English Translation
23. The Mountain Spirits and the Cripples
Duncan Belacho
Long ago, [there was] a big boy [who] had no eyes.
Another boy had no legs.1
They had been abandoned.2
And that one who had no eyes was carrying [the other].
The two were travelling to the mountains.
A Gray One came to them.
Then they went back to the mountains with him.
Then the Mountain Spirits prayed.
Then a cloud surrounded them.
No one could see them.
Then the Mountain Spirits prayed.
And the clouds spread apart.
Then he had eyes.
The other one also, he had legs.
In this way, his eyes [and] his legs were made again for them.
Long ago, the people in the mountains did so to them.
In this way, they returned to [their people].
Ethnological Notes
Morris Opler
23.1
This story is usually told of a boy and his sister. The former was blind; his sister was legless.
23.2
Due to the rigors of a nomadic, hunting, and gathering life, and the insufferable handicap which a crippled member placed on a family, the helplessly deformed were sometimes disposed of or abandoned as described. [See also Chiricahua text 21.]