The Twins Get into Hot Water
(§4 of Sam Blowsnake's Twins Cycle)
Version 1
by Sam Blowsnake
based on the interlinear translation of John Baptiste
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| Sam Blowsnake |
Hocąk-English Interlinear Text
(164) And at this time the oldest of the Twins that are said, "Flesh, let's go visiting around the world right now. To begin with, as our grandfather is located here, we will go by him," they said. (165) They had come there to their grandfather. "Grandpa, we have come," they said. "Hohó, it looks like my little grandsons have come. It is good. As I lay here, I have become lonesome for you," he said. (166) "We too, grandpa, have been made to feel this way, so we have come," they said to him. There he was trying to kill them. He put on water to boil. He was going to boil them. They were teasing each other. They were doing a great deal of it. (167) There they tipped over the water that was boiling on the old man and they killed him. "Hąhó Flesh, this is the one who did it, who ate our mother. Let's eat him," he said. There they ate him. (168) And when they had eaten, then they set the lodge afire.
And after they started out from there, they killed all the things that were not good. They went all over the world. (169) And under the earth, and all the rivers, and the ocean, they did not miss anyplace. And again they went up above. Finally, they also went up to the sky. (170) They reached everywhere the Nights were. They were everywhere the sun and the moon lived. Wherever the stars were, they also got to them. (171) And they also reached everywhere that there was a Thunderbird village. They went through all of the four worlds that exist. They did not miss anyplace. In the course of time, as they went about, they reached the place where Earthmaker dwells.
(172) They surprised him. No one would ever go there of his own accord. He was thinking, "They came here." There were two very large lodges. Earthmaker and Herešgúnira were side by side there. (173) They went there to Herešgúniga first. "Hąhą́ my children, for as long as I have been sitting here, no one has ever come to me of his own free will. (174) You have done this for the first time. "You have come for something. Why have you come for it? I want to hear from you," he said. (175) Then the older one said, "Flesh and I together are going all over the world for no particular reason," he said. And he was marking out lifespans. When anyone was born, he wrote it in the book. He was marking them out very short. (176) "Koté, why don't you make them long?" they asked him. Thus has the Maker of Things made me this way. (177) It is a short life that I have control over. If they were all long, they would overcrowd the world. Then they would be helpless. They will not have enough food. (178) Therefore, in this way, thus I am created by Earthmaker. He made me to decrease the people." They were doing it. "Let us do the book for you," they asked him. Finally, they persuaded him. (179) Consequently, they were doing it. They made them all very long. "Don't do that boys," he said, but they made them all very long. (180) He tried to take it back, but they refused to give it up. Even then Herešgúniga was equal to Earthmaker, but they ruled him by force. He was afraid of them. They scared him.
(181) And again they went there to Earthmaker. They arrived. "Hąhą́ my little children, I didn't make it to be this way. In any case, what is the evil in your coming here? (182) Whatever you have come for, that at least will be accomplished." And they said, "We are merely going around everywhere. We have come to see you, as here alone we have never come. There he said to them, (183) "Hąhą́ my little children, you have at least come to this. It is good, but do not do this a second time. When you arrived there outside, what did he say to you?" (184) "And well, he was making the lives of the people under his control short. He said he was doing it because that was the way." "It is Herešgúnira. (185) Do not enter there a second time." There they gave them something to eat. They ate. And that which he was marking were lives, but only a few of them did he make short.
