Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians by Edward Morris Opler

Author:Edward Morris Opler [Opler, Edward Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Native American
ISBN: 9780486145761
Google: wkEhy2RrvmEC
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Published: 2012-04-30T22:22:49+00:00

B. ORIGIN OF THE STAVE GAMES

White Hactcin created everything. He was walking around. He came upon an old woman sitting down. Her hands were over her face.

White Hactcin asked her, “Why are you so sad?”

She looked up. She saw someone standing there. She said, “My grandson, where do you come from? What tribe are you from?” Then she said, “I am sad because I have nothing to do. There are no games, nothing is going on. I get very lonesome.”

“What pleasure, what game do you want to have ?”

“I have many relatives in my camp, many women, many young girls. We want to have a good game.”

White Hactcin knew all about what this woman was wishing. He said to her, “You must gather some roots of the cottonwood; gather some of the roots that have been washed down by the river. Find dry wood of this kind.”348

The old woman went at once and joyfully gathered an armful.

White Hactcin told her, “I’m going to make a game for you so that you will have much enjoyment.”

White Hactcin picked up his knife of rock and began to cut and split the roots. He split three.

“Look closely at these,” he said to the woman.

He picked up some dirt. He rubbed it on one side, and that side turned red.

Then he picked up another straight stick. He split it too. He chose three sticks altogether. He painted these three with a black band in the middle and left both ends red. This was the second set of staves.

He picked up another root and made a stave from this. He made two more like it. The round part, the back, he painted red. The straight side he did not paint. This was the third set of staves.

Then he split three more pieces. Those pieces which had a lot of knots on he threw away. He measured off about an inch and a half from one end and the same from the other end and painted the space between black on this set. The rounded backs of all three he painted red.

White Hactcin told the woman, “You must turn the straight edges of all these staves down.”

She did so and the rounded sides were up.

Then he asked, “Do you know how you have put them down?”

“Yes.”

White Hactcin said, “You must take care of these four sets of staves. Don’t mix them up. What I have made for you will make you laugh all day long and give you pleasure. You must believe in what I have made for you. This game is called tsedił.

“You must pick out rocks, altogether about forty. Make a circle of them. But at the east, south, west, and north you must have doors (spaces). You must have ten rocks between each two doors. You must get a flat stone about a foot square and put it down right in the center of this circle of rocks. Motion four times and then put it down.”

Then he told her to pick up the first set of three sticks.

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