Locust Boy

LOCUST BOY 17

There was a daughter of a cacique who did not want to marry. The young men brought moccasins, belts and mantas, but she did not want them. Every night the young men met to make plans to win her, but they could not. They told Biliiwai'ya (locust? "bald-headed ugly little underground bug"), "It is your turn to ask the girl to marry you." He said, "What is the use of my going? You look so much better; I'm bald."

But he went to the girl's house to try to get her to marry him. He made a wig and cut the bangs like an Indian's, so that he would look nice. Now he was a handsome boy. The boys were all laughing to see him go to ask the girl to marry him.

She got up, for she liked this boy and thought that he was handsome. She married him. Every night he went to her house and slept with her. When she was sound asleep he would take his wig off. At last one night his wife woke up. She looked at her husband. He was bald and the wig was lying by his side. She was horrified, he was so ugly. She thought, "What kind of husband I have!" She went off up the ladder. He heard his wife go out and he ran after her. He was ashamed of his baldness.

The girl was pregnant and when her children were born they were like locusts; there were six of them. That is how she was punished because she was not willing to marry.