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Legends

The Skeleton who Fell Down Piece by Piece
This story is influenced by Spanish tales. Gold and silver were hardly known to the Pueblos and not considered particularly desirable.
In fact there was no money, as the white man knew it, so that tales of buried treasure are European in origin.

There was a boy living with his mother and brothers. They all went out to different places looking for work, and that night the boy found an empty house to sleep in. He was dropping off when he heard a voice from the top of the house cry, "I'm going to fall."

"Well, fall."

An arm came down. "I'm going to fall!" Another arm came down. Soon the whole skeleton stood there. "You're a brave boy! won't you wrestle with me?" it said.

"Wrestle with a bony man like you! Well, all right."

They wrestled together, and the boy threw down the skeleton, who said to him: "You're a brave boy, and I am going to let you have all the riches I have here."

So the skeleton gave the boy a candle to light so that he could go into a little room where the ghost kept his gold and silver. Then the skeleton jumped on the boy's back and said, "You're got to carry me."

"All right, I'll carry you."

When they came to the room, Skeleton blew out the candle. The boy said, "I want to see what your riches are," and he lit the candle again. Just as he turned to look at the money, the dead man blew out the light. The boy got mad and pushed the skeleton down. "If you're going to blow out the light, I'll break your bones."

"No, my friend, leave me alone, for I think you're a brave boy." When the boy relit the candle, he saw a great pile of money. Skeleton said, "I'm going to ask one thing of you, my friend. After you have gathered everything up, assemble all the poor people and give a little money to everybody. The rest will be for you."

And the skeleton left, and the boy did as he asked, and then became a rich man.
 
 
 
 

* Based on a tale recorded by Elsie Clews Parsons