She went up the mountain on four successive days and four days after that, eight days altogether, she gave birth to a child. Four days later, the child stood on its feet. His fingers and toes were webbed and he had neither eyebrows nor eyelashes and the hairs on his head were scattered, one in a place. His ears were round with only the openings. Everyone said he did not look like a man. After four more days he walked well and played with the other children.

His mother went again to the east and lay down under a place where water was dripping. The water fell into her as it dripped from the hanging algæ. She did this four times and became pregnant. After four days they all saw that her abdomen was enlarged and when she had been in that condition four days, eight days in all, she gave birth to another child.[3] When it was four days old it stood up and was able to walk well. Its appearance was like that of the first child. It had webbed hands and feet and was without hair. It had round ears with holes only. The children walked about together, the head of one being higher than that of the other.

Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache — Part 2

The people were asking, “Whose children are these going about?” They wanted to know who would make them like human beings. “Who are the kin of the woman whose children are going about among us?” The mother had a sister who wondered why the people were saying these things, for the boys had a father who lived a long way off.

Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache — Part 2

The boys were eight days old and big enough to run about and were becoming intelligent. They asked their mother where their father was living. “Why do you ask?” she said. “You cannot go to him.” “Why do you say that? Why do you hide our father from us?” the boys asked. “Well, do you really want to go where your father lives?” she asked them. “Why do you suppose we are asking?” the boys replied. “We will go where our father lives.” Their mother told them that they were talking foolishly, that the distance was great, and that they would not be able to go. The boys insisted but were again discouraged by their mother. They finally said that it must be they had no father if they could not go to him. The mother then consented and said they three would go to the top of a great mountain. She cut a supply of meat and after four days, when it was near dawn, they started. They came to the top of the mountain when it was day and stood there facing the Sun. The woman stood between the boys holding them by the hand. When the sun was rising she said: “Look, your father is rising. Observe well. His breath streams out from four sides. Go towards the streaming out of his breath. There are dangerous things living in the east. What have you to go with?” She had a brown fly and she gave it to the boys, that it might sit by their ears. The fly was to show them the way and tell them where the dangerous ones lived.

Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache — Part 2