Some American Corn Gods 265 



maize in one ear and a bean in the other. Therefore the 

 Rhode Island Indians would not kill a crow. 



The Iroquois had a legend of a chief of their tribe who 

 prayed to the Great Spirit for more food for his people. He 

 was directed to take his wife and children and go to the plains 

 in the rainy moon, and there to wait for three days. While 

 waiting, the chief and his family fell asleep. When their 

 tribesmen came to seek them they found only a field of green, 

 growing corn. 



Mondamin, the maize spirit, figures in the Chippewa legend 

 of the maiden "White Earth/' who was sought by five suitors. 

 When she refused the first one, the blanket dropped from 

 his shoulders, and he became tobacco. The second suitor, 

 when he was refused, rolled down the hill and turned into a 

 pumpkin. The third became a melon; the fourth a bean. The 

 fifth suitor was the maize spirit, and him "White Earth" took 

 for her husband. 



The Zunis ascribed the creation of the maize to powers in 

 the sky and the stars. The Cherokees honored the moon as 

 "Mother of the Corn." The Algonquins believed that the 

 moon had two sons, one the White Manitou who created all 

 that was good, including the maize, the other the Black Mani- 

 tou who wrought evil in the earth. 



It will be remembered that Chicomenecoatl was a moon 

 goddess; and Tlazoteotl, who came to Mexico with the Aztecs, 

 was in process of becoming one when the Spaniards destroyed 

 her temples. It is a striking fact that wherever agriculture is 

 developed, the moon goddesses increase in power and impor- 

 tance. Among all the maize-growing tribes in the three 

 Americas, only two had a sun worship. These were the Incas 

 and the Natchez of the lower Mississippi Valley. All other 

 Indians paid homage to the power of the moon. 



Like all primitive peoples, the early Americans reverenced 

 a mysterious, procreating power, essentially feminine in na- 

 ture, which appeared in the moon and in the earth on which 

 the moon's light fell. This same power was also in woman. 



