The people had emerged on the shores of a large lake called Big-Water-Lying-on-Top. They knew nothing about the rest of the world. They knew only the region immediately around this place. Four rivers ran west from this lake [the four sacred rivers are the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, the Canadian, and the Pecos. Water from two of these, one a male, the other a female, must be obtained for the ceremony held four days after the birth of a child. The Rio Grande and the Arkansas are considered to be male rivers, the other two are female.]. One is called Big Water. This is the Rio Grande. And the rivers are thought of as two married couples.
White Hactcin told them, “When you have a baby, use this water. Go to these rivers and get some of this water. Sprinkle it on the child four days after birth.”
And the people were told to use the water for bathing and drinking.
“When you use the water of these rivers in the right way, you will have long life,” Hactcin said.
When the people were first on this earth, the children used to grow up to adulthood in four days. Both boys and girls grew up in four days. They married immediately after reaching maturity, and so there were many people.
The people talked it over. “It isn’t right,” they said. “It is too fast.”
First they thought they would retard the growth of a baby so that he would not grow to manhood before twelve days. The people were still holy. They were living as in a dream in those days, and White Hactcin, who had more power than anyone, was there to help them, so they accomplished it.
But it was still too short a period they found, for the people were still increasing at a rapid rate. So they made it that one who was born at the new moon would be grown at the full moon and would be old and die at the last quarter, so that a life was only about thirty days long.
But the people didn’t like that. They thought, “We have only thirty days to live; it is too short a time. What can one accomplish in so short a time?”
Then White Hactcin spoke and said, “Well, how about measuring your life against mine? I never die. Shall we make it so that you will be like me and never die?”
Coyote, Raven, and Buzzard were all there. They were all talking about this.
Coyote had a leaning stick made for taking hair off hides. He said, “Let us throw this into the river. If it sinks in the water, people will die. If it comes out of the water again, people will return four days after death.”
They tried it. The leaning stick came back out of the water. So for a while people came back to life four days after death. The people liked this arrangement very much, for death was not final and they could return to life. That is why we know now what is going on in the place of the dead; these people used to come back and they told many stories which are remembered by us now.
“You don’t have to be afraid to die,” they said. “It is a good place down there. The people have a good time there. They hunt;they play the hoop and pole game.”
By this time the people had learned sorcery and some were sorcerers. In that place of the dead the sorcerers and the good people were separated. One group lived on one side of this place and one on the other. There was a great wall of rock between. The sorcerers had a difficult time. They had no games. They had almost no food. The only thing they had to eat was lizards which they hunted in the rocks [the imputation is that sorcerers practice incest; sorcery, incest, and lizards are connected in Jicarilla ideology]. They heard the sound of singing and laughing on the other side of the wall cliff that rose right to the floor of the upper earth and separated them from the good people. They tried to cut their way through to the others with stone axes. They would work all night and for fear of being found out they would stop just at daybreak and sleep. By that time they would have a tiny hole hacked out through which they could look. But when they awoke the wall would be as before. The hole would be filled up and they would have to start over again the next night. This went on night after night.
But the people were coming back from the land of the dead continually and new people were being born all the time. Again there were too many people. So now it was Buzzard’s turn.
He took a small found stone used for pounding meat. He used this because this rock helps the people. It “chews” the meat for them and it “chews” the roots to be used for medicine. Even today it is used. But today people die nevertheless, because the stone will not help people any more.
Buzzard threw the rock into the water, saying, “If this sinks people will die. If not, it will be as it is now.”
But the water washed the rock on the shore, so death did not come this time either. That is why the rivers carry rocks along today and anyone who looks at the river will find such stones in it.
A few days later Raven said he would try something, for things were not yet satisfactory.
He took a flat metate. He said, “I’ll throw this into the water. If this comes back again, the people will also come back to life after death,” and he threw it in the water.
It didn’t come back.
So then he took the mano and threw it in the water also. He used these two because they are just like a mother to the Indians. The mother chews the food for her child when it is helpless and without teeth. In the same way do these two stones help so the Apache will have food to eat and sustain them. And that is why today, when a person dies, all his material possessions are destroyed. For these things which he needed and used were thrown ahead to prepare the way for him. It is not because they are afraid of that stone that the Jicarilla dispose of it at its owner’s death, but because they are sending it away so the dead person can use it wherever he is.
This is why the Indians hate the raven and call him a sorcerer. When Raven threw in that mano, that too stayed there. So after that people died. The raven knows when anything is dead, therefore. Even if a horse dies, or a snake, though Raven is on the other side of the mountain, he knows it. Then he is happy. And the same is true of Buzzard. He too flies around, and when he sees that something is dead he is happy.
The people are still afraid of those two and even of the shadows they cast when they are flying. If the shadow of either of them passes over you, it means that you, too, are going to die.
They say that Buzzard always has that rock that he used in his nest. Some people use that rock in games. A man gets such a rock from the nest of the buzzard and ties it somewhere on himself. Then he goes and plays a game, perhaps the moccasin game, perhaps the hoop and pole game. His opponent gets tired. His arms ache. He doesn’t feel like playing. He pays little attention to the game and loses all he has. [Because the buzzard’s “nest” (usually nothing more than a place in a rocky crevice for concealing eggs) is so hard to find, anyone who obtains a stone from the buzzard’s nest will be able to conceal objects without difficulty and will become a proficient thief, the Jicarilla believe. In stories Buzzard is represented as being able to hide others easily.]
And because he was interested in shortening man’s life, people are afraid of Coyote and his tracks and do not dare to touch him. And the feathers of the buzzard and the raven cannot be touched. [Grackles, red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds are all right. Only the big black one, the raven, is dangerous. (Inf.)]
About this time the girls who had abused themselves with feathers, stones, and different objects were going to have children. They felt ashamed of themselves and they went and hid and gave birth to their children. They brought forth the eagle, the running rocks, and all the monsters which were afterward to kill and eat man. They were scattered all over with their children. And these children grew rapidly and were soon of abnormal size. At the same time that they grew, the mountains grew too, and that is why some of the mountains are so very tall and hard to climb. The mountains grew because they knew now that the Indians would have a hard time and would be pursued by the monsters, and that the mountains would be the only place where they would be safe. The mountains grew as barriers to the monsters.
The people thought, “We are free now. We can do as we please.” And they started to move to the east.
They all started out together. But soon some began to play games. The others did not want to wait and went on. They went around the earth clockwise. At different places various groups wanted to remain, and these broke away from the main group. But the main group kept on and continued in a spiral which grew smaller and smaller. On the way many disobeyed and wanted to stop. Finally some reached the center of the earth. These are the Jicarilla Apaches. The others were changed into all other tribes because they disobeyed.
When a small group broke off from the main body the children would begin playing games. The children of one group would say, “Let’s play we are Pueblo people.” The grownups paid no attention at first, but the children kept on using this strange language and carrying on in these strange ways. Soon everyone began to know this manner of talking and these ways, and before long this was the way everybody talked and acted. The people gradually forgot their own language and used only this new speech. This is how the different groups originated and the different languages and customs came to be.