Chapter VII: Section I: is moderately long and describes the journey home, but now (1)

with his wives, in order to meet his mother, a half-brother unmentioned before, and finally his dead father's shadow. Kinship relations are thus in the forefront, and most of the topography is still indefinite. The return, as so often in Mohave story, presages war. The hero's successive reunions, culminating in the unique interview with his father's spirit, build up affect toward a climax which can end only in a contest with his hereditary foes.

This contest constitutes part J, and is characteristically brief: the Mohave seem not to know how to dilate on a fight, even one conducted by magic. The hero first beats his enemies in competitions, then destroys them with lightning from his magic cane. The narrator's knitting together of items, and suspending them over intervals, is evidenced by the lightning cane, which has been acquired in paragraph 90, but is used only in 102.

Section K, the final transformation of the hero and his folk into stars, birds, and rocks, is of course a conventional coda--somewhat like the particle used in some languages, or the tone-glide in others, to indicate end of sentence. It means nothing specific in relation to the particular events preceding, but without it the tale would not be felt as having been brought to an end.

This analysis perhaps helps to establish the genuine skill of the narrator in joining, developing, and sustaining a plot which has something of epic quality and which in a less simple culture, with a more specific medium than natural prose available, might have had epic potentialities.

SUPPLEMENTARY

_References to Cane, Ahta (by paragraphs)_

2. Names of the brothers refer to cane (fn. 4).

18a. Uncle sends them for cane.

18b. On the journey lightning and thunder, omen of death.

19-23. Cane described, argument about division, knife made, cane
cut, quarrel over it, return.

24. Not to eat salt while unwashed--indicates power in cane.

24. Older brother paints his cane; younger, bewitched, sees his
unpainted.

62. Cane seen on journey, near Yuma.

70. Turns into cane sliver to hide from four women.

71. Oldest woman thinks he may be cane.

74. Hero smokes caneful of tobacco, chews up the cane.

76. Told that the Mohave do not smoke in cane, he says he is
Cane.

77. Smokes two filled canes.

88. His name, Ahta-hane, first mentioned (fn. 87).

90. Told by mother's father of lightning and thunder.

91. Takes cane from hole made by lightning bolt, splits into
four.

92. Refuses to show it to his wife: it would kill.

93. Half-brother called Ahta-kwasume; wears cane that rattles.

95. The two brothers mourn their father and burn all their
belongings except the lightning cane.

102. Contest with canes that flash lightning: hero's is
stronger.

103. Shows them his canes and makes it thunder.

_References to Meteor, Kwayū_

37. Hero knocks father's kneecap shinny ball west as meteor to
explode in mountains.

75-77. Meteor, husband of four women, tries to kill hero, gives
him tobacco.

82b. Meteor referred to again as cannibal.

104. Hero flies as meteor past rock "Meteor's father's mother"
to turn into rock Mekoaṭa.

_References to Sun, Anya_

7b-10. Hero's father's first wife is Tšese'ilye (fn. 78),
daughter of Sun in west.

11a-14. Hero's father's second wife is Kuvahā, daughter of Sun
in east by different mother.

29-31. One wife returns, other gives birth to hero.

35. He sends his mother away.

77-78. Sun, father (or husband? see fn. 58) of four women,
gambles with hero, loses body, escapes, is turned into double
(sun dog).

87-99. Hero returns to mother.

90. Hero learns from mother's father's son about deadly
lightning.

_References to Blue-tailed Lizard, Halye'anekitše_

36. Hero turns into halye'anekitše lizard to steal father's
kneecap shinny ball (fn. 40).

99-101. Halye'anekitše wins contest for hero by taking father's
scalp from pole.

II. VINIMULYE-PATŠE

Vinimūlye-pātše, more fully "Vinimūlya-hapātša," is a song series prominent in Mohave consciousness, perhaps because it deals with war. I have never secured an etymology for the name. The present version was narrated April 23, 1904, upstream from Fort Mohave, by an old man called Hiweik-kwini'īlye, "her anus is black." He told his tale with unusual compactness: part of a day sufficed for his outline and the Englishing. He mentioned the place in the story of 196 songs; besides an indefinite group near the beginning: "4, 5, 6, 10, 12 while they are on the way," or "a night long, 50 songs." The whole cycle, when sung complete in sequence as tšupilyk, a "gift" to a dying relative, takes two nights to sing, he said. Jack Jones, was, as usual, my guide, sponsor, and interpreter.

The tale is simple. The Mohave hero, Umas-kwitšit-patše, with his people, leaves his home in the northern part of Mohave valley, for the Providence mountains, off to the northwest in Chemehuevi territory, and lives there a year. There is no farming possible in this desert range, but the story is silent on subsistence. The chief wants to return to make war, and, after a brief visit home, leads his people to the river at the south end of Mohave valley, and then makes a long detour downstream to below Ehrenberg, in Halchidhoma land; from there they turn back until they once more reach the foot of Mohave valley. Nothing happens on this excursion; it is perhaps introduced from sheer love of mental travel, or to suggest the progress of a war party. The Mohave in the southern half of the valley flee before the invaders, who appropriate a set of houses near where they had lived originally. Here they stay a year, as is shown by his daughter, when her feelings of modesty are hurt, running away to the Walapai for that period. Then they suddenly resume the march northward for a few miles, and finally join battle with Savilyuyave, Umas-kwitšit-patše's own younger brother and leader of the refugees, at "Hawk-nose" near Fort Mohave. The account of this climax is quite meager. The residents run away across the river. Savilyuyave is killed and scalped, his daughter is made a "slave." After the despoiling of another group, the "Quail people," and some calling of names across the stream, the hero and his band return to the Providence mountains, where one of them dies of a wound received in the battle. Why the two halves of the Owitš clan should peacefully separate under the leadership of two brothers, and then the returning one insist on war to a finish, but abandon the conquered territory, is wholly unaccounted for. Either there is motivation which the narrator knows but considers it unnecessary to discuss; or the motivation is as lacking as in a dream. After all, these tales are all dreams, the Mohave insist. And while it is clear that they do not ordinarily invent new plots in their dreams, they do quite probably dream over or brood about or perhaps actually redream, each man, the plot or plots which he calls his. The one theme which runs through this tale as a unifying thread is the doom of war.

