The Industrious Daughter Who Would Not Marry

THE INDUSTRIOUS DAUGHTER WHO WOULD NOT MARRY ¹⁴

An old woman and an old man were living in the village and they had an only daughter. They were very poor. When the girl grew up and began to think she said to herself, "What shall I do to take care of my father and mother? I will pick up cotton that has been thrown away." When she had picked up the scraps she combed them, spun them, and rolled the yarn into a ball. When she had enough she knit footless stockings. She made a pair. She told her father and mother, "Look at the pair of stockings I made. I worked hard to make them and I think it will help us."

Then she said to herself, "Next I'll try to make openwork stockings" (such as women wear for the deer dance; now made of twine). She picked up more scraps of cotton. She made a pair of openwork stockings. She hung them on the clothes pole and called her father and mother to see what she had made. They came and they were very happy over what she had learned to make.

Then she said, "Now I will try to make a big white manta." She went out again and picked up more scraps of cotton and brought them into the house. She combed them and spun them and wound the yarn into balls. She threaded her loom and began to weave. Her father and mother were very happy to see her weaving this white manta. When she had finished she said, "Now I will embroider it with all different colors." She dyed her yarn, and she took the white manta and sat by the window. She embroidered it. By this time she had grown to be a large, handsome girl. He young men came to talk to her while she was embroidering. They asked her to marry them, but she would not. She said, "I take care of my father and mother and myself." She cared nothing for any of them. All the time she kept on embroidering the manta. When it was all embroidered she took it to her father and mother and said, "Here is the white manta. I have embroidered it all and I have finished it." Her mother took it and hung it over the clothes pole.

"Now I will make a white ball-fringed sash," she said. She laid the threads (horizontally) and she began weaving. While she was working the boys would come to the window and watch, but she paid no attention. When she had finished, she took it to her father and mother. Her mother hung it along the pole.

"Now I will make a small white manta (dancer's sash)," she said. She threaded her loom and she wove it, and then she embroidered

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one end of it. She said, "Now this will be excellent." She embroidered the other end. She finished it. Her mother hung it over the pole. Her father and mother were very happy over all that she had done (of her own initiative).

She gathered up more scraps of cotton. She said, "I am going to make a belt." She went out to get plants to use in dyeing the yarn yellow. She saved urine in a very large jar. When it was full she dipped some out into a bowl. She took bluestone and pounded it up and wet it with the urine and poured it into the big jar. She threw the yarn into the big jar and left it there all that night and the next day. The third day she took it out and it was blue as blue could be. She took the yellow dye plants and she boiled them with water and dipped in the yarn. She said to her father, "Shall I take them all out? For I might make the belt only of blue and yellow." Her father said, "Yes; when you take the yarn out hang it over a rafter end and in the lower loops put the grinding arm (rubbing stone) so the yarn will dry straight. Then when you die they will not stretch you out like that." She dyed yarn red also and she wove, her belt and finished it. "When you finish the belt stretch it well, so they wont stretch you when you die," her father told her. So this is the advice they give to all Indian girls when they weave.

The girl said to her father and mother, "Now go out and sell what I have made. Perhaps people will like to buy them." So each took up the things she had woven and went out to sell them. They got home. Their daughter was spinning cotton. She said, "Did you have good luck?" "Yes; we sold them all." When she had spun all the cotton she began to thread the loom. She was going to make another white manta, but bigger than the first. She kept on weaving more, and more garments and the people in all the village come to her house to buy whatever they wanted. The young men came to buy ball-fringed sashes and the small embroidered mantas.

At last everybody in the pueblo had a complete dancing costume of his own. Then they said, "Let us have a great dance before her house and see which of us she will choose to dance with." So they made preparation. They dressed for the dance and they came near her house. She was sitting in the door embroidering a white manta. They began to dance. She said, "Why do you think I am the only girl in the village? You are all calling me." She didn't even lift her head. She didn't look at all and the dance ended, and they went off. She finished embroidering the manta and gave it to her mother and she hung it over the pole. They sat by the fireplace, and her father said, "Rest yourself, my daughter." "I can't help

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working. I like to keep on always." Even as she was sitting there she was pulling the cotton apart. She heard the noise of the rattles coming again. She said, "They're coming again! They make a great noise!" It was the rainbow dance. She didn't even look at the dancers, but kept on pulling the cotton apart. Some of the dancers came to the house and said, "We are surprised that you don't even care to look up when we dance." They went home. She didn't go outside her house at all. She worked all the time.

