The children returned to their mothers’ home. On the way they agreed not to tell what had happened to them. That is what Killer-of-Enemies advised. But Child-of-the-Water wished to tell his mother. When they got home Killer-of-Enemies wouldn’t tell anything about it. He wanted to cover up the fact of his disobedience. But Child-of-the-Water told all about it.
Holy Boy and Red Boy, too, knew all about what was going on and about what was happening to their grandchildren. Holy Boy came to visit them and see what they were doing.
Holy Boy spoke to the two women. “You must come back to your own people,” he told them. “That is where you should be.”
Before the women left with Holy Boy, Killer-of-Enemies heard of some monsters living to the east. He came to his mother and asked permission to go and kill these monsters. He had heard of a monster elk living to the east.
She said, “No, it is too dangerous.”
But the boy wanted very much to go. “I have arrows,” he said. “Why do you keep me from this?”
He made up his mind to go. So he started to the east in spite of his mother’s objections.
And the two women and Child-of-the-Water went back with Holy Boy.
The heart of the earth is near the place of emergence. [There is general agreement among the Jioarilla that the heart of the earth is somewhere near their old territories, in the vicinity of Taos. Concerning the place of emergence there is less agreement. Some locate it in Colorado near the San Juan Mountains. Others claim that it is not far from the heart of the earth.] These Apache had stopped in Arizona, but Holy Boy brought them back to the place of emergence.
Now the people were dissatisfied with life on this earth. They wanted to go back to the place below.
But Holy Boy had told them, “No, wait here. I will go and find those two women and learn what we should do.”
Thus it was that he came to the two women and urged them to come back to the people with him.
The women came back with him to the place where the Jicarilla Apache were. Holy Boy told White-Painted Woman and White-Shell Woman what the people said; how they wished to go below.
The women told the people, “You had better not go back until our grandson returns, for he is going to have a difficult time for your sake.”
White-Painted Woman went about and talked to the people. “You must wait until Killer-of-Enemies, my grandson, comes back. He is going to bring you good news.”
Killer-of-Enemies was on the way to fight the monsters. All this was the plan of Sun and Water. It was their means of helping the people of the emergence.
The two girls, White-Shell Woman and White-Painted Woman, had become angry because they had been ordered to stay near camp. They had run away from the people on purpose and had stayed on top of the mountain. While the girls were on the mountain the monsters began to prey upon mankind. Sun and Water saw this and determined to help mankind. So they came to the girls. After they had spent the night with the girls, Sun told White-Painted Woman to call her child Killer-of-Enemies, and Water told White-Shell Woman to call her son Child-of-the-Water.
The people now wanted to go back into the place from which they had emerged because the monsters were beginning to come around.
They said, “This is a dangerous place. We had better go back.”
But White-Painted Woman and White-Shell Woman told them to wait and see what befell Killer-of-Enemies.
Elk was one of the monsters. He was lying down with his face to the east. The giant elk was just like other elks in appearance but was much larger and had half human blood. That is why he turned to an enemy. His mother was Apache and his father was an elk horn which a woman had used underground for masturbating herself. The monster elk was able to transfix the people with his eyes and they couldn’t run away when he looked at them. So they would stand immovable, and he would come up and kill them.
Killer-of-Enemies’ ear spoke to him. It told him, “You must put on clothes of heat wave. Then run around and come from the east side.”
Killer-of-Enemies had four suits of these clothes, one for each direction and color. Each time the monster looked he changed to another.
The monster glanced in his direction. He thought he saw something moving. Then afterward he couldn’t see anyone. He could see through the heat wave but he couldn’t see Killer-of-Enemies. He looked carefully, but in vain. So finally he lay down again.
Killer-of-Enemies took one more step. The monster again saw something move. He looked straight at Killer-of-Enemies but could see nothing. Killer-of-Enemies stood still, clothed in the clothes of heat waves, and couldn’t be seen.
The third time it was the same way. Killer-of-Enemies moved and the monster saw the movement and jumped up. But he could see nothing further.
Killer-of-Enemies moved a fourth time and again the elk was alarmed. But Killer-of-Enemies stood still and nothing more of him could be seen.
Then Killer-of-Enemies saw the whiskers of a gopher sticking up from a hole. He heard a voice coming from the middle of the whiskers, “Grandson, what are you doing around here in front of this monster?” The voice went on, “This monster kills the people. That is why I live under the earth all the time. I have not dared to come up since the monsters came on earth.”
Killer-of-Enemies said, “I have come here to kill this elk.”
“How are you going to do it, grandson?”
“With this arrow of mine,” Killer-of-Enemies said. “Will you help me in some way?”
“Yes, I will.”
Killer-of-Enemies told him, “You must dig out a hole under-ground to the place where the monster lies. Make one tunnel towards him from the east, one from the south, one from the west, and one from the north.”
Then the ear spoke to him again and said, “You must ask the spiders to help you too.”
So he called the spiders. The four spiders of different colors came. Each one stationed himself at the end of one of the four tunnels, at the end furthest from the monster. They waited there. And a piece of flint was put beside each of the spiders. The piece of flint at the east tunnel was black, the one at the south was blue, the one at the west was yellow, and the one at the north was glittering. And a piece of sacred black stone was placed at the east, a piece of sacred blue stone to the south, a yellow one to the west, and a glittering one to the north.