THE TALE

1. Umas-kwitšit-patše lived at Aha-kwa'i[1] with his people. At that time the river was near that place. He was the only one of them to talk to the rest. Then he and his people crossed the river to the western side to Amaṭ-kusayi.[2] (4 songs.)[3]

[1] Aha-kwa'i is at the "Old Gus" ranch, below Milltown, on an
overflow pond or slough (an old river arm), at the foot of the
mesa on the east edge of Mohave valley, upstream from Needles
and downstream from Fort Mohave. At the time of the story, the
river lay close to Aha-kwa'i.

[2] Downstream from Hatšioq-vaṭveve.

[3], [3a] The narrator stated that he usually omitted the songs
credited to pars. 1 and 2 and began with those referring to the
Providence mountains. Iθava is arrowweed.

2. Then they went up on the mesa, and from there into the mountains at Iθave-kukyave. (2 songs.)[3a]

3. Then they went on to the large mountains, Avi-kwe-havasu,[4] the Providence mountains. (2 songs.)

[4] "Blue mountains," as they appear from the Mohave country.

4. They had found that land and kept it for their own. They lived there a year. Now Umas-kwitšit-patše was a Mohave, and his relatives were Mohave in this country. He said: "I want to go back to my relatives." Then he returned by the way he had come, going back to Aha-kwa'i with his people. When he had returned, all the Mohave said: "I think he has come to make war." They talked of war. They were afraid of him, for he was very large. Then he went back to the Providence mountains with his people. Now he was a man who dreamed well.[5] He knew what the people were saying about him: he dreamed it. They were saying: "I wish Umas-kwitšit-patše would come again. We would cook wheat[6] for him, and put meat into it, and make good food for him." No one sent for him to come but he knew what they wished. Then he was ready to come to make war. So he started with his people, but he did not go straight. He went past Hatalompe[7] far down to Aha-kwatpave.[8] (An indefinite number of songs.)[9]

[5] Sumatš-ahotk.

[6] Frequently considered native by the Mohave.

[7] Six miles south of Beal, the point at which the Santa Fe
railroad leaves California on its way east.

[8] On the Colorado on the east side, below Ehrenberg. He had to
cross the river to reach it, of course.

[9] The narrator first said he sang "4, 5, 6, 10, or 12 songs"
about the journey to Aha-kwatpave Later he stated that he sang
of this portion of the story "a whole night, 50 songs." The last
place mentioned by name on the way south, however, is Hatalomve
or Hatalompe.

5. From there he turned back and started north up the river. (10 songs.)

He came to Hôore.[10] (1 song.)

[10] Ehrenberg. The route now is back northward up the east bank
of the river.

6. From there he started again with his people and went upstream to Kapotake-hiv'auve.[11] They slept there and went on up the river to Amaṭ-koahoatše. (2 songs.)

[11] No songs were mentioned for this place, perhaps by
oversight.

7. Having slept there, they went on to Avi-helye'a. (1 song.)

8. The next day they came to Avi-kwa-hapama, (1 song.)

9. From there they went on, the next morning, until they reached Aqwaqa-have.[12] There they slept again. (5 songs.)

[12] Aqwaqa means deer.

10. Starting in the morning, they went on up to Tatasky-anve. They did not sleep there.[13] But Umas-kwitšit-patše talked of war. He said: "When there is war, people are beaten and run away. Women are captured as slaves and pushed into the river." So they talked of what they would do. (2 songs.)

[13] Possibly meaning that they went past the place without
stopping, but more probably that they made camp and spent the
night there, and that Umas-kwitšit-patše talked to his people
instead of letting them sleep.

11. Then they came to Hakutšyepe.[14] There they made camp. Then they saw a beaver's track, like a little boy's foot. They had never seen it before and thought it was a little boy. Umas-kwitšit-patše showed it to his people and they were afraid. In the morning they started. (10 songs.)[15]

[14] The mouth of Bill Williams Fork of the Colorado, the place
being known as Aubrey.

[15] Thus the narrative. In subsequently indicating the number
of songs relating to each part of the story, the narrator made
no mention of Hakutšyepe and the incident there, but proceeded
as follows: "On the way north, 4 songs. At Selye'aye-kwame, 4
songs. At Chemehuevi valley, 2 songs." There is no discrepancy,
but different events and stages of the same part of the journey
are specified in the two accounts. It must be remembered that
the narrative is unusually condensed.

11a. They came to Selye'aya-ita, where they slept. Umas-kwitšit-patše told his people how brave he was, and how good his luck was, and what he had dreamed. (4 songs.)

12. They started up the river next day, came to Hatuṭve and slept there. (4 songs.)

13. They went on up again. (3 songs.)

14. That night they slept at Amaṭ-kyerekyere-kwitni.[16] (4 songs.)

[16] South of Mellen on the railroad. They are now at the foot
of Mohave valley.

15. In the morning they came to Kwaparvete[17] and stood there. The people on the west side of the river, saw them and were afraid and ran off. (10 songs.)

[17] Kwaparvete is the name of a little mesa which the railroad
ascends and traverses after it crosses the river and before it
enters the mouth of the Sacramento wash, by which it climbs to
the Arizona plateau.