(186) Finally, they went out from there. The older one said, "Hąhó Flesh, niži, Earthmaker did tell us to go in here again. "Hąhó, so be it," he said, and (187) they went in there again. Because they went in again, Herešgúniga didn't like it there. They knew it. Inside they teased one another. (188) Then he did it. He heated up an iron lodge. They were abusing his things. And he said to them, "As you were going about the earth visiting, (189) I thought that you might be tired, so a made a sweat bath for you." "Hąhó, it is good. I'd like to get into a sweat bath." Flesh said the same. So then he let them go into the iron lodge there, (190) and then suddenly he caused there to be no door for them. "You tried to make yourselves out to be spirits. You will die. Now I had not thought of this before." (191) And inside they were saying, "Koté, Herešgúniga has done us good. It happens that I really needed to have a sweat bath." "I am also in the same way," said the other one. (192) They both liked it. More and more it was getting very much hotter. "Koté Flesh, the hotter the sweat bath the more it usually makes the body limber up. (193) If it were to get a little hotter, it will also be better. The lodge was getting redder with heat. Finally, it became red-hot. (194) And Herešgúniga said, "I wonder whether the clever men are holding their faces now," he was saying. He thought that the had killed them is why he had said it. And they began to tease one another. (195) They chased one another inside and they would also bound off the iron lodge there like springs. They laughed a good deal. Herešgúniga heard them. Herešgúniga was frightened there. (196) There he thought that he might open it up for them. He thought that they might do less to him. Just then, they burst out of there. They chased one another. And again they burst back in. (197) Their laughter could be heard from inside. Just then, they burst the iron-lodge into pieces. The face of the lodge they tore down upon themselves. (198) There they burnt to the ground the lodge of Herešgúniga, the one who made a play thing of the sweatbath. There they could have burnt up Herešgúniga together with it, but (199) they didn't do it. Herešgúniga escaped with just his body alone. He was afraid of them. Being angry, he could not bear either of them. And having gotten ready to come away, they left. (200) They thanked him for giving them a sweat bath, then they left. As to his attempt to see to killing them, they did not consider the matter.1
The Twins Get into Hot Water
(§3 of the Jasper Blowsnake's Twins Cycle)
by Jasper Blowsnake
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| Jasper Blowsnake |
Hocąk-English Interlinear Text
(30) And he became frightened of his own children. "Your grandfather killed the one who was your mother and ate her and he is living over here." The next morning it was their grandfather that they went to. "Koté, let's go to our grandfather," they thought. They got to him. They went and entered their grandfather's. "Grandpa, we have come." "Ho," he said. "My grandchildren, sit on the opposite side. Thus they always do to little boys when they visit," he said to them and he boiled to a very high temperature a large kettle full of water and he put them in the kettle. (31) "About now they must be dead." There he might look at them. He peeped in. Those inside were playing intensely. Finally, they kicked over the kettle. They tipped it over on the old man and killed the old man. Then they went over. When they returned, they said to him, "We went there to grandpa's. Father, he said to us, 'When little boys visit they always do thus to them.' He tried to kill us. And so we tipped boiling water over on him and we killed him. Father, we have killed for you your father. We did well. We did it to a bad spirit."2
(§4 of Susman's Twins Cycle)
Version 3
collected by Sam Blowsnake
Hocąk-English Interlinear Text
(13) "Hąhą́ Flesh," Little Ghost said, "our father hunted something for us and in order for us to eat it, he left it for us. (14) We will have to work things out for ourselves. Once we have eaten as much of all the stuff which he has left here in the lodge, we will have to go away," Little Ghost said. (15) "First thing we will go up over here. We will go out there where there are some boys playing.
After they went and arrived, there were a lot of boys there making noise. Then they went right inside. (16) They played with them. They were doing Kicking Each Other. And when they performed in Kicking Each Other, they alone kicked many. Thus it was, but then they did everyone. (17) Some they knocked out with their feet. Now then, thus everybody came after them. Mightily they strove. Then they downed lots of them. After that they were afraid of them. Then they said, "K'óte, let's make that the end of it." (18) Then those two said it. "K'oté, let's go home." They went back home.
As they went together with them, they arrived there at a lodge. An old man was lying there warming his back. (19) And they played again inside the lodge. They did Kicking Each Other. They did it a lot. Then the old man said, "You didn't used to do that. You're doing way too much of it." So one of them said, (20) "Grandfather, two small boys have come. They're the ones who are doing it," he told him. Then he raised his hand towards them and said, "Let me feel them," he said. And they came to him with the two twins in their grasp. (21) "These are the ones," they said to him. He felt them. Once he caught hold of them, he killed both of them. Then they used their hands to open them up. They took out their insides. "Cause this to be hung up and smoked for me," he said. (22) "Once it is smoked well, I'll eat my own fresh meat." They brought to boil a very large kettle over the fire. They took out the guts of Flesh and Little Ghost and put them where the fire was, hanging them up above where the smoke went so that they would be smoked. (23) And the other small boy still was engaged in play. After awhile, they got down and joined in the play. Now mightily they strove. In their play they even tipped over the boiling water with their feet. (24) All of that boiling water they dumped on him. He was burned. They had killed him. They threw him into the fire. And they killed those boys and they threw them into the fire. They made them burn.
