Tukawiru

p. 172

Tukawiru

WE KNOW that all animals have a father, or a leader of their kind, the eagles, buzzards, all. The chief of the Buzzards is called Tukawiru, or Night Buzzard. No one knows where Tukawiru lives, not even the birds themselves.

It happened that a young man entered into a game with a gambler, a devil, or maybe just someone employed by the Devil. This gambler won all of the young man's money. Then he won the boy's clothes.

When all was lost, the gambler said, "I will stake a thousand pesos against your heart, but not now. You must come to my home."

"Where do you live?"

"At the House of the Wind."

Then the gambler asked all the animals that fly in the air to come to him, and they tried to find him, day and night, and he said to the young man, "They are searching for me. I will now take you to the House of the Wind. It is a dangerous journey. You must carry in your hand some

p. 171

pieces of liver. We will travel through three different winds. Each time we enter one of these winds you must shout 'Hesuta ’achai' (Jesus, Father) and put a piece of liver into my mouth."

The young man climbed on the back of Tukawiru (for that is who it was) and closed his eyes, as directed. They flew fast, very fast. The first dangerous wind they entered was very bitter. The young man fed the giant bird a piece of liver. The second wind they encountered was stinking. They passed through it in the same manner and encountered the third and most terrible wind which was very thick.

Thus, from midnight to dawn the young man rode on the back of Tukawiru. After shouting "Hesuta ’achai" three times and feeding him as many times, they arrived. The Devil stopped. He was two hundred feet from a tall tree. There the young man saw a white house which is the House of the Wind. He who lived there was not the Wind, but was he who commands the Wind.

Tukawiru said, "My friend, come into the house. Go to the kitchen and my daughter will give you something to eat."

This daughter of the Devil was not evil as were her sisters and parents. Because of this, her father forced her to be his cook and housemaid. She received the young man well, liking him more than she liked her father.

The Devil cared little for this daughter because she did good things. He had others whom he dearly loved for their bad intentions.

All was in favor of the young man because Jesucristo was watching over him. The Devil wanted to kill him, but he could not.

p. 174

So the sun rose to go to work, for we all must work, and the Devil said to the young man, "Today you are to sow this land." And he pointed to some twenty acres.

It was a great deal of work to sow that much land, and he had no helpers.

But the girl said to the young man, "I will help you." She showed him a hoe, saying "Take this hoe to the field and say to it 'Sow.'"

The young man did this and the hoe worked all day, finishing at sundown.

The next day the Devil told the young man to go out and harvest the wheat which he had sown, for it was already ripe.

Again the Devil's daughter advised the young man, and the wheat was harvested.

Another day the Devil pointed out a great pile of firewood lying some distance from the house. "Cut that wood," he ordered.

The girl gave the young man an axe, and the wood was cut. But the Devil began to suspect his daughter. The next day he said to the young man, "Now you are going to build a temple, like those used by Priests. I want to go to Mass."

So the young man and the Devil's daughter and Jesucristo made a very proper temple.

Then the girl said to the boy, "I wish to take you away now. Let us leave this night." This girl was called Tosalisewa, meaning White Flower.

Each night her mother and father were accustomed to calling to her every hour in order to know if she were still there. She would always reply, "I am here." This evening her father called out and there was no reply.

The two lovers were now far away. They

p. 175

had crossed the three winds by shouting "Hesuta ’achai." They arrived at the seashore. There White Flower had a boat hidden in the tules.

Meanwhile, the Devil pursued them, playing the game called womi in order to travel very fast, kicking a round ball ahead of him.

When the Devil arrived at the seashore, he made a boat. At last he caught the two. But the girl made the boy turn into a tadpole and she became a water plant which moves gently and plays under the water. When the Devil could not find them, he returned to his house. So White Flower's mother said that she, herself, would go after them. And so she did.

Tukawiru's wife was even more powerful than her husband. As she pursued them she played ochia bweha. This is an old Yaqui game played by the women. A wooden ball is thrown with a long basket, and chased, as in running the womi. She caught up with the boy and girl as they entered the beginning of the Yaqui land. She could follow them no farther. Then this evil mother cursed Tosalisewa saying that White Flower would love the young man but that he would not care for her.

And it was so. In Guaymas the boy joined his real wife, and he forgot all about Tosalisewa, completely. Here it ends. There is no more. LC