This story is adapted from the culture of the Hopi Indians
of Arizona.
A young man once came to Tawakwaptiwa (Sun-Down-Shining), who
was a great poet. He asked Tawakwaptiwa, “How do you make
your songs?”
Tawakwaptiwa was a man untouched by foreigners, a man of the
earth. He told the young man, “When I am in the fields, or
with my sheep, I may see something I like, and then I sing
about it.”
Then the young man said, “Tell me the song of the butterfly
dance.”
Tawakwaptiwa replied, “The youths and the maidens are playing
in the field. They are running, and the maidens’ hair streams
behind them like butterflies’ wings. I call them the
butterfly girls. THe youths hold up the ripe corn and the
melons, and they call to the girls. And the girls come
running to take the prize.
“Next I sing a call to the thunder. We need thunder that the
corn maidens may grow high. Corn maidens are the young plants
of corn. We call the corn ears the children, and the corn is
mother, for it gives us life. The corn maidens help each
other, to gather the rain from the thunder with their little
roots.”
Then Tawakwaptiwa sang to the young man:
