RLSSELLl MYTHS 239 



CHILDREN OF CLOUD 



[Told by Inasa] 



Wlu'ii the riohokain dwelt on the Gila and tilled their farms about 

 the Great Temple that we call (^isa Grande there was eliajj;rin among 

 the young men of that people, for the prettiest woman would not 

 receive their attentions. She would accept no man as her hus- 

 hanil, but Cloutl came out of the east and saw her and determined tc 

 marry her. The maiden was a skillful mat maker, and one day she 

 fell asleep when fatigued at her labor. Then Cloud sailed through the 

 skies above anil one large rain drop fell upon her; immediately twin 

 boys were born." 



Now all the men of the pueblo claimed to be the father of the.se 

 children. After enduring their clamors for a long time the woman 

 told her people to gather in a council circle. When they had come 

 she placed the children witliin the circle and said, "If they go to any- 

 one it will ])rove that he is their father." The babies crawled about 

 within the circle but climbed the knees of no one of them. And so it 

 was that the woman silenced them, saving, "I wish to hear no one of 

 you say, 'these are my cliildren," for they are not." 



Wlicn the boys had reached the age of 10 the}" noticed that their 

 comraiies had fathers and they inquired of their mother, "^^^^o can 

 we call father? Who can we rim to as he returns from the hunt and 

 from war and call to as do our playmates?'' 



And the mother answered: "In the morning look toward the east 

 and you will see wliite Cloud standing vertically, towering heaven- 

 ward; he is your father."' 



"Can we visit our father?" they incjuired. 



"If you wish to see him, my children, you may go, but you nuist 

 journey without stopping. You will first reach Wind, who is your 

 father's elder brother, and beiiind liim you will find your father." 



They traveled for four days and came to the home of Wind. "Are 

 you our father?" they incpiired. 



"No; I am your uncle. Your father lives in the next house; go 

 on to liim." They went to Cloud, but he drove them back, saying: 

 "Go to your uncle and he will tell you something." Again the uncle 

 sent them to the father, and four times they were turned away from 

 the home of each before their father would acknowledge them. 



» Bourke mentions this myth in his notes upon the Mohaves: ' ' This Earth is a woman; the Sky is a 



man. The Earth was sterile and barren and nothing grew upon it; but by conjunction with the Sky 

 (here he repeated almost the very same myth that the Apaches and Pimas have to the effect that the 

 Earth was asleep and a drop of rain fell upon her, causingconception) two gods were born in the west, 

 thousands of miles away from here." Journal of American Folk-Lore, ii, 178. 



f> -\mong the Navahos Sun is the father of the twins who grow to manhood in four days and then set 

 out to find their parent. See Washington Matthews, The Navajo Mythology, in American Antiqua- 

 rian, V, 21G. 1883. 



