The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories

The Man Who Married the Moon, and Other Pueblo Indian Folk-Stories by Charles F. Lummis is a collection of folk-stories written in the late 19th century. Drawn from evenings among Isleta Tée-wahn storytellers, it gathers hero myths, animal fables, and origin tales that explain nature and Pueblo customs. Central figures include the culture hero Nah-chu-rú-chu and the trickster Coyote, alongside maidens, animals, and sacred beings.

The opening of the collection sets the scene in Isleta, describing Pueblo towns, laws, work, and the winter tradition of elders telling stories to boys by the hearth. It then presents early tales: the Antelope Boy, raised by a herd and winning a world-circling race with a Mole’s magic cigarettes and rain; quick Coyote episodes that explain his feuds with Crows and Blackbirds and his comic contests with Bear; and the mice’s war-dance that shames unarmed warriors. A longer myth shows Nah-chu-rú-chu bewitched into a coyote and later avenging himself by turning the traitor into the first rattlesnake, fated to rattle a warning. The title legend begins as the Moon-maiden wins Nah-chu-rú-chu by casting the finest meal on his pearl dipper, is drowned by the jealous Yellow-Corn-Maidens, and is revived through ritual before the witches are turned into harmless cliff snakes. A brief lyric explains why night exists and why the Moon has one eye, and a section on horned toads and “thunder-knives” frames a cautionary chase that establishes taboos on smoking before manhood and on love-thoughts during the scalp-dance, before the text breaks off with the start of the Stone-Moving Song. (This is an automatically generated summary.)