The Eagle and the Baby

THE EAGLE AND THE BABY ¹⁷

A man and woman were married. Their goats increased. The man said to his wife, "Shall we move out of the pueblo so that we can care for a bigger herd of goats?" She agreed and they moved out to the east, along the river. After lambing time they put the little kids in their corral, and their son drove the mothers out to pasture on the mountain close by. While the family were busy in the house and the kids were playing alone in the corral, there was a noise. They ran out and saw that an eagle had taken a kid and had flown away with it. So the eagle carried off the kid. When they had forgotten about this, one day the mother missed the baby. He had crept out of the house. The eagle was hungry for meat and he saw the baby. He flew down and caught him in his claws. The mother heard a noise. She had not missed the child but she saw him in the eagle's claws high up in the air. The mother watched which way the eagle was flying, and followed running until she saw where he had gone. Then she returned. She called her husband to rouse the pueblo, and the people gave chase in the direction that the eagle had taken. They discovered the nest and heard the baby crying. The nest was on a ledge on the cliff high up. The husband made proclamation that he would pay anything he asked to anyone who brought the baby down. They had brought a long rope of soap-weed fiber and they promised the father of the baby that the next day they would climb to the top of the cliff and swing the rope to the ledge if the baby was alive. Early before sunrise the parents of the baby came to the top of the cliff; they could hear the baby still crying. All night they had not slept; they had prayed our Mother that they might get the baby down alive or dead. The people got there. They tied one man with the rope around the legs and waist and made a kind of basket to support him. They could hear the baby still crying. They stationed men along the cliff's edge to chase the eagles away with sticks if they returned while they were robbing the nest. The mother was crying that they might get the baby back alive. The man that they had let down over the face of the cliff got near and saw the baby playing in the nest; he had not been hurt or scratched. This is

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the way the baby was recovered. He gave him to the mother. The parents were very happy, and they sold their goats and returned to the pueblo where they would be safe. The man who rescued the baby would not take any payment.

The baby grew up and became a great man. He discovered many gold mines and things that brought wealth to his people. Whenever he found a gold mine, he turned it all over to the pueblo to be carried to the treasuries of Mexico and given to Montezuma and his family. Therefore Mexico used to have much gold, because it was taken to them from these mines.

Footnotes

117:17 Informant 1. Notes, p. 235.