Killer-of-Enemies talked to Gopher. “Now make a hole to the place where the monster is lying, right to his heart.”
The monster felt the drilling beneath him. He woke up.
Gopher said, “My grandfather, I want to use your hair; my little children are freezing. I want to make a nest of your hair.” The monster said, “You may use all you want.”
Then Gopher filled up his cheek pouches with hair from both sides of the elk under the front legs. That is why Elk and Deer have no hair there.
Killer-of-Enemies asked Thunder for power, for Lightning was his arrow. He asked the rainbow for power. They all came near to him. His bow was of rainbow; that is why he asked Rainbow for power. Then he made four fire drills of four colors. One was black, one blue, one yellow, and one glittering. He started to go directly to the east.
“This hole is too small for me,” he said.
“No,” answered Gopher, “this hole will stretch to fit your body.”
He went in. It was true. He could walk and run in there.
Gopher said, “Look at your arrow.”
He did. The point was swinging and ready to fall off, it was so loose.
“Let me fix it for you,” Gopher said, and Gopher fixed it for him.
Then Killer-of-Enemies said to Gopher, “You must pray for me, for I may be in danger.” He told this to the spiders too.
He went below the monster. The ear spoke to him again. “Motion three times with your bow as though to shoot and let the arrow fly the fourth time.”
He did this and shot the monster under the heart. The monster leaped to his feet. Killer-of-Enemies then shot the black fire stick to the east with his bow. Where it fell a cloud of black smoke arose. The monster ran to the east to learn the cause of the smoke. [Smoke is a sign of human habitation to the monster. Since he preys upon mankind, he always investigates the least sign of smoke.] He could find nothing. When he came back Killer-of-Enemies shot the blue one to the south. Killer-of-Enemies was under the earth. He heard the noise of the monster’s hooves. The monster was still running.
When the monster got back, Killer-of-Enemies shot the yellow one to the west. He listened. On his return the monster was walking heavily, hardly running. He was tiring. So Killer-of-Enemies shot the glittering one to the north immediately. And when the monster got back from the north he was so tired and weak that he almost fell down.
The monster came back to the place where he had lain. He put his horn down and plowed through the hole which Gopher had made to the east. At the end of the tunnel to the east Black Spider put up a black web and the black flint. The monster struck the web and flint, and these stopped him.
The ear of Killer of-Enemies had told him, “Run to the end of the tunnel to the north,” and Killer-of-Enemies was there waiting.
Now the monster put down his horn and raked up the tunnel to the south. At the end he was stopped by the blue spider’s web and blue flint. He tried the west now, digging up the earth in that direction. He was finally halted by the yellow spider web and flint.
Then he started to dig up the tunnel to the north with his horn. He crashed into the flint and shattered it to pieces. But when he struck the spider web he fell down and died. Killer-of-Enemies was sitting on the other side of the spider web and was saved.
Gopher was very happy.
White-Painted Woman, too, was happy. She was watching all the time with her fire drill to see whether her son was in danger. The fire drill had flared up and now it subsided. She knew what was happening and told it to the people. She always told the people, “My grandson is doing this,” or “My grandson is doing that.” Many of them didn’t believe her.
They said, “That White-Painted Woman must be crazy to talk that way.”
But Whirlwind brought the message to her. That is how she knew.
Killer-of-Enemies was ready to butcher the monster. He had a flint knife. He opened up the monster and took all the skin off. He put some of the blood from the heart into the stomach. The monster elk had two small horns in the middle of his head as well as the big ones on the sides. Killer-of-Enemies took the smaller horn, the right one, with him and it was with this that he later killed the monster eagles. His ear talked to him and told him to cut off the right horn.
While the skin was still fresh he made clothes of it for himself and sewed them all up tightly. Right inside, at his chest, he put the stomach filled with blood.
After Killer-of-Enemies had killed the monster elk he went over to the elks and the deer. These were the animals which were not monsters but had come from the underworld with the people.
He spoke to them. He said, “You must help the people. You must help them in the ‘life way.’ When they ask for clothes, give them clothes; when they want meat, give it to them.”
In those days the deer and elks were just like the horses. They were tame.
And Killer-of-Enemies said to the elks and deer, “Do not grow large. Remain at your present size.”
He started now for the home of the monster eagle. He went to the big rock near the Navaho Reservation.
The ear told him, “Face to the east.”
The eagle looked down and saw someone walking below. The eagle swooped down and tried to pick him up. But he couldn’t hold him, for the skin had begun to dry and was hard. The eagle rose again.
Killer-of-Enemies faced to the south. The eagle swooped down again. It struck at his feet and scratched all the way up trying to retain a hold, but it was unable to pick up Killer-of-Enemies. So the eagle went up and circled overhead once more.
Killer-of-Enemies now faced to the west. The eagle tried again but without success.
The fourth time Killer-of-Enemies faced the north. He opened up the hide and bunched up his cloak to give the eagle a chance to seize him. This time the eagle hung on and carried him high in the air and to his nest. The eagle threw him down on the point of a rock. Killer-of-Enemies opened up the stomach full of blood and spilled it to make it appear that he was killed.
The eagle, after dropping him, sat on a point of rock at the north side. He said to his children, “Help yourselves. Eat it.”
When a child tried to reach out toward him with its claw, Killer-of-Enemies said, “cit, cit!” just as though he were chasing away a dog.
