March, 1905. The Tr.\ditions of the Hon — Voth. 55 



over them so that the tears would roll from their eyes, they could not 

 say anything to them. Finally one of the turkeys took such a pity 

 on the children that he commenced to talk to them. "You poor 

 ones," he said to them, "how will you take care of yourselves here? 

 There is some com hanging on the walls yet, but you cannot reach 

 it. You go to the east there to those other houses. There the peo- 

 ple made food when they left. There is a food altar standing there 

 yet, of which you may eat!" So the children went there and found 

 many trays full of piki standing on the ground. Of that they satis- 

 fied their hunger. They also found a few rabbit -skin blankets in a 

 house and so they lived there. 



The people that had left the village traveled on. One day the 

 big Balolookong came out of the ground again and looked after the 

 people. The place where he came out was now a large opening like a 

 k6ici (a cistern -like oven in which sweet corn is steamed). He was 

 a very large serpent and (the Hopis say), as no one was there to put 

 him back again, he remained standing there. The two children by 

 and by consumed all the food that they had found there and they 

 began to suffer. They wanted to go back to their house but saw 

 that water serpent standing there, and so they were afraid and did 

 not know how to get back to their house, but their food was nearly 

 all gone. Balolookong saw the children and had sympathy with 

 them. They were the children of his daughter so he was their grand- 

 father. He cried over their fate, the tears rolling down his cheeks. 

 Stretching up high, he looked whether the mother of the children had 

 gone very far, and saw the people, as they had not moved away very 

 far, but the children were still afraid to go back to their house. Finally 

 the serpent began to speak to them in Hopi: "Come here. Come 

 here. Be not afraid of me, I am your grandfather." The children 

 looked up and listened when they heard somebody speak to them. 

 So they went to the serpent, who said to them: "I am your grand- 

 father. I pity you, but what will you eat here? There is some com 

 yet, but you cannot reach it, it is hanging so high on the walls. You 

 find a place where there is some sweet com strung on a string hang- 

 ing on the wall; then pile up some stones, and climbing on the stones, 

 throw some of the ears down with a stick. These you take with you 

 as food and then follow your parents. They are not very far yet and 

 you will overtake them. But whenever you get ready to go you 

 come here to me first. Now you go and hunt a knife, and if you find 

 one bring it to me, maybe I shall want to follow them sometime, too. " 

 So the children went through the houses and sure enough found a 

 sharp knife of flint. They also found in one of the houses some com 



