The Hactcin were still living here on earth. There was a place here on earth where the Hactcin lived. It was a big tipi. Later it changed to a big mountain, but that mountain still has the form of a tipi [a mountain south of Abiquiu called White Flint Mountain]. My father knows where it is. There are other Hactcin places. My father knows them all.
Although Killer-of-Enemies had given man human attributes and his own mind, all humans, up to this time, were just alike. All were of the same size and had the same appearance.
Then one day the Hactcin saw the sky burning. The whole sky was red; it looked as it does where there is a great forest fire. The Hactcin said they were going to go up and stop it.
They said, “Before we go we will make you all different. Some of you will be ugly after this, some will be good-looking, some will be intelligent and some stupid. Some of you will be fat, some thin; some tall, some short.” They made the people all different. And they made them expert at various things. Some were made good hunters, some good basket makers.
Then the Hactcin went up in the air to put the fire out in the sky. They put out the fire but they never came back. It was the last time they were seen by men on earth.
...
They say that some day when the earth is no longer good for sustaining life, the people will ascend to a third place above the present earth and sky, just as they came from the underworld. This ascent will be just like the emergence from the underworld to this world.
The sun and moon of this earth will go up as before. This place will be dark and then the people will follow the sun and moon. They say that some of the material out of which the earth was made is still left. They say that the Hactcin made this earth and that there is material left for two more earths and skies. This material is kept somewhere now, covered over by a mountain. White-Painted-Woman is taking care of it. She watches over it. The old men know just which mountain it is and what it is called.
They say that the earth is to be destroyed twice, once by water, and this has already happened. This happened after the people came up from below. That is why they know about it, I believe. There is a story about it, but I don’t know much of it. [I have heard my father and father-in-law speak of a time when the earth was covered with water. There was a big flood. The people got in a boat. That’s all I have heard of the story. I didn’t ask about it. They say the boat is somewhere in Old Mexico now. (Inf.).]
Sometime in the future the earth is to be destroyed for the second time, by fire. It will occur some day when Killer-of-Enemies comes back. He is going to take care of these Indians before it happens. He is going to send them up to a place above the present sky. The earth above to which we will go is not yet made. It will have to be made of the material which is being saved. When Killer-of-Enemies comes back, he will tell the people how it is to be done and how the trip is to be made.