English Translation
8. The Killing of the Monsters1
Horace Torres
When the earth had been made,
At the very beginning,
People were not permitted to live on the surface of the earth.
A cloud moved down.
White Painted Woman lay face upward for it.
And then Killer of Enemies existed.
Then she reared him under the fire.
Giant often came to her.
Then:
"Here is the excrement of a child,"Giant said to her.
"I long so for a child that I often make the excrement of a child."
Giant knew that she was rearing a little one.
Killer of Enemies became able to walk about.
She reared him.
And he became bigger.
Giant came to her again.
[Killer of Enemies'] tracks were around the fire.
Giant saw his tracks.
"A child's tracks,"he said.
"I often make a child's tracks,"said White Painted Woman.
He spoke thus:
"Well then, make a child's tracks."
Then she did it for him.
Then, her hand on the ground, she made a child's tracks for him with her hand.
And they were indeed a child's tracks.
Then Giant spoke thus:
"It is true that you have made a child's tracks."
Then Giant left her again.
Then Killer of Enemies became older.
And she made arrows for him.
White Painted Woman made exactly four arrows for him.
He began to shoot with the arrows.
Killer of Enemies spoke thus.
"I am going after those monsters who do not permit people to live,"he said.
Then White Painted Woman spoke thus to him.
"People say that they are dangerous, my son,"she said to him.
"I say that I am also dangerous."
Then he started off hunting.
He walked about in the mountains carrying arrows.
He killed a deer with an arrow.
He built a fire.
He was going to eat the deer he had killed.
He put the meat on the fire.
Giant came to him.
"I will eat it,"he said.
He took the meat that was cooked away from him.
[Killer of Enemies] quickly took it back.
He took the meat from him.
[Killer of Enemies] took it back.
"Let!s shoot at each other,"said [Giant] to him.
"All right,"he said to him.
"You shoot at me first,"Giant said to him.
"No,"he said to him.
"You shoot at me first,"he said to him.
Then a pine tree was [Giant's] arrow.
He was about to shoot at him with the pine tree arrow.
He shot at Killer of Enemies.
He blew at it.
The arrow was shattered.
Then [Killer of Enemies] also shot at him.
A flint [coat] slid off of him.
Then he shot at [Killer of Enemies] again.
He blew at the arrow again.
The arrow was again shattered.
He then shot at [Giant] again.
Another flint [coat] slid off of him.
He shot at Killer of Enemies again.
He blew at the arrow again.
The arrow was shattered again.
Then he again shot at him.
Another flint coat of his slid off of him.
Then he shot at Killer of Enemies again.
And this was the fourth time.
The arrow was shattered again.
He shot again at him also.
He had killed the Giant.
Then Killer of Enemies returned to his home.
"I am going to the Buffalo,"he said.
"My son, people say that he is a dangerous being."
"I too am dangerous,"said Killer of Enemies.
He started off to him.
[Buffalo] lay in the middle of a plain.
He killed whoever he saw.
He did not permit people to live.
Then [Killer of Enemies] crept up to him behind a bush.
Weeping, he sat facing him from behind the bush.
A Gopher came to him.
"Why are you weeping?"
"Buffalo does not permit people to live. I want to kill him."
"I'll dig four [tunnels] to him over there.
You watch me.
I'll dig four [tunnels] ...under one another.
I'll pull fur from [the region of] his heart."
Then [Gopher] pulled out [Buffalo's fur.
Buffalo jumped up.
"What are you doing?"said.
"I am plucking out some fur.he said to him.
My children are cold."
Then [Buffalo] lay down in exactly the same place.
[Gopher] plucked out his fur there it the region of his heart.
And he did all of that for [Killer of Enemies].
Gopher returned to [Killer of Enemies].
"Go over there toward him in the tunnel.
Then shoot him where I have pulled out his fur.
[Then] run into the fourth [and] lowest tunnel."
Then he was carrying his arrows.
Gopher had exposed [Buffalo's] moving heart for [Killer of Enemies].
He shot it.
He began to run back.
He dashed into the lowest tunnel.
The Buffalo bellowed.
He tore up [the topmost tunnel] with his horns.
And then he also tore up the one below it with his horns.
And then he also tore up the next one below it with his horns.
Then he also began to tear up with his horns the one into which [Killer of Enemies] had run.
Just as he reached him with his horns, he fell over.
[Killer of Enemies] had killed him.
He had done so because he did not permit people to live.
Then he took out the Buffalo's intestines.
He uncoiled them.
He handled his blood in a similar fashion2.
He put that blood into the intestines of [the Buffalo].
Then he returned to his home.
"I am going to the Eagle."
"My son, people say that he is dangerous."
In the morning he started off to [Eagle].
Then he wrapped the intestines of the Buffalo that he had killed all over his body.
Carrying a stone club, he went out into the plain.
The Eagle's home was on a Red Mountain Peak.
His children lived there with him.
[Killer of Enemies] went out into the plain.
Then, as soon as [Eagle] saw him, he swooped down on him.
He seized him.
He flew up with him.
He carried him back to the red mountain peak.
He had carried him back to his children.
Then:
"Eat him up quickly,"he said.
Then he flew away.
Then [Killer of Enemies] stood up before the children.
