cuzido
New Member
The Jicarilla Apache emergence
In the beginning there is nothing but water. All living things are in the underworld. Everything can talk to everything else. Humans and other daylight creatures want more light; nocturnal animals want darkness. They play a game to decide, and daylight wins out. The Sun peeps through a hole into the upper world and is able to tell the people about it. They build four mounds to help them reach it. In each of the four directions they pile up fruits of a particular colour. These grow into mountains, but they stop short of the upper world.
The people try making ladders of feathers but they break. Four buffalo offer their right horns as ladder rungs and the climb up and people emerge. They tie the Sun and Moon with spider thread to stop them escaping. Four storms blow the waters away and the people circle around their emergence hole until they eventually settle in one place.
In the beginning there is nothing but water. All living things are in the underworld. Everything can talk to everything else. Humans and other daylight creatures want more light; nocturnal animals want darkness. They play a game to decide, and daylight wins out. The Sun peeps through a hole into the upper world and is able to tell the people about it. They build four mounds to help them reach it. In each of the four directions they pile up fruits of a particular colour. These grow into mountains, but they stop short of the upper world.
The people try making ladders of feathers but they break. Four buffalo offer their right horns as ladder rungs and the climb up and people emerge. They tie the Sun and Moon with spider thread to stop them escaping. Four storms blow the waters away and the people circle around their emergence hole until they eventually settle in one place.