16. Umas-kwitšit-patše and his people saw them going. He said: "Let us pursue but not kill them." Then they followed them.[18] Now women shout in war. But this time the women said: "We will not shout. You say you will not kill them, but only chase them; therefore there is no need for us to shout. When you are ready to kill, we will shout." Umas-kwitšit-patše said: "We shall have war. We are not killing these people. We do not even wish to attack them. But there will be war." Those who fled came to above where Needles now is. Umas-kwitšit-patše and his people followed their dust until they came to Avi-hilykwampe.[19] There the pursued crossed the river, and Umas-kwitšit-patše crossed after them. (20 songs.)

[18] Crossing the river to the west bank, as the context shows.

[19] About five miles north of Needles, where the mesa from the
west runs down to the river.

17. The fleeing people came to Amaṭ-tasilyke and to Aθ'i-kupome. But Umas-kwitšit-patše and his people went another way, eastward to Aha-kukwinve.[20] Now they were nearly at the place where they had formerly lived.[21] All the people in the vicinity were afraid and ran northward, upriver, abandoning their food and dishes and property. Umas-kwitšit-patše's people gathered up these effects, ate the food, and lived there.

[20] At the foot of the mesa. Both parties are now east of the
river.

[21] Namely, Aha-kwa'i, where the story starts.

18. Umas-kwitšit-patše had a daughter, Ilya-owitš-maikohwere. He said: "Now that you are big enough, do not sleep near me. Sleep at a distance. Sleep in the corner of the house."[22] Then the girl was angry at his saying that and ran off. (4 songs.)

[22] He wanted her to have a lover and marry, and feared that no
man would steal to her while she lay close to her parents. There
is nothing disgraceful in this suggestion, to the Mohave, who
scarcely make a distinction between lover and husband. The old
people frequently exhort the young to enjoy themselves while
they can.

19. She went east until she came to Hawi, where she slept. Then she went on to Avi-hoalye, the Walapai mountains.[23] There were many girls among the (Walapai) people living there, and she played with them and stayed with them a year. She liked it there. (30 songs.)

[23] Hoalye means yellow pine. The name Walapai, hawaly-ipai in
Mohave, seems to be derived from this word.

20. After a year she went back. When she returned, she was ashamed and sat outside the house. She did not go indoors to her parents. She was painted red. The people she had been with, the Walapai, had given her the paint. The Mohave do not paint like that. So they did not know who she was. She sat with her head bowed. Then Umas-kwitšit-patše came out. "That is my daughter," he said. (10 songs.)

21. He said to her: "I thought you had died. When a woman visits her friends among another tribe, she stays two months or three months. You stayed a year and I thought you were dead." Then, after four days, Umas-kwitšit-patše said: "Now it is four days. I am ready to fight. The people I am going to attack do not live very far away. But I think my daughter is tired. Have you become tired?" But Ilya-owitš-maikohwere said: "No, I am not tired. I will go with you." When they came to Amaṭ-tasilyke and Aθ'i-kupome, the people whom they had pursued before and who had fled there and were still living there, saw them, and took their property and fled north once more. They ran to Sokwilye-ihu.[24] There they lay down for the night. Umas-kwitšit-patše and his people slept at Selye'aye-'itš-patše,[25] downriver from them. Then Umas-kwitšit-patše named a mesa near by: Havateitše-'isnave. (40 songs.)

[24] "Hawk-nose." Not far from Fort Mohave.

[25] Near the river, on the irrigation canal in use at Fort
Mohave in 1904. Selye'aye is sand.

22. Then he started again. Now he wanted to kill the people at Sokwilye-'ihu. Savilyuyave,[26] his younger brother, was the head man among those who had fled. When Umas-kwitšit-patše and his people came to Sokwilye-'ihu, they fought. Soon Savilyuyave's people ran away and jumped into the river. Savilyuyave himself was killed in the river. He sank to the bottom and they seized him, dragged him on the bank, and scalped him. His daughter[27] they took as a slave. Umas-kwitšit-patše's people went back downriver to Selye'aye'-kumitše.[28] (5 songs.)

[26] Also the name of a Mohave who died not many years before
1903.

[27] Her name was said also to be Ilya-owitš-maikohwere. Owitš
is one of the women's clan-names. As Umas-kwitšit-patše and
Savilyuyave were brothers, and of the Owitš group, their
daughters would both be named Owitš. In reply to a question, the
informant stated decisively that all the people accompanying
Umas-kwitšit-patše called their daughters Owitš, showing that he
regarded them as a clan. The totemic reference of the clan is to
clouds.

[28] A mesa approaching the river about two miles south of Fort
Mohave.

23. There they stayed and rested.[29] Umas-kwitšit-patše stood up and named all the places along the river, up to the source. (5 songs.)

[29] Probably for the night, while their leader addressed them.

24. Then they started again and went north to Amaṭ-nyamasave-kwohave.[30] Those who lived there were called the Quail-people, Ipa-'ahma.[31] They saw Umas-kwitšit-patše coming and fled across to the west bank of the river. He took their land and all their food. Now Savilyuyave's people were at Avi-kutaparve.[32] The Quail-people, being afraid, wanted to join Savilyuyave's people, and went to Avi-kutaparve. (3 songs.)

[30] Two or three miles north of Fort Mohave: "earth-white-kwohave."

[31] "When these people were killed, they became quail."

[32] Three or four miles north of Fort Mohave, on the west bank
of the river, where the mesa or cliff is whitish.

25. Umas-kwitšit-patše went up the east side of the river. He saw (his brother's and the Quail) people on the other side and stood and talked across the river to them.[33] He said: "I have fought you. Now I will spare you. You did not stand up against me: I will let you go." Then they talked badly[34] to each other, telling of each other's dead parents and ancestors. (4 songs.)

