N forgotten times, in the days of the ancients, there lived in one of the cities of Cibola an old priest-chief who had a son famed throughout the land for his success in hunting. Yet, although the boy was a great hunter, he never sacrificed to the deer he had slain, nor the Gods of Prey who delight in aiding the hunter who brings plume offerings; for the lad was forgetful and careless of all things.

One day he went forth over the mountains toward the north, until he came to the Waters of the Bear. There he started up a huge Buck, and, finding the trail, followed it far toward the northland. Although swift of foot, the youth could not overtake the running Deer, and so he went on and on, past mesas, valleys and mountains, until he came to the brink of a great river. On the banks of the great river grew forests of cottonwood, and into the thickets of these forests led the trail, and under a large tree in the midst of the thickets, the young man thought he saw the form of the Deer.

As he gradually approached the tree, his eyes now following the track, now glancing up, he discovered a richly dressed, handsome young man who called out to him, "How are you these days, and where are you going?"

The young man straightened up and quickly drawing his breath, replied, — "I am hunting a Deer whose tracks I have followed all the way from the Waters of the Bear."

"Indeed!" exclaimed the stranger. "And where has the Deer gone?"

"I do not know," said the youth. "For here are his tracks." Then he saw that they led to the place where the stranger was sitting.

"I am the Deer," said the being, "and I led you here."

"Hai-i!" exclaimed the youth.

"Alas! Forgetful one!" continued the Deer Being, "Why have you chased my brothers over the plains and slain them? You have been a fortunate hunter, and yet you have been forgetful and careless; and not once have you given them, through your offerings, the delights of the Sacred Garden of Summerland. Listen! The Sun Father commands that you shall visit him in his house at the western end of the world.

"Hasten home and call your father. Tell him to summon his Priests of the Bow and command them to prepare plumed prayer-sticks for the Sun Father, the Moon Mother and the Great Ocean, and red plumes of sacrifice for the Beings of Prey.

"Tell your sister to prepare sweetened meal of parched corn to serve as the food of your journey, and the pollen of the corn-flowers you will also need. And ask your mother to prepare great quantities of new cotton; and making these things into a bundle, you must come, accompanied by some of your relatives, to this tree on the fourth day from now. Make haste for you are swift of foot, and tell these things to your father; he will understand, for is he not a chief-priest? Have you knives of flint?" he asked.

"Yes," said the young man. "My father has many."

"Select from them two," said the Deer Being. "A large one and a smaller one; and when you return to this place, cut down with the larger knife this big tree, and with the smaller knife hollow it out. Leave the large end of the log entire, and for the smaller end you must make a round door that can be closed from the inside. Then pad the inside thickly with cotton. In the top cut a hole, larger inside than out so that you may close it with a plug of wood. And when you have placed the sweetened meal of parched corn inside, and the plumed prayer-sticks and the sacred pollen of the corn-flowers, then enter yourself and close the door in the end and the hole in the top, and tell your people to roll you into the river. You will meet strange things on your way. Choose from among them a companion, and go, as your companion shall direct, to the great mountain where the Sun enters. Hasten and tell your father these things." And before the youth could say, "It is well," the Deer Being had vanished.

The young man ran swiftly to the home of his father and greeting the old man, sank down on a pile of rugs by the door.

"Why do you come in such haste, my son?" asked the priest-chief.

"It is this," replied his son, and he related all that had been told him by the Deer Being.

"It is well," said the old man. "For as the Sun Father has directed the Deer Being, so must it be done." And he went at once to the Priests of the Bow and told them to make the plume offerings.

The sister of the young man and his relatives ground the corn into fine meal and gathered pollen. The youth chose four of his uncles to accompany him. Then he took up the cotton his mother had prepared for him, and filled a large sack of buckskin with the sweet meal, and he took also a little sack of sacred red paint, and the black warrior paint with little shining particles in it. And the next morning, escorted by priests, the young man, arrayed in garments of embroidered white cotton, and carrying his plumes in his arms, started out of the town; but only his four uncles accompanied him over the mountains.

When they reached the bank of the great river, the young man, leaving his uncles, went alone into the forest, and cutting down the great tree, hollowed it out as the Deer Being had directed. He padded it thickly with the cotton, and placed his food and plumes inside. When all was ready he called his uncles and showed them the hollow log, and he told them that in it he would journey to the western home of the Sun Father.