The children were frightened away twice and then they said to their father, “Father, every time we get near this dead person he says, ‘Cit!’ to us.”
The father said, “It’s all right. The dead always sound like that. Air comes out of the wound and causes that noise.” Then he flew away.
Then Killer-of-Enemies stood up and spoke to the children.
“When does your mother return?” he asked.
“When the fine rain comes.”
In about an hour she came. She had a Pueblo Indian in her talons. He was crying for help. She threw him on the rock and killed him. Then she sat on the west side.
Then his ear spoke to Killer-of-Enemies. “You must motion towards her three times and hit her the fourth time with the elk horn.”
Killer-of-Enemies did as he was directed, and she fell from the cliff. When she struck the ground it made a noise like thunder, she was so big.
Then Killer-of-Enemies asked the children, “When will your father return?”
“When it hails,”they told him.
“Where does he sit?”
“He sits to the east.”
The ear spoke to Killer-of-Enemies. “Lie down at the end of the rock,” it told him.
In a little while the father eagle came carrying a human being in his talons. He dropped his burden and sat and stretched his wings.
Just then Killer-of-Enemies came up to him and knocked him down as he had the mother bird. The father, too, fell with a loud crash.
Killer-of-Enemies turned to the children. He pressed their wings and bodies together and made them small. He sent one up to the other side of the sky, saying, “The people are going to use you sometimes for feathers.” Later Killer-of-Enemies visited these eagles and saved them from their enemies, the bees. These eagles are smaller than the eagles of earth.
This eagle turned and said, “Whenever the people touch our feathers they will get sick. They will become doubled up and stiff.” [The plucking of eagle feathers is considered so dangerous that it is a minor ceremony in itself among the Jicarilla.]
Killer-of-Enemies answered, “Don’t talk like that; go where I send you.”
“Well, there will be medicine to cure these people even if we make them sick.” Then he went up and his descendants became the eagles of the sky.
Killer-of-Enemies made the other one small too. He reduced it to about the size of the present eagle. He sent it down on this earth. This one said as he went, “People will become ill because of me. They will be doubled up and stiff from touching my feathers.”
“Don’t say that,” Killer-of-Enemies told him.
“Well, there will be a cure for it even when they become sick from us.” Then this one flew away.
Now Killer-of-Enemies was up on the rock and didn’t know how to get down. Far in the distance he saw a woman approach the rock. She was carrying something on her back.
His ear said to him, “You must call to her.”
She was going towards the woods.
He called, “Grandmother, help me. Take me down.”
But the old woman paid no attention and just went on. She made believe she was deaf.
He called a second time and a third, but she would not look.
The fourth time he called, but she would not come. She knew someone was calling all the time, but she wouldn’t pay attention. She went into the woods instead. She came out of the woods and put her hands above her eyes then and peered around. She looked and looked. Finally she found him high on top of the cliff.
She began to come to him. She came under the rock and began to climb. She sang as she climbed. “Stick to it, stick to it,” she sang to her feet. Finally she was at the top. She was Old Woman Bat.
“What are you doing up here? How did you get up here?”
“That monster eagle brought me up. I want you to take me down.”
Killer-of-Enemies looked at the burden basket she carried on her back. He noticed that the rope was of spider thread. He thought, “That can never hold me. It will break and I shall fall.”
The old woman knew what he was thinking. She said, “Don’t think that! Get in.”
But Killer-of-Enemies was afraid to get in.
“Why, I’ve carried a big-horned sheep in that basket.”
But Killer-of-Enemies didn’t believe it. He was afraid. So he filled up the basket with big rocks to test the strength of the rope, and she jumped up and down with the load.
“Do you believe it now?”
“Yes,” he said. He took out the rocks and got in.
The old lady said to him, “You must close your eyes when we are going down.”
She began to sing again and descended. Killer-of-Enemies tried to open his eyes.
Bat Woman called, “My grandson, don’t open your eyes or we’ll fall.”
So he closed his eyes again. They got down. She was dancing around and singing, “We’re on the earth again.” But he wouldn’t open his eyes for a long time. He knew they were down but he was just playing and teasing her [this was because she had teased him in the beginning by pretending not to see him on the top of the rock].
He got out of the basket finally and the woman started to go away.
“Don’t go away,” he told her. “I’m going to give you something.”
He took the basket to the place where the dead eagles were. He filled up the basket with the downy feathers of the male eagle. Then he told her, “Do not go to the fields with this, or these feathers will get caught in the plants and all the feathers will stick to these plants [the plant named is Coleosanthus brachyphyllus]. Take these feathers home with you and make a nest for your little children of them.”
But Bat Woman forgot, and when the basket was filled she went past the plants and all the feathers were lost.
She came back and said, “Give me some more feathers. I forgot and went near the bushes, and the bushes took all of them away from me.”
He filled it up this time with downy feathers and wing feathers of the female eagle. He warned her, “You must not go to a place where there is brush with these. All the little birds might take them away from you.”
Again she forgot and went to the wrong place. The little birds came and took them. That is why some of these little birds have downy feathers just like the downy feathers of the eagles. She came back to Killer-of-Enemies again. This time Killer-of-Enemies gave her a piece of old hide. It was scorched from the fire and all soiled. She drew it up around her as the women put a blanket over themselves. She was very happy and went away. That is why the bat has a black skin today.
Then Killer-of-Enemies started to go home to his mother. His mother knew what had happened. She always told the people, but they did not believe it at all.
