One time Coyote was teasing Cyclone. Every day he went over there and teased him. Coyote could run fast and get away before Cyclone could catch him.
Then one time Coyote went to see Child-of-the-Water. He said, “My partner, let us go and visit our friend, Cyclone.”
He lied about his friendship. Coyote was that way. He always tried to test the power of another, to see whether others were really powerful or were just ordinary people.
So they went to see Cyclone at his home.
When they got near, Coyote ran to Cyclone and began to mock him again. “You can’t do anything! You can’t catch me!” he said.
So Cyclone started to run after Coyote. Coyote ran away and left Child-of-the-Water behind, for Child-of-the-Water could not run very fast.
Cyclone was breaking things to pieces, and Child-of-the-Water, who was in his path, was lifted up and broken into many pieces and scattered all over.
There were some people living at a spring. The woman went to get some water. She saw some blood spilled on the leaves, little drops of it. She looked at it. “Oh, that will make good soup!” she thought. She broke off the leaves and carried them home with water. She was going to make soup with this.
When she got home she put the leaves in the pot. She started to boil the soup. After a while she heard somebody crying. She looked around all over. The only place she didn’t look was in the pot.
At last she came near the pot and listened. The noise seemed to come from there. It sounded like a baby crying in that pot.
She took the pot off the fire. There was a baby in there, and she picked it up. It was a little boy. She took care of that baby until it was a big boy. The woman did not know it, but this was Child-of-the-Water.
He grew up. He was nearly twenty years old now. But he was always rather weak and puny and shy.
Evil, sickness, and sorcerers couldn’t bother him; they couldn’t make him ill.
Once, at this time, Child-of-the-Water was walking to the east. He came to the ocean. He walked on the water. He found a fish there with blue eyes. He picked up a female fish of this kind and a male fish. He took them along with him to the other side of the ocean. He put the fishes on the ground.
Then Child-of-the-Water sent for White Hactcin. White Hactcin came.
Child-of-the-Water said, “Help me make people of these fish.”
White Hactcin said to him, “You lie down.”
Child-of-the-Water lay face downward and White Hactcin traced his outline on the earth.
“Get up now and stand to one side.”
Then Hactcin took both fish and put them within the outline of the figure of Child-of-the-Water.
Hactcin said to Child-of-the-Water, “Now turn around and face the east.” He had him walk to the east, then turn to the south without looking at the fish and walk there. He had him walk to the west and the north in the same manner. Next Hactcin told him to walk once more to the east. Then Hactcin said, “Now turn around and look.”
When Child-of-the-Water turned he saw that someone was lying there where the outline of his body had been traced.
Then Hactcin said, “Now face to the south,” and Child-of-the-Water did so.
“Now turn around again.”
He looked and saw that it was a man stretching out his arms to his knees and attempting to rise.
Then Hactcin said, “Turn to the west,” and Child-of-the-Water did so.
“Now look.”
He saw that the man was sitting up. He went through the same procedure to the north and when he turned and looked this time, the man was sitting with his legs crossed under him.
Both White Hactcin and Child-of-the-Water came to the man and picked him up. Hactcin said to Child-of-the-Water, “Make him get up,” and Child-of-the-Water did so.
They motioned four times to make him walk. Child-of-the-Water led him for four steps, and then they turned around.
Hactcin said, “Talk, talk, talk, talk.” The fourth time he said it, the man spoke.
“Laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh,” Hactcin said. After the fourth time he was told to do it, the man laughed.
“Shout, shout, shout, shout,” the man was told, and after the fourth time he did so.
Now he was fully formed.
Hactcin told the man to lie down this time. Child-of-the-Water traced his figure on the ground. The man was told to rise.
Again the Hactcin set out to give life to the figure. The man and Child-of-the-Water did exactly what Child-of-the-Water had done the first time. The man led and Child-of-the-Water stood behind him. White Hactcin gave this figure life and made it sit up and walk and talk and laugh just as had been done to the man. But the one that was made this time was a woman.
Child-of-the-Water asked Hactcin, “Where are these people to live?”
Hactcin said, “What home do you think will be best for them?” They both thought it over. Hactcin sent for the swallow, and this bird came.
The bird went to the river. He brought back mud from the bottom. He put down the mud. Then he went away and brought back the wind. The wind blew into the mud and made it large and round.
Hactcin asked the people, “Do you want a round house?”
“No,” they answered, “we want a square house.”
So the mud was reshaped and the kind of house they wanted was given to them. Then the bird made them a chimney for the house. The roof was first made round and the two people did not like it. The bird did not know how to change the roof to suit them. So they sent for the woodpecker.
Woodpecker was to be the carpenter for this dwelling. And they sent for Lightning too. Lightning came and split the spruce and pinon trees. It was at this time that these people, the first white people, received the gun from Lightning.
They all brought over the beams. Woodpecker started to construct the roof. To hold the beams he used spider’s rope (spider web thread). Then the people wanted the chimney changed. Instead of having it round, they wanted it square with each corner pointing to one of the cardinal directions. Woodpecker fixed this also.
Now the house was finished and the couple was told to enter. They went in and looked around. But there were no windows.
So Hactcin said, “I think we should give this house windows just as the human body has windows to let in the light.” [This refers to the eyes. (Inf.).]
So Child-of-the-Water gave Hactcin rock crystal of four colors, black, blue, yellow, and glittering. The black one was pushed into the mud wall at the east side of the house, the blue one was placed in the south wall, the yellow one in the west wall, and the glittering one in the north wall.
