# The Pima Indians/Sophiology/Nursery tales

Myths - Nursery Tales - Abstracts of Myths - Abstracts of Nursery Tales - Religion - Medicine-Men - Legerdemain - Cause and Treatment of Disease - Prevalent Diseases The Five Little Orphans and their Aunt · Coyote and the Quails · The Woman and Coyote · The Pima Boy and the Apaches · The Birds and the Flood · Death of Coyote · The Bluebird and Coyote · The Boy and the Beast · The Thirsty Quails · The Naughty Grandchildren
SOPHIOLOGY
Nursery Tales
THE FIVE LITTLE ORPHANS AND THEIR AUNT
Five little Indians (not Pimas) were once left orphans because their parents had been killed by Apaches, and they got their aunt (their mother's younger sister) to come and live with them. She had no man, and it was very hard for her to take care of them. One day the children all went away to hunt, and they were met by five little rabbits (cottontails) in the mountains. The oldest of the rabbits came running to the children and crying, "Don't shoot me; I have something to tell you." So the children stood still and the rabbit said, "The Apaches have come to your place and burned down all the houses; you had better go home now." But the children surrounded the rabbit and killed it with an arrow and took it home.
When they reached home, they saw their aunt lying outside the ki in the shade, and something bloody near her. The oldest boy said, ‘"Just look what auntie has been doing! She's been eating our paint and poisoned herself." But it was blood they saw coming out of her mouth; for the Apaches had come and killed her. When they came closer, they saw that a bunch of her hair had been cut off, and she looked so unnatural in death that they thought it was somebody else, and that their aunt had gone away. They had never seen a dead person before. So they said, "Let us dig a big hole and make a fire all day long and put hot stones in it, for she has gone to the mountains to ​get some mescal." So they did, and waited all day long till sunset, when she usually came, but she did not come. Then they said, "She has gone far and has a heavy load and is waiting for us to come and help her; let us go." But the oldest boy said, "No, she will come anyway, she always does, even if she has a heavy load." So they waited till night, and gave her up, and went into the house to sleep; but they kept their sandals on, as the Pimas always did, so they could start of quickly if there were danger.
In their sleep they heard her coming tn her sandals, groaning and murmuring, so they all got up and went outdoors. They heard her go and look into the fire pit, and then come and stand in their midst. One said, "I think it is a ghost;" so they turned to the right and ran around the ki, and she followed them around and around. Finally they all went inside, still pursued, and the children stood on each side of the door and turned into stone. And the woman went away.
COYOTE AND THE QUAILS
Once Coyote was sleeping very soundly and a great number of quails came along and cut pieces of fat meat out of him; then they went on. Just as they were cooking the meat Coyote overtook them and said, "Oh, where did you get that nice fat meat? Give me some." They gave him some, and after he had eaten all he wanted he went on. When he had gone a little way, the quails called after him, "Coyote, you ate your own meat."
"What did you say?"
"Oh, nothing; we heard something calling behind the mountains."
Presently they called again, "Coyote, you ate your own meat."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing; we heard somebody pounding his grinding stone."
So Coyote went on; but finally he felt his loss, and then he knew what the quails meant. So he said he would eat them up, and turned around after them. The quails flew above ground, and Coyote ran under them. Finally the quails got tired, but Coyote did not, for he was angry and did not feel fatigue.
THE WOMAN AND COYOTE
Once the river rose very high and spread over the land. An Indian woman was going along with tortillas in a basket on her head, and she waded in the water up to her waist.
Coyote was afraid of the water, so he was up in a cottonwood tree. When he saw the woman he said, "Oh, come to this tree and give me some of those nice tortillas."
"No," said the woman, "I can not give them to you; they are for somebody else."
"If you do not come here I will shoot you," said Coyote, for he was supposed to have a bow. So she came to the tree and said, "You must come down and get them, for I can not climb trees." Coyote came down as far as he dared, but he was afraid of the water. Then the woman said, "Just see how shallow it is, only up to my ankles." But she was standing on a big stump. Coyote looked and thought it was shallow, so he jumped down and was drowned. And the woman went on.
THE PIMA BOY AND THE APACHES
An old woman once lived with her grandson. The boy's father had been killed by the Apaches and his mother taken captive. They had treated the woman very badly and burned her arms with hot ashes and coals and made big scars. The boy had heard these stories about his mother.
The boy and the old woman had a very hard time getting along, and he used to go where certain persons were grinding corn and brush a few grains as they fell from the metate into his blanket and carry them home and the grandmother would make soup of them, and that was the way they lived. But by and by these people went away and when the boy went to get some corn there was none there and he had nothing to take home. The grandmother scolded him and told him to go back; and when he refused she whipped him. Then he said, "I know where my mother is, and I am going to her." The old woman said, "No, you must not; the Apaches will kill you." But he said, "I am going; my mother will not let them harm me." So he went. His grandmother trailed him to the mountains, and finally from the very highest peak she saw him going along toward the camp. She also saw his mother, her daughter-in-law, out alone gathering seeds. She recognized her at a distance by the shining of her scars. The old woman ran after the boy, but when she caught up with him he stepped aside and turned into a saguaro. Then after she had turned around and gone back he resumed his form and went on to his mother.