Next day the young men began to come to ask her to marry them. Each of them brought a large manta and a small manta and a belt, but she would not take them. "Thank you, I make those myself. I know how to make whatever I want." "What can we do to make her marry us?" they said. At last they said, "Let us all draw pretty things in our houses (on the walls)." All the young men were busy painting rainbows all over their houses, some on the walls of their houses and some on the ladders. Some made little stone birds and set them on both sides of the rungs of the ladders and painted them in all colors. Next day it was time for her to come into the village and they were to take her into each house and see which she liked best. She went through all the village, but she didn't care for rainbows or birds or sunflowers. She said, "Anyhow I take care of myself. I don't need anything more. I take care of my father and mother and stay where I am."

The young men said, "Let's try and see if we can raise lots of corn." They were to pile theirs up on top of their roofs in piles of all the different colors, blue, white, red, dark red, and yellow and all colors. The young men piled the corn on the roofs; there were great piles of all colors of corn. As she came over to see it, the young men all trembled to see which she would choose. But she didn't care for any corn. "I tell you boys, I never want to marry. I make my own clothing and I live very well." The boys said, "We won't court her any more for she doesn't care for young men."

Coyote heard of this and said, "She shall see. She'll have to go with me. I shall offer her nothing at all, but she will belong to me. I shall go to the mountains" (to fetch a black currant branch, epu').

He went to his house and he took his white buckskin moccasins, the skunk skin to tie around his ankles, the openwork stockings, the small white manta for his kilt and white and red yarn to tie around his arms and his white shell beads, and his abalone shell, and his paint pot, and his long parrot-tail feathers and his short parrot-tail feathers, and his downy feathers, and his gourd rattle. He did

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them all up in a bundle and started off. As he went he came to the place where the black currants grow. ¹⁵ He took some and said, "Come along, Payatamu. ¹⁶"

He came to the village where the girl lived, but he went to another house. He said, "Hello," but no one answered for nobody was in that house. He went into the inner room and laid down his bundle. "Now come, Payatamu!" He stamped four times rapidly with his foot, and drew on his white buckskin moccasins. He looked down at his feet. "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty," he said. He stamped four times and he put on his lace stockings and he said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He stamped four times and put the skunk skin around his ankles and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took the wool yarn, he stamped four times and tied it around and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took his white manta shirt and he stamped four times and drew it on and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took his white dance sash, and he stamped four times and tied it around him and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took the wool strings, and stamped four times and tied them and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took the white shell beads and stamped four times and fastened them around his neck, and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." Then he took his abalone shell and stamped four times and fastened it on, and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took the black shiny paint and stamped four times, and put it over his cheeks, and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took the downy feathers and stamped four times and put them in his hair, and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He took the long parrot tail feathers, and the short parrot tail feathers, and he stamped four times and fastened them on, and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." He stamped again and took up his gourd rattle in his right hand and said, "Do I look pretty? Yes, I look pretty." When he was all dressed he said, "Come, Payatamu, see if I can get that girl. I shall not dance before her house, but in the center of Little Plaza." Before he went out he went over and picked up his bunch of black currants in his left hand.

He went into the center of Little Plaza and began to dance. When they heard the sound of the rattle, everybody looked out and there they saw a boy dancing. The girl heard somebody singing and she threw down the white manta she was embroidering and went out. She said, "What a fine looking boy! I have never seen him before; [paragraph continues]

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I wonder who he is." She came into the Center of Little Plaza. She said to herself, "He has a bunch of black currants in his left hand; I am very fond of them." Then she said to him, "Give me the black currant branch, I like them very much. Let me take you to my house." The boys of the village heard her and they said, "What a dirty, miserable girl you are! Why will you take such a little bit of black currants as that and let him come and sleep with you? We have offered you much more than that, but you would not look at anything we brought." The girl went right on and brought the dancer to her house. She called to her father and mother, "Here comes in Payatamu." Her mother exclaimed, "Oh, my dear daughter! What a mischief you have done!" "My dear mother, he has a branch of great black currants. You know how I like black currants and it is a long time since I have eaten any."

