioned.
Small were they Two,
Small and misshapen;
Strong were they Two,
Strong and hard favored;
Enduringly thoughtful were they Two,
Enduring of will;
Unyieldingly thoughtful were they Two,
Unyielding of will:
Swiftly thoughtful were they Two,
Swift of wile;
Heartless minded were they Two,
Wrathful of heart;
Strong were they of spirit,
Strong were they of breath,
Evil were they and bad,
Evil, both, and bad.
See! and of Chance and Fate they were the Masters of fore-deeming; for they carried the word-painted arrows of destiny (shóliweátsinapa )), like the regions of men, four in number. And they carried the shuttle-cocks of divination (hápochiwe ), like the regions of men, four in number. And they carried the tubes of hidden things (íyankolotómawe ), like the regions of men, four in number. And the revealing-balls (íyankolote tsemak'ya móliwe ), like the regions of men, four in number. Yes, and they bore with these other things—the feather-bow and plume-arrow of far-finding, tipped with the shell of heart-searching; and the race-sticks of swift journeys and way-winning (mótikwawe ), two of them, the right and the left, the pursuer and the pursued of men in contention. Al of these things to divine men's chance, and play games of hazard, wagering the fate of whole nations in mere pastime, had they with them.
Twin Children of terror and magic they were, and when they called with the voice of destruction the smitten warriors of these Twin Children stirred and uprose, breathing battle-cries as echoes answer cries in deep canyons, and swiftly they roused those who still lived, of the deep-slumbering people.
Some, like the drummer and singers, had been stiffened to stone; nor did they hear the shrill death-cries of which nothingin the night time is more dread-thrilling. No, years come and go, and sitting or lying where stricken the hunter sees them still. But others had endured in flesh and they were awakened. Then the priests led them back to rebuild their wrecked houses, and the Two again assembling their warriors, said to them,
Know you, our chosen:
See! we shall not delay long;
Prepare as for journeys;
Season wood for your bow-strings
And face-breaking war-clubs;
Weave shields like our shields,
And fashion strong garments;
For in such hard clothing
Shall consist your adornment;
Attend to our teaching
At night, in close places,
For in such shall consist
Your strength of straight thinking
In all tangled places!
Night after night the war-drum sounded, deep in the caves of the valley, and with it the tones of the words—all potent—forbidden and secret which the Twin gods were teaching to the first Priests of the Bow.
©1996, Richard Hooker
For information contact: Richard Hines
Updated 6-6-1999