(25) After that, this old man was turned into an alligator. Those boys were made into very small ones of this kind. And it was the old man himself who had those small boys play with boys, and when they came back together with them, they would kill and eat them. (26) So those boys tried to eat them, but failed. They even killed the boys as well.3
Commentary. "they were teasing each other" — in Hocąk this is a single word, kiružijireže (ki-ružic-ire-že). This forms an interesting assonance with kirujireže, "they were cooking each other."
Meaning. In the astronomy allegory, the mother is Moon and the father is Sun. As the moon gets closer to the sun it gets eaten away little by little until it is completely conjoined with the sun. For the inner planets of Mercury and Venus, the situation is reversed. As they get closer and closer to the sun (or so it seems to observers on earth), they do not seem to have phases like the moon (although the phases can be seen in telescopes). Furthermore, as the sun (Grandfather) sinks into the ocean that encircles the earth, it is he who disappears piecemeal, and the morning and evening stars that seem to remain whole. Thus it is the sun that is eaten by the children, after being "cooked" in the waters first. However, the sun rises again, symbolized by his flaming lodge as the Twins depart to other worlds.
In their first visit to Herešgúnina, he is busy making marks in a book to shorten human lives. 
It should be noted here that time used to be kept on calendar sticks upon which were incised marks reflecting the passage of units of time. Such a stick is illustrated in the inset (for an enlarged view, click on the image). The length of human lifetimes is a matter not of writing but of marks, an activity more akin to the use of calendar sticks. The primary purpose of a calendar stick is to record regular astronomical processes so that time can be calculated. But the use of the calendar stick to record a Mercury cycle is bound to fail for want of length of timber if nothing else, not to mention the confusion of treating the matutine Mercury and the verspertine Mercury as two different stars. Even though he has his "book" (stick?) before him, Herešgúnina cannot mark the lives of the Twins — thus he has no power over them. Their very (apparent) irregularity serves to make them extra-temporal and therefore free of the power of time.
The second visit to Herešgúnina is a variant of the episode in which the Twins devour their grandfather. The trapping of the Twins inside the red hot iron steam bath is the conjunction of Mercury with the sun. To visual astronomy it seems as if the sun has mysteriously swallowed up the twin Mercuries, yet in the end, they will be none the worse for wear when they reëmerge from their conjunction with the sun. The disappearance and reëmergence of the mercurial morning and evening stars is not regular to casual astronomical observation. Their cycles can only be measured by cultures (such as the Maya) who are capable of preserving records of the progress of the two Mercuries through the heavens over a long period of time and who have discovered their hidden identity. Time is measured by the sun and moon which were believed to be regular. These are controlled by Earthmaker and Herešgúnina: the former creates, the latter detracts. It is Herešgúnina's legions that eat away the moon. But this eating away of the moon is a regular temporal process, the visit (conjunction) of the Twins with Sun is not like that of Moon, since it seems both irregular and free of any process of diminishment. It is as if despite being children of the Moon, they are free of the otherwise iron dictates of the deleterious aspect of time. Thus they are stronger than their grandfather and stronger than Herešgúnina, inasmuch as they have freed themselves from their power. It is this power that expresses itself in the return to humans of that time deleted from their lives by Herešgúnina.
The essential disobedience of the Twins is also expressed in their astronomical aspect. They seem not to fall into the regular order of the cosmos, they disobey its regularity just as they disobey the fatherly strictures designed to keep their conduct in the regular paths of righteousness. In the dissolution of the Moon, the balance of good and evil are seen in operation with her waxing and waning. Yet this is just what is not seen with the Twins: the regularity of evil is violated as much as the regularity of good. They vacillate in a no man's land beyond good and evil, the realm of pure and unrestricted power.