She said to the people, “My grandson is coming.”
They looked to the east. After a while a figure was seen.
She was very happy. “See, my grandson comes,” she said. When he came near she said, “See, it is my grandson.”
When he came close she said to him, “The people don’t believe me though I have told them what you were doing and how you were killing the monsters.”
She called four different birds, the robin, the western tanager, the bluebird, and the road-runner. They all came to the place where Killer-of-Enemies was with White-Painted Woman. Then Killer-of-Enemies told all about his experiences. White-Painted Woman told the birds to go everywhere and tell the people all over the world.
“Act as chiefs and tell them,” she said, “for the chief stands up before all and talks.”
Each bird went in a different direction to tell what Killer-of-Enemies had accomplished. The birds told the people of all the deeds of Killer-of-Enemies, and so after that the people knew what had been done and had songs about it. And later, when a man became chief, he sang of these four birds, for they were the ones who had made the announcement to the people. And if a chief sang of these four birds he would never get bald [he would never become bald because, following the precept of these birds, he would tell no untruth; the Jicarilla attribute baldness to chronic lying].
The birds told the people, “Now we’ll all be at peace. People can sleep with confidence because of what Killer-of-Enemies has done, and food shall be plentiful.”
After that, because the birds spoke well to the people, the chiefs, who also speak to the people, who tell them what has happened and who advise them, always sang of these birds.
The people all gathered to listen. Then they departed for their homes.
There was a kicking monster too. He was a real person called He-Kicks-them-in-the-Water. He lived where there were some hot springs. The water was boiling and seething all around that place. He lay on top of a ledge beside a mountain road that wound along above the hot springs. As people passed by he kicked them into the water. Below, under the water, he had a home, and there his four daughters lived. And all those whom he kicked in the water, these girls ate.
He lay there across the road. Always when people were passing he would draw his feet back as though to allow the people to pass by. He would say, “Now you can pass,” but when the traveler tried to pass, he would throw his foot forward again and knock his victim into the water.
Killer-of-Enemies missed some people. He noticed that people who went on a journey in that direction never came back. So he followed that trail and came to that road. He found the monster lying across the road.
“Brother,” said Killer-of-Enemies, “why are you lying down like this?”
The kicking monster said, “It’s all right. There isn’t much room, but I’ll withdraw my feet and you can pass.” He pulled his feet back.
Killer-of-Enemies seemed to be just about to pass. He acted as though he did not suspect, but he knew all the while what the monster was going to do. He really watched the kicking monster very closely. When the kicking monster was just about to give him a violent push, Killer-of-Enemies stopped and the monster missed him entirely.
Then Killer-of-Enemies asked, “Why do you try to kick me?”
Then Kicking Monster answered, “Oh, my leg was cramped. That is why I had to kick. I really did not mean to kick you.”
But Killer-of-Enemies knew that he was doing it on purpose and just to harm people.
Three times this same thing happened. Killer-of-Enemies would start and the kicking monster would try to kick him, and each time he missed.
The fourth time the kicking monster pulled his feet back. By this time Killer-of-Enemies was very angry and decided to end it. As the monster flung his feet forward, Killer-of-Enemies caught him and threw him into the hot water below. The kicking monster was cooked in the hot water. Soon the four girls were eating their own father.
Killer-of-Enemies came down to find out what had happened to all the people who were kicked into the water. He went into the monster’s home. He found the four girls there. The four girls were very eager to get Killer-of-Enemies.
Killer-of-Enemies said to them, “You must not touch me. Stay away from me. I’ll give you some medicine, and then you may do whatever you wish.”
These four daughters of the kicking monster were the only women who possessed vaginas. They were vagina girls. They had the form of women, but they were in reality vaginas. Other vaginas were hanging around on the walls, but these four were in the form of girls with legs and all body parts and were walking around. It was because of them that so many men had gone along the road. But the father of the girls, the kicking monster, had not let these men have his daughters. Instead he had kicked them into the boiling water.
When Killer-of-Enemies went down there, all four girls approached him and wanted to have intercourse. One of them said, “Oh, you have come to see us, to have intercourse with us.”
But Killer-of-Enemies said, “No, not I. Perhaps someone else.” The girl was angry. “Then after this our blood will make people sick.”
“Don’t talk like that. Close your mouth,” Killer-of-Enemies commanded her.
“Well, there will be medicine that will cure it, blood medicine,” she said.
Killer-of-Enemies asked them, “Where have all the men gone who were kicked into this place?”
“We ate them up because we like to,” the girls answered.
Then they all tried to embrace him. But he drove them away, saying, “Keep away! That is no way to use the vagina. First I must give you medicine that you have never tasted before, medicine made of sour berries, and then I’ll do what you ask.” [The oral fixation runs throughout this entire episode. For these girls, eating is the equivalent of intercourse.]
But he promised this only because he knew that he would change these girls and that after that the vagina, which had been used for evil alone, would be used for good. He gave them sour berries of four kinds to eat: sumac berries, currants, red raspberries, and gooseberries.
The first time he gave the medicine to them he said, “The vagina is always sweet when you do like this.” [The reference to the vagina and sexual intercourse in terms of sweet and sour is a continuation of the oral erotic motif. In many Jioarilla contexts intercourse is referred to as something “sour.” The theme is followed out in a number of aspects of Jicarilla culture, e.g., there may be no intercourse at the time of a salt-gathering expedition.]
