Corncob Boy Marries Deer Planter's Daughters

CORNCOB BOY MARRIES DEER PLANTER'S DAUGHTERS ¹⁹

Corncob Boy went away; when he was gone there was no water or rain in the village. Everybody was starving, and nobody in

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the village cared any more to show off their stores of food for they were just painted stone. They threw them all away. So Corncob Boy won the two girls, but nobody knew where he had gone for four years. He had told his wives, "Whenever anybody of the village comes, starving, give him corn, muskmelons, and pumpkins, and let him drink from the spring. Don't be stingy, but help all who live in the village."

He went northwest and he took with him a few grains of seed corn. He met two girls going to get water, and he called, "Hello." "Hello! where are you coming from?" They asked him to come to their house. Their father was Heluta. When they came to their father's house, the girls called, "There enters Corncob Boy." The father and mother asked them, "Where did you meet him?" "At the river when we were getting water." They asked him to sit, and he sat down. Heluta said, "Bring food and give him something to eat." They brought lots of stew in a round stone bowl and said to him, "Eat."

Corncob Boy married these girls. One day Heluta said, "Come down to the field and see my planting." When he got there he could not see any plants. He leaned over and brushed the sand aside. There was a deer's head coming up. ²⁰ He planted his kernels of corn. Next day the chief went down to see his plants. The antlers of one of his deer were broken off. He told Corncob Boy, "Don't do that any more, it spoils my deer." Next day he went down to see Corncob Boy's plants. He swept off the sand and knocked off the heads of the seedlings. Next day Corncob Boy went down to see his plants. He said, "Don't do that any more; it spoils my plants." In a few days he went again. The plants of deer, antelope, and elk were waist high. Those of Corncob Boy had grown too. He had hoed them to make the corn grow fast. Soon it had kernels. The chief's plants were ripening too; they were getting antlers. The people in that village had never seen corn; this was the first.

He told the two girls, "That is what my people plant. I will show you how to grind." When the corn was dry, he showed them how to shelf and grind it. When they had finished he got a big bowl and filled it with water and put it over the fire. The girls watched him. He put the flour in and let it boil a little. Then he took a stirring stick and said, "Watch me." He stirred till it was thick. Pretty soon he had made some cornmeal balls. He brought a basket and he put them in. He set it in the middle of the floor for them to eat. They all sat around. They did not know how to eat them. Corncob Boy asked, "Doesn't it taste good?" They tasted it but they did not like it. They tasted it again and they liked it better, and

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at last they liked it very much. So they learned how to make them. Afterwards they always ground corn and made cornmeal balls.

Corncob Boy stayed four years. One wife had a child. By this time his wives knew how to make corn tortillas and all we make now. It was time for Corncob Boy to go home. He told his father-in-law, "I must go. I must return to my home. My baby will stay with you and he will be a little chief of this village."

Corncob Boy said goodby and came back. When he got to his home, clouds were already beginning to spread out. He got home and said to his wife, "We will leave this house and go south." The mother took her baby out of the cradle, and his two wives went with him and came to the House of Yellow Woman. They went into the cave and took their turkeys with them.

Footnotes

60:19 Informant 1. The first incidents of this story parallel the version above and are omitted here. The hero was named as Poker Boy In the omitted portion of the tale. Notes, p. 218.

61:20 See pp. 11, 251. The narrator referred to the Deer Planter as Ganadyani also.