Comparative Material. In the Twin Cycle of the Ioway nation we find a close parallel. "The Twins traveled a little farther and they came to a person who said, 'Grandsons, I'm glad you've come. Before we talk, let us take a sweat-bath.' The sudatory was made of thick clay and had no holes for ventilation. Moreover it was so hard it could not be broken. After the boys agreed, the three entered the sweat lodge and there their host had a greater fire outside. When the stones were heated they were placed in the bath, and one of the boys sat on each side, with the man in the rear, and the door place vacant. When the door was closed the heat became terrible, but the twins, when it became too terrific to bear, took mussel shells and crawled under them, and so escaped. At last even the owner could not stand it any longer and ran out, whereupon the boys pursued him and drove him into the next world, where he remains invisible, but evil. He is the evil one, and knows whatever we do or even whisper. He is one of the tribe of Ghosts (Wanagri)."4
The Skidi Pawnee have a reasonably close parallel to the Hocąk story. The people who had killed the Twins' mother had sharp elbows and other spikes on their body. The father of the Twins had become afraid of their power, and since they did the opposite of whatever he told them, he strictly ordered them never to visit the place where these matricides lived. As a result, After Birth Boy persuaded his brother Handsome Boy that they should pay them a visit. They planned ahead what they would do. The sharp elbow people pretended to be happy to see the Twins and put on a kettle for a feast. At a prearranged moment, they signaled to jump the boys, but the Twins leapt upon the edge of the kettle and disappeared. In the pell-mell to capture them, the sharp elbows collided with one another and soon they had cut each other up severely. Then the kettle tipped over and many were scalded to death. The Twins set their grass lodge on fire, burning up nearly all of them. There were a couple of survivors. These they turned into locust trees with sharp spines here and there. They took a few of these home to their father and told them they were awls.5
The Kitahahki Pawnee have a very different version of this tale. The Twins are planning to use logs to cross a creek, but an old woman, a witch, causes them to suddenly stand upright and become trees, trapping the Twins in their branches. When she spits on one of them, the area all about falls into a deep freeze. She leaves, thinking that the Twins are sure to perish. However, Long Tooth Boy gnaws steps into the side of the tree, and they descend to the ground and escape. They plan to kill the witch. Long Tooth Boy becomes a raccoon and is killed by his older brother. The boy takes the dead raccoon to the witch's lodge and they prepare to cook it. The boy cuts up the meat but leaves the raccoon's head resting on its paws on the edge of the kettle. Suddenly, the raccoon sticks its tongue out, and at this signal, the boys upset the kettle of boiling water and scald the witch. She loses her balance and falls into the fire, where she is burned up. The older brother takes the meat and wraps it in the raccoon hide, and throws it into a pond. Soon thereafter, Long Tooth Boy reemerges alive.6
The Wichita, who are related to the Pawnee, also have a version of this myth. The father of After Birth Boy and his brother told them not to visit certain places. One of these was where Spider Woman lived. Just the same, After Birth Boy persuaded his brother to come with him to where she lived. They showed up with a gift of birds, so she told them to go fetch some water so that she could cook them. When they came back, she put the water in a kettle to boil. When the water began to boil, she told the boys to get in. They happily obliged. However, when the water came to a full boil, they suddenly tipped over the kettle right on to Spider Woman, scalding her to death. Then they went home and told their father what they had accomplished.7 [previous episode of this story] [next episode of this story]
When the Blackfoot Twins, Beaver and Rock, were told by their father not to roll their hoop in the direction of the wind, they did it anyway. The hoop led them to the rock lodge of a witch. She induced them to sit down and have a smoke with her. Normally, she would smoke until the visitors were suffocated by the cloud of smoke inside. However, this time the boys out-smoked her, and it was she who was smothered. Then Rock spit on an arrow and dipped it into water and fired it at the lodge. The water welled up and washed the stone lodge completely away.8
The Pima have a figure in their religion, Elder Brother, who has a role exactly like that of Herešgúnina. Their Earthmaker is called "Earth Doctor." "Then Elder Brother was born, Earth was his mother, and Sky his father. He was so powerful that he spoke roughly to Earth Doctor, who trembled before him. The people began to increase in numbers, just as they had done before, but Elder Brother shortened their lives, so the earth did not become so crowded. But Elder Brother did not like the people created by Earth Doctor, so he planned to destroy them again."9