Then they all chewed the medicine and swallowed it.
He said the same thing the second time. This time they didn’t chew it much. The third time they chewed it still less, for it puckered their mouths. The fourth time they couldn’t chew it at all. They just swallowed it. They liked it very much though. It felt just as if Killer-of-Enemies was having intercourse with them. They were almost unconscious with ecstacy. Really Killer-of-Enemies was doing nothing at all to them. It was the medicine that made them feel that way.
When Killer-of-Enemies had come to them they had had strong teeth with which they had eaten their victims. [This is the familiar toothed vagina (vagina dentata) motif with the necessary displacement to accommodate the oral element.] But this medicine destroyed their teeth entirely.
Then Killer-of-Enemies chose the largest vagina and the smallest there, for the vaginas were not on the girls but were hanging on the walls. Many of them were hanging there. The girls had been guarding them.
Then he left the girls and went back to his mother. He had the two vaginas along with him. He gave them to his mother, and his mother chose two girls and gave these vaginas to them.
The people did not know what they were. They had never seen anything like these before. The people were all crowding around, for they were eager to see what would happen. They had a big council about it.
First someone said to the girls, “Put them on top of your heads.”
But others said, “Oh, that wouldn’t look well! Put them on your chests.”
When that was tried many didn’t like it either. Then the back was suggested. The hand was tried too, but that didn’t look well either. Someone thought of the knee, but when it was tried most of them were not satisfied. The feet were next tried, but after viewing it they said, “No, that is not the right place.”
Finally the vaginas were put between the legs where the vagina is now, and the people said, “Yes, that is much better.”
Killer-of-Enemies then spoke and said that women would have it there always.
He then went to the hoop and pole grounds. Those four vagina-girls from the hot springs had come up and were looking for him. They found him there. [The girls not only came on an evil errand, but also disregarded all proprieties by seeking Killer-of-Enemies at the hoop-and-pole grounds, a place from which women are banned.]
They said to him, “You are the one who lay with us once. Now you have run away from us. We have been lonely for you since then.”
This was the beginning of loneliness. That is why when people separate for a time they long for each other. The girls came up because no one was feeding them any more.
Killer-of-Enemies said, “I am not the one who was with you. I think you must mean someone else.”
But the girls just kept saying, “You are the one. You never come to us any more. You ran away from us.” Three times they spoke to him this way.
Each time he said, “No, it must have been someone else. People all look the same. I have never been with girls.”
Then the girls said, “All right! If you claim that you are not the one, it is all right. Even though you spoiled our teeth by making us chew those sour berries, we have still another power. Because of us people will get venereal disease. And when anyone touches menstrual blood he will become ill. The only thing that will cure the illness is the long roots in the ground which have ‘blood’ (red tendrils) at the end when they are pulled up. Blood medicine is its name. ‘Medicine for venereal disease’ will cure this disease after which it is named.”
When White Hactcin planted all the roots and flowers which were to be used for medicine, he knew that these diseases were coming, and so these plants which the girls named were already growing.
So now, when a woman is going to have a baby, the one who acts as midwife puts some of the “blood medicine” on her hands and in her mouth, and after the baby is delivered the mother blows four times on the hands of the midwife. The mother does this because it is her own blood and she doesn’t want the sickness to spread because of her. After this the midwife is safe, she could not get venereal disease even if she were with a man who had it, and she would not get the blood disease that gives you rheumatism either. [A woman cannot become ill from her own blood, but she can be made ill by the blood of other women. (Inf.)]
Killer-of-Enemies spoke to those four vagina girls. “If you use your vaginas and your power in the wrong way and cause harm to people, you too must suffer when you have a baby.”
That is why a woman who is kind and good does not suffer when she has a baby, but one who is mean and wicked and always harming others is the one who will have a hard time at childbirths.
When White-Painted Woman gave the two girls the vaginas, the big one and the small one, she spoke to the boys and girls. She told them that if a girl used it too early, before she was grown up, she would not grow any more. And she said that the boy who went to girls and women too young, when he was fifteen or under, and before he had attained full size, would remain short the rest of his life.
“You have this vagina that you may have six kinds of relatives,” she said. “There will be grandmothers, mothers, aunts, daughters, sisters, and nieces. If you use it in the right way you will have those six relatives and live in the proper way.”
The four girls said, “Even though we hurt the people with disease, there will be a medicine for it.”
Now these girls became like others and turned to a good way of living. They stayed among the people.
This all happened because the women under the earth had been evil and wished for the men at the time of the separation. Their evil actions led to the birth of the monsters. The women of the emergence had had vaginas in the underworld, but not real ones as the women do today.
Now Killer-of-Enemies went to his grandmother. He always talked to her before he started out to kill another monster. Each time he told her what he intended to do, she was somewhat frightened and exclaimed, “Yi!” She would tremble for him and advise him not to go. But Killer-of-Enemies would answer, “I must kill them. That’s the reason I’m here.”
Killer-of-Enemies had heard about two running rocks which were killing people. One was black and the other white. They had been racing around the earth. They were preparing to kill the people, and they were practicing running for that purpose. Two-Rocks- Racing-Together they were called. They were both round, smooth rocks such as are found in the rivers. One was black and made of the kind of stone that is found in the Archeuleta Mountains. The other was white and was made of a rock called Holy Rock.