[33] Literally, "talking" is hardly possible. The Colorado is so
wide that a conversation cannot be carried on across it except
by shouting.

[34] Amatyesumak, "cursed."

26. Soon Umas-kwitšit-patše crossed the river, not at Avi-kwutapārva, but below. "When a man is fighting, he does not stay in one place, he travels," he said. He wanted to go back to the Providence mountains. Then they came to Aha-kuhulyu'i.[35] But they found the spring full of vermin[36] and went on without drinking. One of them, Umas-elyiθe, who had been shot in the thigh, was in great pain as they traveled through the desert here. (1 song.)

[35] "Stinking-water," a spring on a slope, five miles or more
from the river.

[36] Humkuyove.

27. They came to Avi-'itšierqe[37] and stood there and saw their mountains, their own place, the Providence mountains. (1 song.)

[37] "Excrement-rocks" or "mountain."

28. From there it did not take them long to reach their home. (2 songs.)

29. When they arrived, Umas-elyiθe died. (10 songs.)[38]

[38] These ten songs mention the roof, posts, and other parts of
their houses--a favorite subject.

III. NYOHAIVA

CIRCUMSTANCES AND NATURE OF THE STORY

In November, 1905, my friend and interpreter Jack Jones came to San Francisco and the University, bringing with him an informant called Aspa-sakam, which means Eagle-sell. Aspa-sakam was a youngish middle-aged man, heavy-set and inclined to be fat, who worked pretty steadily for the Santa Fe railroad at Needles. He was, however, a good Mohave inwardly, and had dreamt and could sing two cycles, Yellaka or Goose, and Nyohaiva (Nyô'haiva), which is a story of war but named after an insect. He narrated both of these, proving himself an excellent informant as regards precision, orderliness of mind, and willingness to explain. His Goose story has been outlined on pages 766-768 of the Handbook of California Indians. It is a very long tale with a minimum of action. The Nyohaiva story, which follows here, is much shorter. The songs, as their scheme was outlined and as they were recorded on the phonograph in part, aggregate only about a hundred, as against four hundred or more in the Goose series. Aspa-sakam said that it took only one night to sing the Nyohaiva series through.

Nyohaiva, the narrator said, was known also to an old man called Mehulye, who was his mother's brother and who now lived with him. This was a paralyzed man who knew the Great Tale, the story of migrations and battles of Mohave clan groups.

As regards Goose, Aspa-sakam said that this was known also to his brother and to an old man, Hakwe, who was his father-in-law and therefore not a blood relation. The narrator added that perhaps sometime he would teach the singing to his son. The old man, Hakwe, was subsequently interviewed at Needles. I shrank from obtaining from him the whole of the story, having already gone through the ordeal of securing it from Aspa-sakam, but did record some of the songs and a place-name synopsis of the story, which is given on pages 768-769 of the Handbook. This outline shows Hakwe's version of Goose to be quite different in detail from Aspa-sakam's. The songs also have a different melodic theme. It does not seem, therefore, that either of these two informants, son-in-law and father-in-law, could have learned from, or been very much influenced by, the other.

As for Nyohaiva, Aspa-sakam subsequently said that his kin on the father's side knew Nyohaiva. As a boy he heard them sing it and learned it. "They did not teach me, for such things cannot be taught. They can only be dreamed. But my relatives knew Nyohaiva, and I dreamed it." These are his own words, and, semi-contradictory as they may seem to us, they perhaps come as close as is possible to expressing a characteristic Mohave nondifferentiation of spontaneous development from within and acquisition from without. Aspa-sakam added that the way he came to know Goose was different: none of his kinsfolk knew this. In our words, he really dreamed this; Nyohaiva he both learned and dreamed. When he was a boy, sometimes he would sing parts of Goose. An old man, hearing him sing, would say: "Yes, that is right. Yes, that is Goose." So he acquired more of it, dreaming it, and came to sing more and more of it.

It is doubtful whether he had ever sung either Goose or Nyohaiva through consecutively at any one time or occasion. I had seen him about two years earlier at a death and cremation, where he was singing, probably Nyohaiva. He had sung Goose for amusement at night at his home, he said. Neither he nor the interpreter seemingly could be made to understand clearly my questions whether he had ever sung Goose a whole night through, or whether he had ever sung it or Nyohaiva continuously from beginning to end. Such a statement of factual events seems to have little meaning to the Mohave.

Nyohaiva is sung standing, at any rate when women dance in a ring around the singer. He leans on a stick, which he sometimes thrusts forward and waves to the rhythm of his song, sometimes drops through his hand to strike the ground. There is no rattle or musical instrument.

Nyohaiva is classed by the Mohave as one of their song-myths dealing with war, and its plot is simple. Nyohaiva is an insect. She comes into existence as a woman in the north end of Mohave valley, at Miakwa'orve, above Fort Mohave, at the time of the beginnings: "The world was still wet." There is however no reference in the tale to Matavilya's death, Ha'avulypo, Avikwame, or the actually originating events. Nyohaiva travels south along the river, naming places and encountering named personages, but without notable happenings, as far as Aqwāqa-have, in Halchidhoma territory, below Parker. Here four brothers, including Otšôuta, believe that she comes for war and plan to kill her first. She on her part finds bones which she recognizes as her relatives'--a characteristic Mohave motivation and inconsistency--and bets her body against her freedom in a game to be played with one of the same bones. She wins, threatens them with war, and runs off southward, announcing impending war to those whom she meets, as far as Ava-tšohai, somewhere between Parker and Yuma. There she incites the people, under the leadership of men whose names denote blackbirds, to join her in returning and attacking Otšôuta's people. There is no reason given, why they should do so; rather, war is treated as something which, now given its roots, grows and will be--a sort of gathering fate, though a stirring and pleasurable one. The prolix Mohave narrative manner of adding incident to incident makes for an effect of slow accumulation of feeling on this theme. However, the war itself resolves into the killing by magic of a single leader: Homeric battles are not a usual part of the story pattern of the Mohave, in spite of their preoccupation with war. With a magic ball Nyohaiva puts the enemy settlement to sleep, enters Otšôuta's house, cuts off his head. This she carries upriver to Samo'okusa or Amaṭ-ya'ama near Parker, where people are living under the leadership of four transvestites! She institutes the scalp dance for them; throws Otšôuta's skull far south to become a rock at Picacho in Yuma land; then turns herself to stone as Hawk-rock, east of Parker.