The Maya version has similarities to all three of the Hocąk variants, except that water has no role in the story. The Lords of Xibalba, the rulers of the underworld, are the Maya counterparts to Herešgúnina. Coe describes a dramatic reenactment of the adventure that the Hero Twins (Hunahpu and Xbalanque) had with these evil spirits. "The youths then began to dance before the Underworld lords, the dance becoming progressively more violent and frenzied; little by little the lords became fascinated, until they also were caught up in it. Hunahpu and Xbalanque appeared to fly above bonfires set around the periphery of the dance ground. Suddenly, unsuspected by the Xibalbans, they lit a multitude of incensarios, and in the midst of dense smoke they set fire to the grove of trees and to the mats. Everything turned into a great conflagration. Facing one another, with extended arms, Hunahpu and Xbalanque hurled themselves into the fire, which consumed the trapped Xibalbans as well. The smoke from the copal obscured all that was taking place in the bonfire, and even those 'in the know' were frightened by the cries of the dying lords. When the smoke cleared, only ashes remained. ... As drums, shell trumpets, and the like sounded, the Hero Twins appeared from the compartment, covered with beautiful feather capes, wearing on their brows ornaments appropriate to great lords."10
This Maya version, however, is much closer. "'This is the making of the oven, the great stone oven. The Xibalbans made it like the placed where the sweet drink is cooked, they opened it to a great width. After that, messengers came to get the boys, the messengers of One and Seven Death: "They must come. We'll go with the boys, to see the treat we've cooked up for them', say the lords, you boys," they were told. "Very well," they replied. They went running and arrived at the mouth of the oven. And there they tried to force them into a game: "Here, let's jump over our drink four times, clear across, one of us after the other, boys," they were told by One Death. "You'll never put that one over on us. Don't we know what our death is, you lords? Watch!" they said, then they faced each other. They grabbed each other by the hands and went head first into the oven. And there they died, together, and now all the Xibalbans were happy, raising their shouts, raising their cheers: "We've really beaten them! They didn't give up easily," they said. After that they summoned Xulu and Pacam, who kept their word, the bones went just where the boys had wanted them. Once the Xibalbans had done the divination, the bones were bound and spilled in the river, but they didn't go far, they just sank to the bottom of the water. They became handsome boys; they looked just the same as before when they reappeared."11
Links: The Twins, The Twins Cycle, Thunderbirds, Nightspirits, Cosmography, Earthmaker, Herešgúnina.
Links within Sam Blowsnake's Twins Cycle: §3. The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee (v. 1), §5. The Twins Visit Their Father's Village.
Links within Jasper Blowsnake's Twins Cycle: §2. The Twins Disobey Their Father (v. 2), §4. The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee (v. 2).
Links within Amelia Susman's Twins Cycle: §3. The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee; §5. The Twins Kill a Waterspirit.
Stories: mentioning the Twins: The Twins Cycle, The Man with Two Heads, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Two Boys, The Two Brothers, The Lost Blanket; featuring Herešgúnina (the Bad Spirit or One Legged One) as a character: The Creation of Evil, The Creation of the World, The Creation of Man, The Lost Blanket, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Woman Who Became an Ant, The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Journey to Spiritland, Šųgepaga, The Spirit of Gambling, Bladder and His Brothers, The Two Brothers, The Origins of the Milky Way, The Buffalo's Walk; see also Black and White Moons, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara; mentioning Earthmaker: The Creation of the World, The Creation of Man, The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Lost Blanket, Earthmaker Blesses Wagíšega (Wešgíšega), The Man Who Would Dream of Mą’ųna, The First Snakes, Tobacco Origin Myth, The Creation Council, The Gray Wolf Origin Myth, The Journey to Spiritland, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, The Seven Maidens, The Descent of the Drum, Thunder Cloud Marries Again, The Spider's Eyes, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, Hawk Clan Origin Myth, Fourth Universe, Šųgepaga, The Fatal House, The Twin Sisters, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Elk Clan Origin Myth, Deer Clan Origin Myth, Bear Clan Origin Myth, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, The Masaxe War, The Two