''Where the Giant is Shut Up''

"WHERE THE GIANT IS SHUT UP" ⁹

The people were living at Tiputse (across the river). There were many children growing up in the pueblo and the witch people did not like this. They held a council and made plans to kill them. A young girl had married into a witch family, and the witch council chose her husband to be made into a witch giant and come and kill the children. The girl knew nothing of this; she did not know he belonged to a witch family. Next day her husband became sick and very soon he died. They took him out of the village as if to bury him, and there they transformed him into a giant.

In a few days at midday a giant came down to Tiputse. He caught one of the children and threw it into his carrying basket and ate it. At last there were no children left in the village, and they held a council to ask our Mother to help them to create a good giant to rid them of the one that was eating their children.

They called the men of the Giant Society to pray and sing and create the good giant. They put one grain of white corn in front of the altar and they covered it with a white manta. They sat before it and sang all their songs and gave sacred meal. The grain of corn moved under the manta; at last they could see the shape of the being under the manta. He came alive. He rose to his feet. It was our Mother who had sent a giant to help our people. He said to them, "Why is it that our Mother has created me to help you?" "There is no reason except that our children are all being eaten by a giant. Our Mother does not know this giant and we have asked her help against him. That is why you are created giant." "If that is why I am created I accept my part and I will do what you have asked for."

The next day toward midday the witch giant came down toward the village. He was singing:

Where (is a child)?
Where (is a child)?

The other giant heard him inside the room before the altar.

He answered him:

Here (it is)
Here (it is).

p. 18

The witch giant called:

Who Is mocking me?
Who is mocking me?

The other answered:

I am the one,
I am the one.

The witch giant was angry and he challenged him. He sang:

Now we shall see each other (see which is stronger).
Now we shall see each other.

The other answered:

Yes; now we shall see each other,
Now we shall see each other.

The witch giant entered the village and the medicine men took sacred meal and made a road for the good giant and led him out of the ceremonial room. The witch giant said, So you are the one who has mocked me?" The other answered, Yes; I am the one." "By whose power were you created? You are mocking me but I have the same right as you." "Nobody knows where you were created. No medicine men made you. You were created to eat up the little children. I was made by the medicine men of the Giant Society, but not to be dangerous to little children. They asked our Mother for help; therefore I was created." The witch giant said, "We shall see who will overcome the other." "Very well. It is your turn to strike first for you were alive first." "No; you shall strike first." They quarreled. The witch giant had a war club and the other had a long black obsidian knife. The good giant said, "You shall strike me four times, and if you do not kill me it will be my turn to strike." The witch giant raised his club and struck the other. He hit him four times but none of his blows hurt him at all. It was the good giant's turn. He raised his thunder knife, and the first blow slit the other down the middle and killed him. His heart lay exposed, and it was a mass of cactus spines and splinters. The good giant cleaned it and replaced it with a heart of turquoise so that he should not come again to eat the children.

The medicine man made a meal road back to the altar and the good giant followed him, and the Giant Society sang the giant they had made back to our Mother. They thanked her that she had answered their prayers, and they promised never to forget our Mother. They made another road and took the witch giant out to the mouth of the canyon to the north, and they shut him up in the high bank by the river in the cave that is called Where the Giant is shut up. ²²

Footnotes

17:9 Informant 1. Notes, p. 209.

18:22 See p. 19, note  2; p. 212.