The Mother who Mourned for her Daughter

THE MOTHER WHO MOURNED FOR HER DAUGHTER ¹⁷

A mother had two daughters. One died, and she was left with only one. This girl grew many years, but she became sick. She gave her medicines and she called the medicine men to cure her, but she died. The father said, "I shall guard her four nights at the church." For four nights he stayed there, but nothing happened to the grave. The mother wept all the time and never forgot her daughter. She said she could never forget her. They had many dances in the village and her husband would come to take her to see them, but she would not go. She stayed in the house and cried all day. She did not take care of herself at all. She did not wash her hair, nor cut her bangs, and they grew till they hung down to her chin.

Her daughter had not gone to the place where all Indians go when they die because her mother was always weeping for her. The chief of the other world said, "Why can't this girl enter this place where we all are?" He chose two messengers to take her back to her mother. They were not to go to the village, but they were to let her mother know how she troubled her in the other world. They were to teach her that she should forget and not remember her daughter any more. The chief gave the girl over to the two messengers and he said, "Take hold of her body." The girl's bangs hung down to

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her chin and her face was dirty and covered with mucus. All the mucus her mother blew from her nose when she wept she blew onto her daughter's face, and when her mother no longer cut her bangs the daughter's bangs grew too. The two were told, "When you get to the next world you will find the mother is not sleeping. She will be awake and crying. Go to her and touch her with your finger." They went to the house and found the mother just as they had said they should find her. They said to her, "Are you sleeping?" "No." "Get up and look at your daughter. Maybe you don't love your daughter, for because of you she can not enter the place where we Indians all go. But if you love your daughter with all your heart, wash your body and cut your hair before daybreak. You will be washing your own daughter." They brought her up to see her daughter. She tried to go to her and embrace her, but she could not. She cried as hard as she could. Then she said, "I will do as you say, for I love my daughter with all my heart." She woke her husband and told him she was to wash herself. When her hair was dry, she told him to cut her bangs as she used to wear them.

When she had finished everything she was to be taken to the next world to see her daughter again. They came and told her, "Hurry up." The people in the village began to grind for her (i. e., they thought she had died). As the two took her along, on each side of the road there were many flowers. The chief saw her coming and said, "She is coming." Then he said to the mother, "We called you to see your daughter. You know how much trouble she had when you were crying for her, but now she is with us all. Keep your eyes open to see the people in this world." She went on farther. She saw them bringing two girls, and they were the two sisters (i. e., her two daughters). Here was her daughter who had died last all dressed and cleaned, because her mother had washed herself.

The two (messengers) hurried to bring her back, for the people in the village were digging her grave. As they started back, the chief said, "Don't be afraid of your own body." He said to the two, "Her body will be all wrapped up. Throw her on top of it and it will be alive again." They threw her on top of it, and she said, "Oh, what a terrible body this is!" She got up, all tied up as the body was. When she was alive again she told the people what had happened to her.

Footnotes

131:17 Informant 1. Notes, p. 205.