The objective towards which the events of the tale trend seems to be the institution of the victory scalp dance; at which, in actual Mohave practice, Nyohaiva was one of several singings that were sung and danced to. In this dance, too, transvestites--the word means coward as well--participated along with women; and there was the expectable heterosexual indulgence. Hence probably the astounding berdache chiefs of the tale: they are imagined in order to provide the fitting dance setting. The scalp celebration seems to have been the principal Mohave occasion for dancing.

Nyohaiva, as a woman, herself reflects this peculiar relation between women and war: her hair, her skirt, her bashfulness are specified. But there is also the opposite attitude: she incites, she wants revenge, she kills. Here she is almost the embodiment of the hwami, the occasional female active homosexual whom the Yuman river tribes recognize as the counterpart of the more frequent male passive invert or alyha. But she is never explicitly designated as a hwami, nor does the tale itself allow us to interpret her as having had defined hwami status in the Mohave mind. Normal sex impulse or relation, what we should call love interest, does not enter into this story at all. It is normally treated meagerly in Mohave mythology, in spite of the endless sex talk and obscene humor of Mohave daily life. When it does appear in narrative, it is episodically. The plots as a whole show the love incidents to be subsidiary. Thus the Cane hero wishes a storm to rid himself of his wives, who are delaying the revenge for which he is traveling; and when his conscience makes him relent, it is because his wish strikes him as inhumane and bad in general, not because of tender sentiments toward the wives as love-objects. And there is rarely much sex feeling, and never a touch of ribaldry. For instance, the Tumanpa story is based on an incest motive, but the theme is treated with such restraint as scarcely to obtrude beyond the skeleton of the plot, and never with a trace of passion. The brother and sister are old people at the beginning of the tale! The fact that such sex element as enters into Nyohaiva is tinged with the quality of inversion, suggests a definite functional relation between inversion and war in Mohave culture. I say inversion because its sanctioned institutionalization largely removes it from the realm of the perverse, at least socially and in part psychologically.

Besides fighting and love-making, a third element active in Mohave life is left out of Nyohaiva as out of certain other stories in Mohave mythology. This is their tribal consciousness and keen ethnographic or international interest. All the people encountered in the story are treated as if they were Mohaves, or at least members of a still undifferentiated human race leading a specifically Mohave-type life; even though they dwell as far away as the Yuma habitat. (There is a partial exception in the incident when Nyohaiva detours east into the mountains, finds a man whose name refers to buckskin shirts, and gives him hunting arrows to live by: thus she institutes the Walapai more than she encounters them.) The attitude of clannish rather than of tribal differentiation recurs in the unpublished "Great Tale" and, in the present monograph, in Cane (I), and explicitly in Vinimūlye-pātše (II), where the victorious attackers of the Mohave, coming from the desert Providence mountains, are not the Chemehuevi who historically inhabited this range, but a separatist band of Mohave who are represented as having settled there, contrary to economic possibility for a farming people.

Nevertheless, the Nyohaiva geography reflects historic international relations. The district of the Mohave-like settlements which plot against Nyohaiva and are vanquished by her are where the Halchidhoma lived as recurrent objects of Mohave and Yuma attack. However, the war party against them comes from the south, that is, from the Yuma direction; and the victim's head is petrified in Yuma territory. It is possible therefore that Nyohaiva is a variant derivative of the Av'alyunu myth and singing which the Mohave recognize as the Yuma equivalent of their Nyohaiva, as per the third paragraph of the tale. That Nyohaiva herself is made to have her origin in northern Mohave valley and turns to stone not far from the scene of her victory, means less, because almost all stories move from north to south, through the vicinity of Avikwame being the typical point of mythic departure with the Mohave, and at times also in Yuma, Walapai, and even Diegueño narratives.

THE NYOHAIVA TALE

1. Nyohaiva came to life at Miakwa'orve.[1] That place was the first one to be dry. All about, the world was still wet. She thought: "I do not know which is the best way to go. I wonder in what direction is the best place for me, so that everyone will know me and I can tell what I know. I have dreamed well. I wish to tell what I know so that everyone will understand it." Now the day and the sun and everything else already existed. Then she thought: "There is the sun. It is already gone down as far as that."[2] (3 songs.)

[1] Opposite Fort Mohave and upstream from it; therefore in
Nevada.

[2] It was anya-tonya'im, afternoon.

2. Then she said: "Now I know what to do. I will not go elsewhere than south. I will cross the river and go to Iδô-kuva'īre."[3] Then, when she came to Iδô-kuva'īre, she thought: "I will tell about this place and that I am here." (2 songs.)

[3] Iδô-kuva'īre is upstream from Fort Mohave and frequently
mentioned. Iδô is the black willow.

3. When she was about to start from there, she said: "I will tell further what I know, so that everyone will learn what I say. Let everyone listen to me and take my words." As she said this she took a handful of sand. "I am a person who has dreamed well. When you Mohave sing, you will sing Nyohaiva. There is another name for singing that, Av'alyunu,[4] but it is the Yuma who will learn that. It will be the same singing, but I give it another name." (1 song.)

