Clouds, winds, and the songs of birds
Storytelling time!
Everyone in the class was excited, because today it was the new boy’s
turn to tell a story. The new boy was an Indian—a real Apache Indian!
Surely he would have a wonderful story to tell!
Even the teacher was curious. “What kind of story do you have for us,
Billy?” she asked, when he came up to the front of the room.
He grinned shyly. “A very old story that I heard from a very old man
named Pesh-Coo. It is the Jicarilla Apache story of how the world
began.”
The teacher and the other children settled back to listen, and he began.
“Once, there was no world. There was nothing but darkness, water, and
the moving wind. Nothing was alive but the Spirits. They had always been
alive.
“The Spirits had great power. They could do anything. They made the
earth, who is the mother of all people, animals, and plants. And they
made the sky, who is their father.
“The greatest of the Spirits was Black Spirit. He mixed a raindrop with
earth and made a bit of mud. From the mud he made all the birds and
animals that live upon the earth.
“The birds and animals gathered around him. ‘Will you always be with
us?’ they asked.
” ‘No,’ answered Black Spirit. ‘Some day I must go away and you will
never see me again.’
” ‘Then make someone like you, who will always be with us,’ they
pleaded.
“So Black Spirit told them to go to all the places where the wind blew
and bring back all the things they could find. They brought pollen, red
earth, white stones, blue turquoise, and many other things. Black Spirit
took these things and made them into a man. The pollen was the man’s
flesh, the red earth was his blood, the turquoise became his veins, the
white stones were his bones. His hair was made from a black cloud, but
when a man grows old, his hair becomes a white cloud.
“When the man was complete, Black Spirit sent a whirlwind into him. The
wind whirled through the man’s body and brought him to life. Because of
that whirlwind, we have little whirls on our fingertips.
” ‘He will be lonely,’ said the animals. ‘You should make a companion
for him.’
“So Black Spirit put the man to sleep, to dream of the kind of companion
he wanted. The man dreamed that a woman was sitting beside him. When he
awoke, his dream had come true.
” ‘Let us walk,’ said the man to the woman, and they walked together.
” ‘Let us run,’ said the man, and they ran together.
“Then the man and woman laughed together, because they were happy. The
birds were happy, too, so they burst into song. And in memory of that
time, the birds still burst into song each day at dawn.”
