The Story of Corn and Tobacco

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THE STORY OF CORN AND TOBACCO ¹

THERE was a powerful mahkai who had a daughter, who, tho old enuf, was unmarried, and who grew tired of her single life and asked her father to bury her, saying, we will see then if the men will care for me.

And from her grave grew the plant tobacco, and her father took it and smoked it and when the people who were gathered together smelled it they wondered what it was, and sent Toehahvs to find out.

But, altho the tobacco still grew, the woman came to life again and came out of her grave back to her home.

And one day she played gainskoot with Corn, and Corn beat her, and won all she had. But she gave some little things she did not care for to Corn, and the rest of her debt she did not pay, and they quarreled.

She told Corn to go away, saying; "Nobody cares for you, now, but they care a great deal for me, and the doctors use me to make rain, and when they have moistened the ground is the only time you can come out."

And the Corn said: "You don't know how much the people like me; the old as well as the young eat me, and I don't think there is a person that

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does not like me." And Corn told Tobacco to go away herself.

There were people there who heard them quarreling, and tho Tobacco staid on, whenever she would be in a house and hear people laughing she would think they were laughing at her. And she became very sad, and one day sank down in her house and went westward and came to a house there.

And the person who lived there told her where to sleep, saying, "Many people stop here, and that is where they sleep."

But she said: "I am travelling, and no one knows where I am, and if any one follows me, and comes here, you tell them that you saw me, that I left very early in the morning and you do not know which way I went." And she told him that she did not know herself which way she would go, and at night, when she went to bed, she brought a strong wind, and when she wanted to leave she sank down and went westward, and the wind blew away all her tracks.

And she came to the Mohaves and lived there in a high mountain, Cheof Toe-ahk, or tall mountain, which has a cliff very hard to climb, but Tobacco stood up there.

And after Tobacco had gone, Corn remained, but when corn-planting time came none was planted, because there was no rain. And so it went on-all summer, and people began to say: "It is so, when Tobacco was here, we had plenty of

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rain, and now we have not any, and she must have had wonderful power."

And the people scolded Corn for sending Tobacco away, and told him to go away himself, and then they sent for Tobacco to come back, that they might have rain again.

And Corn left, going toward the east, singing all the way, taking Pumpkin with him, who was singing too, saying they were going where there was plenty of moisture.

And the next year there was no water, and a powerful doctor, Gee-hee-sop, took the Doctor's Stone of Light, and the Doctor's Square Stone, and some soft feathers, and eagle's-tail feathers, and went to where Tobacco lived, asking her to come back, saying "We are all suffering for water, and we know you have power to make it rain, And every seed buried in the ground is begging for water, and likely to be burned up, and every tree is suffering, and I want you to come."

Then Tobacco said: "What has become of Corn? He is still with you, and corn is what you ought to eat, and everybody likes it, but nobody cares for me, except perhaps some old man who likes to smoke me, and I do not want to go back, and I am not going!"

But Geeheesop said: "Corn is not there now, he has gone away, and we do not know where he is." And again he asked Tobacco to come back but she refused, but gave him four balls of tobacco seed and said to him: "Take these

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home with you, and take the dirt of the tobacco-worm, and roll it up, and put it in a cane-tube and smoke it all around, and you will have rain, and then plant the seed, and in four days it will come up; and when you get the leaves, smoke them, and cell on the winds, and you will have clouds and plenty of rain."

So Geeheesop went home with the seed balls, and tobacco-worm dirt, and did as Tobacco had told him; and the smoking of the dirt brought rain, and the seeds were planted in a secret place, and in four days came up, and grew for a while, but finally were about to die for want of rain.

Then Geeheesop got some of the leaves and smoked them, and the wind blew, and rain came, and the plants revived and grew till they were ripe.

When the tobacco was ripe Geeheesop gathered a lot of the leaves and filled with them one of the gourd-like nests which the woodpecker, koh-daht, makes in the har-san, or giant-cactus, and then took a few of these and put them in a cane-tube pipe, or watch-kee, and went to where the people gathered in the evening.

And the doctor who was the father of Tobacco said: "What is this I smell? There is something new here!"

And one said, "Perhaps it is some greens that I ate today that you smell," and he breathed toward him.

But the mahkai said, "That is not it"

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And others breathed toward him, but he could not smell it.

Then Geeheesop rolled a coal toward himself, and lit up his pipe, and the doctor said: "This is what I smelled!"

And Geeheesop, after smoking a few whiffs, passed the pipe around to the others, and all smoked it, and when it came back to him he stuck it in the ground.

