MARY COOK'S "AYAS" STORY
(The Rolling Head)
This story I'm going to tell you is about an Indian
boy "Ayas", not "Wiyas", "Ayas". It's an old story, and not "Kayas",
it's a kayas story too. (Laughs)
This man and this woman had two boys, the oldest boys name was Ayas. And this man he had there a cabin where other people are not living, a cabin away from other people. They used to have a lot of places to go and trap. Nobody around, nobody said anything to them. So this trapper, his wife and kids went trapping. They used to live at that place for a long time and this man used to leave early in the morning. He would pull his sled and he would go checking on his beaver snares, traps. He was trapping and snaring for beaver at that time. So he would leave early in the morning and come home late at night.
And this woman after she got her kids something to eat in the mornings, after they got up, she would leave her boys all day in the house. One day the older boy, Ayas, went after his mother to see what she was up to, because he was wondering what she was doing all day. Because she never came back all day, would not come back till late in the after noon. And he found out that when that woman would leave the boys, she would run up this little pathway, to go visit her friends, the snakes.
You wouldn't think snakes crawl at night eh...(laughs)...that's what they say...(laughs)
And this woman, she would climb on one of those trees that had lots of holes, those trees were hollow. They were poplar trees. A lot of times when you go into the woods you see a poplar tree that's hollow, there is a hole on the side of it, where the woodpeckers make those holes for their nests. Even ducks live in those holes in poplar trees.
So she would climb on those trees, she had a stick and she would bang on those trees and call her playmates, "husband, husbands". And the snakes would crawl out of their holes, and they would come and play for a long time. After he saw that, Ayas went to his brother because he was getting cold so he had to go home. Late in the afternoon his mother came back and she was so happy. She was happy but she was not taking care of her family.
Before that she used to make really nice stuff, leather stuff, deer hide, moose hide stuff. Jackets and stuff like that, and she use to make white deer skin hides. And that hunter, trapper, used to dress really good. He noticed that his wife wasn't doing anything like that, the stuff she used to do before she started to playing around with her playmates.
And so one time he came home and there was nothing cooked. He was hungry, because he was walking all day, trapping and checking on his beaver. All those beaver houses where he had trapped or snared or how ever he was killing his beaver. So when he came home and there was nothing to eat in the house, any other time she would have everything cooked ready for him to come home to and then eat his supper.
So one time he left two beavers beside the beaver house, and covered the beavers with snow, so that the animals wouldn't see them. And then when he got home, I guess he had a plan, so when he got home, he said "Why is it I never have any food when I get home from work". He said, "What do you do all day", he said. And then his wife turns around and said, (laughs) "Oh, in the morning, when I get up in the morning I have such a bad stomach ache. I go outside then it takes me till the afternoon to do what I was doing, because I need clean myself up. "By the time I get finished cleaning myself up it's already dark", she said. And then he said to his wife, "you know what, I left two beavers in that little pond, over there where I usually go and trap beaver. I have two small ones over there that you can go and get there for me", he said.
And that woman put on her moccasins, she had wraparounds. While she was tying up her moccasins she grabbed a knife, while she tied them as quickly as she could, really. She grabbed a moccasin lace, cut it off and said, "May my journey be short, may my journey be shortened". Then that lace wiggled around like it was alive and showed her a trail where she had to go.
After she left, the man asked his sons, "what does your mother do when I go out, after I leave", he said. Ayas said, "She leaves after she feeds us, she just gets ready. One day I followed her, I followed the trail to where she goes in the snow". And then he said, "To this place where the tall poplar trees are, all dead trees, the trees are hollow. She takes a stick and bangs on the trees and says, ÔPartners, partners I'm home here'. She'll say that, then all the snakes come out of the trees and play with her, they play with her all day. That is where she spends her time", he said.
So that man, he got his fish net, he put it in his door way. He put it in a certain way, so when the door is open it stretches to block the door way so nobody can run out, because they'll get tangled in the net. Then he went to check on his wife's playmates.