Payatamu stayed the, night with her and slept with her. He had intercourse with her. At last she was about to have a child. She gave birth to little coyotes. She was a fine looking girl, but no one in the village cared about her looks then.

Coyote said to the girl's father and mother, "I shall take my wife and child to my home." They came near to High Bank. There was a big hole there, and Coyote said, "Let me go in first." The mother asked, "How can you go in? It is so small." The father went in first, next the two little coyotes and then the mother peeped down. There inside was a house just as good as her own home. He had as many mantas, and embroidered mantas, and openwork stockings and belts as she had. She went in and they lived there always.

VARIANT ¹⁷

Long ago a girl would not marry. A boy came and brought her a manta, and a belt and moccasins, but she would not take them, for she did not want to marry. So the boy took his bundle and went out. A second boy came and brought her a manta, and a belt and moccasins, but she would not take them because she did not want to marry. So the second boy took his bundle and went out. A third boy came and brought her a manta, and a belt and moccasins, but she would not take them because she did not want to marry. So the third boy took his bundle and went out. Then the fourth boy came and brought her a bundle but she would not take it. And the fourth boy took his bundle and went out.

Coyote was living in White Mountain. He said to himself, "I will go and try to marry her." He dressed himself to dance. He put on his moccasins and his leggings, a dancer's skirt and a woman's

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belt, and a loose-sleeved manta. He tied wool yarn around his wrists, and put long parrot feathers in his hair and shorter ones on top of his head. He hung an abalone shell on his chest. He painted his face red and fastened a turtle-shell rattle on his leg, and took a gourd rattle in his hand. Then he looked at himself to see if he was handsome so that the girl would like him. "I am a handsome boy," he thought. "I shall get the girl; I look nice!" He went to the hill to get kapolin berries and he carried a branch of them in his left hand.

He went to the village, and he came in through the west street to the plaza. The girl called to her father and mother, "There is a beautiful boy ready to dance in the plaza. How I wish that I could get the bunch of kapolin berries which he is carrying. I wonder if he would give them to me. Father, shall I go down and ask him for his bunch of berries?" "Yes; perhaps he will give them to you." She went, the people were laughing at him. "She is running after Coyote," they said. When she got near she said to him, "Boy, give me the kapolin berries?" "Yes." She took them. He said, "Now you are my sweetheart. Wait at your house for me and tell your father and mother that I am coming to-night to marry you."

She married him, and she had two children, and they were half coyote and half human. When they were grown they wanted to go with their father. So when they were big enough to walk to White Mountain he took his two children with him to his home, but their mother had to stay with her people.

VARIANT ¹⁸

Long ago from here somewhere in the north was White House, now there was a town. There somewhere dwelt Yellow Woman. She did not want to marry. She was continually grinding. Now, she never saw a dance. The boys would always go in. She just did not want to marry anyone. Then from there one youth climbed up from the north, but the girl was always grinding. Then he came from the north to the edge (of the hatchway). He made a shadow where she was grinding below. The Yellow Woman saw the shadow. Then the Yellow Woman went out. She saw a youth. "Come in!" said she to the youth. The youth entered. She gave him wafer bread and let him cat. Then the youth ate. He had eaten enough. The youth spoke thus, "I shall go off," said he. "No," said Yellow Woman," stay here for three days." Then he stayed. After three days he spoke thus, "I shall go off," said the youth. "Go on!" said Yellow Woman. "Very well!" said the youth. "You will

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give birth. When you are about to give birth, go from here somewhere. Go out of this town. Somewhere give birth!" Now, when she was about to give birth, she went from there. Now, somewhere she gave birth to three blue coyotes. Then that youth came again. He had great supernatural power. Yellow Woman took care of her coyote children and the youth also (took care of them). From that Yellow Woman were derived the blue coyotes.

Footnotes

79:14 Informant 2. Notes, p. 226.

82:15 Kapolin berries, used ceremonially in Mexico.

82:16 "Youth."

83:17 Informant 1.

84:18 Recorded in text by Franz Boas. Informant 8.