of having passed on the way many suffering
individuals engaged in painful pursuits and unable to go on until the
gods decreed they had suffered enough. He had also seen a great smoke
arising from a pit where the hopelessly wicked were totally burned up.
He was told to go back to his people and explain all these things and
tell them to make many pahos (prayer-sticks) and live straight and the
good spirits could be depended upon to help them with rain and
germination. Voth records[23] two variants of this legend.
[Footnote 23: Voth, H.R., Op. cit, pp. 109-119 (A journey to the
skeleton house).]
=Some Migration Myths=
The migration myths of the various clans are entirely too numerous and
too lengthy to be in their entirety included here. Every clan has its
own, and even today keeps the story green in the minds of its children
and celebrates its chief events, including arrival in Hopiland, with
suitable ceremony.
We are told that when all mankind came through the sipapu from the
underworld, the various kinds of people were gathered together and given
each a separate speech or language by the mocking bird, "who can talk
every way." Then each group was given a path and started on its way by
the Twin War Gods and their mother, the Spider Woman.
The Hopi were taught how to build stone houses, and then the various
clans dispersed, going separate ways. And after many many generations
they arrived at their present destination from all directions and at
different times. They brought corn with them from the underworld.
It is generally agreed that the Snake people were the first to occupy
the Tusayan region.
There are many variations in the migration myths of the Snake people,
but the most colorful version the writer has encountered is the one
given to A.M. Stephen, fifty years ago, by the then oldest member of the
Snake fraternity. A picturesque extract only is given here.
It begins: "At the general dispersal, my people lived in snake skins,
each family occupying a separate snake-skin bag, and all were hung on
the end of a rainbow, which swung around until the end touched Navajo
Mountain, where the bags dropped from it; and wherever their bags
dropped, there was their house. After they arranged their bags they came
out from them as men and women, and they then built a stone house which
had five sides.
"A brilliant star arose in the southwest, which would shine for a while
and then disappear. The old men said, '
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