PARSONsl SPANISH TALES 413 



burned it up. Then Dios said he could not use that thunder stick 

 except in war.^ So Dios gave us bows and arrows to use. 



SPANISH TALES 

 24. Montezuma 



Montezuma used to live in a village near Sandia Mountain. He 

 went away with his daughter. The Mexicans followed him as he was 

 going north. Montezuma saw an old man planting corn. "Good 

 day, my son," said Montezuma. "Good day." "What are you 

 planting?" "Planting rocks." "Well, if you are planting rocks, 

 rocks will come up for you." Then Montezuma stepped on a big 

 rock and left his footprint in it. The Mexicans following Montezuma 

 reached the old man. "Good day, my friend." "Good day." "Did 

 you see anybody passing by?" "Yes." "When?" "T\Tien I was 

 planting these rocks." The rocks were high. "Oh, it must be a long 

 time since he passed by here." They saw his footprints in the rock. 



On his way Montezuma came to a man planting wheat "Good 

 day, my son. What are you planting?" "I am planting wheat." 

 "Well, wheat you are going to get. It wiU come up and grow fast 

 and turn yellow. Tomorrow morning you will be cutting it." 

 The Mexicans came by. "Good day, my friend. Did you see any- 

 body pass by?" "Yes, when I was planting this wheat I am cut- 

 ting." "Oh, that was long ago. He had to plant and irrigate and 

 cut." So they turned back.^ 



After some years they captured him, in the desert, with his cousin. 

 They took him to Santa Fe. Then they tied him to a mule to take 

 him to old Mexico. At Tuturmap4ai (Mount San Mateo) he got 

 away from them. They saw him going away as a deer. They had 

 to take his cousin instead. That is why the Mexicans say they have 

 Montezuma locked up in Mexico. Perhaps the Indians used to tell 

 the Mexicans that their Indian god was Montezuma.^ 



Let me add an extract from a diverting and valuable book on New 

 Mexico in the year 1855. The United States attorney to the Terri- 

 tory is at Laguna and has expressed a desire to see "their god Monte- 

 zuma," ^ who "with dancing and other rites" is invoked for rain. 

 By one of the head men and the little son of Gorman, the Baptist 

 missionary, resident at Laguna since 1852-53,° the United States 



' When my father was 20 years old, the Navaho stole an Isletan boy. They used the thunder stick as 

 medicine and brought thunder against the Navaho. They recovered the boy, but the Navaho had cut oft 

 one of his testicles and the boy died. 



^ Compare Parsons, 3; 258-259. 



' Of this there is little doubt. Compare Dumarest, 230; Parsons, 14: 13. 



* At Laguna I heard Montezuma referred to as Ts'itschinaku and identified with Posbean (Poshaiani), 

 See, too, Parsons, 3: 261-263. Montezuma was k'aukimuni, magical. "They sent him down to old 

 Mexico." See Boas, 236-237. 



5 He was a member of the community ' 'with all the rights and privileges of a fuU-born Indian," sitting 

 "in the estufa in council." (Davis, 393.) 