And he took off those intestines that he had wrapped around him.
"Who of the four of you can fly down?"he said to them.
Killer of Enemies spoke thus to them.
Then:
"That one who is the youngest can fly down,"they said to him.
There were four children.
Then he spared the one who could fly down.
He killed the other three with the stone club.
He spoke to the only one that remained.
"When does your father return?"he said to him.
"When the water begins to fall, he will perch over there."
Then he lay in wait for [Eagle] with the stone club.
The water began to fall.
From over yonder [Eagle] came flying.
Then he alighted.
[Killer of Enemies] sat under (his perch] with the stone club.
He struck him with it.
Then:
"When does your mother return?"he said to him.
"In the evening when the water falls."
"Where does she usually alight?"he said to him.
"She usually alights over there."
Then he lay in wait for her under [her perch].
She came flying from over there.
Then she alighted.
He struck her with the stone club.
He did so because she did not permit people to live.
Then he sat on that little one.
He went down with him.
As they got close, as he started to sink down to the ground with him,
He struck [the Eagle] with the stone club.
He blew on the feathers he was plucking out of him.
"These are called 'birds'."
They flew out all over, all these birds on the suface of the earth.
All the birds on the earth's surface came from the feathers he was plucking out.
Killer of Enemies made them so.
Then Killer of Enemies returned to his home.
"I am going to the Owl,3"he said.
"My son, people say that he is dangerous,"White Painted Woman said to her son.
He had started toward the Owl.
[Owl's] home was in a hole in a rock.
[Killer of Enemies] lay hidden from him behind a bush.
Weeping, he sat facing him.
"Why are you weeping?"said Lizard to him.
"I weep for the life of that Owl over there,"he said.
Then:
"Lie under me. I'll run over there with you."
[Killer of Enemies] lay under him.
He ran with him.
Then the Prairie Dogs barked.
So those keep watch for [Owl].
While they were barking, Owl ran out and looked.
He went back inside again.
[Lizard] ran with [Killer of Enemies] again.
They barked again.
[Owl] rushed out again.
[Killer of Enemies and Lizard] threw themselves down underneath the ladder4.
[Owl] went back inside again.
[Then Killer of Enemies] rushed up the ladder after him.
He went inside after him.
When one is near [Owl], he cannot kill one with his eyes.
Inside, [Owl] was sitting with his children.
There were four of them.
"Where are you from?"said [Owl].
"From the sky?"he said.
"I looked just a while ago."
He spoke thus to his children:
"Prepare food for him."
"I'll prepare my own food,"said [Killer of Enemies] to him.
He put a large slice of fatty meat on the fire.
They were watching him.
It was being well roasted.
Grease was streaming from it.
[Killer of Enemies] seized it.
Just as they were watching it, he seized it.
He whipped the fatty meat into their eyes.
He beat them with the stone club.
There he killed all of them.
"You will no longer kill with your eyes,"Killer of Enemies said to them.
Then he returned to his home.
"Tomorrow I shall go to the Antelope."
"My son, people say that he is dangerous. "
"I too am dangerous,"he said.
She made arrows for him:
One black arrow,
One yellow arrow,
One blue arrow, [and]
One white arrow.
Antelope lay in the center of a plain where no one could get to him.
[Killer of Enemies] shot the black arrow to the east.
A black cloud arose.
The Antelope ran over there.
He [then] shot the blue arrow to the south.
A blue cloud arose.
[Antelope] also ran over there.
[Then] he shot the yellow arrow to the west.
[Antelope] also ran over there.
The Antelope had become very tired.
He was not running, he was loping [wearily] to his home.
[Then Killer of Enemies] shot the white arrow to the north.
A white cloud arose.
[Antelope] also ran over there.
[Killer of Enemies] went over there to [Antelope's] home.
Soon [Antelope] came loping [wearily] from over there.
His tongue was hanging far out [of his mouth] as [Killer of Enemies] went to him.
He was exhausted.
Then [Killer of Enemies] seized him around the neck.
And he killed him.
Then:
"Now, from now on, you will be sustenance for mankind."
Then the Antelope spoke thus.
"They will not eat my fur,"he said.
"No,"he said to him.
"Even if there is nothing on you,"he said to him.5
He had killed all of those who did not permit people to live.
From now on people existed.
Ethnological Notes
Morris Opler
8.1
This is a Mescalero version of the incidents related in Chiricahua Apache Texts 1-5. Contrary to the usual Mescalero custom, however, this informant makes Killer of Enemies the hero of the tale instead of Child of the Water. This may be explained by the fact that the informant is of part Lipan extraction and spends a great deal of his time with the old Lipan people. Furthermore, he is an ardent convert to a recently developed religious movement [the "Silas John Cult"] which originated on the San Carlos Reservation and therefore designates Killer of Enemies as the chief culture hero to whom songs and prayers are to be addressed. See Ethnological Notes to the Chiricahua Apache Text 1, note 3.
8.2
This is somewhat ambiguous. It is clear, however, that the informant meant to indicate that Killer of Enemies also took blood from the body of the dead Buffalo.
8.3
Literally: "he who kills with his eyes."
8.4
That is, the ladder which led to the doorway of Owl's house.
8.5
The sense of this interchange is somewhat obscure.