English Translation
21. The Mountain Spirits and the Old Woman
Sam Kenoi
Long ago, the people were travelling.
And some old woman was among them.
And it seems they did not like her.
Then it seems they spoke thus:
"This old woman is good for nothing."they said.
Then they had spoken thus.
"This old woman is good for nothing."they said.
"Therefore, let's abandon her."they said.
Then they had abandoned her.
Then it seems she wept.
Then these Mountain Spirits came to her.
And they spoke thus to her:
"Why are you weeping?"they said to her.
"I weep because they have abandoned me."she said.
"I cannot see, I cannot hear, and I can not speak. For that reason, I weep."
Then they began to sing for her1
And she who had been blind, her eyes were made to open.
She who had been deaf began to hear again.
She who had been blind was made to see again.
Then they spoke thus to her:
"This that we have done is good. When you return, tell them about it."they said to her.
Then she performed all of the ceremony they had done for her in exactly their way2
And in that way, she returned.
Then she performed all of that which had been given to her in exactly their way.
And, in this way, the ceremony came to be customarily performed.3
Ethnological Notes
Morris Opler
21.1
That is, they conducted a ceremony over her.
21.2
This motif of a person cured or aided by some supernatural agency which thereupon instructs him in a ceremony, is a common one in Apache ritualism and is especially characteristic of the Mountain Spirit ceremonies.
21.3
This sentence must not lead one to think that there is but one Mountain Spirit ceremony and that this is its origin story. The old woman's ceremony would be followed only by those to whom she [with approval of her power] handed down her lore. Other shaman's and their descendants, controlled Masked Dancer ceremonies obtained from the Mountain Spirits of other localities, and all these rites, though they exhibited a definite common pattern, were dissimilar in detail. Incidentally, this story evidences that women as well as men were the recipients of significant supernatural experiences and rites. [See also Chiricahua texts 34 and 35].