Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms

Legends

Son of Light Kills the Monster

Man-Eagle, a frightful monster, had laid waste to the whole country. With his sharp talons he seized women and girls, wives and maidens. He flew off with them to his home above the clouds, where he abused them for four nights before eating them up.

Among those abducted by Man-Eagle was the young wife of Son of Light. Within hours this hero was on their trail, and along the way he met the Pinon Maidens, dressed in grass and pinon bark. With them were Spider Woman and Mole.

"Where are you going?" these spirit people asked Son of Light.

"Man-Eagle has stolen my wife," he answered. "I am going to rescue her, but I have to get there in a hurry before he kills her."

"This is bad," said Spider Woman, "but never fear, I'll help you."

And to the Pinon Maidens she said: "You girls gather pinon resin and shape it into a copy of Man-Eagle's flint-arrowhead shirt that no weapon can penetrate. be quick."

The Pinon Maidens gathered the resin and made a shirt exactly like Man-Eagle's, and when they had finished it, Spider Woman sprinkled sacred corn pollen over it and chanted an invocation. Then she turned herself into a tiny spider no bigger than a grain of salt and crawled up on Son of Light's right ear. "Here I am," she said, “Where I can tell you what to do if you get into trouble. The next step is up to Mole."

Mole burrowed a passage through the mountain up to the top so that Son of Light could get to the summit without being seen. When they came out onto the mountaintop, they saw that they were still far below Man-Eagle's home in the clouds. Spider Woman said, "I'll call some good birds to help us."

The first to answer her call was the spotted eagle. Son of Light, Mole, and Spider Woman climbed onto his back, and he spread his wings and began circling upwards. Higher and higher he flew, until at last he was exhausted. "I can go no further," he said.

Spider Woman then called on the hawk, who came at once, flying wing tip to wing tip with the spotted eagle. Mole and Son of Light, with Spider Woman still perched on his right ear, walked over the wings onto the hawk's back. The hawk carried them higher, but after a while his strength gave out too. "This is as high as I can go," he said.

Spider Woman called for the gray hawk to take over. Again Son of Light, Mole, and Spider Woman changed birds, and the gray hawk flew up higher than the others. Still it was not high enough, and the three friends transferred to the back of the red hawk, best of all fliers.

The red hawk flew through a hole in the clouds right to the white house that was the home of Man-Eagle. Thanking the red hawk for carrying them so far, Son of Light, Spider Woman and Mole got down and walked boldly up to the house.

"Look at the ladder to the entrance," said Spider Woman to Son of Light. "It's rungs are sharp obsidian knives. They'll cut your fingers off if you try to get up there."

"What shall we do?" asked Son of Light.

"Go and pick some sumac berries," Spider Woman said. Son of Light gathered the berries and returned to her. "Now feed them to Horned Toad over there," she said.

Son of Light popped the berries into the wide mouth of Horned Toad, who chewed them into a gooey paste which he spit into the palm of Son of Light's hand.

"Now smear what horned toad has given you on the sharp edges of the rungs," Spider Woman told him.  As Son of Light smeared the edges, they immediately became blunt so that he could climb up without having his fingers cut off. Spider Woman was still behind his right ear, while little Mole had buried himself in son of  Light's hair. With his two hidden companions, Son of Light stepped inside Man-Eagle's home.

The first thing he saw was Man-Eagle's flint-arrowhead shirt hanging from a viga. Quick as a flash Son of light hung the counterfeit shirt on that rafter and put the real shirt on. They were so alike that not even Son of Light could tell them apart. He went into the second room and found his wife, her hands tied behind her back.

"I've come to free you," he told her.

"Flee!" she cried. "Run quickly! No one who enters here ever leaves alive."

"Don't be afraid," he answered, untying her hands. "We'll come out of here alive and happy."

Man-Eagle was asleep in the next room, but Spider Woman was carrying a "hear nothing" charm which prevented their noise from reaching his ears. Unaware that strangers were in his house, he awoke and put on his flint-arrow shirt, then went into the next room. "Now I will enjoy the beautiful girl," he thought, but instead found himself face to face with Son of Light. "Who are you?" asked Man-Eagle. "How dare you come here!"

"You have stolen my wife, and I am taking her back now."

"Maybe you will, and maybe you won't," said Man-Eagle. "You're speaking big words, but first you'll have a contest with me."

"What kind of contest?" inquired Son of Light.

"A smoking contest," said Man-Eagle. the monster brought out a huge pipe, as long as a good-sized man, and filled it with tobacco. "We will both smoke this," he told Son of Light, "and whoever weakens and faints is the loser. If you lose, I have the right to kill you and possess your wife. If you win, you can take her back."

