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NATIVE
AMERICAN LEGENDS
Origin of the Raven and the Macaw
(Totems of Summer and Winter)
- A Zuni Legend |
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By Katharine Berry Judson |

The priest who was named Yanauluha carried
ever in his hand a staff which now in the daylight was plumed and
covered with feathers - yellow, blue-green, red, white, black, and
varied. Attached to it were shells, which made a song-like tinkle. The
people when they saw it stretched out their hands and asked many
questions.
Then the priest balanced it in his hand, and struck with it a hard
place, and blew upon it. Amid the plumes appeared four round
things-mere eggs they were. Two were blue like the sky and two dun-red
like the flesh of the Earth-mother.
Then the people asked many questions.
"These," said the priests, "are the seed
of living beings. Choose which ye will follow. From two eggs shall
come beings of beautiful plumage, colored like the grass and fruits of
summer. Where they fly and ye follow, shall always be summer. Without
toil, fields of food shall flourish. And from the other two eggs shall
come evil beings, piebald, with white, without colors. And where these
two shall fly and ye shall follow, winter strives with summer. Only by
labor shall the fields yield fruit, and your children and theirs shall
strive for the fruits. Which do ye choose?"
"The blue! The blue!" cried the people, and those who were strongest
carried off the blue eggs, leaving the red eggs to those who waited.
They laid the blue eggs with much gentleness in soft sand on the sunny
side of a hill, watching day by day. They were precious of color;
surely they would be the precious birds of the Summer-land. Then the
eggs cracked and the birds came out, with open eyes and pin feathers
under their skins.
"We chose wisely," said the people. "Yellow and blue, red and green,
are their dresses, even seen through their skins." So they fed them
freely of all the foods which men favor. Thus they taught them to eat
all desirable food. But when the feathers appeared, they were black
with white bandings. They were ravens. And they flew away croaking
hoarse laughs and mocking our fathers.
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But
the other eggs became beautiful macaws, and were wafted by a toss of the
priest's wand to the faraway Summer-land.
So those who had chosen the raven, became the Raven People. They were the
Winter People and they were many and strong. But those who had chosen the
macaw, became the Macaw People. They were the Summer People, and few in
number, and less strong, but they were wiser because they were more
deliberate. The priest Yanauluha, being wise, became their father, even as
the Sun-father is among the little moons of the sky. He and his sisters
were the ancestors of the priest-keepers of things.
Added
April, 2005
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Raven
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Excerpted from the book
Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest ,
by Katharine Berry Judson, 1916. (now in the public domain)
Katharine Berry Judson
first published this book in 1916, which collects the oral traditions of
the Zuni, Hopi, Achomawi, Sia, Pima, Pai Ute, and other tribes of the
Southwest. She compiled and edited four collections of native myths
and tales. Judson was a professor of history at the University of
Washington
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Return to
Zuni Legends
ALSO SEE:
Indian
Proverbs & Wisdom
Legends,
Myths & Tales of Native Americans
Old West
Legends
Native American People
Native American
Tribes
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Native
American Photo Prints -
Vintage photographs of famous chiefs, heroes, and
Indian
life in the 19th century.
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