Sun and Moon

[Robert Spiritwalker Murchison]

Once upon a time, when our people first came up from the villages of the
underworld, there was no sun. There was no moon. They saw only dreary
darkness and felt the coldness. They looked hard for firewood, but in the
darkness they found little.


One day as they stumbled around, they saw a light in the distance. The Chief
sent a messenger to see what caused the light. As the messenger approached
it, he saw a small field containing corn, beans, squash, watermelons, and
other foods. All around the field a great fire was burning. Nearby stood a
straight, handsome man wearing around his neck a turquoise necklace of four
strands. Turquoise pendants hung from his ears.


"Who are you?" the owner of the field asked the messenger.


"My people and I have come from the cave world below," the messenger replied.
"And we suffer from the lack of light and the lack of food."


"My name is Skeleton," said the owner of the field. He showed the stranger
the terrible mask he often wore and then gave him some food. "Now return to
your people and guide them to my field."


When all the people had arrived, Skeleton began to give them food from his
field. They marveled that, although the crops seemed so small, there was
enough food for everyone. He gave them ears of corn for roasting; he gave
them beans, squashes, and watermelons. The people built fires for themselves
and were happy.


Later, Skeleton helped them prepare fields of their own and to make fires
around them. There they planted corn and soon harvested a good crop.


"Now we should move on," the people said. "We want to find the place where we
will live always."


Away from the fires it was still dark. The Great Chiefs, at a council with
Skeleton, decided to make a moon like the one they had enjoyed in the
underworld.


They took a piece of well-prepared buffalo hide and cut from it a great
circle. They stretched the circle tightly over a wooden hoop and then painted
it carefully with white paint. When it was entirely dry, they mixed some
black paint and painted, all around its edge, completing the picture of the
moon. When all of this was done, they attached a stick to the disk and placed
it on a large square of white cloth. Thus they made a symbol of the moon.


Then the Great Chiefs selected one of the young men and bade him


to stand on top of the moon symbol. They took up the cloth by its corners and
began to swing it back and forth, higher and higher. As they were swinging
it, they sang a magic song. Finally, with a mighty heave, they threw the moon
disk upward. It continued to fly swiftly, upward and eastward.


As the people watched, they suddenly saw light in the eastern sky. The light
became brighter and brighter. Surely something was burning there, they
thought. Then something bright with light rose in the East. That was the
moon!


Although the moon made it possible for the people to move around with less
stumbling, its light was so dim that frequently the workers in the fields
would cut up their food plants instead of the weeds. It was so cold that
fires had to be kept burning around the fields all the time.


Again the Great Chiefs held a council with Skeleton, and again they decided
that something better must be done.


This time, instead of taking a piece of buffalo hide, they took a piece of
warm cloth that they themselves had woven while they were still in the
underworld. They fashioned this as they had fashioned the disk of buffalo
hide, except that this time they painted the face of the circle with a copper
colored paint.


They painted eyes and a mouth on the disk and decorated the forehead with
colors that the Great Chiefs decided upon according to their desires. Around
the circle, they then wove a ring of corn husks, arranged in a zig zag
design. Around the circle of corn husks, they threaded a string of red hair
from some animal. To the back of the disk, they fastened a small ring of corn
husks. Through that ring they poked a circle of eagle feathers.


To the top of each eagle feather, the old Chief tied a few little red
feathers taken from the top of the head of a small bird. On the forehead of
the circle, he attached an abalone shell. Then the sun disk was completed.


Again the Great Chiefs chose a young man to stand on top of the disk, which
they had placed on a large sheet. As they had done with the moon disk, they
raised the cloth by holding its corners. Then they swung the sun disk back
and forth, back and forth, again and again. With a mighty thrust, they threw
the man and the disk far into the air. It traveled fast into the eastern sky
and disappeared.


All the people watched it carefully. In a short time, they saw light in the
East as if a great fire were burning. Soon the new sun rose and warmed the
earth with its kindly rays.


Now with the moon to light the earth at night and the sun to light and warm
it by day, all the people decided to pick up their provisions and go on. As
they started, the White people took a trail that led them far to the South.
The Hopis took one to the North, and the Pueblos took one midway between the
two. Thus they wandered on to the places where they were to live.