Huichol

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The Huichols have sometimes made models of the flood ark and sacrificed them for the purpose of causing rain. These model boats were not boxes as described in this myth, but were hollow logs covered at the ends. The models were made of wood from the fig tree, decorated with water-related designs, and included crudely carved figures of a man and a bitch, squash stems, and pouches of corn, bean, and wa've seeds. They were sacrificed in the Laguna de Magdalena.

A young man worked at felling trees to prepare his field for planting, but each day he found that the tree he had felled the previous day had regrown. Though worried and tired at this, he persevered. On the fifth day, an old woman with a staff arose from the ground in the middle of the field. With her staff she pointed to the south, then the north, then west, then east, and above, and then below, and all the trees which had been cut immediately stood up.

Annoyed, he exclaimed, "Is it you who is undoing all my work?"

"Yes," she said, "because I want to talk to you."

The woman, who was Takótsi Nakawé, told him that he was working in vain. "Before five more days, a great flood will come. There will be a wind, very bitter and as sharp as chili, which will make you cough. Make a box as long as yourself from the fig-tree, and fit it with a good cover. Take with you five grains of corn of each color, five grains of beans of each color, fire and five squash-stems with which to feed it, and a black bitch."

The man did as Nakawé had told him. On the fifth day his box was ready. He entered with all he was told to take, and the old woman put the cover on, caulking it with glue from the root of the plant kwetsaka. Then she sat atop the box with a macaw perched on her shoulder. The box rode on the water one year towards the south, the next year to the north, then to the west, then to the east, and the fifth year it rose upwards as all the world was filled with water. Then the water subsided, and the box stopped on a mountain near Toapúli (Santa Catarina), where it may still be seen. When the man came out of the box, he saw that the country was still full of water, but the macaws and parrots made valleys with their beaks, channelling the water into five separate seas. With the aid of the earth Mother (Taté Yulianáka), trees and grass sprang up. Nakawé became wind.

The man and the bitch lived in a cave. He went back to work clearing a field while the bitch stayed home. Every afternoon on coming back, he found corncakes prepared for him. He was curious to know who made them, and after five days he hid in the bushes near the cave to watch. He saw the bitch take off her skin and hang it up, becoming a woman who then began grinding corn. Coming up quietly behind her, he grabbed the skin and threw it in the fire. "Now you have burned my tunic," she cried, and she began to whine like a dog. He bathed her with water mixed with ground corn, and she felt refreshed and remained a woman from then on. They had a large family, and the sons and daughters married and repeopled the earth.

When the man went to plant corn, he thrust a pointed stick into the ground, making a hole in which he dropped a few grains. But nothing sprang forth except stones, because he planted corn as the Mexicans do. Then he asked the Mother Above for a planting stick, and now the corn grew well, as did beans and squashes. He planted the first year in the south, the second in the north, the third in the west, the fourth in the east, and the fifth here in Toapúli.

Carl Lumholtz, Symbolism of the Huichol Indians, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History vol. 3 part 1 (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900), 169-173.

A man clearing fields found, every morning, that the trees he had cut the previous day had grown up again. When he came back on the fifth day, an old woman with a staff rose from the ground. This was Grandmother Nakawe. She pointed her staff south, north, west, east, up, and down, and all the felled trees immediately stood again.

Nakawe told the man that she did this because she wanted to talk to him. She told him that he was working in vain because a flood was coming in five days. Per her instructions, he built a box from the fig tree and entered it, taking with him five grains of corn and beans of each color, fire with five squash stems to feed it, and a black bitch.

On the fifth day, he entered the box, and the old woman closed him in and caulked the cracks. She herself sat atop the box with a macaw on her shoulder. The box rode the waters for five years, first floating south, then north, then west, then east, then rising upward as the whole world flooded. Finally the box came to rest on a mountain near Santa Catarina, where it can still be seen. The world was still under water, but parrots and macaws pulled up mountains and created valleys to drain the water, and the land dried. The old woman turned to wind and disappeared.