He found the trail, so he went there. So he followed the trail where she used to go. So he started to bang on the tree and he said, "Playmates, I'm here", he said. And all those snakes came out. He started on the big ones as they were coming out of the holes he'd chop off their heads. He had lots of them. So he carried them home. Then, then he took them home, he made soup for his wife. He made her supper so she would have something to eat when she got home.
When his wife came home, he had the fish net all ready by the door. When she came in she said, "was that ever a long walk". He told her, "your supper over there". He had made soup from the snake blood. While she was eating he said, "Do you know what you are eating?" She said, "Yes, it's moose soup". "No, it's the blood of your playmates", he said.
Oh, was she ever mad. She stood up and tried to run out of the door. She got caught in the fish net, she got tangled up, so she couldn't get out. They started fighting, and she threatened to do away with him. They kept fighting, that lady was tangled up in the fish net. She was still fighting her husband and then ah... Finally the husband got tired, so he grabbed an axe and he chopped her in half. Then he grabbed her by her legs, he was swinging her by the legs, and threw her up to the sky. That is how you get to see a big dipper up there, because you see that eh... that is her bum, you see those three stars that ah... the hands of the big dipper that must be one of her legs. That is how you get to see the dipper, because of that woman's snaky playmates.
He had cut off her head too. He had told his kids when we start fighting, you run away, he had told his kids to run away, so the kids had run away. They ran and ran, the little boy was getting tired. And the father had given them some things to help them on the way.
He told his sons, "when you know that your mother is coming near to you just get this sharp...", like a long, like when you make baskets and that sharp thing to make holes in the birch bark. That is the kind of thing he gave to his sons. And he said, "Before she gets to you just throw this behind you", and he said, "Say Ôlet there be thorns when you cross our way". He said, " Behind you, your mother will be tangled in those thorns".
And so when the lady's head was being cut she started looking for her children. The head started rolling to her children, because she knew where they were going. It was winter, so she seen fresh tracks, so she knew. She said, "My head is rolling, I'm looking for my children". (Laughs) Her head rolled and rolled, all over, she knew where her children went.
As the children were running, they could hear their mother say, "My head is rolling, I'm looking for my children". That is what she was saying. Ayas was thinking about what his dad had given him and ah... He took that thing out and threw it behind him and said, "Let there be thorns", like a big fence grew there. The thorns grew and Chichipistigan (the Rolling Head) got tangled up in the thorns... oh... that was tough. (Laughs)
And then she rolled by from where she was, and she rolled at the edge of the thorns. Then she hard a worm eating it's way through the leaves in the bushes. She looked around and saw the worm. She thought, "What can I say to it to have pity on me, because I want to go see my children", she said. She rolled towards the worm. She said, "Oh worm, please help me, I want to see my children, I have to kiss my children". "Oh no, I can not", said the worm. "You are going to kill me if I make a way for you" he said. "No, no, no" she said. "I have to go and kiss my children, I love my children" she said. " I'll marry you if you make a way for me, if you make a way for me I'll marry you", she said that to the worm.
So that worm started to make a way for her. The worm was making a way for her, and he bit his way through the thorn bush and as he was just about done, she rolled over the worm. She started laughing, "Who would have thought of marrying a worm". Instead of a big thank you, I guess that was her kiss to that worm.
She started rolling again. The father had also given his sons an axe sharpener, made from an old file. It was curved on one side. They use to call it "piwapiskewapit". That is what he had given his boys. And he had said "I'm going to tell you how to use this, so that it lands behind you and not in front of you". When they were running and the little boy was getting tired, so his brother had to carry him, but they had to keep going. Ayas could hear his mother coming, because she was singing along as she was rolling, "My head is rolling, rolling, I'm on my way to kiss my children", she sang. She was singing, I was there I heard her singing that. (Laughs)
So the little boy was digging into his pocket to get that sharpener from his pocket, and it slipped out of his hand. He dropped it and it fell in front of them. Because he was going to throw it and say "Let there be a creek or river here behind us", but then it has slipped and fell in front of them. A river was in front of them. A river flowing in front of them if he had, if he didn't drop it he would have lost his mother. She wouldn't have been able to come across.