Killer-of-Enemies first asked the rainbow to help him, because he knew how fast those two rocks could run. He said, “Watch me when I race with them. When they get too close, come under my feet and lift me up so they cannot harm me.”
The ear of Killer-of-Enemies spoke to him. “Those two rocks are good runners; despite Rainbow’s aid they will still be able to catch you. You had better ask someone else for help too.”
So Killer-of-Enemies asked help from the sun. When something shiny is held up it throws a gleam of light and that light travels as fast as eye can see.
“Let that be my legs,” Killer-of-Enemies asked.
And Sun said, “All right.”
Then he came to four birds who were good runners, Sandhill Crane, two hawks, and Humming-Bird. He said to these four birds, “You must stand close to the north.”
Then he let the rocks see him. The rocks saw someone on the race track. At that time his ear spoke to Killer-of-Enemies and told him he must start running for his life. At first Killer-of-Enemies used his eyes. He fixed his gaze on a distant mountain and as soon as he saw it, he was there. Then he looked to another, and as his glance fell on it he was already there. He continued to do this until his eyes got tired.
Then Ear spoke to him and told him to use his power of thought. He would think of some distant place which lay ahead, and as soon as he thought of it he would be there. But his mind tired of that after a while.
At the advice of the ear he began to use the speed of light which the sun had promised him. The sun would throw a beam of light ahead and he would travel with it to that place. The rocks were coming fast behind him all the time. But Killer-of-Enemies was tiring of this now.
So now he was told by the ear to use his word. So he said, “Let me be there,” mentioning a place, and he would be there. Behind him the rocks were approaching all the time. Every few minutes he would hear them.
After a while his ear said, “Now use Sandhill Crane.”
So he said to Sandhill Crane, “Now it is your turn.”
This was the first of the birds, all of whom were in a line, each a long way from the other. So he used the speed of Sandhill Crane, though he didn’t have to change bodies or ride on him. He came to the second bird before the rocks reached the place. A hawk was the second bird to help him. With the power and speed of this hawk he came quickly to the place where the second hawk was waiting. Then he came to the fourth bird, the humming-bird.
But the rocks were coming nearer and nearer. So Killer-of-Enemies ran to Old Man Spider. “Grandfather, save me!” he said.
The old spider asked, “Where are those many leaders? I thought there were many leaders around. Just go in my house.”
Killer-of-Enemies entered, and the spider made a black web before the door. The rocks came running after Killer-of-Enemies and ran right into the web. Meanwhile Killer-of-Enemies was going into the house.
There he met Old Woman Spider and he called to her, “Grandmother, now it’s your turn to help me.”
She too said, “I thought many other leaders were helping you.” But she made a blue web between the rocks and Killer-of-Enemies.
The rocks had run into the first web and were all enmeshed in it. It clung to them and retarded their progress, but they came onward with the strands of the web streaming behind. Then the rocks ran straight into the blue web and through it.
Meanwhile Killer-of-Enemies had met Young Man Spider in the home of the spiders and said to him, “You must help me.”
The youth replied, “I thought you had many leaders to help you. Why could they not save you?” But he made a yellow web and stretched it between Killer-of-Enemies and the running rocks.
The rocks were still coming nearer all the time, though they were entangled in the webs.
So Killer-of-Enemies ran to the spider children. “Children,” he said, “you must help me.”
The children answered in the same way. “We thought there were many people to help you,” they said. Nevertheless they made another web, a glittering one.
The rocks were still coming onward. They had gone through the third web and were approaching the fourth. Now the spider people all gathered there.
“Why do we let those rocks run through our webs?” they asked angrily. “Let us hold them back this time. Let us all take hold of the web and pull the ends taut.”
They all began to pull it. As they took hold of it, the rocks ran into the web. So these people pulled four times, each time harder, and broke the rocks all to pieces.
Because the spiders spoke to Killer-of-Enemies as they did, people now when you ask help of them always say, “I thought you had some other strong men to help you. Why don’t you go to them?” [The Jicarilla shaman delights in emphasizing the obligation of his patient to him for his services.]
The reason the rocks could run so fast was that they encased other monsters, monster mountain-sheep. These sheep in the rocks were like the engines in automobiles. When Killer-of-Enemies killed the rocks they broke in many pieces. The female mountain-sheep came out of one, the male mountain-sheep out of the other. Both looked around.
Killer-of-Enemies said to them, “Hereafter you will not be monsters. You will live in the high cliffs and the people will use you. ”
Those rocks were completely shattered. Some of the pieces of the white rock were small and some large. And the pieces of black stone were of all sizes, and some of the pieces had sharp edges. After that some of the people used the kind with sharp edges for axes. And the round pieces of the white stone were used for pounding meat or medicines.
From all around the people came to see these rocks. Some were going to pick up fragments of them but Killer-of-Enemies said, “No, do not touch those pieces.”
He picked up four, two black ones and two white ones. “Now you may help yourselves,” he said.
So all the people picked up the pieces of rock. Spider picked up some. That is why some spiders live in the rocks.
Killer-of-Enemies took his four pieces of rock and went back to his grandmother. She took a piece of the round white rock and put it in the back of the house, in the corner. She buried it there. That is why the Apache man puts such a rock in the back of his home. It is done so that his wife will never run away from him but will stay there always. In the old days the man used to dig up this rock when moving camp and put it in the back of the house at the new site. A man’s wife may see him put it there or she may not. She knows what it is for. The women never do this.
