The Wife who was Cast Out by her Husband

THE WIFE WHO WAS CAST OUT BY HER HUSBAND ¹⁷

At Fir Tree Pueblo lived a great hunter, but his wife did not pray nor remain continent to help him. The hunter knew this, and he made a plan to punish her. He said to himself, "I think this is the best plan." So one day after he had come back from a hunt, he called his wife to sit beside him. He said, "Sit down." She did so. The hunter asked her, "Are you willing to do whatever I ask you?" "Yes." "All right." He cut off her hair (i. e., so that it no longer showed the characteristic Rio Grande bang) and painted her face, and put an her a buckskin robe. When she was fixed just like a Plains Indian woman, he told her to go for water. She went to get her jar and her husband put it on her back. She returned to the pueblo with her water, and when her husband saw her coming he called out to the people, "A Ute Indian is coming into the pueblo. Pull up your ladders." They all hurried to do this. She got into the pueblo and found no ladders. She could not get into any house. She left the pueblo and went north.

She came to the Place of the Waterfalls and stayed there eight days. As she lay by the waterfalls the spray fell upon her and impregnated her. The eighth day she gave birth to a little boy. She took care of him and he grew fast. His mother made bows and arrows for him. She lay again by the waterfall, and again she had a child on the eighth day, a little girl. She had a great number of children--a boy and a girl, then again a boy and a girl. The eldest grew up and began to make bows and arrows for himself. He went hunting every day to provide for his brothers and sisters. The eldest girl also began to care for the family.

The boys and girls grew up, and the eldest boy and girl married. Each pair of these brothers and sisters married. The men hunted deer and turkeys, and the women cared for the houses. The eldest girl had a child, a boy. All the girls had children. The men hunted deer to get buckskin and the women prepared the meat. The men made many bows and arrows. Their sons grew up and began practicing shooting arrows.

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They asked who their father was, but the mother did not tell. They continued asking but the mother would not tell them until they had plenty of bows and arrows. At last she began to think it was time to tell her children where she came from. She said, "You are strong and healthy and can fight and now I will tell you the story. I was living at the Fir Tree Pueblo and my husband asked me to sit beside him. He, cut my hair in the fashion of the Ute women and put a buckskin robe on me and sent me for water. When I came back he called out to the. people of the pueblo, 'A Ute woman is coming; pull up the ladders.' Therefore I could not enter any house. I came out of the pueblo to the Place of Waterfalls, and you, my eldest son, were, born by the waterfall, and afterwards, all of you, my children. This is what my husband has done to me. It is time now to see who can be the meanest." The boys said, "We shall make war tomorrow on Fir Tree Pueblo." "It is for you to decide, my sons; if you are ready, it is well." "We do not want anyone to remain alive in the Fir Tree Pueblo. We shall destroy it utterly."

Next day all was ready and the sons went on. the war path. They surrounded the pueblo. They called themselves Utes because, of the name that had been given to their mother. The people of the pueblo, did not know that they were surrounded, and by the evening they were all killed. The Utes threw the bodies of the dead, and the pottery, from the tops of the houses into the plaza. Corpses and potsherds were scattered everywhere.

A parrot had been kept as pet in the pueblo. She was frightened and flew into the innermost room and found a safe place. She stayed there till everything was quiet. Then she heard a baby crying and made up her mind to see if all was safe outside. She saw the corpses and the broken pottery, and she went in again. She heard the baby crying again. She found the baby on the cradle board behind the grinding stone. She flew to the cradle and said, "Dear baby, so you and I are left alone of all the pueblo? What shall we do?" She took hold of the cradle by the frame of the hood and dragged it over by the fireplace. The baby was crying. The parrot spoke to it, "Dear baby, let me see if everything is quiet outside." She flew about the plaza and looked down upon it. Everything was still, so she came back to the baby. She remembered that from one of the rooms their mother used to bring out piñon nuts, so she went to find where they were stored. She found them and began to crack the nuts. She took the meats out and chewed them and fed them to the baby. Every time the baby cried she got piñon nuts and took out the meats and

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chewed them and fed them to the baby. The, baby grew, and in a few days began to walk. When she began to make sounds, the parrot taught her to talk. One day the parrot told her to take the water pot and put it on her shoulder. The parrot sat upon the girl's left shoulder and told her which way she should go. Whenever they went out the parrot always sat on the girl's left shoulder and directed her.

