SKULL AND HIS MAGIC
Once there was a pretty girl who was unwilling to marry anyone. All the young men brought presents of game to her parents, but none found favor in the eyes of the critical maiden. At last to the surprise of neighbors and kinsmen she chose for her husband one who was a man by night and a skull by day. Then all laughed at the marriage, saying, "One man in this valley has a bone for a son-in-law."
One morning the crier of the village made this proclamation: "To-day we hunt deer in the mountains to the northward!" Skull went ahead of the party and hid in a defile in the mountains. When the hunters came driving the game before them the deer all fell dead at the sight of gruesome Skull; so the people had an abundance of venison without the trouble of trailing and killing. Thus it was that Skull rose in their regard and ridicule was no longer heaped upon him.
The next day had been appointed for the foot race in which the runners would kick the ball. Skull entered as one of the contestants, though his neighbors laughed and said: "How can one ball manage another?" But when he reached the goal a winner the last voice of contumely was silenced.
ORIGIN OF THE HORSE
Two brothers who lived apart from their kinsfolk were skillful deer hunters. Day by day they followed the deer and antelope, and when their chase was successful they carried the game home on their shoulders. This was heavy work, and at last the elder in the goodness of his heart took pity on his younger brother, saying: "You must help me to carry out my plans and I shall become transformed into something that will be useful to you. Shoot an arrow through my body from front to back and another from side to side; cut me transversely into four pieces and throw them into the water. In four days you may come back and see what has happened."
When the younger man, sorrowing and wondering, had obeyed he returned to find four strange animals which we now call horses, two males and two females, colored black, white, bay, and yellow or "buckskin." He was not frightened, for his brother had given him warning, and he had provided himself with a rope, which he tied around the neck of one of the horses, took a half hitch in its mouth, and rode it home, driving the others.
Thereafter horses multiplied in Pimería and in time all were provided with mounts, though had it not been for the sacrifice of the good brother we should never have had any.