[4] Ava-lye means in the house. Some Mohave sing Av'alyunu, but
as something learned from the Yuma.

4. She said: "Well, I have told everything here. I have finished. I will go." Then she went to Ahtšyê-aksāmta.[5] When she had gone a little to the south from there she saw a hill of sand, Selye'aya-kumītše.[6] Then she said: "All will come to this place. They will come here to play and sing and have a good time. That is how I want you to become married."[7] All the people there looked at her, but did not know who she was. "I am the person called Yanaθa-kwe-'ataye,"[8] she said; "Do you not know me?" Then all said: "Yes, we know you. We have heard of that person. That is one who sings and from whom we learn singing. Her name is Nyohaiva." Now they all knew who she was. (4 songs.)

[5] Two to three miles from Fort Mohave, a little east of north.
Aksamta is one of the "wild" seeds planted by the Mohave; cf.
Mastamho, VII, 36-42, below.

[6] About a mile north of Fort Mohave; a sand hill.

[7] Merrymaking and dancing lead to courtship. Compare the
"Supplement" of the Mastamho myth.

[8] This insect, of which Nyohaiva is so to speak the
impersonation, is described as being red-spotted and as coming
out of the ground when this is dry. Hence no doubt the allusion
to Nyohaiva's place of birth being the first to become dry. The
Mohave call yanaθa-kwe-'atāye a "spider," but it spins no web.
The element -ataye means many, atai-k; yanaθa-, the narrator
suggested, was from δanuθa, tears, alluding to the spotted
appearance of the animal.

5. Nyohaiva said: "There are people living below. I must go down. I want to talk to them and teach them to sing. I want to talk to others as well as to you." Then she went. She came to Kamahnūlye.[9] When she arrived there, she said: "I do not tell you anything else. I teach you only singing. I do not tell you what you are to do, but only how you are to sing." (4 songs.)

[9] Kamahnūlye is at the foot of the mesa (valley edge) in
Arizona, 4 miles south of Fort Mohave, near the Lamp ranch.

6. She said: "That is what I teach you. Listen to me." As yet she did not teach other tribes. She taught only the Mohave. Then she went on downward to Savêt-tôhe.[10] (3 songs.)

[10] Savêt-tôhe, a sandy place, is across the river from
Needles, due east, at the foot of the mesa. Another place of the
same name, but rocky, is said to occur farther down the river.

7. As she stood there she heard someone speaking or shouting in the east. She thought: "I hear people to the east. I think I will go there." Thus she said and went east. She went up over the mesa and far up into the mountains A'ī-kumnau-tšumī. There there was a spring, Aha-kuvilye.[11] Someone lived there. She said: "I know you. Your name is Hamaθôle-viya.[12] Well, I will tell of your body. I will tell about you." (4 songs.)

[11] "Stinking water." She is in Walapai land now.

[12] Hamaθôle is a Walapai buckskin shirt; viya, ham-vaya-k, to
turn, revolve. "All will see him as he stands in his shirt and
turns about to display it."

8. Then she was ready to return. "I am going back now," she said. She got up. Then she said again: "You can live here by hunting, but you cannot hunt without having the things with which to hunt." Then she took[13] a bow and four arrows and threw them on the ground, and those living there picked them up. "Now you are provided. You can hunt and shoot," she said. She also took a stone knife with a wooden handle and gave it to them, then she started to go back. (She did not sing about what she did there. She only instructed those people, the Walapai.) As she returned toward the river, everything had been made, both sky and earth, and all was quiet and still. She thought of that as she came, and sang about it. (4 songs.)[14]

[13] Produced magically, hiwaksoāmim.

[14] She evidently returned to Savêt-tôhe after her eastern
excursion, for the songs are credited to that place. Note that
the songs are about the completion and stillness of the world on
her main journey, not about the episodic side trip of
instituting Walapai customs.

9. Now she went downstream along the edge of the river. She said: "The way that I have come will be a trail. I am making a trail for people. When they want to go, they will travel by this." It was when she came to Hotūrveve[15] that she said this. (1 song.)

[15] Unidentified.

10. She went on. Then she heard someone far downstream. She thought: "I wonder whether I can jump four times and reach that place." Then she tried to find how she could jump. She thought: "I think I am able to jump. I am light now: I can jump far. Perhaps if I stand and turn around four, five, six times I shall go far." She stood there thinking, thus. Then she turned herself around four times. Then she arrived far down below, at Iveθīkwe-'akyulye. Nyahunêm-kwayāve[16] lived there. He said: "The person who has come is not like other people. He combs and spreads his hair,[17] he does not roll it.[18] What is the reason you do not roll your hair? Come among my people and live here and I will give you a name." Nyohaiva said: "It is good. Give me a name. I will join you." He told her: "Stand facing the south." Then she faced the south. He sat behind her, looking at her back. "I give you the name Aθ'inkumeδī," he said. When she received that name, Nyohaiva said: "Now I have a new name. Everyone has heard it. My name is Aθ'inkumeδī. I have learned something new." Then she sang. (4 songs.)[19]

[16] Nyahunêm-kwayāve: hune is the Mohave name of a crook used
by the Yavapai for pulling fruit from the tall sahuaro or giant
cactus; it consists of a pole with a small stick tied at an
angle at the end. Kw-ayave, ayave-k, bent, crooked.

[17] Like a woman. There is of course no pronominal gender in
Mohave, so "his" is ambiguous.

[18] Into pencils or strands, like a man.

[19] It is characteristic that it was at this point in the story
that the interpreter first realized that Nyohaiva was a woman,
not a man.