Now, Man-Eagle's magic tobacco was poisonous enough to stun anyone who was not used to it, though it no longer had an effect on him. But while Man-Eagle explained the rules of the contest, Mole quickly burrowed a hole in the floor underneath the spot on which Son of Light was sitting. Mole made a passage all the way down though the earth to the outside, and as the man and the monster puffed away, the smoke passed right through Son of Light and through the hole into the outside air. The two smoked and smoked, until Man-Eagle got dizzy from his own magic tobacco and had to stop. Son of Light, on the other hand, was unaffected.

Filled to the bursting point with smoke, Man-Eagle stepped outside the house to clear his head. Son of Light followed, and they both saw dense clouds of smoke covering the whole sky. "I wonder how he did it," thought Man-Eagle. Aloud he said: "Well, you win this contest, but this is only the first. Now comes the second."

Man-Eagle brought forth two huge elk antlers. "Take this one," he told Son of Light, "and I'll take the other. Each of us will try and break his own in two. If you fail to break yours with your hands, I shall kill you and possess your wife."

The antler that Man-Eagle had given his rival was actually a magical piece of stone -- the hardest stone in the world. The antler that Man-eagle had kept for himself was a false antler made of brittle wood.

Quick as a flash just before the contest began, Spider Woman exchanged the two elk antlers. She did it with such lightning speed that not even the eye of Man-Eagle could follow her. The rivals took up their antlers, and Son of Light broke his easily, but  Man-Eagle could not break his however hard he tried. "I wonder how he did that," thought the monster. He was not so sure of himself now.

"Well, this was just child's play, something to warm us up," said Man-Eagle. "Now for our third contest."

"What is it this time?" asked Son of Light.

"Step outside with me," said Man-Eagle. They went out, and the monster pointed to two huge pine trees near his house. "You choose one of these trees and I will choose the other, and he who fails to pull his tree up by the roots loses the contest. If I win, I'll kill you and possess your wife."

"So be it," answered Son of Light.

Man-Eagle chose the tree which he thought had the shallower roots.

"Remember," he told Son of Light, "if you fail to pull up your tree -- trunk, branches, roots, and all -- you lose, no matter what I do."

During these preparations, Mole had burrowed underneath Son of Light's tree and gnawed through all the roots. Son of Light pulled it up easily, while Man-Eagle could not up uproot his. "It pleased me to let you win once more," he told Son of Light, "but you must win the fourth and last contest." To himself he said: "I wonder how he did it. This young man is really strong."

"What do you propose?" asked Son of Light.

"Watch me," answered Man-Eagle. He began carrying into his biggest room heaps of food -- meat of all kinds, *piki* bread and cornbread of all kinds, mush and gruel of all kinds, squash and bean dishes of all kinds -- baskets, pots, cups, and dippers full of food. Making two mountains of it all, he told Son of Light: “This is your heap and that over there is mine. You must eat your heap all at once, without leaving a single scrap. If you can't do it, I'll kill you and possess your wife."

"I'm sure to win this one," Man-Eagle said to himself. "The young man is puny compared with me; he can't absorb all this food."

Again Mole had dug a tunnel underneath Son of Light. As quickly as Son of Light emptied a dish, the food passed through him and through the tunnel to some place outside the house. In no time Son of Light had eaten the whole mountain of meat, corn, squash, beans, *piki,* and mush. Man-Eagle tried to match him dish for dish, but could not.

"Well," said Son of Light, "Now I'll take my wife and go home."

"Not quite yet," said Man-Eagle. "In the end it comes down to this: Which of us is invulnerable? Which of us can withstand the flames of a mighty fire? I can. Can you? We shall see."

Man-Eagle made two huge piles of dry wood. "You sit on this one, and I'll sit on that," he said. "Your wife can set fire to them once we're in position. If you can withstand the fire, then I'll do whatever you say."

"Now," thought Man-Eagle, "I can get rid of this upstart. My magic flint-arrowhead shirt is fireproof, but the young fellow will burn up."

Son of Light's wife set fire to the two woodpiles. Of course, Son of Light was wearing the real magic flint-arrowhead shirt. Coated with ice, clear and cold like crystal, it protected him from the flames. In the process, part of the ice melted and extinguished the fire. But the shirt of Man-Eagle made out of resin, ignited in a flash which so thoroughly consumed Man-Eagle that only his ashes remained.

Then Spider Woman whispered into Son of Light's ear: "Take this wonderful medicine of mine into your mouth and spurt it all over Man-Eagle's ashes."

Son of Light did what Spider woman said, and as he spat the medicine over the ashes, Man-Eagle arose, transformed into a good-looking man.

Spider Woman addressed this eagle turned into a man: "Have you learned your lesson? Will you stop killing and eating people? Will you stop stealing and abusing wives and maidens? Will you promise?"

Eagle-turned-into-Man said: "I promise. I will never do evil again, never."

Son of Light joyfully claimed his wife, while Spider Woman brought all the Hopi people whom Man-Eagle had killed back to life again. Then they all got on the backs of the eagle, hawk, gray hawk, and red hawk, and these friendly birds carried them safely back to their homes.
 
 

* Retold from various nineteenth-century versions