When she saw him she cried out, "Don't come near me, the Apaches will kill you; you know what they did to me, and they will kill you."
​"They like little doves."
"Then I will turn into a little dove."
He did this and she carried him home in her basket. The Apaches: asked, "What is that?" and she replied, "The young of a dove; so I brought it home." But when the Apaches left the room they could hear her talking to it, and when they came in she would be still. They could not understand the words but knew she was speaking her own language, so they said, "This thing belongs to her tribe. Let us kill it."
So they went in and the chief took it in one hand and smashed it hard with the other and the pieces came through between his fingers. These pieces then flew up out of the smoke hole and turned into a flock of hawks, and they fell upon the Apaches and beat them all to death with their wings.
Then they turned back into the boy again and he and his mother started home. But when they reached the place where the grandmother had turned back they could go no farther. They turned into saguaros, one on each side of the road.
THE BIRDS AND THE FLOOD
When the waters covered all the earth two birds were hanging onto the sky with their beaks. The larger was gray with a long tail and beak; the smaller was the tiny bird that builds its nest like an olla, with only a very small opening to get in. The larger one cried and cried, but the other just held on tight and said, "Don't cry. You see that I'm littler than you, but I'm very brave. I don't give up so easily as you do. I trust in God; He will take care of those in danger if they trust in Him."
DEATH OF COYOTE
After the waters had gone down Elder Brother said to Coyote, "Don't touch that black bug, and do not eat the mesquite beans; it is dangerous to harm anything that came safe through the flood." So Coyote went on, but presently he came to the bug, and he stopped and ate it up. Then he went on to the mesquite beans and looked at them and said, "I will just taste one, and that will be all." But he stood there and ate and ate till they were all gone. And the beans swelled up in his stomach and killed him.
THE BLUEBIRD AND COYOTE
The bluebird was once a very ugly color. But there was a lake where no river flowed in or out, and the bird bathed in this four times every morning for four mornings. Every morning it sang:
On the fourth morning it shed all its feathers and came out in its bare skin, but on the fifth morning it came out with blue feathers.
All this while Coyote had been watching the bird; he wanted to jump in and get it, but was afraid of the water. But on that morning he said, "How is this all your ugly color has come out of you, and now you are all blue and gay and beautiful? You are more beautiful than anything that flies in the air. I want to be blue, too." Coyote was at that time a bright green. "I only went in four times," said the bird; and it taught Coyote the song, and he went in four times, and the fifth time he came out as blue as the little bird.
That made him feel very proud, because he turned into a blue coyote. He was so proud that as he walked along he looked about on every side to see if anyone was noticing how fine and blue he was. He looked to see if his shadow was blue, too, and so he was not watching the road, and presently he ran into a stump so hard that it threw him down in the dirt and he became dust-colored all over. And to this day all coyotes are the color of dirt.
THE BOY AND THE BEAST
Once an old woman lived with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. They were following the trail of the Apaches. Whenever a Pima sees the track of an Apache he draws a ring around it with a stick, and then he can catch him sooner. But at night while they were asleep the Apaches came and grasped the man and woman by the hair and shook them out of their skins as one would shake corn out of a sack, and the old woman and the boy were left alone. They had to live on berries, but in one place a strange beast, big enough to swallow people, camped by the bushes. The grandmother told the boy not to go there, but he disobeyed her; he took some very sharp stones in his hands and went. As he came near the animal began to breathe and the boy just went inside of him and was swallowed all up. But with his sharp stones he cut the intestines of the beast so that he died. When the grandmother came to hunt for the boy he came out to meet her and said, "I have killed the animal."
"Oh, no; such a little boy as you are to kill such a dangerous beast!"
"But I was inside of him; just look at the stones I cut him with."
THE THIRSTY QUAILS
A quail had more than 20 children and with them she wandered over the whole country in search of water and could not find it. It was very hot and they were all crying, "Where can we get some water? Where can we get some water?" but for a long time they could find none. At last, away in the north, under a mesquite tree, they saw a pond of water, but it was very muddy and not fit to drink. But they had been wandering so many days and were so tired that they stopped in the shade, and by and by they went down one by one and drank the water, although it was so bad. But when they had all had enough it made them sick and they died.
THE NAUGHTY GRANDCHILDREN
An old woman had two bright grandchildren. She ground wheat and corn every morning to make porridge for them. One day as she put the olla on the fire outside the house, she told the children not to fight for fear they would upset the water. But they soon began quarreling, for they did not mind as well as they should, and so spilled the water, and the grandmother had to whip them. They became angry and said they were going away. She tried to make them understand why she had to whip them, but they would not listen and ran away. She ran after them, but could not catch up. She heard them whistling and followed the sound from place to place, until finally the oldest boy said, "I will turn into a saguaro, so I shall last forever, and bear fruit every summer." And the younger said, "Well, I will turn into a palo verde and stand there forever. These mountains are so bare and have nothing on them but rocks, so I will make them green." The old woman heard the cactus whistling and recognized the voice of her grandson; so she went up to it and tried to take it into her arms, and the thorns killed her.
And that is how the saguaro and palo verde came to be.