11. From there she went on slowly. She came near Amaṭ-ehê'-kwaδôske.[20] The man who lived there saw her coming: he was called Hutšatš-mekulypuk.[21] He said: "I heard that it was so: I think this is my sister. I think that I look like her." When she arrived and stood before him, he said: "You are my sister."[22] Nyohaiva said: "No, you are not my brother."[22a] "Yes, you are my sister," he said. Then she told him: "Well, let us measure our feet. See, your feet are different. Let me see your arms. Yours are different from mine. Mine are short, yours are long. You are not my brother." Still he insisted: "Yes, I am your brother." But she said: "No, you are not like me. You are tall." Then she went away from that place. (3 songs.)

[20] Amaṭ-ehê' is white earth paint.

[21] Evidently a myriapod or centipede. Described as a white
underground insect or worm, longer than a finger, with legs
along both sides of the body, and able to run fast. "Hutšatš,
white-haired; pukel-pukim, wriggle, travel like a snake."

[22], [22a] They use the term havīkwek, defined by the narrator
as a man or a woman's older or younger brother or sister, viz.,
any sibling. The word has not been secured as kinship term. It
is obviously from havīk, two; hence probably "one of a pair."

12. She went to Hô'aunye-vatše. Hutšatš-matillaye[23] lived there. When she arrived, he also said to her: "You are my sister." She stood opposite him, saying: "I do not think I am your sister." "Yes, you are my sister," he said. Then she told him: "I have heard of you. You have been away. No one knew it; no one saw you; but I heard it: I know you have been away; I know you and what your name is. You are Hutšatš-matillaye." (3 songs.)

[23] Apparently also an insect. It jumps awkwardly, sometimes
falling. For matillaye, compare ke-layi-m, fall.

13. So she went on. When she arrived at a place where there was no one, she passed by. She reached Ahmo-kutšeθīlye.[24] There she stood on a rock. Then she heard people singing at Amaṭa-kwitše. She thought: "When I come to them they will not know me. I am afraid they will kill me. How shall I go there? I do not know." (2 songs.)

[24] Ahmo' is a mortar.

14. She wanted to go to that place. She thought: "What shall I be? I will become something." Then she walked, and jumped about. She put three feathers on herself. Then she became an arrow. She jumped up.[25] She arrived where she had heard the noise, at Amaṭa-kwitše, and there she stuck in the ground. Little boys were playing about and found the arrow. One of them said: "I have often been here but I have never seen an arrow sticking in the ground." He did not take it, but went back and told the old man who lived in that place. The old man's name was Haltoṭ-amītš-kwisāma.[26] When the boy told him, this old man said: "Be careful: that is no arrow. Perhaps it is a person who has become an arrow." Nyohaiva heard that and thought: "I will change back. I want to go to that old man's house." Then she turned human again, and went to the house. The old man saw her coming and said: "See, she is coming. I told you that it was no arrow. It is a person who is coming." When she reached the house, the old man said: "Give her to eat: give her pumpkins and corn." They had food ready and gave it to her. But she did not know that it was food and would not eat it. She had never eaten that kind before. They wanted her to eat and said: "Why do you not eat?" But she said: "No, I do not want to." She was afraid. She thought: "If I eat it, perhaps it will kill me."[27] She wanted to go on and did not even sit down. She only squatted and sang. (3 songs.)

[25] And flew.

[26] Haltoṭ, given as meaning himake, his back, more likely is
the word for spider; amitš, far; kw-isam, see.--This is also an
insect, a small rough bluish or gray beetle that feigns death
when handled.

[27] The Mohave are averse to strange food; it may bring
sickness.

15a. She wanted to go on to Aqwāqa-have.[28] So she started. Now she came to Aqwāqa-have. There were four brothers who lived there, old men: Nyahamo-vetaye,[29] the oldest, Otšôuta,[30] the next, Hiδô-kwitara,[31] the next, and Kīm-ku-sumā,[32] the youngest.

[28] Aqwāqa is deer.

[29] Nyahamo "from ahmo', mortar" (?); vetaye, atai-k, large,
much. Cf. Nyahaim-, wet, moist, in ritual names.

[30] From itšou-k, to make (?). "He was well-made, good
looking."

[31] Hiδô, his eyes; kwi-tara, compare δo-tara-k, blind. "He
always looked down."

[32] Kīm-, cf. akyêm, shoot; ku-sumā, dream. He dreamed of bows
and arrows and instructed people in successful hunting, and told
how he could shoot the sky and make his arrows stick in it. He
shot at ammo, the mountain sheep (the three stars of Orion's
belt); hence people hunt mountain sheep. Two or three small
stars in a row in Orion are his arrow.

15b. Nyahamo-vetaye had a daughter. He said to her, as Nyohaiva arrived: "When a traveler comes, you must talk to her. You must make her come to the house and be her friend. That is the way you should do." When the old man said that, his daughter went to Nyohaiva, took her by the hand, and brought her to the house. Nyohaiva would not go in, but sat outside at the corner of the house. The four men did not know her. "I wonder who she is," they thought. She was ashamed and did not look up. She kept her face down.

15c. Then Kīm-ku-sumā, the youngest of the four, said: "Do you not know her? Have you not heard of her? Her name is Nyohaiva. When she came to one place, she changed her name and took a new one. I heard that she was coming. Now that she has come, I can tell from the way she sits, squatting without sitting down, and from her not looking at us, that when she goes below where there are many people, she will stir up trouble and there will be war and you will not sleep well."[33] He was afraid of her and wanted her to be killed.

[33] From fear of night or dawn attacks.

