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Source: Frank Russell, Myths of the
Jicarilla Apaches, 1898
An Apache who was an inveterate gambler had a small tame turkey, which
followed its master about everywhere. One day the Turkey told him that the
people were tired of supporting him, as he gambled until he lost
everything that they gave him.
They had decided to give him one more
stock of supplies, and if he made away with that he should be killed.
Knowing that he could not resist the temptation to gamble
if he had any property in his possession, he decided to leave the tribe
before their wrath should overtake him.
The next day he began to chop
down a tree from which to build a boat.
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The Woodpecker, Tsitl-ka-ta, commanded him not to cut the
tree; the woodpeckers must do that for him.
They also cut out the inside of the trunk, so that he could
get into the cylinder, after which the spider sealed him in by making a
web over each end. The woodpeckers carried the log, thus prepared, to the
Rio Grande River, and threw it in. The faithful Turkey followed along the
shore.
In the whirlpool above San Juan the log left the main
current, and spun round and round until the Turkey pushed it on into the
channel again. Farther down the river the log caught in the rocks in an
upright position above a fall, but the Turkey again started it on its
journey. At the pueblo of Isleta, the boys hauled out the log with
others for fuel. The Turkey' rescued the log and placed it in the water,
and again, at another pueblo far down the river, the log was returned to
the stream.
Far to the southward the log drifted out of the channel
into a grove of cottonwoods. The man came out of the log and found a
large quantity quantity of duck feathers lying about. That night he had
no blanket in which to sleep, so he covered himself with duck feathers.
He killed a duck, and with the sinews of its legs made a bowstring.
After he landed, the Turkey soon overtook him, and they
remained there for four days. During this time the man cleared a small
space and leveled it.
"Why do you clear this place_" said the Turkey. "if you
wish to plant something you must make a larger field."
Then the Turkey ran toward the east, and the field was
extended in that direction: toward the south, the west, and the north he
ran, until the field was large enough. Then he ran into the field from
the east side, and the black corn lay behind him; from the south side,
and the blue corn appeared; from the west, and the yellow corn was made;
from the north, and the seeds of every kind of cereal and vegetable lay
upon the ground.
The Turkey told the man to plant all these seeds in rows.
In four days the growing plants appeared. The Turkey helped his master
tend the crops, and in four more days everything was ripe. Then the man
took an ear of corn and roasted it, and found it good.
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