5. The Origin of Corn

5. THE ORIGIN OF CORN (4)

It is said that corn was obtained by one of the women of the Tåmålgi clan. ¹ She had a number of neighbors and friends, and when they came to her house she would dish some sofki (a native dish made from corn) into an earthen bowl and they would drink it. They found it delicious, but did not know where she got the stuff of which to make it. Finally they noticed that she washed her feet in water and rubbed them, whereupon what came from her feet was corn. She said to them, "You may not like to eat from me in this way, so build a corncrib, put me inside and fasten the door. Don't disturb me, but keep me there for four days, and at the end of the fourth day you can let me out." They did so, and while she was there they heard a great rumbling like distant thunder, but they did not know what it meant. On the fourth day they opened the door as directed and she came out. Then they found that the crib was

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well stocked with corn. There was corn for making bread, hard flint corn for making sofki, and other kinds. She instructed them how to plant grains of corn from what she had produced. They did so, the corn grow and reproduced and they have had corn ever since. (Told by Jackson Lewis.)

Footnotes

9:1 See Story 7