As the girl grew older she noticed the heaps in the plaza and asked, "What is that piled outside?" "Things are always piled up in a plaza." The girl said to Mother Parrot, "I am afraid of the things piled up outside." Always she kept saying this. At last the girl said, "I think it is better for us to go away and not live here any more." "Where can we go?" said the parrot, "there is nowhere for us to live and we were left here in this place." But she did not tell why they were left there. The girl said, "I am afraid." Mother Parrot used to look in the deserted houses for bits of cloth for clothing for the girl. She used to tell her stories so that she would not be lonesome.

The girl was grown and she was still always afraid of the heaps in the plaza. Finally Mother Parrot said, "All right, baby girl, we shall join some other pueblo because you don't want to stay here any longer." The parrot told her to put an extra piece of cloth on her left shoulder for her to sit on, so that she could tell her the way to go. The girl and the parrot started off. The parrot sat on her shoulder and said, "Ask me questions and I will answer." The girl said, "Mother Parrot, do not leave me, do not jump off my shoulder." They went down the river and came near Santo Domingo. The parrot said, "Daughter, why not join this pueblo?" "No, not here. It is too near. Maybe some day the man-killers will come again to our pueblo and follow us as far as this. Let us go farther south." They came to San Felipe. The parrot said, "We are quite far off now, why not join here?" "We are not very far yet. Let us go farther." "We are far already. I am afraid you are getting tired with your load." "No, you are not heavy. I am not tired. We. can go farther yet." "All right, we will go farther yet." The girl was glad. Again they started. She said, "I'm not tired and you are not heavy. When we, come to the right pueblo then we will join. I will tell you. I am strong." They went farther south and came to the pueblo of Sandia. As they came near, the girl said, "I think we had better join here. We are farther now." Mother Parrot said, "It is for you to decide. If you are willing, we will make our home here. If they admit us here, we will join them." They asked permission to join that pueblo and live all their lives there. They became Sandia Indians.

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VARIANT: "A LOVER" ⁴

They were living at Potsherd Place. A man was a great hunter, and his wife was tired because he always brought home so many deer for her to prepare. She asked him to go out to the corral with her. She said, "Do you love me?" "Yes." "Stay right where you are." She scared him and he turned into a dog (from the fright). He ran off the tears were running down his cheeks. She said, "Go where you please; be hungry. You won't get anything around here." He went off looking for food.

That evening he came to a place where the witches were cooking. He smelled meat, and as he was looking down the hatchway he lost his balance and fell in. He saw bones and meat in the inner room and heard people eating. The chief said, "That dog is not a dog, but a person. Bring him in. See who he is." They brought the dog in. They laid him down and covered him with a white manta. They danced around him, and when they uncovered him, he was one half man and one half dog. "He is the hunter; he has been scared," they said. They covered him again, and danced around him. He turned into a person.

The chief said to him, "Now it is your turn to do something to your wife." He gave him some medicine to use against her. He went out. They said to him, "Go and hunt." He hunted and took the deer home. When he came to his house, he called, "Hello." "Hello!" She was happy. ²⁹ She said, "Sit down, my dear." When he was a dog, the man's mother and father had kept asking about him, "Where is your husband?" She would answer, "He is hunting," to put them off.

At night they were sleeping. She petted him just as if she had never hated him. In the morning when they got up, he said, "Do you love me?" "Yes." "Come over here and stand in front of me." He cut her hair and made her bald-headed. He painted her head red. "Now go to get water," he told her. She went; she put the water jar on her head. The people said, "Somebody is coming, somebody wild! Take up the ladders." They were scared and they ran to pull up the ladders. She went from house to house; nobody would let her in. She went to her house and went into the back yard. Her husband said. to her, "Now let me see if you will have as good luck as I had. See if you can get turned back into a human shape, too. You have done me a wrong, but I returned." She cried as hard as she could cry.

Her husband gave her a bow and dressed her like a man. He gave her a quiver of mountain lion's skin, and put a man's blanket

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on her. Then he, said, "Go off and see if you have good luck." She cried; she was ashamed. She was Yellow Woman. She went off and came to Apushu (one of the cliff dwellings). It was raining. She went in, and the rain fell down in little streams off the ledge and impregnated her. She had a baby, Water's baby. He was Payatamu. She went off to the Jicarilla country and lived there. And that is why the Jicarilla have such a pretty red skin (because her husband painted her head red).