The black stone is used in another way besides, as a pounder. If you have a bad cold in the chest or a pain there caused by pneumonia, you put this rock in the fire, heat it, and put it on the spot. This is for both men and women. Then the pain stops. You put a rag around the stone so it does not burn the flesh. This is done because White-Painted Woman, when Killer-of-Enemies came back with the rock, said, “This rock was used in an evil way. Now it shall be used in the ‘life way.’” And she used it for this purpose.
Now everything was at peace for a while. But then the people saw a galloping rock coming. It had not yet started to eat the people. It was only one canyon removed from the people by the time it was discovered. It was at the Rio Grande River coming toward Taos. All the people gathered, frightened, to see it come. It was near Taos, at Picuris.
Early in the morning all the people armed themselves and waited. This was before the light had come. They were going to start shooting as it passed them. As the rock approached the people started to shoot at him with their arrows. But they could not kill that rock. The arrows struck it but could not go through or hurt him in any way. So the rock passed by all the people.
Killer-of-Enemies was there too. He had three others to help him this time. [The three helpers of Killer-of-Enemies were supernaturals who told him what to do. The informant did not know any names for them.] Now it was his turn. He was ready to shoot. He motioned with his bow and arrow three times and the fourth time he let the arrow go. The arrow struck the monster under the arm and the monster tried to bite at it. As soon as he started to bite he fell over dead. That rock is still there, where it was killed, in the form of a rock dyke.
After this, when an Apache passed this place, he would shoot two arrows through a hole there in the rock dyke. If he had no arrows he would pick up stones and throw them through instead. Then he could pass. This same rock was used to determine whether a man had been with a girl or not. If a man was accused and could not shoot through that hole, it showed he had been with the woman. But one who had not had intercourse could throw a rock or shoot an arrow through the hole easily.
And a person who passed the rock would chip off a little material from the hole which was made when Killer-of-Enemies shot his arrow and killed the monster. They carried this in the buckskin bag on the string over the shoulder. This kept the wearer from being hit when someone was shooting at him.
When someone was shot they always used this rock from the monster’s wound too. A little of it was pulverized and put in the medicine which the wounded one drank, and then he would not die but was sure to get well.
And fragments of this rock are used as medicine when someone falls from a rock or on a rock and hurts himself badly, for Killer-of-Enemies killed this rock and made it good for man to use.
There was now an owl who was living in the woods. He was called Big Owl. He had great power. At that time he could make a noise which frightened the people. Whenever the people or the birds or the animals heard the owl’s voice they all trembled and were afraid. His voice was just like thunder. It made everything shake.
Every time when he came out of the woods he would hunt for people. “I need them for my meal,” he would say.
No one who met the owl could escape from him. This owl had great round eyes, just like the moon. He could use them to hunt the people too. When he saw someone, that person could not move away even if he knew the danger. He was held there just as though the owl had reached out with a long stick and pressed him to the ground.
Then the owl would come up to him and put him in a basket, throw the basket over his back and carry him home. There he would chop his victim up and cook him and eat him. Sometimes he would bury his victim in the hot ashes and eat him when he was roasted.
Once Big Owl went out to hunt for people. He took with him his bow and arrows. On the way he met Coyote. He frightened Coyote, and Coyote fell down in a faint. He picked Coyote up and put him in his basket and started for home. While he was on the way the coyote recovered consciousness. He thought all was over with him, but he was sorry for his children and tried to think of some way to get away.
It was daytime and very hot. Big Owl stopped and sat by some rocks for a rest. Coyote crept out, put several rocks in the basket, and then re-entered it. Then Owl picked up his basket and started off again. The basket seemed very heavy and he soon tired, but he thought it was because of the heat and the weight of the coyote.
Several times they stopped and each time Coyote put in rocks when the owl wasn’t looking. Soon the basket was very full and Coyote made his escape. Before he went he defecated on top of the rocks.
The owl carried his basket of rocks home. When he got there he said to his children, “Help yourself. I just killed this meat for you.”
The children peeked into that basket and saw nothing but rocks. Owl was furious when he saw the trick that had been played on him. He went back to the place where he had caught Coyote, but he could find no trace of Coyote now.
Then Owl went down another canyon and there he found a turkey. He transfixed the turkey with his glance and the turkey fell down. Owl picked him up and put him in his basket. Again he grew very warm while on the way, so he stopped under a tree in the shade. The turkey regained his senses at this time and found himself in the basket. He knew he would lose his life unless he acted quickly. Turkey made up his mind that when Owl passed under some low-hanging branches of the trees he would reach up, hold on to a limb, and pull himself out of that basket.
The owl got up and started for home again. Turkey pulled himself up and, as he clasped the branch, he defecated in the basket. The owl took the basket home. There was nothing in it but excrement. He was very angry again. He ran out to look for Turkey.
He didn’t find Turkey, but he did come upon Killer-of-Enemies. He looked at Killer-of-Enemies, and Killer-of-Enemies, although Owl couldn’t hurt him, fell down, making believe that he was dead. He wanted to see how strong Owl was and he wanted to be taken to his home and to see what had happened to the other people Owl had captured.
Owl picked him up and put him in the basket. At his home Owl had a block for chopping up people. On this he put Killer-of-Enemies. He tried to chop him to pieces. But his big knife could do nothing. Every time he raised the knife over his head, it fell down behind him. This happened four times, and the fourth time the knife fell from his hands it broke into pieces.
