新编大学英语第三册unit1 Text D: The First Beginning
UNIT 1 AFTER-CLASS READING 3; New College English (III)
The First Beginning
1 Long before the explorers traveled their lands, Native Americans had developed complex and satisfying stories to explain the past, the present, and the future. An important feature of these stories is their oral tradition. Before the Indians had a written language, many generations of traditional storytellers learned these stories from their elders and passed them down to the younger generations in ritualized and performed ceremonies.
2 American Indians' stories are rich in tradition and deeply rooted in tribal experiences. Because they are oral, rather than written, it is impossible to tell the stories with the same reality they had for ancient people.
Talk of the First Beginning
Attributed to the Zuni Tribe, from the ancient Hohokam Indians in Central and South Arizona.
3 THE STORY TELLER BEGAN: Yes indeed. In this world there was no one at all. Always the sun came up, always he went away at day's end. No one in the morning gave him sacred corn meal, no one gave him prayer sticks. He was very lonely.
4 THE SUN GOD SAID, "Oh, my two children (the War God Hero Twins), you will go into the fourth womb of Mother Earth. Your fathers, your mothers, the priests, the elders, those who taught us the skills of the bow and arrow, they all come from Mother Earth; you will go there and bring out the people into the light of your Father Sun."
5 THE HERO TWINS ASKED, "But how shall we go into the fourth womb?" They thought and thought, and placing their arrow of lightning from the sky across the bow of the rainbow, they drew the string back, bent the bow, and shot the arrow down so that it entered Mother Earth, and they followed the arrow into the fourth womb of Mother Earth. It was dark inside. The Hero Twins could not see anything. They wondered which way to go and finally went toward the west. They met a stranger, face to face.
6 THE HERO TWINS ASKED, "Where do you come from?"
7 THE STRANGER ANSWERED, "I've come from around here and am going to the west."
8 THE HERO TWINS ASKED, "What are you doing here?"
9 THE STRANGER ANSWERED, "I'm going to look at my crops. Where do you live?"
10 THE HERO TWINS ANSWERED, "We don't live any place. Our Father Sun, up above, made us come in."
11 THE STRANGER SAID, "Let me see you." The Hero Twins laid down their bow and lit a fire in the dried grass. When the stranger saw the fire, he was frightened and said "Ouch! What is that?" and he crouched down. The twins saw that he was slimy all over with a slimy horn, a slimy tail, and webbed feet.
12 THE FIRST TWIN SAID, "We have fire." However, when they saw that the stranger was frightened, they put it out.
13 THE STRANGER SAID, "Come, let us go" and the Hero Twins followed him to the west. Soon they reached more people, who were all sitting together.
14 THE PEOPLE SAID, "You two speak. We think that you have something to say."
15 THE TWINS THEN SPOKE, "That is so. It is true. Up above is our Father Sun. No one ever gives him prayer sticks. No one ever gives him sacred corn meal or shells for jewelry. Thus we have come to you in order that you may go out standing up into the daylight of your Father Sun. Now you should say what you will decide."
16 THE PEOPLE ANSWERED, "You have seen that our lives are miserable. We cannot see one another, and here we just spit on one another, just urinate on one another, and befoul one another. We just follow one another about. But you must ask our North Priest." So the Hero Twins followed the people to the north, where they met the North Priest on his road.
17 THE NORTH PRIEST SAID, "Sit down. I think that you have something to say. So now will you tell me what you want to say?"
18 THE PEOPLE ANSWERED, "We live poorly here, though we don't like to talk about it. The Hero Twins from above have come down to the fourth womb of Mother Earth at the request of Father Sun to invite us to go into the daylight. If you say so, we would like to go."
19 THE NORTH PRIEST SAID, "Yes, indeed, I would like to give you permission to stand and to go out into the daylight of your Father Sun. However, despite my thoughts, the decision must rest with my younger brothers, the South Priest, the East Priest, and the West Priest. What they say, let it be thus. So now you twins go call them."
20 So the Hero Twins went first to the West Priest and then to the East Priest, and the South Priest. They all agreed and said, "Let it be thus." They also talked with the Corn Priest.
21 THE CORN PRIEST SAID, "Thus let it be. As long as these people live at peace in Father Sun's land, my crops will feed these people from the farthest north, to the farthest south, to the farthest east, and the farthest west. These shall be our people."
22 Therefore, after days of wandering about, the people from the fourth womb of Mother Earth came out and stood in the daylight. Father Sun stretched out his arms to them. As his rays touched them, they lost their slimy horns and tails and no longer befouled one another. They rested then. To all directions Father Sun stretched out his arms, as far as the horizon.
23 FATHER SUN SAID, "Stop right here, in the middle." They all then came to rest and stayed. They became the first Indians, the Hohokam. Thus it happened long ago.