15d. Then Hiδô-kwitara, the next oldest brother, said: "Well, if you will kill her, you must send word to all, so that they will come and all our people may know it. Send a man to Haltoṭ-amītš-kwisāma to tell him that we wish him to come; that everyone should be here in four days. I want to roast her alive. I do not want only to kill her: I want her blood, and her bones to crush and mix with what we eat. We will do that on the fourth morning." Nyohaiva heard them say that; and they, though saying it, nevertheless gave her to eat; but she would not eat it. She had heard them say that they would kill her in four days.

15e. After two days she went outside and dug down in the ground. There she found a kneecap. "That is my father's bone," she said. She dug on and found a foot bone. "That is my mother's bone," she said. She dug on and found a rib. Then she said: "That is my brother's[34] bone. The people here have killed them. I think that they will try to kill, me in the same way. They recognize me from my face. They knew me because my face was like my father's and my mother's and my brother's. How will they kill me? I would like to know how they will do. They will make me bet my body against something that they put up and then they will kill me. They will bet something against me."

[34] Havīkwek, of note 22.--Finding and playing with bones of
kinsfolk who have been killed by people that are plotting to
kill the hero also, is a stock episode in Mohave mythology, and
a standard motive for fighting. Cf. the Cane myth. A game and
bet are also a usual preliminary to war. There is a seeming
contradiction in the fact that Nyohaiva, who grows from the
ground while the earth is still new, should have parents killed
long before. Most Mohave myths, however, begin with the growth
or birth of the hero; and if fighting later occurs, it is
motivated in the way just explained. Both incidents conform to
the conventional pattern according to which myths are
constructed, so the logical inconsistency does not jar.

15f. Then in four days everyone came there. Nyohaiva had kept under the belt of her skirt the bones that she had found. Now, taking the foot bone[35] in her hand, she said: "If you can take it away from me, you can kill me. If you cannot take it away from me, you shall not kill me. If I am not able to keep and hold it, you may kill me. I do not think you will be able to take it away from me, and if you cannot take it away, I will go off. I will try to run to Avi-'itšôrinyêne and there I will be free. But if you can take it away from me, and bring it to Kunyāvatš-yampeve, you can have my bones and blood." Then they prepared to take from her the ball of bone. But she had dug a little hole[36] and there she buried the ball and stood on it. Then she waved her hands and made it appear as if she were hiding the bone as she folded her arms. She said: "If you do not take it away from me before I come as far south as Avi-'itšôrinyêne, I shall win; but if you can get the bone to Kunyāvatš-yampeve, then I shall lose." Then they all came toward her. She ran south, holding the bone between her toes where they did not see it. They reached her, seized her arms, looked for the bone in her hands, but could not find it. Again they pursued her, seized her, held her fast, tore off all her clothes. She fell, got up again, and ran on, scratched all over, but they did not find the bone. Then, when she came to Avi-'itšôrinyêne, she threw the bone up, and they all stopped. So this one woman had beaten those people. "I have beaten you all. I have dreamed well. In four days we shall have war," she said, and stretched out her arm towards them with four fingers extended (spread in defiance). They stood and looked at her and thought: "Did I not know it? You cannot overcome her. She is Nyohaiva. Now we have made trouble for ourselves. Everything will be turned over." (4 songs.)

[35] Perhaps a heel bone, as it is later spoken of as a ball.

[36] With her toes.

16. From there Nyohaiva went down the river to Avi-haly'a.[37] There she saw Amaly-kapaka[38] who had come to that place with many people. She said to him: "I can tell about your body and about you. I can tell about another thing too: I say there will be war in four days." (4 songs.)

[37] Moon-rock, or moon-mountain. It was recorded as -hily'a
(Yuma form?), whereas the Mohave for moon is haly'a.

[38] Again an insect. Amaly-kapaka are small flies such as
settle on horses.

17. She went on again. As she traveled she kept saying that there would be war in four days. There was no one there and she was all alone, nevertheless she told of the war. Then she came to Avê-ny-eva. Two men lived there, Ahma-kunuhwilye and Tšem-korrave,[39] his younger brother. She came to the house in which they were. She stood at the door and did not say a word. They did not know her, so they said: "Who is it?" Then she told them: "I am Aθ'inkumeδī. I have come to announce war: I say it will be in four days. That is why I have come here: I have come to tell you in how many days there will be war." The two men said: "I know Aθ'inkumeδī: she is Nyohaiva. I know her." (1 song.)

[39] Both brothers are green worms or caterpillars that live in
cottonwood trees. They have a bitter taste. The ordinary name of
Ahma-kunuhwilye is hamasukwenpa. A similar black worm is called
amiθe. Ahma, quail, is also a small bitter melon, not good to
eat; ku-nuhwilye is to drag. Korrave, or kw-irrave, means pain.
Tšem-korrave was thinking of his food, hukθara-nyamely-a'uva,
coyote's-food-tobacco, a strong, pungent, wild tobacco.

18. Then she went on and came to a place to which she gave the name Qapotaq-iv'auve. She stood there and said: "I can tell where I am: I have dreamed well." Now she was there alone, but she said: "I say we shall have war." Then she tried what she could do. She trotted, to the south one step (_sic_). Then she came back. Then she trotted one step to the west and returned, then one to the north, then one to the east.[40] Then she pulled out one hair on her right side and threw it to the west, and it began to rain. She said: "I thought I should do that. I dreamed about war: that is my power; I know that." (4 songs, one about each direction.)

[40] Sunwise circuit, beginning with the south. This is unusual,
but she is traveling south.

19. She went on down again until she came to Avi-tuva'auve. There she stood and said: "I thought the sky was far off. I thought the earth, too, was far around, and that its end could not be told. But now, when I have arrived here, the sky is not far away, and the (end of the) earth is near." Thus she thought. (2 songs.)