white] myths and tales 179 



Kasewat was out hunting on the day that his wife was carried off, 

 but lie did not have any luck. He could not kill anything,"* so he 

 went home. WTien he got home his mother told him that a ckoyo 

 (giant) had carried his wife oft'; she had not seen the giant, but she 

 had seen her tracks at the spring, and had foimd the girl's water jar. 

 Kasewat decided to foUow the giantess and rescue his wife. So he 

 set out, but he lost the giant's trail during a storm that night, so he 

 came home and decided to try another plan. 



He watched for the giantess, and when she came back around 

 A'ko (Acoma), he went out near where she was, alone, so she could 

 catch him. The great giant saw him, caught him, and put him in 

 her basket wluch she carried on her back. Then she started to go 

 home. She went out west, and took him to the highest peak of the 

 Zuni Mountains. 



When she got home she tlirew Kasewat into a large room where 

 there were a lot of other people that she had caught. She was 

 keeping them imtil they got fat enough to kill. Kasewat looked out 

 into the room where the giantess lived. He saw some of her children 

 there, playing. They were as large as a full-grown man, but they 

 were verj' yoimg; they were not old enough to walk yet. Kasewat 

 could see the giantess. She was working round a fire. Kasewat 

 called out to her, "What are you doing, mother (naiya)?" The 

 giantess said, "I am making a fire to cook someone." "Who are 

 you going to cook?" "Oh, you'U find out," the giantess repUed. 



Pretty soon the giantess took Kasewat out of the room. She took 

 him to her room. She took off all his clothes and started to wash 

 him. The women in the other room peeped out to look at hun. 

 The giantess had put some stones into the fire to heat. She was 

 going to cut Kasewat open, take his insides out, then she would put 

 those hot stones inside hun, and they would cook him. That is the 

 way she cooked them, \^^lile the giantess was washing Kasewat, 

 he got to talldng to her. He remarked about the heat. It was hot 

 in there by the fire. He told the giantess that she looked hot; that 

 she was all sweaty. He told her she had better get some fresh air. 

 So the giantess went over to a window (or opening m the wall) and 

 stuck her head out to get some air. "Lean out more," Kasewat 

 told her. So she leaned way out; she was stooping over like. Then 

 Kasewat took up one of the hot stones from the fire and threw it at 

 her. She fell out of the window and fell down a cliff and died. Then 

 Kasewat grabbed her children and threw them in the oven and roasted 

 them. Then he went to the room where all the people were. He 

 let them out so the3^ could go home. He got together all of the 

 belongings of the giantess — her beads, buckskins, mantas, etc. — and 



^ The conduct or a wife is felt to affect the husband while hunting, in many instances, rarticularl>- if 

 she is unfaithful will the husband have bad luck. 