And the next night he came with a new pipe to the place of meeting, but the father of Tobacco said: "Last night I had a smoke, but I did not feel good after it."

And all the others said: "Why we smoked and enjoyed it."

But the man who had eaten the greens kah-tee-kum, the day before, said: "He does not mean that he did not enjoy the smoke, but something else troubled him after it, and I think it was that when we passed the pipe around we did not say 'My relatives,' 'brother,' or 'cousin,' or whatever it was, but passed it quietly without using any names."

And Tobacco's father said "Yes, that is what I mean."

(And from that time on all the Pimas smoked that way when they came together, using a cane-tube pipe, or making a long cigarette of cornhusk and tobacco, and passing it around among relatives.)

So Geeheesop lit his pipe and passed it around

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in the way to satisfy the doctor.

And the people saved the seeds of that tobacco, and to day it is all over the land.

And the Corn and the Pumpkin had gone east, and for many years they lived there, and the people they had left had no corn, and no pumpkins; but after a while they returned of themselves, and came first to the mountain Tahtkum, and lived there a while, and then crossed the river and lived near Blackwater, at the place called Toeahk-Comalk, or White Thin Mountain, and from there went and lived awhile at Gahkotekih or, as it is now called, Superstition Mountain.

While they lived at Gahkotekih there was a woman living near there at a place called kawt-kee oy-ee-duck who, with her younger brother, went to Gahkotekih to gather and roast the white cactus, and while they were doing this Corn saw them from the mountain and came down.

And the boy saw him and said: "I think that is my uncle coming," but his sister said," It cannot be, for he is far away. If he were here the people would not be starving as now."

But the boy was right, it was his uncle, and Corn came to them and staid with them while the cactus was baking. And after awhile, as he sat aside, he would shoot an arrow up in the air, and it would fall whirling where the cooking was, and he would go and pick it up.

Finally he said to the woman: "Would you

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not better uncover the corn and see if it is cooked yet?" And she said: "It is not corn, it is cactus."

Again, after a while, he said: "Would you not better uncover the pumpkin and see if it is done?" And she replied: "it is not pumpkin, we are baking, it is cactus." But finally he said "Well, uncover it anyway," and she uncovered it, and there were corn and pumpkin there, together, all nicely mixed and cooked, and she sat staring at it, and he told her to uncover it more, and she did so and ate some of it.

And then he asked about the Tobacco woman, if she were married yet, and she said, "No, she is not married, but she is back with us again, now."

Then he asked her to send the little boy ahead and tell the people that Corn was coming to live with them again. But first the little boy was to go to the doctor who was the father of Tobacco, and see if he and his daughter wanted Corn to return. If they did he would come, and if they did not he would stay away. And he wanted the boy to come right back and tell what answer he got.

So the little boy went, and took some corn with him to the doctor, and said: "Corn sent me, and he wants your daughter, and he wants to know if you want him. If you do he will return, but if you do not he will turn back again.

And he wants me to bring him word what you say."

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And the mahkai said "I have nothing to say against him. I guess he knows the people want corn. Go and tell him to come."

And Corn said: "Go back to the doctor and tell him to make a little kee, as quick as he can, and to get the people to help him, and to cover it with mats instead of bushes, and to let Tobacco go there and stay there till I come.

And tell all the people to sweep their houses, and around their houses, and if anything in their houses is broken, such as pots, vahs-shroms, to turn them right side up. For I am coming back openly; there will be no secret about it."

So the little boy went back and told the doctor all that Corn had told him to say, and the doctor and the people built the kee, and Tobacco went there, and the people swept their houses and around them as they were told.

And before sunset the woman came home with the corn and pumpkins she had cooked at the mountain, but Corn staid out till it was evening.

And when evening came there was a black cloud where Corn stood, and soon it began to rain corn, and every little while a big pumpkin would come down, bump. And it rained corn and pumpkins all night, while Corn and his bride were in their kee, and in the morning the people went out and gathered up the corn from the swept place around their houses.

And so Corn and Pumpkin came back again.

The people gathered up all the corn around

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their houses, and all their vessels, even their broken ones, which they had turned up, were full, and their houses were soon packed full of corn and pumpkins.

So Corn lived there with his wife, and after a while Tobacco had a baby, and it was a little crooked-necked pumpkin, such as the Pimas call a dog-pumpkin.

And when the child had grown a little, one day its father and mother went out to work in the garden, and they put the little pumpkin baby behind a mat leaning against the wall. And some children, coming in, found it there, and began to play with it for a doll, carrying it on their backs as they do their dolls. And finally they dropped it and broke its neck.

