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AMERICAN
LORE & LEGENDS
The
Ark
On Superstition Mountains
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By Charles M. Skinner
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The Pima
Indians
of
Arizona
say that the father of all men and animals was the butterfly, Cherwit Make
(earth-maker), who fluttered down from the clouds to the Blue Cliffs at
the junction of the Verde and Salt Rivers, and from his own sweat made
men. As the people multiplied they grew selfish and quarrelsome, so that
Cherwit Make was disgusted with his handiwork and resolved to drown them
all. But first he told them, in the voice of the north wind, to be honest
and to live at peace. The prophet Suha, who interpreted this voice, was
called a fool for listening to the wind, but next night came the east wind
and repeated the command, with an added threat that the ruler of heaven
would destroy them all if they did not reform.
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A Pima Ki, or home, in Pima,
Arizona,
1907,
courtesy Library of Congress.
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Again they scoffed, and on the next night the west wind
cautioned them. But this third warning was equally futile. On the
fourth night came the south wind. It breathed into Suha's ear that he
alone had been good and should be saved, and bade him make a hollow
ball of spruce gum in which he might float while the deluge lasted.
Suha and his wife immediately set out to gather the gum, that they
melted and shaped until they had made a large, rounded ark, which they
ballasted with jars of nuts, acorn-meal and water, and meat of bear
and venison.
On the day assigned Suha and his wife were looking
regretfully down into the green valleys from the ledge where the ark
rested, listening to the song of the harvesters, and sighing to think
that so much beauty would presently be laid waste, when a hand of fire
was thrust from a cloud and it smote the Blue Cliffs with a
thunder-clang. It was the signal. Swift came the clouds from all
directions, and down poured the rain. Withdrawing into their waxen
ball, Suha and his wife closed the portal. Then for some days they
were rolled and tossed on an ever-deepening sea. Their stores had
almost given out when the ark stopped, and breaking a hole in its side
its occupants stepped forth.
There was a tuna cactus growing at their feet, and they
ate of its red fruit greedily, but all around them was naught but
water. When night came on they retired to the ark and slept--a night,
a month, a year, perhaps a century, for when they awoke the water was
gone, the va les were filled with verdure, and bird-songs rang through
the woods. The delighted couple descended the Superstition Mountains,
on which the ark had rested, and went into its valleys, where they
lived for a thousand years, and became the parents of a great tribe.
But the
evil was not all gone. There was one Hauk, a devil of the mountains,
who stole their daughters and slew their sons. One day, while the
women were spinning flax and cactus fibre and the men were gathering
maize, Hauk descended into the settlement and stole another of Suha's
daughters. The patriarch, whose patience had been taxed to its limit,
then made a vow to slay the devil. He watched to see by what way he
entered the valley. He silently followed him into the Superstition
Mountains; he drugged the cactus wine that his daughter was to serve
to him; then, when he had drunk it, Suha emerged from his place of
hiding and beat out the brains of the stupefied fiend.
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Some of the
devil's brains were scattered and became seed for other evil, but there
was less wickedness in the world after Hauk had been disposed of than
there had been before. Suha taught his people to build adobe houses, to
dig with shovels, to irrigate their land, to weave cloth, and avoid wars.
But on his death-bed he foretold to them that they would grow arrogant
with wealth, covetous of the lands of others, and would wage wars for
gain. When that time came there would be another flood and not one should
be saved--the bad should vanish and the good would leave the earth and
live in the sun. So firmly do the Pimas rely on this prophecy that they
will not cross Superstition Mountains, for there sits Cherwit
Make--awaiting the culmination of their wickedness to let loose on the
earth a mighty sea that lies dammed behind the range.
Added March, 2006
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About the Author: Charles M. Skinner (1852-1907) authored the
complete nine volume set of Myths and Legends of Our Own Land in
1896. This tale is excerpted from these excellent works, which are
now in the public domain.
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