Children, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Petition to Earthmaker, The Gift of Shooting, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Stone Heart, The Wild Rose, Earthmaker Sends Rušewe to the Twins, The Lame Friend, How the Hills and Valleys were Formed, The Hocąk Migration Myth, The Necessity for Death, Hocąk Clans Origin Myth, The War among the Animals, Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, Blue Mounds, Lost Lake, The Hocągara Migrate South, The Spirit of Gambling, Turtle and the Giant, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, The Hocągara Contest the Giants, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, Bird Origin Myth, Black and White Moons, Redhorn's Sons, Holy Song, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, Death Enters the World, Man and His Three Dogs, Trickster Concludes His Mission, Story of the Thunder Names, The Origins of the Milky Way, Trickster and the Dancers, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, East Enters the Medicine Lodge, The Creation of Evil, The Blessing of Kerexųsaka, Song to Earthmaker, The Blessing of the Bow, The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth, The Origin of the Cliff Swallow; about journeys to and from Spiritland: The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, The Journey to Spiritland, Sunset Point, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Lame Friend, Two Roads to Spiritland, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, Holy One and His Brother, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, The Foolish Hunter, Waruǧábᵉra, The Thunderbird, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, White Wolf, The Two Brothers, The Lost Blanket, Earthmaker Sends Rušewe to the Twins, The Man who went to the Upper and Lower Worlds, The Petition to Earthmaker, Wears White Feather on His Head, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, Thunder Cloud Marries Again, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, The Friendship Drum Origin Myth, Aracgéga's Blessings, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, The Man Whose Wife was Captured; mentioning alligators: The Red Man, Redhorn's Sons; mentioning sweat lodges or sweat baths: The Lost Blanket, The Green Man, Bladder and His Brothers (v. 1), Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, The Thunderbird, Snowshoe Strings, Waruǧábᵉra, The Red Man, The Chief of the Heroka, The Birth of the Twins (v. 2), Lifting Up the Bear Heads, The King Bird, Little Human Head, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, The Shaggy Man, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, The Dipper, The Two Boys, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (v. 2); mentioning the Ocean Sea (Te Ją): Trickster's Adventures in the Ocean, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp (v. 1), Otter Comes to the Medicine Rite, The Rounded Wood Origin Myth, The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Trickster and the Children, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, Wears White Feather on His Head, White Wolf, How the Thunders Met the Nights (Mąznį’ąbᵋra), Bear Clan Origin Myth (vv. 2a, 3), Wolf Clan Origin Myth (v. 2), Redhorn's Sons, Grandfather's Two Families, Sun and the Big Eater, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4), The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father (sea), The Dipper (sea), The Thunderbird (a very wide river), Wojijé, Redhorn's Father, Trickster Concludes His Mission, Berdache Origin Myth, Thunder Cloud is Blessed, Morning Star and His Friend, How the Hills and Valleys were Formed.
Themes: two opponents play the game Kicking Each Other (Nąkįxjage): The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, Young Man Gambles Often, The Shaggy Man, Bladder and His Brothers;anthropophagy and cannibalism: A Giant Visits His Daughter, Turtle and the Giant, The Witch Men's Desert, The Were-Grizzly, Grandfather's Two Families, The Roaster, Redhorn's Father, Hawk Clan Origin Myth, The Lost Blanket, Young Man Gambles Often, White Wolf, The Shaggy Man, Partridge's Older Brother, The First Fox and Sauk War, The Fox-Hocąk War, The Hocągara Contest the Giants, Morning Star and His Friend, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Seven Maidens, Šųgepaga, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, Shakes the Earth, The Stone Heart, Thunder Cloud is Blessed; someone kills his own kinsman: The Chief of the Heroka (wife), The Red Man (wife), Worúxega (wife), The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2) (wife), Bluehorn's Nephews (mother), The Green Man (mother), Waruǧábᵉra (mother), Partridge's Older Brother (sister), The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother (sister), The Were-Grizzly (sister), Crane and His Brothers (brothers), White Wolf (brother), The Diving Contest (brother), The Chief Who Shot His Own Daughter (daughter), The Birth of the Twins (daughter-in-law), The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle (daughter-in-law), Snowshoe Strings (father-in-law); visiting Earthmaker: The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, The Journey to Spiritland, The Lame Friend, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Lost Blanket, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Petition to Earthmaker, Trickster Concludes His Mission, Earthmaker Sends Rušewe to the Twins; a human being physically travels to Spiritland without having died: The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, Sunset Point, Snowshoe Strings, The Thunderbird, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, The Star Husband, White Wolf, Waruǧábᵉra, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Shaggy Man, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, Aracgéga's Blessings, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, The Lost Blanket, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Petition to Earthmaker, The Boy who would be Immortal, Thunder Cloud Marries Again, Rainbow and the Stone Arch (v. 2), The Friendship Drum Origin Myth, Trickster Concludes His Mission; the Twins disobey the commands of someone with fatherly authority over them: The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Two Boys, The Lost Blanket, The Two Brothers; a knowledgeable person tells someone not to go to a certain place because of the danger, but that person goes there anyway: The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Fox-Hocąk War, The Two Boys, The Two Brothers, The Lost Blanket, Bladder and His Brothers, The Thunderbird, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle; a human turns into a (spirit) animal: How the Thunders Met the Nights (Thunderbird), Waruǧábᵉra (Thunderbird), The Dipper (hummingbird), Keramaniš’aka's Blessing (blackhawk, owl), Elk Clan Origin Myth (elk), Young Man Gambles Often (elk), Sun and the Big Eater (horse), The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Were-Grizzly, Partridge's Older Brother (bear), The Woman who Loved her Half-Brother (bear), Porcupine and His Brothers (bear), The Shaggy Man (bear), The Roaster (bear), Wazųka (bear), The Spotted Grizzly Man (bear), Brass and Red Bear Boy (bear, buffalo), White Wolf (dog, wolf), Worúxega (wolf, bird, snake), Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (buffalo), The Brown Squirrel (squirrel), The Skunk Origin Myth (skunk), The Fleetfooted Man (otter, bird), A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga (otter), The Diving Contest (Waterspirit), The Woman who Married a Snake (snake, Waterspirit), The Omahas who turned into Snakes (four-legged snakes), Snowshoe Strings (a frog), How the Hills and Valleys were Formed (v. 3) (earthworms), The Woman Who Became an Ant, Hare Kills a Man with a Cane (ant); traveling over the whole earth: Deer Clan Origin Myth, The Pointing Man, Trickster and the Dancers, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Necessity for Death, Death Enters the World, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Twins Cycle, The Two Boys, The Lost Blanket, The Two Brothers, Bluehorn's Nephews.
Notes
1 Sam Blowsnake, "Warecáwera," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, ca. 1912) Winnebago V, #11: 164-200. An English translation is published in Paul Radin, The Evolution of an American Indian Prose Epic. A Study in Comparative Literature, Part I (Basil: Ethnographical Museum, Basil Switzerland, 1954) 93-94.
2 Jasper Blowsnake, "Waretcawera," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman ##3850, 3896, 3897 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Notebook 67: 1-40 [30-31].
3 Amelia Susman, Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, Aug. 30 - Oct. 10, 1938) Book 3.13-26.
4 Alanson Skinner, "Traditions of the Iowa Indians," The Journal of American Folklore, 38, #150 (October-December, 1925): 427-506 [440].
5 Woman Newly Made Chief, "Handsome-Boy and After-Birth Boy," in George A. Dorsey, The Pawnee Mythology (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997 [1906]) 151-152.
6 Thief, "Long Tooth Boy," in Dorsey, The Pawnee Mythology, 493.
7 Ahahe, "12. The Deeds of After-Birth-Boy," in George A. Dorsey, The Mythology of the Wichita (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995 [1904]) 88-102 [95-97].
8 Clark Wissler and D. C. Duvall, Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995 [1908]) 45.
9 "The Creation of Man-Kind and the Flood," in Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest, Compiled and Edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1912). Quoted at the Earth Bow website, http://www.earthbow.com/native/frames.htm (under "Pima").
10 Michael D. Coe, "The Hero Twins: Myth and Image," in The Maya Vase Book: A Corpus of Rollout Photographs of Maya Vases, Volume 1 (New York: Kerr Associates, 1989) 161-162.
11 Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, trs. Dennis Tedlock. Revised Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996 [1985]) 131-132.