Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights: Being the Myths and Legends of the Pimas of Arizona

by J. Wm. Lloyd; Comalk-Hawk-Kih

So the two boys went to Moehahdheck, and found Ee-ee-toy lying asleep, and beat him with their clubs, and killed him, and then came back and told the people of what they had done. But none of the people went to see the truth of this and in the morning Ee-ee-toy came again, just as he used to do, and walked around among the people, who said among themselves: “I thought the boys said they had killed him.”

And that same night all the people went to Moehahdheck, and found Ee-ee-toy asleep, and fell upon him and killed him. And there was a pile of wood outside, and they laid him on this and set fire to the wood and burned his flesh. And feeling sure that he was now dead, they went home, but in the morning there he was, walking around, alive again.

And so the people assembled again, and that night, once more, they killed him, and they cut his flesh up into little bits, and put it into a pot, and boiled it, and when it was cooked they threw it all away in different directions. But in the morning he was alive again and the people gave it up for that time.

But after awhile they were planning again how to kill him; and one of them proposed that they all go and tie him with ropes and take him to a high cliff, and push him off, and let him fall. And so they went and did this, but Ee-ee-toy was not hurt at all. He just walked off, when he reached the bottom, and looked up at the people above him.

The next scheme was to drown him. They caught him and led him to a whirlpool, and tied his hands and feet and threw him in. But he came up in a few minutes, without any ropes on, and looked at the people, and then dived, and so kept on coming up and diving down. And the people, seeing they could not drown him, went home once more.

Then Nooee called the people together and said: “It is of no use for you to try to kill Ee-ee-toy, for you cannot kill him. He is too powerful for men to kill. He has power over the winds, and all the animals, and he knows all that is going on in the mountains, and in the sky. And I have power something like him.”

So Nooee told the people to come in, that evening, to his house. He said: “I will show you part of my power, and I want everyone to see it.”

And Nooee lived not far from where Ee-ee-toy did, south of the Moehahdheck mountain, at a place called Nooee Vahahkkee, and that was where he invited the people to come.

And so, when the people assembled at Nooee Vahahkkee, Nooee made earth in his habitation, and mountains on it, and all things on it, in little as we say, so that the people could see his power; for Juhwerta Mahkai had made him to have power, tho he had not cared to use it. And he made a little world in his house for them to look at, with sun, moon and stars working just as our sun and stars work; and everything exactly like our world.

And when night came, Nooee pushed the darkness back with his hands, and spread it on the walls, so that the people could see his little world and how it worked. And he was there four days and four nights, showing this wonder to the people.