How Nooee Killed Ee-ee-toy
: STORIES OF THE SECOND NIGHT: Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights
Ee-ee-toy lived in the Salt River Mountain, which is called by the
Awawtam Moehahdheck, or the Brown Mountain, and whenever the girls
had ceremonial dances because of their arrival at womanhood he would
come and sing the appropriate songs. And it often happened that he
would tempt these young girls away to his mountain, to be his wives,
but after keeping them awhile he would grow tired of them and send
them back.
And the people disliked Ee-ee-toy because of this. And when they
had crops, too, Ee-ee-toy would often shoot his hot arrows thru the
fields, and wither up the growing things; and tho the people did not
see him do this, they knew he was guilty, and they wanted to kill him,
but they did not know how to do it.
And the people talked together about how they could kill Ee-ee-toy. And
two young boys, there were, who were always together. And as they lay
at the door of their kee they heard the people talking of sending
bunches of people here and there to kill Ee-ee-toy, and one said:
"He is only one, we could kill him ourselves." And the other one said:
"Let us go and kill him, then."
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.
And after this Nooee flew up thru the openings in the roof of his
house, and sat there, and saw the sun rise. And as soon as the sun
rose Nooee flew towards it, and flew up and up, higher and higher,
until he could see Ee-ee-toy's heart. And he wore a nose ring, as
all the brave people did, a nose ring of turquoise. But from his high
view he saw that everything looked green and so he knew he could not
kill Ee-ee-toy that day.
And the next day he did the same thing, only he wore a new nose-ring,
made of a sparkling shell. And when he got up high enuf to see
Ee-ee-toy's heart he saw that the ground looked dry, and he was
very much pleased, for he knew that now he would, someday, kill
Ee-ee-toy. And he went home.
And the third morning Nooee again put on his nose ring of glittering
shell, and flew up to meet the Sun, and he flew up and up until he
came to the sun himself. And Nooee said to the Sun: "You know there is
a Person, on earth, called Ee-ee-toy, who is very bad, and I want to
kill him, and I want your help, and this is the reason I come to you."
And Nooee said to the Sun: "Now you go back, and let me shine in your
place, and I will give just as much light as you do, but let me have
your vi-no-me-gaht, your gun, to shoot with, when I get around to your
home." And the Sun said: "Moe-vah Sop-hwah, that is all right. But I
always go down over yonder mountain, and when you get to that mountain
just stop and look back, and see how the world looks."
And Nooee took the Sun's place, and went down, that evening, over
the mountain, stopping, as he was told, to see how wonderful the
world looked; and when he came to the Sun's home, the sun gave him
the weapon he shot with.
And the next morning Nooee rose in place of the Sun, and after rising
a little he shot at the earth, and it became very hot. And before noon
he shot again, and it was still hotter. And Ee-ee-toy knew, now that
he was going to be killed, but he tried to use all his power to save
himself. He ran around, and came to a pond where there had always been
ice, and he jumped in to cool himself, but it was all boiling water.
And when it was nearly noon Nooee shot again, and it became terribly
hot, and Ee-ee-toy ran for a rock which had always been cold, but
just before he got there the heat made the rock burst.
And he ran to a tree, whose cool shade he often enjoyed, but as he
came near it the tree began to burst into flame, and he had to turn
back. And now it was noon, and Nooee shot again.
And Ee-ee-toy ran to a great post, all striped around with black and
white, which had been made by his power, and which had a hollow that
was always cool inside, and was about to put his arms around it when
he fell down and died.
So Ee-ee-toy was dead, and Nooee went down to his setting, and returned
the weapon to the Sun, and then went home to his vahahkkee.
THE SONG OF NOOEE WHEN HE WENT TO THE SUN
The Rising (Sun) I am going to meet.
(Repeated many times)
WHEN NOOEE KILLED EE-EE-TOY [4]
(A Song)
The gun, he gave it to me as a cane;
With it I killed the Brother's heart.
NOTES ON HOW NOOEE KILLED EE-EE-TOY
The hot arrows of Ee-ee-toy, that withered the crops, remind us
of Apollo.
The idea often comes up in these stories that a person possessing
the powers of a mahkai was hard to kill, having as many lives as
a cat. It would also appear that there was a confusion as to what
constituted killing, anyway. They perhaps regarded mere unconsciousness
as death. Both Ee-ee-toy and Nooee are "killed," but after an interval
are alive again. And Whittemore relates: "An Apache, seeing Louis, the
Pima interpreter, came to him in high glee. Taking his hand, he said:
'You are the Pima who killed me years ago.' Louis then recognized
him as the man to whom he had dealt a heavy blow with a warclub,
and then left him for dead on the battle-field."
Is there any connection between the the fact that when Nooee wore a
nose-ring of turquoise the earth looked green, and that when he wore
a nose-ring of glittering shell the earth looked dry to him?
Could this whole story have been a myth of some great drouth?
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