The Guiding Duck And The Lake Of Death

: Myths And Legends Of California And The Old Southwest

Zuni (New Mexico)



Now K-yak-lu, the all-hearing and wise of speech, all alone had been

journeying afar in the North Land of cold and white loneliness. He was

lost, for the world in which he wandered was buried in the snow which

lies spread there forever. So cold he was that his face became wan and

white from the frozen mists of his own breath, white as become all

creatures who dwell there. So cold at nigh and dreary of heart, so lost

by day and blinded by the light was he that he wept, and died of heart

and became transformed as are the gods. Yet his lips called continually

and his voice grew shrill and dry-sounding, like the voice of far-flying

water-fowl. As he cried, wandering blindly, the water birds flocking

around him peered curiously at him, calling meanwhile to their comrades.

But wise though he was of all speeches, and their meanings plain to him,

yet none told him the way to his country and people.



Now the Duck heard his cry and it was like her own. She was of all

regions the traveller and searcher, knowing all the ways, whether above

or below the waters, whether in the north, the west, the south, or the

east, and was the most knowing of all creatures. Thus the wisdom of the

one understood the knowledge of the other.



And the All-wise cried to her, "The mountains are white and the valleys;

all plains are like others in whiteness, and even the light of our

Father the Sun, makes all ways more hidden of whiteness! In brightness

my eyes see but darkness."



The Duck answered:



"Think no longer sad thoughts. Thou hearest all as I see all. Give me

tinkling shells from thy girdle and place them on my neck and in my

beak. I may guide thee with my seeing if thou hear and follow my trail.

Well I know the way to thy country. Each year I lead thither the wild

geese and the cranes who flee there as winter follows."



So the All-wise placed his talking shells on the neck of the Duck, and

the singing shells in her beak, and though painfully and lamely, yet he

followed the sound she made with the shells. From place to place with

swift flight she sped, then awaiting him, ducking her head that the

shells might call loudly. By and by they came to the country of thick

rains and mists on the borders of the Snow World, and passed from water

to water, until wider water lay in their path. In vain the Duck called

and jingled the shells from the midst of the waters. K-yak-lu could

neither swim nor fly as could the Duck.



Now the Rainbow-worm was near in that land of mists and waters and he

heard the sound of the sacred shells.



"These be my grandchildren," he said, and called, "Why mourn ye? Give me

plumes of the spaces. I will bear you on my shoulders."



Then the All-wise took two of the lightest plumewands, and the Duck her

two strong feathers. And he fastened them together and breathed on them

while the Rainbow-worm drew near. The Rainbow unbent himself that

K-yak-lu might mount, then he arched himself high among the clouds. Like

an arrow he straightened himself forward, and followed until his face

looked into the Lake of the Ancients. And there the All-wise descended,

and sat there alone, in the plain beyond the mountains. The Duck had

spread her wings in flight to the south to take counsel of the gods.



Then the Duck, even as the gods had directed, prepared a litter of poles

and reeds, and before the morning came, with the litter they went,

singing a quaint and pleasant song, down the northern plain. And when

they found the All-wise, he looked upon them in the starlight and wept.

But the father of the gods stood over him and chanted the sad dirge

rite. Then K-yak-lu sat down in the great soft litter they bore for him.



They lifted it upon their shoulders, bearing it lightly, singing loudly

as they went, to the shores of the deep black lake, where gleamed from

the middle the lights of the dead.



Out over the magic ladder of rushes and canes which reared itself over

the water, they bore him. And K-yak-lu, scattering sacred prayer meal

before him, stepped down the way, slowly, like a blind man. No sooner

had he taken four steps than the ladder lowered into the deep. And the

All-wise entered the council room of the gods.



The gods sent out their runners, to summon all beings, and called in

dancers for the Dance of Good. And with these came the little ones who

had sunk beneath the waters, well and beautiful and all seemingly clad

in cotton mantles and precious neck jewels.