06/12/2024
THE ORIGIN OF THE YÁYAATU SOCIETY
Ishyaoí! In Oraíbi they were living. In the home of the Reed clan lived the Yáyaa-mongwi. This Fraternity has now died out, but its altar paraphernalia are still kept in the house. A long time ago a man and his wife had one little boy. Some children of the village would often visit this boy. They were lazy, though their parents often told them to work, and get wood, herd sheep, etc. They would not listen, but often assembled at this house where they would prepare some food in the corners in front of the house, having stolen the food in the village. In a corner in front of the house they would build their fire, The wood they stole from the different houses in the village. So the men in the village were very angry at them and so were the mothers of these children. "You are lazy," they often told them. "You do not want to work, and we are not going to feed you." So they would go and steal some food in the houses and eat that.
One time the priest's son suggested to the others: "Let us go and get some wood ourselves. Some one go and steal a hide strap (piqö'sha) somewhere." So after they had eaten they went through the village and gathered up piqö'shas of different lengths and returned. They left the village on the east, drank at K'eqö'chmovi, and then went farther east and gathered some dry brush in the valley. After they had all gathered their bundles the priest's son said: "Are you all done?" "Yes,'' they said. "All right, then let us go home now," he said. But just when they were ready to start a Hawk in the form of a man carne upon them. He wore many strands of beads around his neck and had a black line painted with specular iron running over his nose down to the cheeks. The hair of all of the children was very much disheveled, so he laughed at them. "Are you getting wood?" he said. "Yes," they replied, and he again laughed at them.
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The Traditions of the Hopi, by H.R. Voth, [1905], full text etext at sacred-texts.com
