“Was that you?” they asked.
“Yes, gentlemen, it was I who came then. As you did not give me anything yesterday, I see that you do not want to give the food to me, but to my clothes. Therefore, I had better give it to them.” He took the chocolate and the coffee and poured it over himself as if it were water, and he broke the bread into pieces and rubbed it all over his dress. The sweetened rice, and boiled hen with rice, sweet atole, minced meat with chile, rice pudding, and beef soup, all this he poured over himself. The rich people were frightened and said that they had not recognised him.
“You burned me yesterday because I was an Indian,” he said. “God put me in the world as an Indian. But you do not care for the Indians, because they are naked and ugly.” He took the rest of the food, and smeared it over his saddle and his horse, and went away.
The Coras say they originated in the east, and were big people with broad and handsome faces and long hair. They then spoke another language, and there were no “neighbours.” According to another tradition, the men came from the east and the women from the west.
In the beginning the earth was fiat and full of water, and therefore the corn rotted. The ancient people had to think and work and fast much to get the world in shape. The birds came together to see what they could do to bring about order in the world, so that it would be possible to plant corn. First they asked the red-headed vulture, the principal of all the birds, to set things right, but he said he could not. They sent for all the birds in the world, one after another, to induce them to perform the deed, but none would undertake it. At last came the bat, very old and much wrinkled. His hair and his beard were white with age, and there was plenty of dirt on his face, as he never bathes. He was supporting himself with a stick, because he was so old he could hardly walk. He also said that he was not equal to the task, but at last he agreed to try what he could do. That same night he darted violently through the air, cutting outlets for the waters; but he made the valleys so deep that it was impossible to walk about, and the principal men reproached him for this. “Then I will put everything back as it was before,” he said.
“No, no!” they all said. “What we want is to make the slopes of a lower incline, and to leave some level land, and do not make all the country mountains.”
This the bat did, and the principal men thanked him for it. Thus the world has remained up to this day.
No rain was falling, and the five principal men despatched the humming-bird to the place in the east where the rain-clouds are living, to ask them to come over here. The clouds came very fast and killed the humming-bird, and then returned to their home. After a while the humming-bird came to life, and told the principal men that the clouds had gone back. The people then sent out the frog with his five sons. As he proceeded toward the east he left one of his sons on each mountain. He called the clouds to come, and they followed and overtook him on the road. But he hid himself under a stone, and they passed over him. Then the fifth son called them on, and when they overtook him he, too, hid himself under a stone. Then the fourth son called the clouds and hid, then the third son called, and then the second, and finally the first, who had been placed on a mountain from which the sea can be seen to the west of the sierra. When the storm-clouds went away again, the frogs began to sing merrily, which they do to this day after rain, and they still hide under stones when rain is coming to the Cora country.
The rabbit in olden times had hoofs like the deer, and the deer had claws. They met on the road and saluted each other as friends. Said the deer: “Listen, friend, lend me your sandals, to see how they feel. Only for a moment.” The rabbit, who was afraid the deer would steal them, refused at first, but at last he agreed, and the deer, putting them on, rose and began to dance. “Oh, how beautifully it sounds!” he said. He danced five circuits, and began to dance mitote and sing. The rabbit sat looking on, and was in a dejected mood, fearing that the deer might not give him back his sandals. The deer then asked permission to run five big circuits over the mountains. The rabbit said no, but the deer went away, promising to come back directly. He returned four times, but on the fifth round he ran away. The rabbit climbed up on a mountain and saw the deer already far off. He wanted to follow him, but he could not, because his feet were bare. The deer never returned the hoofs to the rabbit, and hoofless the rabbit has remained to this day.
I had many interesting interviews with the old shaman whom the authorities had appointed to serve me. He confided to me that for many years he had faithfully fulfilled his office as the principal singing shaman of the community, but that the people had once suddenly accused him of practising sorcery and wanted to punish him. Being very intelligent and upright, he was of great assistance to me, and the more eager to do all he could for the grudge he bore his compatriots for accusing him of sorcery. No doubt he was glad of my coming, as it gave him a chance to rehabilitate himself, since, for the first time in three years, he had been engaged to sing at the dance. Be this as it may, I obtained much valuable information from him. He could elucidate the trend of Indian thought better than any shaman I had hitherto met, and his talk was full of aphorisms and opinions with reference to Indian views of life.