Part 23 (1/2)

There was a powerful mahkai who had a daughter, who, tho old enuf, was unmarried, and who grew tired of her single life and asked her father to bury her, saying, we will see then if the men will care for me.

And from her grave grew the plant tobacco, and her father took it and smoked it and when the people who were gathered together smelled it they wondered what it was, and sent Toehahvs to find out.

But, altho the tobacco still grew, the woman came to life again and came out of her grave back to her home.

And one day she played gainskoot with Corn, and Corn beat her, and won all she had. But she gave some little things she did not care for to Corn, and the rest of her debt she did not pay, and they quarreled.

She told Corn to go away, saying; ”n.o.body cares for you, now, but they care a great deal for me, and the doctors use me to make rain, and when they have moistened the ground is the only time you can come out.”

And the Corn said: ”You don't know how much the people like me; the old as well as the young eat me, and I don't think there is a person that does not like me.” And Corn told Tobacco to go away herself.

There were people there who heard them quarreling, and tho Tobacco staid on, whenever she would be in a house and hear people laughing she would think they were laughing at her. And she became very sad, and one day sank down in her house and went westward and came to a house there.

And the person who lived there told her where to sleep, saying, ”Many people stop here, and that is where they sleep.”

But she said: ”I am travelling, and no one knows where I am, and if any one follows me, and comes here, you tell them that you saw me, that I left very early in the morning and you do not know which way I went.” And she told him that she did not know herself which way she would go, and at night, when she went to bed, she brought a strong wind, and when she wanted to leave she sank down and went westward, and the wind blew away all her tracks.

And she came to the Mohaves and lived there in a high mountain, Cheof Toe-ahk, or tall mountain, which has a cliff very hard to climb, but Tobacco stood up there.

And after Tobacco had gone, Corn remained, but when corn-planting time came none was planted, because there was no rain. And so it went on--all summer, and people began to say: ”It is so, when Tobacco was here, we had plenty of rain, and now we have not any, and she must have had wonderful power.”

And the people scolded Corn for sending Tobacco away, and told him to go away himself, and then they sent for Tobacco to come back, that they might have rain again.

And Corn left, going toward the east, singing all the way, taking Pumpkin with him, who was singing too, saying they were going where there was plenty of moisture.

And the next year there was no water, and a powerful doctor, Gee-hee-sop, took the Doctor's Stone of Light, and the Doctor's Square Stone, and some soft feathers, and eagle's-tail feathers, and went to where Tobacco lived, asking her to come back, saying ”We are all suffering for water, and we know you have power to make it rain, And every seed buried in the ground is begging for water, and likely to be burned up, and every tree is suffering, and I want you to come.”

Then Tobacco said: ”What has become of Corn? He is still with you, and corn is what you ought to eat, and everybody likes it, but n.o.body cares for me, except perhaps some old man who likes to smoke me, and I do not want to go back, and I am not going!”

But Geeheesop said: ”Corn is not there now, he has gone away, and we do not know where he is.” And again he asked Tobacco to come back but she refused, but gave him four b.a.l.l.s of tobacco seed and said to him: ”Take these home with you, and take the dirt of the tobacco-worm, and roll it up, and put it in a cane-tube and smoke it all around, and you will have rain, and then plant the seed, and in four days it will come up; and when you get the leaves, smoke them, and call on the winds, and you will have clouds and plenty of rain.”

So Geeheesop went home with the seed b.a.l.l.s, and tobacco-worm dirt, and did as Tobacco had told him; and the smoking of the dirt brought rain, and the seeds were planted in a secret place, and in four days came up, and grew for a while, but finally were about to die for want of rain.

Then Geeheesop got some of the leaves and smoked them, and the wind blew, and rain came, and the plants revived and grew till they were ripe.

When the tobacco was ripe Geeheesop gathered a lot of the leaves and filled with them one of the gourd-like nests which the woodp.e.c.k.e.r, koh-daht, makes in the har-san, or giant-cactus, and then took a few of these and put them in a cane-tube pipe, or watch-kee, and went to where the people gathered in the evening.

And the doctor who was the father of Tobacco said: ”What is this I smell? There is something new here!”

And one said, ”Perhaps it is some greens that I ate today that you smell,” and he breathed toward him.

But the mahkai said, ”That is not it.”

And others breathed toward him, but he could not smell it.

Then Geeheesop rolled a coal toward himself, and lit up his pipe, and the doctor said: ”This is what I smelled!”

And Geeheesop, after smoking a few whiffs, pa.s.sed the pipe around to the others, and all smoked it, and when it came back to him he stuck it in the ground.

And the next night he came with a new pipe to the place of meeting, but the father of Tobacco said: ”Last night I had a smoke, but I did not feel good after it.”