The man lived with the bitch in a cave. Every evening he would return home from work in the fields to find meals prepared. After five days, he spied and found that the bitch took off her skin and became a woman to do the work. He crept up and threw her skin into the fire. She whined like a dog, but he bathed her in nixtamal water, and she remained a woman. They had a large family, and their sons and daughters married. So the world was repeopled.

Carl Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (1902; reprint, Glorieta, New Mexico: Rio Grande Press, 1973), 2: 189-193; Frazer, 1919, 277-279.

A man left in the morning to sow his field, and in the evening he returned. He did likewise the next day. On the third day, there was no seed where he had sowed. He sowed again. In the morning, to find out who was doing this, he went early and spied. An old woman came carrying a staff. She put it to her right and to her left, and the field was made level as before.

He confronted her. "You are doing this. You are undoing all my sowing."

"Yes, grandson. We will need a boat. You will make it from that big fig tree. In five days I will return."

On the fifth day she came. The man announced that the canoe was ready. "Very well," she said. "Now look for a small female dog to take in the canoe with you. Also take five pieces of squash and five squash seeds. Already the sea is rising. Go; I will take care of you."

It became dark and bitterly windy. The wolves howled and howled and then were silent. The sea moved and lifted the canoe. Grandmother Nakawe said, "Are you alive? Already all the other men are lost."

The canoe rose high and struck the sky. Then it struck against the hills Zapawiyemeti and then Tsakaimuta and then Wirikuta. After five days, the water lowered and the canoe came to ground. The man said, "I am alive." But the ground was soft, so Nakawe told him to stay in the canoe another five days. The ground was still a little soft then, so he stayed another five days. Then he and the dog were able to leave.

The man went right to work sowing. When he came home in the evening, he found tortillas made for him, though there was no woman around to make them. The next morning he spied and saw a woman go to get water. While she was doing that, he went and found her skin, which he threw on the fire. The she who had been a dog began to weep. "Now making them will be your work", he said. "Here will be your house."

A male child was born to them, then a girl, and a boy, then another girl. It happened that the Huichol married. Then the Cora married. Then the Teiwaritari married, and finally the Tepehuanes married.

John McIntosh, "Cosmogonía Huichol", Tlalocan 3(1) (1949): 14-21.

A man named Watákame ("Clearer of Fields") was clearing a field for planting. Each day he found the plants back in place. Spying, he saw Great-grandmother Nakawé with her kwarére staff. (This staff is a section of bamboo with roots, modified into a bird, still attached to form a handle. Bamboo is believed to be the oldest plant, made by Nakawé before any others.) Nakawé used the staff to regrow the shrubs, showing the futility of such work, since the world would soon be drowned.

Nakawé showed Watákame how to carve a box from an amate (fig) tree and put him inside with a black bitch which had a white spot on her neck. Seated on top, she paddled the boat to the four corners. They found the Nanáwata women, even as they neared drowning, playing a throwing game with balls of ixtle (agave).

When the waters subsided, Nakawé began bringing plants and animals back to life with her staff, her woven snake girdle, and her triangular cape.

Watákame went back to work in the fields. He found tortillas prepared for him each day. He asked Nakawé, who told him to watch his cave. Doing so, he saw a naked women come out to get water. Following Nakawé's advice, he went in the cave, found the dog's skin, and threw it in the fire. The woman outside screamed as though she were burning, and Watákame poured nixtamal water over her body to soothe her. That's why Huichol skin is an intermediate brown color.

Watákame, being a powerful shaman, caused people to appear magically form the ten fingers of his hands.

Peter T. Furst and Marina Anguiano, "To Fly as Birds: Myth and Ritual as Agents of Enculturation among the Huichol Indians of Mexico", in Enculturation in Latin America, an Anthology, ed. Johannes Wilbert, UCLA Latin American Studies vol. 37 (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1976), 114-116.