The Two Brothers Recover Their Sister From the Witches

THE TWO BROTHERS RECOVER THEIR SISTER FROM THE WITCHES ¹⁰

Two brothers lived with their sister. The people wanted her to marry but she would not. She said, "My two brothers take care of me. I do not need a husband." She went down to the river for water. Boys were playing ball. As she came back with her jar full of water, the ball hit her on the chest and she fell down dead. The jar broke and the people went to her two brothers and said, "Your sister was killed on the way to fill her water jar."

The two brothers took her to their house. They kept her there over night and mourned for her. Next day they said, "What can we do? We shall have to bury our little sister. She can not come alive any more. She is dead." They buried her, and her two brothers stayed by the grave and guarded it. At night everyone in the village was asleep but the two brothers watched. They heard talking down in the corner by the church and four men came into the graveyard. The two brothers did not move or speak. The men dug up the grave and took the body out. They carried it to the other side of the arroyo and the two brothers followed behind. "We will follow them and see what they are going to do with our sister."

In a distance they saw a light shining out of a hole in the ground. The men carried the girl into this hole. It was the house of the witches. They laid her down in the center of the room. The two brothers listened outside. "We will see what they are going to do." Inside the room they unwrapped the blanket from around the body and they mocked, "Now your brothers are far away. They don't know anything about you and they can not help you." The witches brought her to life again. She sat up and cried for her brothers. The witch men mocked her and said, "Who will save you? Your brothers are far away." They seized her and were about to have intercourse with her. She cried out, "My brothers, dear brothers, help me!" Just then her brothers burst into the room. The witches fell back and left the girl standing alone in the center of the room. She embraced her brothers.

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"Take me back home with you." The two brothers took their sister out and brought her back home. She was alive during the night and slept during the day.

VARIANT ²⁵

The cacique had a daughter. As soon as she could talk she told her father and mother, "I never want to marry." As she grew up to be a little girl, she told her father and mother, "I never want to marry." When she was a young maiden she said, "I never want to marry." When she was of marriageable age many suitors came to ask for her, but she told them, "I will not marry. Do not have hard feelings against me." Valuable boys, good looking men, rich and of good reputation came to ask for her but she told them all the same thing.

At last a witch boy came to ask her. She said, "I will not marry; do not have hard feelings." He was angry. He asked the rest of the witches to help him bring trouble upon her. He said to them, "How shall I make this girl marry me, or how shall I hurt her in some way? Shall I find some love medicine that will make her marry me?" But they did not like the plan because if the girl was not willing and was compelled (by magic) she might later not take care of him as he would like.

One of them was related to the girl and knew her habits. He said, "That girl goes for water at a certain hour and at that time let the boys be playing shinny." The witch boy agreed, and they planned a game of shinny. They all agreed to play, and the boy who had suggested it agreed to find out just which hour the girl went to the creek. That evening the boys were ready to start the game of shinny. They were hitting the ball back and forth practicing and they saw the girl coming with her water jar. As the girl came near them the boys took the same road, hitting the ball back and forth across the road. The ball struck the girl. She was poisoned by the ball. She got always worse. At last she died. When she was buried the young men in the witch society planned to dig her body out. They took the body back to the cave where they had their meetings. The head witch prayed for power to bring the girl back to life. He sang. At last she moved. She stood up. Those who were there made her sit in the middle of the circle and mocked her, "When you were well and strong you had many good lovers and they asked you to marry. You always refused. You were put on this earth for this reason that you should take a partner for life. This is why you were born a girl. You were not put here to be single all your life. This time see if you refuse!"

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Her brothers had been watching her grave. They had seen the witches robbing it. They hid and followed secretly behind. They came to the meeting place of the witches. They entered. The head witch told the witch boy to take her as his wife. He said the girl would not come back to earth but would live underground (i. e., in the witches' cave). The brothers were listening. They heard their sister cry. The brothers said, "What shall we do now for our sister? Let us be men and go down and take our poor sister from them. There is nothing else we can do." The witches heard voices outside and they listened. One said, "Perhaps somebody is watching us." The brothers stood their ground like men and had courage to go down into the cave and rescue. their sister. The witches that escaped came back to the earth, but most of them were killed underground. Those that escaped died soon afterwards, one after the other.

The brothers brought their sister back to her home and told her mother and father that they were the ones who had dug up her grave because they heard her crying there. They did not tell them of the witches. The girl lived a long time. She married. She did as the head witch had told her; she took a partner. She was fortunate and had a good husband, not a witch, and they lived happily. She had two boys and two girls. As she grew old and was called by our Mother, in the last hours of her life she told what had happened to her among the witches. She made confession. In her last hours after confession she told her girl friends that they should all marry; they were put into this world to have partners. If any suitable boy should ask them, they must take him and not refuse. That is our custom here.

Footnotes

99:10 Informant 2. Notes, pp. 227, 233.

100:25 Informants 3 and 4.