And when Corn came back and found his baby was broken he was angry, and left his wife, and went east again, and staid there awhile, and then bethought him of his pets, the blackbirds, which he had left behind, and came back to his wife again.

But after awhile he again went east, taking his pets with him, scattering grains of corn so that the blackbirds would follow him.

Corn made this speech while he was in the kee with Tobacco:

In the East there is the Tonedum Vahahkkee, the Vahahkkee of Light, where lives the great doctor, the king fisher.

And I came to Bives-chool, the king fisher,

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and asked him for power, and he heard me asking, and flew up on his kee, and looked toward the West, and breathed the light four times, and flew and breathed again four times, and so on--flying four times and breathing after each flight four times, and then he sat over a place in the ground that was cut open.

And in the West there was a Bluebird, and when I asked him for power he flew up on his kee, and breathed four times, and then flow toward the East, and he and Biveschool met at the middle of the earth.

And Biveschool asked the Bluebird to do some great thing to show his power, and the Bluebird took the blue grains of corn from his breast and then planted them, and they grew up into beautiful tall corn, so tall its tops touched the sky and its leaves bowed over and scratched the ground in the wind.

And Biveschool took white seeds from his breast, and planted them, and they came up, and were beautiful to be seen, and came to bear fruit that lay one after another on the vine--these were pumpkins.

And the beautiful boys ran around among these plants, and learned to shout and learned to whistle, and the beautiful girls ran around among these plants and learned to whistle.

And the relatives heard of these good years, and the plenty to eat, and there came a relative leading her child by the hand, who said: "We

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will go right on, for our relatives must have plenty to eat, and we shall not always suffer with hunger.

So these came, but did not eat it all, but returned.

So my relatives, think of this, that we shall not suffer with hunger always."

And Corn made another speech at that time to Tobacco's father:

"Doctor! Doctor! have you seen that this earth that you have made is burning! The mountains are crumbling, and all kinds of trees are burning down.

And the people over the land which you have made run around, and have forgotten how to shout, and have forgotten how to walk, since the ground is so hot and burning.

And the birds which you have made have forgotten how to fly, and have forgotten how to sing.

And when you found this out you held up the long pinion feathers, mah-cheev-a-duck, toward the East, and there came the long clouds one after the other.

And there in those clouds there were low thunderings, and they spread over the earth, and watered all the plants, and the roots of all the trees; and everything was different from what it had been.

Every low place and every valley was crooked, but the force of the waters straightened them out, and there was driftwood on all the

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shores: and after it was over every low place and every valley had foam in its mouth.

And in the mouth stood the Doctor, and took the grains from his breast, and planted them, and the corn grew and was beautiful. And he went on further, to another low valley, and planted other seeds, and the pumpkin grew and was beautiful.

And its vine to the West was black and zigzag in form, and to the South was blue and zigzag in form, and to the East was white and zigzag in form, and to the North was yellow and zigzag in form.

So everything came up, and there was plenty to eat, and the people gathered it up, and the young boys and girls ate and were happy, and the old men and the old women ate and lengthened even their few days.

So think of this, my relatives, and know that we are not to suffer with hunger always."

And the Dog-Pumpkin Baby lay there broken, after Corn went away, but after awhile sank down and went to Gahkotekih, and grew up there, and became the Harsan or Giant Cactus.

And the mother and grandfather could not find the Dog-Pumpkin Baby, and called the people together, and Toehahvs was asked to find it, and he smelled around where it had been, and went around in circles.

And he came to where the Giant Cactus was and thought it was the baby, but was not sure,

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and so came back, and told them he could not find it.

And they wanted Nooee to go, and Toehahvs said to Nooee: "I did see something, but I was not quite sure, but I want you to examine that Giant Cactus."

So Nooee flew around and around and examined the Giant Cactus and came back, and when the people questioned him said: "I have found it and it is already full-grown, and I tell you I think something good will happen to us because of it."

And when the Cactus had fruit the people gathered it, and made tis-win, and took the seeds and spread them out in the sun.

And the Badger stole these seeds, and when the people knew it they sent Toehahvs after the thief.

And Toehahvs went and saw Badger ahead of him in the road, and saw him go out and around and come into the road again and come toward him.

And when they met, Toehahvs asked him what he had in his hand. And Badger said "I have something, but I'm not going to show you!"

Then Toehahvs said: "If you'll only just open your hand, so I can see, I'll be satisfied."

And Badger opened his hand, and Toehahvs hit it a slap from below, and knocked the seeds all around, and that is why the giant cactus is now so scattered.

Footnotes

217:1 Read before the Anthropological Society of Philadelphia, May 11, 1904.