She had many children. They found out how her husband had treated her in Cochiti, and they made ready to fight. The chief said, "Get ready. Make bows and arrows." They came to Cochiti. When they got there, they killed her husband and everybody in the village, and broke up everything. There was nobody left but a parrot, and a baby hidden behind a grinding stone.

Parrot heard the baby cry, and turned over the grinding stone and found her. She said, "Poor thing, poor baby." She pulled her out and said, "I will look for food for her." She found piñon. nuts. These she cracked, and chewed, and fed them to the baby. They lived there together. The baby grew up. The baby did not know how to get water. One day she asked, "Mother, why are you not like me? Why have you a long bill?" Parrot Mother answered, "I don't know why." Then she asked, "Mother, why are these bones of dead people around?" Parrot Mother would not tell. The girl grew older. One day she was grinding a little, and she made pinole and mush. She asked all the time, "Where are my real father and mother?" She was big enough now, so Parrot Mother told her, "Your father and mother are the bones that lie in the plaza." The girl was frightened. She said, "We must leave this place. We can not stay here by ourselves any longer." "All right. We will go. I can't walk, you will have to carry me."

Parrot sat on her shoulder and they started off. They came towards Old Cochiti (across river). Parrot said, "We'll stay here." "No, this is too near. If the enemies come again, they might find us." They went on to Santo Domingo. Parrot said, "We'll stay here." "No, this is too near. If those, people come again, they might find us." They went to San Felipe. Again Parrot said, "Let us stay here." "No, this is too near. If those people come again, they might find us." Then they came to Sandia. Mother Parrot said, "Let us stay in this place." "Yes, I like it. It is far away. We shall ask if we may join their pueblo." The girl asked the chief, and they were adopted into the village. They stayed there. The girl grew up.

A man heard that she was there, and he came down and spoke to her while she was getting water. He was Opati (wife-stealer

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who lived in the mountains). He took her to his home. He said, "You have to make blue paper bread and sweet (sprouted) pudding. If you don't have this ready when I return, I will put you in the room with all my other women." She called the ants to help her and they finished everything. He came in with his deer and he found the blue bread and sweet pudding all ready. He thought that he could do with her as he had done with all his other wives, but he couldn't punish her. He said to her, "You are the first one whom I have brought here who has done as I commanded." He didn't punish her. They lived a long time together, and he brought deer every day. She never came back to the pueblo.

VARIANT  ³⁰

(A girl, disguised by her husband as a Jicarilla, became pregnant by water, and after the battle, the baby girl was left with Corn Mother and Parrot in Potsherd Place.) The baby girl grew up and Corn Mother ^30a said to Parrot Mother, "Don't let her peep through the door, for there are skeletons piled out-doors." She kept on growing. She said to Corn Mother, "I can not stand this place any more. Shall we go somewhere else to live?" "All right, my child, we will go back to Cochiti." "What shall I wear, mother?" "Let me go to the front room. Wait for me." Corn Mother went into the front room and said, "Great Butterfly from the skies, my daughter wants a pair of moccasins." He returned with the moccasins. Then she said, "Great Butterfly from the skies, my daughter wants a manta." And he brought the manta. Then she said, "Great Butterfly from the skies, my daughter wants a belt," and he returned with it. Then she said, "Great Butterfly from the skies, my daughter wants a white manta for her back, and a black mania for a shawl." He returned with these and threw them all down.

The girl put on the moccasins, the manta and belt, and the white manta and the black manta. Corn Mother said, "We shall start now. Take good care of us, my child, wrap us up well and in your hand take your basket of sacred meal." She put Corn Mother under her manta and Parrot Mother perched on her shoulder, and she started from Potsherd Place. She passed Whirlpool Place, Koashka, and went on across the river. As she was going down the other side of the river Buzzard met them. Buzzard said, "Are you coming, my little girl?" "Yes." "Are you coming to be adopted into this place?" He brought them to this place, Cochiti, and they lived here forever.

Footnotes

120:17 Informant 1. Notes, p. 224.

123:4 Informant 3. Notes, pp. 223, 224. See p. 95.

123:29 To recognize him, "because now she hadn't done wrong."

125:30 Informant 4.

125:30a See p. 77, note 2.