Sacred Texts
Native American
Southwest
YAQUI MYTHS AND LEGENDS
By Ruth Warner Giddings
[1959, Copyright not registered or renewed]
This is a delightful collection of Yaqui folklore, illustrated
with line drawings which invest Mexican folk-art motifs
with quaint atomic-age cheerfulness.
The Yaqui are part of the Southwestern Native American culture-group,
and live in the Sonoran desert on the west coast of northern Mexico,
opposite Baja California.
The stories here are a mixture of ancient folklore blended with
Mexican Catholic themes.
Coyote and other zoomorphs walk in the same
cycle of tales with figures such as Jesuschristo (who figures in several
comic stories) and Columbus (who appears briefly as a villan).
Title Page
Contents
Introduction
Cultural Setting
Yaqui Story Telling
The Narrators
The Stories
Yomumuli and the Little Surem People
The Ku Bird
The Wise Deer
Tasi'o Sewa
Yuku
When Badger Named the Sun
Mochomo
The Wax Monkey
The False Beggar
The Stick That Sang
The Two Bears
The Walking Stone
Sun and Moon
Five Friends of Takochai
The Man Who Became a Buzzard
The Snake People
Omteme
Juan Sin Miedo
The Boy Who Became a King
Kaiman
The Big Bird
The Wars Against the Mexicans
War Between the Yaquis and the Pimas
Peace at Pitahaya
Malinero'okai
The First Deer Hunter
The Death of Kutam Tawi
The Flood and the Prophets
San Pedro and Cristo
Jesucristo and San Pedro
Pedro de Ordimales
San Pedro and the Devil
Father Frog
Two Little Lambs
Maisoka and Hima'awikia
The Cricket and the Lion
Grasshopper and Cricket
Turtle and Coyote
Coyote and Rabbit
Heron and Fox
The Cat and the Monkey
In Rabbit's House
Coyote and the Friendly Dogs
The Black Horse
Duck Hunter
Tesak Pascola's Watermelons
The Calabazas Funeral
Suawaka
Topol the Clever
Why the Animals Remain Animals
Coyote Woman
The First Fiesta
Bobok
The Five Mended Brothers
The First Fire
The Spirit Fox
The Yaqui Doctor
The Twins
The Snake of the Hill of Nohme
Tukawiru
Cho'oko Baso
References