Parallel Myths (18 page)

Mandan

T
he earliest people lived under the ground near a beautiful lake. Once, a great grapevine grew above their home. A root from the grapevine poked down into the village of the underground people. A few of the most courageous then climbed the vine into the world above.

When these explorers returned, they reported that the world above was more beautiful than anything they had imagined, teeming with fish and game, full of light and beautiful flowers. Soon large numbers of people began climbing the vine into the new world above.

One day, however, an obese woman began to climb and the root broke, leaving half of the people underground, where they remain to this day. When we die, we rejoin our cousins under the earth.

Abanaki

NOTE
: The character Kloskurbeh is identified with Glooskap of the Algonquin myths. The Abanaki, or Wabanaki, are an Algonquin people of Maine and New Brunswick.

F
irst Manitou, the Great Spirit, made Kloskurbeh, the great teacher. One day when the sun was directly overhead, a young boy appeared to Kloskurbeh. He explained that he had been born when the sea had churned up a great foam, which was then heated by the sun, congealed, and came alive as a human boy.

The next day, again at noon, the teacher and the boy greeted a girl. She explained that she had come from the earth, which had produced a green plant which bore her as fruit. And so Kloskurbeh, the wise teacher, knew that human beings came forth from the union of sea and land. The teacher gave thanks to Manitou and instructed the boy and girl in everything they needed to know. Then Kloskurbeh went north into the forest to meditate.

The man and the woman had many, many children. Unfortunately, they had so many children that they were unable to feed them all by hunting and picking wild foods. The mother was filled with grief to see her children hungry, and the father despaired. One day the mother went down to a stream, entering it sadly. As she reached the middle of the stream, her mood changed completely and she was filled with joy. A long green shoot had come out of her body, between her legs. As the mother left the stream, she once again looked unhappy.

Later, the father asked her what had happened during the day while he was out trying to gather food. The mother told the whole story. She then instructed the father to kill her and plant her bones in two piles. The father, understandably, was upset by this command and he questioned the mother many times about it. Naturally, it was shocking and disturbing to think that he had to kill his wife in order to save his children. But she was insistent.

The father immediately went to Kloskurbeh for advice. Kloskurbeh thought the story very strange, but then he prayed to Manitou for guidance. Kloskurbeh then told the father that the mother was right; this was the will of Manitou. So, the father killed his wife and buried her bones in two piles as he was commanded to do.

For seven moons, the father stood over the piles of bones and wept. Then one morning, he noticed that from one pile had sprouted tobacco and, from the other, maize. Kloskurbeh explained to the man that his wife had really never died, but that she would live forever in these two crops.

To this day, a mother would rather die than see her children starve, and all children are still fed today by that original mother. Men like to plant in the cornfields extra fish they catch as a gift of thanks to the first mother and a remembrance that we are all children of the union of sea and land.

(POLYNESIA)

NOTE
: Maui, for whom the Hawaiian island was named, is the great trickster of Polynesian mythology, appearing throughout Polynesia from Hawaii to New Zealand.

MAUI PUSHES UP THE SKY

M
aui as a trickster, the son of Tangaroa [Kanaloa, in Hawaiian] and a mortal woman. It was his nature to test the limits and patience of the gods, and he wasn’t exactly the most honest of beings. By the time he was a young man, he was very handsome and charming, and also prone to bragging about his strength.

One day, at the time when the sky was still low enough to touch the earth, Maui happened to be walking along and saw a girl trying to push up the sky. “I have chores to do,” she said, “but the sky keeps falling down on me, keeping me from getting where I need to be.” As she was a very beautiful girl, Maui began bragging about his strength, that he was the son of Tangaroa and that he could certainly solve this problem. However, the girl giggled and said, “Whoever you are, you are a braggart!” Maui then began picking up big rocks and the girl became quite impressed with him.

Then Maui told the girl that he would be more than happy to push up the sky if she would sleep with him [in the original: “if he might have a drink from her gourd”]. Maui was so strong, handsome, and charming that she could not resist his advances. To keep his side of the bargain, Maui closed his eyes and pushed up the sky.

