He
moved it back and forth as he struck it further into the earth, until the
canyon was formed through which all the water rushed out into the Sea of
the Sunset. Then, as the sun shone, the ground became hard and solid, as we
find it to-day.
The Havasupai Legend of the Canyon. The Havasupais also have a legend
connected with the making of the Grand Canyon, and the reader will observe
with interest the points of the story that are similar to points in the
Hopi story just given. This story was told to me by O-dig-i-ni-ni-na, one
of the old men story-tellers of the Havasupais.
"The two gods of the universe are Tochopa and Hokomata. Tochopa he heap
good. Hokomata he heap bad - hanatopogi - all same white man's devil. Him
Hokomata make big row with Tochopa, and he say he drown the world.
"Tochopa was full of sadness at the news. He had one daughter whom he
devotedly loved, and from her he had hoped would descend the whole human
race for whom the world had been made. If Hokomata persisted in his wicked
determination, she must be saved at all hazard. So, working day and night,
he speedily prepared the trunk of a pinion tree by hollowing it out from
one end. In this hollow tree he placed food and other necessaries, and also
made a lookout window. Then he brought his daughter, and telling her she
must go into this tree and there be sealed up, he took a sad farewell of
her, closed up the end of the tree, and then sat down to await the
destruction of the world. It was not long before the floods began to
descend. Not rain, but cataracts, rivers, deluges came, making more noise
than a thousand Hackataias (Colorado Rivers) and covering all the earth
with water. The pinion log floated, and in safety lay Pu-keh-eh, while the
waters surged higher and higher, and covered the tops of Hue-han-a-patch-a
(the San Francisco range), Hue-ga-woo-la (Williams Mountain), and all the
other mountains of the world.
"But the waters of heaven could not always be pouring down, and soon after
they had ceased, the flood upon the earth found a way to rush to the sea.
And as it dashed down, it cut through the rocks of the plateaus, and made
the deep Chic-a-mi-mi (canyon) of the Colorado River Hackataia. Soon all
the water was gone.
"Then Pukeheh found the log no longer floating, and she peeped out of the
window Tochopa had placed in her boat, and, though it was misty and almost
dark she could see in the dim distance the great mountains of the San
Francisco range.