Then he tried to frighten Killer-of-Enemies with his voice, but Killer-of-Enemies was not frightened. Finally he tried to frighten him with his eyes, but Killer-of-Enemies was not afraid. The eyes were large, just like a moon.
Killer-of-Enemies said, “You are not using those eyes in the right manner. I thought they belonged to the moon. Did Moon let you have them?”
Owl answered, “When I was still unborn my mother looked at the moon, and now I am like this.”
Apache women who are pregnant must not look at the moon for this reason. They must not look at the sun either or at anything like the bear, snake, or any harmful animals. And they must not look at someone who is all doubled up and paralyzed, for then the child may be like that too.
Killer-of-Enemies said to Owl, “You had better not use your eyes for evil. And you had better not use your voice for evil either, or to harm the people.”
Owl said, “Even though I hurt the people, there will be some songs and prayers which can cure them.”
Owl had a fire poker. Killer-of-Enemies picked it up. With it he hit the owl four times. And as he did it, four different kinds of owls came out of this monster. They flew in different directions. Then Killer-of-Enemies came back to the two children. He pushed their bodies together and made them smaller. And he told them to fly away, saying, “After this do not hurt the people. Fly around only at night.” Before this they say that Big Owl had been around even in the day, bothering the people.
Again Killer-of-Enemies went back to his grandmother and told her what he had done. But before long he heard of another monster, a giant fish in the water. That fish could swallow people, even if they were on land and a long distance away. And it swallowed many birds and animals too.
Killer-of-Enemies had a long black flint knife. He made ready to go after the fish. His grandmother begged him not to go, but Killer-of-Enemies resolved to attempt it, for he was eager to see and conquer the monster.
He tried to get near enough to that fish to see it well. The fish saw him and swallowed him.
Child-of-the-Water was on land. He missed his brother.
Killer-of-Enemies sat in the fish. He didn’t know how he could get out. Rainbow shone over the fish and one end pointed directly to the place where Killer-of-Enemies was. The inside of the fish was like a big room. In this space something large was hanging down. It was the fish’s heart. So, with his knife, Killer-of-Enemies started to cut at the heart. The fish floundered around in the water as Killer-of-Enemies cut at its heart. Killer-of-Enemies had almost cut through it now. The fish tossed till it was on the shore by the side of the water and there it died. But Killer-of-Enemies didn’t know how to get out of the fish’s body.
Child-of-the-Water knew what was going on during this time. At home he prayed, for he had power over the water. He knew that he had not lost his brother.
Now Killer-of-Enemies made up his mind to cut his way out. He took his knife and cut at the neck region, and where he cut the fish have slits in the neck now [the gills]. Then he came out of the body of the fish holding the heart in his hand. He spoke to the fish then and said, “You had better become small now, and you shall have no heart.”
He took the heart home with him. When they saw it Child-of-the-Water and White-Painted Woman were very glad. He gave the heart to his grandmother.
They all talked of what to do with the heart. They wanted to put it where no monster could get it, for the fish was the leader of all the monsters. So they gave the heart to the moon, and that’s where it is now. They say that some day the moon is going to give the heart back to the fish and then all the monsters will come to life again. At every full moon and every new moon Killer-of-Enemies, Child-of-the-Water, White-Shell Woman, and White-Painted Woman pray for long life and good luck for the people and ask the moon not to give the heart back to the fish.
Killer-of-Enemies stood with the blood of all the monsters whom he had killed on his hands, beginning with the eagle and including all the others. He went up to the top of a big mountain, White Mountain near Mescalero. With him he took the club of elk horn with which he had killed the eagles, and he had some reed with him, a flint knife, and a clay bowl with some water in it that White- Painted Woman had given him for washing his hands when he got to the top of the mountain.
He took the reed and threw it to the east. “This will be white people, Americans,” he said.
He then rubbed his hands which still had on them the blood of the monsters and then he made a motion as though throwing something to the east. “Those white people will be strong in a life way. They will be like White Hactcin. They will help all peoples.”
And this has come true, for the white people know everything and are ahead. They teach the other peoples and give them clothes and the way to live.
And he threw the stone knife to the south, and that is why those people, the Mescalero and those to the south, had knives like this, many of them. And that is why those people have more ceremonies than we have, and many different kinds of cactus. [The informant said, “We, the Jicarilla Apache, have more power than other tribes but not so many ceremonies.” For a few years following 1884 the Jicarilla Apache were stationed on a reservation with the Mescalero Apache and became acquainted with Mescalero ceremonialism. The greater importance of shamanism among the Mescalero results in a larger number of minor rites than the Jicarilla have, and the latter evidently have been impressed by this.]
Then Killer-of-Enemies washed his hands in the water which his grandmother had provided for him. It was holy water. He raised his wet hands and shook them. As the drops fell he said, “These will be sheep and cattle of all kinds.” That is why lamb and mutton taste a little peculiar. And that is why, when people eat freshly slaughtered meat, still warm, it makes them sick and gives them a fever. This is especially true in the case of anyone who is not feeling just right. If anyone is a little weak, it is very unwise for him to eat freshly killed meat. The meat of the sheep tastes as it does and the fever comes from warm meat because of the blood of the monsters which was mixed with the water from the hands of Killer-of-Enemies.