However, this feat made Maui so egotistical that it was the beginning of his undoing.

MAUI STEALS FIRE

M
aui was warned by his mother not to irritate Mahui-Ike, his great-great-grandmother, who was the keeper of the fire in the underworld. Maui thought of how powerful he would be if only he had fire. So he found the opening in the earth that leads to the underworld and went to see Mahui-Ike. The old woman was thoroughly charmed by her handsome descendant and asked what she could do for him. Maui asked for some fire to take home with him. So Mahui-Ike plucked out one of her fingernails, which was a blazing fire, and Maui returned with it to the world above.

Safely out of the sight of the old woman, Maui extinguished the fire in a stream. He then went back to Mahui-Ike and explained that the fire had gone out on his way home. The old lady responded that such things happen sometimes and she plucked out another fingernail and gave it to him. Again, he extinguished it as soon as he was in the upper world.

He did this over and over again until Mahui-Ike had only one toenail left. She had been patient with Maui until now, but it had become clear to her that her great-great-grandson was a trickster who had been toying with her. So she plucked out this toenail and chased Maui into the upper world with a great flame. She threw it to the ground, crying, “If it’s fire you want, here it is!” At that the entire world was set afire. Maui changed himself into an eagle to escape the blaze. Then, consulting his father, Tangaroa, he made it rain, extinguishing the flames in all but one place from which all of today’s fires have their origin.

Maui noticed that wood burns best, and to this day people burn wood for fuel.

MAUI TRIES TO CHEAT DEATH

H
ina, the first woman, is the keeper of the underworld of the dead. It is she who decides who dies and who lives. No one ever questioned this but Maui.

Maui had become annoyed with his brother-in-law, and he turned him into a dog. This distressed his sister so much that she tried to drown herself, but was saved at the last possible minute. Everyone agreed that what Maui had done to his brother-in-law was a horrible thing and that he would have to die for it. Maui then went to his father, Tangaroa, and asked what could be done to save his life. Tangaroa told him to go to Hina and ask her to be lenient with him, as he was the son of a god. Maui might have succeeded, but his arrogance made him believe that he could trick and mock death.

When Maui arrived in the underworld, the great Hina was sleeping. Maui asked all the animals to be quiet in order not to disturb her. Maui then crawled up between her legs and then came back out through her mouth. No one ever dared even think of doing such a thing. Maui knew that if he succeeded in doing this a second time, he would be immortal.

Beyond the gods, there is a justice which cannot be tampered with. For all of his powers, Maui was stupid in not realizing this. So he crawled back up between her thighs. The animals were so amazed at his audacity that a little bird broke out laughing aloud, waking Hina. Maui was then crushed to death.

Since that time, no mortal has ever attained immortality, and Hina never sleeps anymore. In the old times, people only died during the night, when Hina was awake, never during the daytime when she was sleeping. Since Maui’s disturbance, people can die at any time of night or day.

(Greece)

T
here was once a time when the Titans, powerful giants,
*
walked the earth. During the battle between the Titans and the Olympian gods, led by Zeus, there were two Titan brothers who fought on the side of Zeus. One was Prometheus, the creator of humankind, who fashioned people from clay, and the other was Epimetheus.
†

Although allies of Zeus, the two brothers were still Titans, and the Olympian gods did not entirely trust them. Once there was a discussion over what parts of the sacrificial bull should be offered to the gods. Of course, the gods expected the best parts, the fat and the good meat. But Prometheus deceived Zeus. He divided the bull into two sacks. In the one sack he placed the good meat, but put the entrails on top so that Zeus would think the sack useless and give it back to Prometheus. In the other sack, Prometheus put the bones, but placed the fat on top. When Prometheus offered the two sacks to Zeus, the god naturally chose the one with the fat on top. However, when Zeus learned that he had been deceived, he said, “Let Prometheus and the humans eat their meat raw—I will never let them have fire!”