866 ZUNI KATCINAS 



lETH. ANN. 47 



home." Then he started and the httle boy went home, walking 

 weakly as if he would fall down at each step. 



The women were coming to get water at Kyakima spring, and they 

 saw the little boy coming along. They knew that the little boy was 

 lost and when they saw hun coming they knew that it was the little 

 boy that everyone had been looking for. 



As they came close one of the women set down her jar and ran up 

 to the boy. "Oh, my son, we know that you have been lost. The 

 people have been looking for you and now you have come back. 

 Where have you been?" He said, "Up in the moimtams. I am 

 just coming home." Then she said, "What have you there?" and 

 the little boy said, "I have only feathers. Don't touch my feathers! " 

 The woman kept saying, "I woidd like to feel them." The boy did 

 not want her to touch his feathers, but she did, and then right away 

 she turned into an owl. Then the boy said, "I told you not to touch 

 them. My feathers are wise.-* I told you not to touch them. Now 

 I shall give you a home where you will live. You will go to the 

 north of this mountain and you will have a spring there." Then 

 she went there and so right below the eagle place is owl spring where 

 the woman was turned into an owl because she touched the eagle 

 feathers. 



Then the boy said, "Now if anyone else meets me I will not let 

 them touch my feathers." So he went home. He was veiy weak, 

 but he walked home. Everyone saw him coming with his feathers 

 sticking out. Then the people said, "There is the little boy who was 

 lost. There he is coming. He looks weak. I wonder where he has 

 been all this time." He could hardly climb up the ladder, he was 

 so weak. So some of the people went in and told his father and 

 mother, and they did not believe it was their boy, he looked so badly. 

 Then they came out and saw the little boy struggling to climb the 

 ladder. Then his father went down and brought hun in on his back, 

 and the little boy was holding on to his feathers. When he came 

 in he said, "Mother, put down a basket." She brought a basket 

 and the boy laid his feathers in it. Then he said, "Father, I brought 

 you these feathers. Eagle brought me dowii. He found me and 

 brought me down and left me at the spring and I walked home. 

 These are eagle feathers." The father took the feathers and breathed 

 in from them and said, "Father of eagles, give me long life and your 

 strong heart. You travel so far and fly so high that your breath is 

 clear and strong. Make my heart clean like yours. I breathe from 

 your feathei-s, so make me strong like you." ^^ Then he thaidced the 

 eagle because he had brought the boy back. Then right away he 

 knew what to do with the feathers. He said, "Our fathers, the 



2^ Have supernatural power. 



2' Because " The eagle flies high where the air is clean. He never goes where there is dirt and sickness 

 and so we always pray to him tor good health." 



