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The Seer Who Would Not See. A 19th century Pima Indian story
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Original Message
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Earth Maker took some clay in his hands, mixed it with his own sweat and formed it into two figures - a man and a woman. He breathed life into them and they began to walk around. They lived. They had children. They populated the land and built villages.
At a time when there were already numbers of people living, Szeukha, Earth Makers son, dwelled in the valley of the Gila River. Near him lived a famous seer who could foretell the future.
One night while the seer slept, someone came to speak to him, making a great noise at his door. The seer woke up and looked out. Sillhouetted against the light of the moon was a big bird standing in the doorway. It was the great eagle who said, "Wake up! Stir yourself! You´re a seer, you´re a healer. Don´t you know a great flood is coming?"
"I know nothing about a flood", said the seer, laughing at the eagle.
" Go away and let me sleep."
The great eagle came three times more to warn the seer, who ridiculed and scolded him.
"Don´t bother me, bird of misfortune. We all know what kind of person you are. You roam the villages in the shape of an old woman and afterwards some girls and children have disapeared and are never seen again. We don´t want you around here."
You´d better believe what I´m telling you" said the great eagle.
"This whole valley will be flooded. Everything will be destroyed".
"You are a lier", said the seer.
"And you´re a seer who sees nothing", said the great eagle.
The bird flew away and hardly had he gone when a tremendous thunderclap was heard, the loadest there has ever been.
Even children in the womb heard it. It began thundering continuosly as great flashes of lightning lit up the sky.
When morning came, the sun remained hidden behind dark clouds and there was only twilight, gray and misty.
Then the Earth trembled and there was a great roar of something immense moving.
The people saw a sheer green wall advancing toward them, filling the valley from one side to the other.
At first, they did not know what it was and then they realised it was a wall of green water. Destroying everything in it´s path, it came like a huge beast, a green monster, rushing upon them foaming, hissing, in a cloud of spray.
It engulfed the seers house and carried it away with the seer, who was never seen again.
Then the water fell upon the villages. sweeping away homes. people and trees. The flood swept the valley clean as with a broom. Then it rushed on beyond the valley to wreak havok elsewhere.
When the next day dawned, there was nothing alive except Szeukha, Earth Makers son, floating on a lump of pine resin. The waters abated a little and his strange craft bumped into a mountain above the Salt River. He stepped ashore and lived a while in a cave on that mountain. The cave is still there and so are some of the tools and weapons that Earth makers son used.
Now, Szeuhka was going up to fight the great eagle. He was furious at this bird, who he thought had caused the great flood. Szeukha took wood from differant kinds of trees and made a ladder. He leaned it against the cliff atop which the great Eagle had his home and the ladder reached into the clouds.
Szeukha climbed it, found the great eagle and fought him. It was a big fight and lasted a long time, for both Szeukha and the great eagle were powerful and had strong magic but Szeukha was more powerful, his magic more potent and at last he killed the great eagle.
Looking around, Szeukha saw the corpses and bones of all the people he had abducted and killed. He brought them all back to life, fed and clothed them and told them to spread out and repeople the land.
Inside great eagles house he found a woman and her child alive. The eagle had stolen her from a village and taken her for his wife.
Szeukha fed and clothed her and the child also and sent them on their way.
The woman was pregnant at the time and she became the mother and begetter of the Hohokam people, from whom the Pima´s are descended.
Old Indian Man
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