Now all came into the house, and all thought it beautiful, for there was plenty of light in the house now.
The Hactcin turned to Woodpecker and said, “Now you must stay here and work for these people until all is finished [in the stories Woodpecker is usually called when work in wood is wanted]. Whatever they wish to have, you are to make for them.”
So the woodpeckers stayed on and worked as carpenters.
Now Hactcin sent for the turkey. To him Hactcin said, “Now make a garden for these people near the edge of the water.” Water was already flowing there.
They called all the other animals too, for Hactcin had great power. All the animals and birds came around to have a conference with these people.
“Deer skins will be your clothing,” Hactcin said to these people [I guess the white people wore deerskin clothes when they first came here (Inf.)]. And he told them, “You must take care of all these animals. These are all your animals and these are all your birds too. All this meat is your meat. And the garden will yield food for you. Here you are, and all this is given to you. Now I am going back.”
So Hactcin and Child-of-the-Water and the birds and Lightning and the others an went back. Child-of-the-Water started, then, to return to his stepmother’s home.
Thus Child-of-the-Water made the white people when he went to the east that time. Now he is up in the heavens, above the earth. He went up in a cloud after creating the white man. That is why the white men say they will go to Heaven when they die. Child-of-the-Water, who made them, is up there. He is living to the east with White-Shell Woman, his mother.
And the reason the white man cannot be hurt by sorcerers and can handle snakes and evil things like that without harm is that Child-of-the-Water created him after being blown to pieces by Cyclone. Child-of-the-Water was not killed even though he was blown to pieces by Cyclone. Where his blood fell there was life. He made the white man to be just like that, so that nothing could hurt him. That is why the white man says, “We do not die. We are going to Heaven.” The white men are following in the path of Child-of-the-Water.
When Child-of-the-Water was returning to his stepmother’s home, he made a path for the white people to take in coming to this country. That is why the white people were not afraid. They knew a path had been made for them across the ocean.
Child-of-the-Water came back to his stepmother’s home. He got inside a cloud. The cloud began to sail upward towards the heavens. This woman who had cared for him was the only one who saw this happen.
Before he started, Child-of-the-Water said to his stepmother, “I’ve made another creation of man. They will come here some day.”
So he went up on the other side of the sky. That is where Child-of-the-Water is now. No one halted him. What he meant by the other creation of man was the creation of the white people.
His stepmother did not know what Child-of-the-Water meant when he spoke of another creation. Child-of-the-Water said to her, “You do not understand what I mean by a new creation of man, but some day you will see them. They will be different from you, but they will be good people. They will be shaped like your people.”
Many years later she heard of people who came from the other side of the ocean. She remembered what Child-of-the-Water had told her. She was eager to see what these people looked like.
The chief of her group received a message that some people were coming from the other side of the ocean. They were called White-Eyed Travelers. The chief told the people, “They are coming. They will give us guns, they will give us cloth for clothes. They will give us different food too. These are the people that Child-of-the-Water is sending to us. Child-of-the-Water has not forgotten us, even though he didn’t do much for us about killing the monsters. He is helping us in some other good way.” [The Apache seem to associate whichever is the lesser of the two culture heroes with the white man. Among the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache, where Child-of-the-Water is the one who slays monsters and, by a curious twist, Kller-of-Enemies becomes the weaker companion, the latter is represented as the benefactor of the white man.]
The other people did not know what the chief was talking about. Some of them began to joke. They said to each other, “When those people give you a gun, I’m going to take it away from you.” Some said, “I’m going to hunt with the gun I shall take from you, so we will not have hard times any more.” [This incident happened about four hundred years ago. (Inf.)]
Not very long after this they heard that these people had really come across the ocean.
These white people met these Indians and became friendly with them. They took out some money and showed that it had a head of the president on one side and an arrow on the other. “One face belongs to us and one to you,” they said. “Take this money and we will give you all our property.” They clasped hands and were at peace with each other.
The white man said, “I’m going to live on your territory, but I am going to divide my property with you always. If I fail to do this, you can chase me from your territory.” And the white man signed a promise and gave it to the Indian.
The white man went back and returned with much property, guns and food, and gave it to the Indians. He gave them flour, sugar, coffee, baking powder, and cloth for clothes.
The Indians did not understand. Some did not know how the flour was to be used and some just dumped it out. But they recognized the salt and kept it and used it. The sugar they tasted and it was sweet, so they kept it and used it. But the baking powder they did not recognize, so they threw it away. Some tried to eat the baking powder just as it was and ate too much and killed themselves. Some put their hands right into the flour and ate it and made themselves sick. The coffee they thought was some kind of beans, so they cooked the coffee all day, and then for two days and a night trying to soften it. But the coffee beans never got done; they were as tough as ever. Some then ground the coffee beans on the metate, but they didn’t taste good when cooked. The Indians didn’t know how to use it. So they gave up and threw it all away.
After a while they took some coffee to the Mexicans and asked to be shown how to use it. The Indians called it “black water,” and they call it that still. The Mexicans told them how to use it and said to them, “Put sugar in it and it is good.” But some do not like it that way. After that some kept coffee, and some did not but gave it to the Mexicans. Some did not like the smell when it was ground and so didn’t wish to have it. [The Jicarilla are inveterate coffee drinkers now.]