The little boy was so scared, I guess. Because his brother was carrying him on his back. He saw a swan floating down the river. He asked the swan to help hem take them across the river. The swan did. The swan had let them ride on his back across the river. Chichipistekwan came as they were getting off the swan. And when she saw other swans going by she yelled at them to help her to cross the river. She yelled "Swan, swan, swan, help me cross the river so that I may kiss my children", and she said ah... "I will marry you if you'll help me". That was her best word I guess.
One of the swans said "Very well I'll carry you across", and then ah... the head was sitting on the back of the swan and as they were nearing the shore, she started rolling slowly towards his neck. Along his neck but, he had a sore neck too then. She, the head, started jumping on the swan's neck, the head did. She was going to kill that swan. And she said "who ever thought of marrying a swan?" The swan flipped his wings, one of his wings. And just threw her down in the river. And then ah... Chichipistikwan went down under the water. Next time she popped up she was a sturgeon. That is how we came to have sturgeon fish. On the fish there's fat and parts of it is meat. It's a mixture of Chichipistikwan and the other fish I guess.
Ayas was keeping his brother there across the river and he was crying. An owl came and landed on a branch near by. And said "who, who, who." Not Santa Claus, (Laughs), not ho, ho, ho... not like that. Ayas asked that "Who who" if he could have his claws, so that he could make a rattle for his brother to play with. So the owl took off his nails off his feet. And threw them down at Ayas. Threw them down so Ayas made a rattle for his brother.
It's a long story but I don't think I could finish it, I'll try though as much as I can remember because they say that was the beginning of Wesakechak. It would take us years to finish it.
One day an old man not a very good old man, his name is wi-missoso, I don't know what that means. He had a canoe and he didn't even use his paddle right, he would just bang on his canoe, and the canoe would go, move down the river. And he saw Ayas playing with his brother and his brother wasn't crying all the time now. They were playing with the rattle and he wanted the rattle. He liked the sound of it and he wanted to take it home to his grandchildren. So, I guess Wi-missoso was in that area for a while. He pulled up to the shore and he stuck his paddle out and the rattle landed on his paddle. He lifted up his paddle and the rattle landed in his canoe. Then he started on his way again. He stole the rattle from Ayas and his brother.
INTERVIEW WITH: Mary Cook
COMMUNITY: La Ronge
DATE: November 29, 2000
INTERVIEWER: Fabian Ratt
Editor's Note:
This story has deep and ancient roots in Cree mythology. We are extremely grateful to Mary Cook for sharing this story with us, and fortunate to be able to add this story to our collection from an original source. We have tried to capture some of Mary's personality by editing the taped interview very little when doing transcription.
According to scholars in Algonquian mythology, the rolling head tale is the first story of the Wesakechak cycle which includes stories of a great flood and the creation of the world as we know it. This corresponds to Mary's comments in the story that it is the "beginning of Wesakechak" and that it "would take us years to finish." Scholars also say there are many stories that make up the creation cycle.
An excellent reference for northern Algonquian mythology is The Orders of the Dreamed George Nelson on Cree and Northern Ojibwa Religion and Myth, 1823. Edited by Jennifer S.H. Brown and Robert Brightman. Published by the University of Manitoba Press, 1988. George Nelson was an HBC trader who worked in the La Ronge area in 1823, and wrote a journal which recorded many of the stories and religious practices of the Cree.
Mary's story, told to us in 2000, shows that this story has survived yet another century through the oral tradition.
Write: Lac la Ronge Indian Band Education, Box 480, La Ronge, SK. S0J 1L0