Post by Okwes on Apr 14, 2008 12:04:05 GMT -5
Geese Talk The Santa Ana Language - Cochiti
Two Santa Ana girls went to Haniashte (other side of river) to pick beans.
They saw geese coming flying. The girls got to the bean fields. They were
gray with geese picking beans. The girls stood watching them. They said,
"They are picking all the beans." One of the geese saw the two girls. She
sang,
Come over here,
There are white beans here.
One of the girls said, "Just hear them! They talk the Santa Ana language."
Again the goose sang--
Come over here,
Some white beans here,
Come over here, Maria.
The geese were jumping around picking beans as fast as they could. One of
the girls said, "Call loud, and see if they will fly away and not pick all
our beans." So the other called to the geese: "That's enough. Leave some for
us. We have come to pick, too." The geese all flew away. The girls said,
"They got frightened. They understood. They are people like us and talk our
language. We better go, maybe they are something dangerous." They went home
to Santa Ana. They told their mother, "We went to Haniashte to pick beans
and the geese were picking them. They were people and they talked Santa Ana.
They sang--
Come over here, Maria,
There are white beans here.
"When we heard them talking our language we ran away and we came home."
"That's right, my dears. Don't go there, any more. They might be dangerous
people and take you away. Once they took a girl away!" So the girls never
went there any more.
Tales of the Cochiti Indians, by Ruth Benedict; U.S. Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletin no. 98; US Government Printing Office; [1931] and is now
in the public domain
Two Santa Ana girls went to Haniashte (other side of river) to pick beans.
They saw geese coming flying. The girls got to the bean fields. They were
gray with geese picking beans. The girls stood watching them. They said,
"They are picking all the beans." One of the geese saw the two girls. She
sang,
Come over here,
There are white beans here.
One of the girls said, "Just hear them! They talk the Santa Ana language."
Again the goose sang--
Come over here,
Some white beans here,
Come over here, Maria.
The geese were jumping around picking beans as fast as they could. One of
the girls said, "Call loud, and see if they will fly away and not pick all
our beans." So the other called to the geese: "That's enough. Leave some for
us. We have come to pick, too." The geese all flew away. The girls said,
"They got frightened. They understood. They are people like us and talk our
language. We better go, maybe they are something dangerous." They went home
to Santa Ana. They told their mother, "We went to Haniashte to pick beans
and the geese were picking them. They were people and they talked Santa Ana.
They sang--
Come over here, Maria,
There are white beans here.
"When we heard them talking our language we ran away and we came home."
"That's right, my dears. Don't go there, any more. They might be dangerous
people and take you away. Once they took a girl away!" So the girls never
went there any more.
Tales of the Cochiti Indians, by Ruth Benedict; U.S. Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletin no. 98; US Government Printing Office; [1931] and is now
in the public domain