In previous worlds they found no other people
like themselves, but in the fourth world they found the
Kisani or Pueblo people.
The surface of the fourth world was mixed
black and white, and the sky was mostly blue and black.
There were no sun, no moon, no stars, but there were four
great snow-covered peaks on the horizon in each of the cardinal
directions.
Late in the autumn they heard in the east
the distant sound of a great voice calling. They listened
and waited, and soon heard the voice nearer and louder than
before. Once more they listened and heard it louder still,
very near.
A moment later four mysterious beings appeared.
These were White Body, god of this world; Blue Body, the
sprinkler; Yellow Body; and Black Body, the god of fire.
Using signs but without speaking, the gods tried to instruct
the people, but they were not understood.
When the gods had gone, the people discussed
their mysterious visit and tried without success to figure
out the signs. The gods appeared on four days in succession
and attempted to communicate through signs, but their efforts
came to nothing.
On the fourth day when the other gods departed,
Black Body remained behind and spoke to the people in their
own language: "You do not seem to understand our signs,
so I must tell you what they mean. We want to make people
who look more like us. You have bodies like ours, but you
have the teeth, the feet and the claws of beasts and insects.
The new humans will have hands and feet like ours. Also,
you are unclean; you smell bad. We will come back in twelve
days. Be clean when we return."
On the morning of the twelfth day the people
washed themselves well. Then the women dried their skin
with yellow cornmeal, the men with white cornmeal. Soon
they heard the distant call, shouted four times, of the
approaching gods.
When the gods appeared, Blue Body and Black
Body each carried a sacred buckskin. White Body carried
two ears of corn, one yellow, one white, each covered completely
with grains. The gods laid one buckskin on the ground with
the head to the west, and on this they placed the two ears
of corn with their tips to the east. Under the white ear
they put the feather of a white eagle; under the yellow
the feather of a yellow eagle.
Then
they told the people to stand back and allow the wind
to enter. Between the skins the white wind blew from
the east and the yellow wind from the west. While
the wind was blowing the eight of the gods, the Mirage
People, came and walked around the objects on the
ground four times. As they walked, the eagle feathers,
whose tips protruded from the buckskins, were seen
to move. |
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When the Mirage People had finished their
walk, the upper buckskin was lifted. The ears of corn had
disappeared; a man and a woman lay in their place. The white
ear of corn had become the man, the yellow ear the woman,
First Man and First Woman. It was the wind that gave them
life, and it is the wind that comes out of our mouths now
that gives us life.
When this ceases to blow, we die.
The gods had the people build an enclosure
of brushwood, and when it was finished, First Man and First
Woman went in. The gods told them, "Live together now
as husband and wife."
At the end of four days, First Woman bore
hermaphrodite twins. In four more days she gave birth to
a boy and a girl, who grew to maturity in four days and
lived with one another as husband and wife.
In all, First Man and First Woman had five
pairs of twins, and all except the first became couples
who had children. In four days after the last twins were
born, the gods came again and took First Man and First Woman
away to the eastern mountain, dwelling place of the gods.
The couple stayed there for four days, and when they returned,
all their children were taken to the eastern mountain for
four days.
The gods may have taught them the awful
secrets of witchcraft. Witches always use masks, and after
they returned, they would occasionally put on masks and
pray for the good things they needed; abundant rain and
abundant crops.
Witches also marry people who are too closely
related to them, which is what First Man and First Woman's
children had done. After they had been to the eastern mountain,
however, the brothers and sisters separated. Keeping their
first marriages secret, the brothers now married women of
the Mirage People and the sisters married men of the Mirage
People.
But they never told anyone, even their new
families, the mysteries they had learned from the gods.
Every four days the women bore children, who grew to maturity
in four days, then married, and in turn had children in
four days.
In this way many children of First Man and
First Woman filled the land with people.
