Hist!' Coming
From The Ground, And When This Had Been Repeated Four Times, He Descried A
Small Round Hole Near His Feet, And This Was The House Of Spider-Woman.*
'Um-Pi-Tuh,' Said The Voice ('you Have Arrived,' - The Ordinary Hopi
Greeting).
'My heart is glad; I have long been expecting you; come down
into my house.' 'How can I,'
Said Tiyo, 'when it will scarce admit the
point of my toe?' She said, 'Try,' and when he laid his foot upon the hole,
it widened out larger than his body, and he passed down into a roomy kiva."
* Spider-Woman is an important figure in Hopi mythology. She it is who
weaves the clouds so that rain may come. Hence in many Hopi ceremonies,
where rain is prayed for, she is especially propitiated.
The legend then goes on to describe how Tiyo is taken and guided by the
Spider-Woman to various places, where he learned all about the ceremonies
that the Hopis now perform at their Snake Dance to produce rain. He met the
Sun and the Great Snake (Go-to-ya), and Mu-i-yin-wuh (a divinity of the
underworld who makes all the germs of life), and each taught him something
he needed to learn. Finally, after many wonderful adventures, he was lifted
out of the underworld as he sat in a ho-a-pah, a kind of wicker pannier,
with two beautiful maidens of the snake kiva, by Spider-Woman, who carried
him over the country and deposited him at his home.
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