170 THE ACOMA INDIANS [eth.ann.47 



Mactcoai is Killed Trying to Recapture a Girl 



Mactcoai lived to the northwest at a place called Mat"'tcat. He 

 lived with liis mother. He always went out early in the morning. 

 He went to Dautuxn' in the south. Gets up on top of a moimtain 

 and calls to wake up the clouds. Then he went to Kutc'ana and hol- 

 lered. Then to Kawecoima. Then he went home. Before sunrise. 



Then he traveled aroimd. He liked gu'ls. He would catch them. 

 He had a mackutc (this is a small cylinder made of reeds. It is rolled 

 on the ground in a game). He woidd meet a girl. He would tell her 

 she could have the mackutc if she could catch it when he rolled it to 

 her. When she would try to catch it she would get caught inside it 

 and disappear. Then Mactcoai would pick it up and take it home. 

 When he got home he woidd take the girl out. He used to catch girls 

 that way. 



Once he took a girl home. He caught her at Go'mi (a spring near 

 Acoma). He had a big house at his home where he kept the girls he 

 caught. Had about fifty girls in there. He fed them deer meat. 

 Tliis girl he brought home he got tu-ed of her. He didn't want her 

 any more. He told her, "I guess I send you home to see your 

 mother." He told her in the afternoon. He told her she could take 

 some pretty birds home with her. (There was a chff , a steep mesa on 

 the east side. There were parrots Uved there.) The girl went down 

 to the water hole. A spider lived there. "Guatzi!" (Hello!) 

 " Dawai! " (the reply to guatzi) "Are you going home? " the spider ask 

 her. "Yes, Mactcoai told me. I am going to take a bird along." 

 The spider said "No, don't beheve it. He gomg to kill you. But you 

 keep youi' eyes open. I'll be there to help you. I'll hold you up. 

 (Mactcoai would take the girl to the cliff to get the parrot. He would 

 hold her by the foot while she reached down to get the bii-d out of its 

 nest. When she was stretched down, Mactcoai would let go her leg 

 and she would fall dowm the cliff and kill herself.) I'U take you home." 

 "All right." The girl went home. 



The ne.xt mornmg Mactcoai said "Come out. I'll send you home." 

 He took her dowTi to the cliff. The girl saw the birds. "I'll hold 

 yom' foot." The gui himg down — Mactcoai was holding her by the 

 ankle — to get a parrot. Mactcoai let go and the gii'l dropped. But 

 she caught a parrot when she fell. She fell slow, slow. Mactcoai 

 went back. He thought the gM died. The spider called to the girl. 

 "We must run fast to escape Mactcoai." Mactcoai went down to see 

 if she was dead. "V\Tien he got down he saw her tracks where she ran 

 away. He tried to catch her. The spider knew Mactcoai was com- 

 ing. She told the girl to nm fast. The girl was tired. She cried. 

 At Gaca lived four K'otcin'nako (women in myths are called 

 k'otcin'nako). Spider said "Let's stop there." So they stopped 

 there. There was a big hole in the ground with a ladder — "just like 



