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Show "The Abandoned Boys"* Shinau-av and his band were camped at the Wakarirumpa (spring in the yellow hills southwest of Pipe Springs, Arizona). They held a council and decided to move to the Kaivwavi (Kaibab Plateau). So Shinau-av sent a man in search of a food camp and told him to make a signal smoke when such a place was found. Seeing a smoke a great way off the people prepared to start. When they were ready, Shinau-av noticed that two small helpless children belonging to the man who had gone ahead were still lying on the ground. In a loud voice he said that someone should take these children along, but he told no one in particular. As all the party had great loads to take, no one took up the children, and Shinau-av leading the people did not notice that they were left behind. When the children awoke and found that their people had gone, they cried and slowly followed, crawling on the ground for they could not walk. In this way they traveled many days until at last they came to a place where a battle had been fought. There they saw lying on the ground the dead bodies of the men who left them behind. The women had been carried away. The boys knew that this was a punishment for the cruelty of the people in leaving them behind. Now there were many berries growing in this country, and the boys lived on them until the pine nuts were ripe. By the time these were ready to eat, the boys had grown so that they could walk about. They gathered many and continued to grow. They also saved many for winter. So they lived several years taking care of themselves. They grew to be fine large boys and forgot their wrongs and thought only of their friends who had been captured. They decided to rescue their friends from their enemies, the Kukwats (Mexicans). So they made a journey to their enemies' land and came upon them in a region covered with timber. * Op. Cit., Powell, "Ute and Paitite Legends." 34 |