Then the youth crawled into the log and closed both the hole in the top and the door in the end, and the uncles sorrowfully and gently rolled it over and over to the high river bank and pushed it off into the river. Eagerly they watched it as it tumbled end-over-end and down into the water with a great splash, and disappeared under the waves. For a long time they saw nothing of it; but after a while, far off, speeding on toward the Western Waters of the World, they saw the log rocking on the rushing current until it passed out of sight.

Now, when the log had ceased rocking and plunging, the young man carefully drew out the plug. A ray of sunlight slanted in, and by that he knew it was not yet midday. He could see a round piece of sky and clouds through the hole, and by-and-by the ray of sunlight came straight down, and then after a while slanted the other way, and finally it ceased to shine in, and the youth knew that it was evening. He took some of the meal and ate his supper, and then he looked up and saw the stars and he knew that it was time to sleep.

Day after day he traveled until he knew he was out on the Great Waters of the World, and on the tenth morning when he looked up through the hole, he saw trees hanging low. He tried to rock his log, it remained firm, so he determined to open the door at the end.

Now, this log had been cast high up on the shore of a great mountain that rose out of the waters, and this mountain was the home of the Rattlesnakes. A Rattlesnake Maiden was roaming along the shore just as the young man was about to open the door of his log. When she saw the great tree trunk, she said to herself, —  "What is this strange thing? Perhaps it brings the mortal who was to come." And she hastened to the shore and tapped on the log.

"Aye!" cried the youth. "Who are you, and where am I?"

"You have landed on the Island of the Rattlesnakes, and I am one of them. Our village is on the other side of the mountain. Come out and go with me, for my old ones have long expected you."

Then the young man opened his door and crawled out. Surely enough, there he was high among the rocks; and he looked at the Rattlesnake Maiden and scarcely believed she was what she called herself, for she was a most beautiful young girl, and like a daughter of men. Yet around her waist she was dressed in white cotton mantles was wrapped a rattlesnake skin which was open at the breast.

"Come with me," said the Maiden, and she led the way over the mountain and across a deep valley. They entered a dark cavern where they found a large room filled with a great number of the Rattlesnake people, old and young; they were gathered in council for they knew of the coming of the young man. Around the walls were many pegs and racks with serpent-skins hanging on them, skins like the one the young girl wore as a girdle.

The beings rose and greeted the youth and the maiden, and they placed a feast of strange food before them. After they had eaten the old ones said, — "The way that you go is unknown to mortals, and so that you may journey preciously, we have decided to ask you to choose from among us, a companion."

"It is well, my fathers," said the youth, and his eyes met those of the maiden. "Let it be this one, for she found me, and gently and without fear brought me into your presence."

And the young girl said, — "It is well, I will go."

Instantly the grave and dignified elders, the happy-faced youths and maidens, the kind-eyed women, all reached up for their serpent-skins, and slipping into them, filled the whole place with hissing and writhing Serpents. In horror the youth stood against the wall like a hollow stalk, and watched them.

"Fear not," said the Serpent Maiden, and she went to each of the members of the council, and took a single fang. These she wrapped together in a piece of cloth, and they made a great bundle. Then she gave it to the young man to carry, and said, "Come, for I know the way, and will guide you."

When they came to the hollow log on the shore, she took the fangs and inserted them into it, so that they all stood slanting toward the rear, like the spines on the back of a porcupine. When she had finished she said, — "First I will enter, and, as the inside of your log is not large, I will pull on my snake-skin." And she passed the skin over her being and crawled into the log.

The young man followed her, and he had no sooner closed the door, when a wave bore them gently out upon the waters. Then as the youth turned to look at his companion coiled so near him, he drew back in horror.

"Why do you fear?" asked the Rattlesnake.

"I do not know, but I fear you," said the youth.

"Then I will change myself," said the Being. She pulled off the skin, and laughing softly, hung it on the fangs above the sky-hole.

Finally toward noon time, the youth prepared his meal food, and placing some before the maiden, asked her to eat.

"I know not the food of mortals," she said. "Have you not with you the yellow dust of the corn-flowers?"

"Aye, that I have," said the youth, and he gave it to her and she was happy.

