The Girl and the Grasshoppers

THE GIRL AND THE GRASSHOPPERS ¹⁰

Payatamu was playing his pipe in his squash meadow. Yellow Woman had a meadow of squashes also. She was watching her field when a grasshopper came along singing. The girl thought it was a pretty song. "Will you sing for me?" she asked. "I think it is a very pretty song." "What will you pay?" "You can go into my squash meadow and eat all you want. If I learn your song I can sing it to myself while I am watching my meadow." So he sang for Yellow Woman and got permission to eat all he wanted. But instead of eating just by himself, he called all the rest of the grasshoppers

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to eat what they wanted. They ate it all up. Yellow Woman began to cry and said, "I didn't say to eat it all up. I only invited you to eat by yourself. I told you to sing a song for me and in return I said you could eat what you wanted." She went and told her father and mother that the grasshopper had eaten up all her field. They came at once to see, and the girl got a good whipping. They took all her clothes off and drove her away.

She went off crying. She heard somebody playing a pipe. It was Payatamu. When she, came closer she heard the song--

I have squash vines,
Squashes! Look well at them.

When the girl came to the meadow she called, "Hello." He was on top of his shelter and he called to her, "Why are you naked? Why do you go around like that?" "It's because my father and mother drove me away. A grasshopper came to my squash vines and sang a song. I thought it was pretty and I told him to sing it again and I would pay him with my squashes. They ate them all up. That is why they beat me." "Don't worry, I'll dress you." Payatamu. gave a long stick to the girl and said, "Do not feel sorry for me. With that stick, hit me as hard as you can." The first time she did this, a manta came out, and when she did it again a woman's belt. She did it a third time and there was a pair of moccasins, and the fourth time a white manta for her back. She put on her moccasins, next the manta, and then the woman's belt, and last she put the white manta over her shoulders. She said, "All right, thank you. Now everything shall be as you say. I'll go wherever you take me." Payatamu took Yellow Woman home. When they got to his house they went up the ladder. He called to his grandmother, "Here is Yellow Woman." "Bring her in, bring her in. Where did you find her?" "I brought her from one of the field shelters. When I was playing my pipes she came to my hut. She was naked and I dressed her. She told me that she would go with me to my house." The grandmother took her in gladly and they all lived together.

Footnotes

118:10 Informant 2. Notes, p. 237.