46 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [BTH. ANN. 28 
another dance place, nearer the Gila. Morning Green, who also sang a magic song, 
found it powerless ! to prevent the departure of the women, and he went back tohis 
house for a more powerful ‘‘medicine,’’ after which he returned to the dance and 
ordered his women back to their dwellings; but they were so much bewitched by the 
songs of Tcernatsing that they could not, or would not, obey him. Farther and 
farther from their homes Tcernatsing enticed the women, dancing first in one place 
and then in another until they came to his compound. Among the women who 
abandoned their home was the wife of Morning Green, who refused to return even 
after he sent a special messenger to her. 
The sequel of the legend is that Tcernatsing married Nactci, a daughter of Morning 
Green, making her father so angry that he sent a spider to bite his own grandson, off- 
spring of the union. When the boy was sick unto death Tcernatsing invited Morning 
Green to visit his grandson before the boy died. Morning Green relented and sent his 
daughter an herb (the name of which is lost) powerful enough to cure the spider’s bite, 
and thus the child’s life was spared.? 
Another legend of Chief Morning Green, also obtained from Thin 
Leather, affords an instructive glimpse of prehistoric thought. 
HOW TURQUOISES WERE OBTAINED FROM CHIEF MORNING GREEN 
One day, long ago, the women and girls of Casa Grande were playing an ancient 
game called toka,? formerly much in vogue at Casa Grande, but now no longer played 
by Pima. During the progress of the game a blue-tailed lizard was noticed descending 
into the earth at a spot where the stones were green.* The fact was so strange that it 
was reported to Morning Green, who immediately ordered excavation to be made. 
Here they eventually discovered many turquoises, with which they made, among 
other things, a mosaic covering for a chair that used to stand in one of the rooms of 
Casa Grande. This chair was carried away many years ago and buried, no one knows 
where. 
Morning Green also distributed so many turquoises among his people that the fame 
of these precious stones reached the ears of the Sun, in the East, who sent the bird 
with bright plumage (parrot?) to obtain them. When Parrot approached within a 
short distance of Casa Grande he was met by one of the daughters of the chief, who 
returned to the town and announced to her father the arrival of a visitor from the Sun, 
The father said, ‘‘Take this small stick, which is charmed, and when Parrot puts 
the stick into his mouth, you lead him to me.’’ But Parrot was not charmed by the 
stick and refused to take it into his mouth and the girl reported her failure. The 
chief answered, ‘‘Perhaps the strange bird would eat pumpkin seed,’’ and told his 
daughter to offer these tohim. She made the attempt without result and, returning, 
1 Evidently Morning Green had met his equalin Tcernatsing, whose ‘‘ medicine ’’ was superior to that he 
employed on the first trial of magi¢ power. 
’ 2Morning Green (Sialim Tcutuk) is regarded by the Pima as an historic personage. Civan is here inter- 
preted as a generic name for ‘‘chief,” not limited to Morning Green alone; all chiefs of the ancients are called 
civani. In commenting on the word Siba of Kino and Mange, and on Cibola, Doctor Russell puts this 
query: Is the similarity of this term (siba) to Shi’wona or Shi’wina, given by Mr. F. H. Cushing as the 
native name of the Zufi country, a mere coincidence? This question assumes a new significance if we 
remember that some of the Zufi clans originally came from villages ruled over by the Civani. 
3 The players in this game were generally 10 in number, facing each other about 100 yards apart. Each 
participant had a pointed stick with which she caught a rope having a knot at each end. 
4In a legend of the Hopi, turquoises are said to be the excrement of a reptile. 
The legend of the “throne” of Montezuma covered with turquoises may be of late introduction, but how 
the resemblance to the Mexican account is to be accounted for among the Pima does not appear; possibly 
by the same means as in the case of the name Montezuma. In this connection attention is directed to the 
“seat”? excavated in Clan-house 1 (fig. 19). 