And so they floated on until they came to the great forks of the Mighty Waters of the World, and the Maiden said to the youth, "We are nearing our journey's end, and, as I know the way, I will guide you. Our log will be cast high upon the shore of the mountain wherein the Sun enters, and these shores are inaccessible because they are so smooth; but the fangs will hold the log fast."

Everything happened as the maiden had said, and they went out upon the shore. The youth took in his arms the sacred plumes which his people had prepared for him, and he followed the Maiden far up to the doorway in the Mountain of the Sea. Out of it grew a great ladder of giant rushes, by the side of which stood an enormous basket-tray.

Very fast approached the Sun, and soon the Sun Father descended the ladder, and the two voyagers followed down. They were gently greeted by a kind old woman, the grandmother of the Sun, and she gave them seats at one side of a great and wonderfully beautiful room.

The Sun Father approached some pegs in the wall, and on them hung his bow and quiver, and his bright sun-shield, and his wonderful traveling dress. And he turned, and stood there kindly smiling at them, the most magnificent and gentle of beings.

He greeted the youth and the maiden, and then he opened the great package which he had brought in, and he poured thousands of shell beads, red and white, and thousands more of brilliant turquoises into the great tray at the door-side. Part of them he took out with unerring judgment, and cast them abroad into the Great Waters, as sacred prayer-meal is cast at a ceremony. The others he brought below and gave them to the grandmother for safe-keeping.

Then he turned once more to the youth and the maiden, and said, — "You have come, even as I commanded. It is well and I am thankful." And the youth, bowing his head, unwrapped his bundle and laid before the Sun Father the plumes he had brought; and the Sun Father took them and breathed upon them, and upon the youth and said, — "Thanks this day. You have straightened your crooked thoughts, my son. You will be precious, for do you not know that I recognize the really good from the evil, — even the very thoughts of men I know. You saw the prayer-treasures which I brought with me from the cities of mankind today. Some of them I treasure preciously, for they are the gifts to me of good hearts. But those that I cast abroad into the Great Waters that they may again be gathered up, were the gifts of foolish hearts. Your offerings are pleasing to me, and to you I will give great blessings."

And then the beautiful Mother of Men, the Moon Mother the wife of the Sun Father appeared, and the young man placed before her the plumes he had brought; and she, too, breathed upon him, and said, "Thanks this day."

"Come!" said the Sun Father to the youth. "Paint your person with the sparkling black war-paint and the red, for you shall join me in my journey around the world."

And the young man said, — "It is well!" but he turned his eyes to the maiden.

"Fear not, my child," added the Father. "She shall sit in my house with the Moon Mother who weaves the mantle of the stars, and await our coming."

And after they had feasted, the Sun took down his shield, and his bow and quiver, and bidding the youth follow, they departed.

Across the great world they journeyed, and they saw city after city of men, and many tribes of strange people. Here they were engaged in wars and in wasting the lives of one another; there they were dying of famine and disease; and the young man saw more of misery and poverty than of happiness among the nations of men.

"Alas, my children!" said the Sun Father. "See, they waste their lives in foolishness, or slay one another in useless anger; yet they are brothers to one another, and I am the father of all."

And the young man thought much, and his heart became sacred; and that evening when they returned to the Western Home of the Sun, the youth could distinguish the precious offerings from those made by the bad and double-hearted. For the prayer-treasures as the thoughts of men, shine out a glad light when they are good.

Now, the Sun Father knew that which the youth had learned, and taking the Rattlesnake Maiden by the hand, he turned to the young man and said, "This maiden you will marry, and she will be as the daughter of men, and your children will cherish no fear of the Serpents. Return now to the home of your fathers below the Mountains of Shíwina. You will become the Chief Priest of your people, and because you have seen much this day, you will judge wisely and with gentleness for all men are as children, and the heart of each is like the Universe. The sacred thoughts keep preciously, but those dulled by evil, cast out, that they may return purified, as you have seen me do the shell-offerings of the unworthy."

The youth and the Rattlesnake Maiden returned to the terraced village. And the Sun Father in his journey round the worlds, looked down upon the Valley of Shíwina, and smiled, for the people were wise and good, and the corn stood high in the fields, and there was great happiness in the Land of Cibola.