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Kuskurza: The Third World
[From Book of the Hopi by Frank Waters, 1963.] Its name was Kuskurza, its direction east, its color red. Chiefs upon it were the mineral palasiva (copper); the plant piva (tobacco); the bird angwusi (crow); and the animal choovio (antelope). Upon it once more the people spread out, multiplied, and continued their progress on the Road of Life. In the First World they had lived simply with the animals. In the Second World they had developed handicrafts, homes, and villages. Now in the Third World they multiplied in such numbers and advanced so rapidly that they created big cities, countries, a whole civilization. This made it difficult for them to conform to the plan of Creation and to sing praises to Taiowa and Sotuknang. More and more of them became wholly occupied with their own earthly plans. Some of them, of course, retained the wisdom granted them upon their Emergence. With this wisdom they understood that the farther they proceeded on the Road of Life and the more they developed, the harder it was. That was why their world was destroyed every so often to give them a fresh start. They were especially concerned because so many people were using their reproductive power in wicked ways. There was one woman who was becoming known throughout the world for her wickedness in corrupting so many people. She even boatsed that so many men were giving her turquoise necklaces for her favors she could wind them around a ladder that reached to the end of the world's axis. So the people with wisdom sang louder and longer their praises to the Creator from the tops of their hills. The other people hardly heard them. Under the leadership of the Bow Clan they began to use their creative power in another evil and obstructive way. Perhaps this was caused by that wicked woman. But some of them made a patuwvota (shield made of hide) and with their creative power made it fly through the air. On this many of the people flew to a big city, attacked it, and returned so fast no one knew where they came from. Soon the people of many cities and countries were making patuwvotas and flying on them to attack one another. So corruption and war came to the Third World as it had to the others. This time Sotuknang came to Spider Woman and said, "There is no use waiting until the thread runs out this time. Something has to be done lest the people with the song in their hearts are corrupted and killed off too. It will be difficult, with all this destruction going on, for them to gather at the far end of the world I have designated. But I will help them. Then you will save them when I destroy this world with water. When you get there look about you. You will see these tall plants with hollow stems. Cut them down and put the people inside. Then I will tell you what to do next." Spider Woman... cut down the hollow reeds; and as the people came to her, she put them inside with a little water and hurusuki (white cornmeal dough) for food, and sealed them up. When all the people were thus taken care of, Sotuknang appeared. "Now you get in and take care of them, and I will seal you up," he said. "Then I will destroy the world." So he loosed the waters upon the earth. Waves higher than mountains rolled in upon the land. Continents broke asunder and sank beneath the seas. And still the rains fell, the waves rolled in. The people sealed up in their hollow reeds heard the mightly rushing of the waters. They felt themselves tossed high in the air and dropping back to the water. Then all was quiet, and they knew they were floating. For... so long a time that it seemed it would never end-- they kept floating. Finally their movement ceased. The Spider Woman unsealed their hollow reeds, took them by the tops of their heads, and pulled them out.... The people brought out their hurusuki; it was still the same size, although they had been eating it all this time. Looking about them, they saw they were on a little piece of land that had been the top of one of their highest mountains. All else, as far as they could see, was water. This was all that remained of the Third World. "There must be come dry land somewhere we can go to," they said. "Where is the new Fourth World that Sotuknang has created for us?" They sent many kinds of birds, one after another, to fly over the waters and find it. But they all came back tired out without having seen any sign of land. Next they planted a reed that grew high into the sky. Up it they climbed and stared over the surface of the waters. But they saw no sign of land. Then Sotuknang appeared to Spider Woman and said, "You must continue traveling on. Your inner wisdom will guide you. The door at the top of your head is open." So Spider Woman directed the people to make round, flat boats of the hollow reeds they had come in and crawl inside. Again they entrusted themselves to the water and the inner wisdom to guide them. For a long time they drifted with the wind and the movement of the waters and came to another rocky island. "It is bigger than the other one, but it is not big enough," they said, looking around them and thinking they heard a low rumbling noise. "No, it is not big enough," said Spider Woman. So the people kept traveling toward the rising sun in their reed boats. After a while they [heard] that low rumbling noise [and thought they] must be coming to land again. So it was. A big land, it seemed, with grass and trees and flowers beautiful to their weary eyes. On it they rested a long time. Some of the people wanted to stay, but Spider Woman said, "No. It is not the place. You must continue on." Leaving their boats, they traveled by foot eastward across the island to the water's edge. Here they found growing some more of the hollow plants like reeds or bamboo, which they cut down. Directed by Spider Woman, they laid some of these in a row with another row on top of them in the opposite direction and tied them all together with vines and leaves. This made a raft big enough for one family or more. When enough rafts were made for all, Spider Woman directed them to make paddles. "You will be going uphill from now on and you will mahe to make your own way. So Sotuknang told you: The farther you go, the harder it gets." After long and weary traveling, still east and a little north, the people began to hear the low rumbling noise and saw land. One family clan after another landed with joy. The land was long, wide, and beautiful. The earth was rich and flat, covered with trees and plants, seed-bearers and nut-bearers, providing lots of food. The people were happy and kept staying there year after year. "No. This is not the Fourth World," Spider Woman kept telling them. "It is too easy and pleasant for you to live on, and you would soon fall into evil ways again. You must go on. Have we not told you the way becomes harder and longer?" Reluctantly the people traveled eastward by foot across the island to the far shore. Again they made rafts and paddles. When they were ready to set forth Spider Woman said, "Now I have done all I am commanded to do for you. You must go on alone and find your own place of Emergence. Just keep your doors open, and your spirits will guide you." Alone they set out, traveling east and a little north, paddling hard for many days as if they were paddling uphill. At last they saw land. It rose high above the waters, stretching from north to south as far as they could see. A great land, a mightly land, their inner wisdom told them. "The Fourth World!" they cried to each other. As they got closer, its shores rose higher and higher into a steep wall of mountains. There seemed no place to land... So they went north, but the mountains rose higher and steeper... So they turned south and traveled many days more. But here too the mountain wall reared higher. Not knowing what to do, the people stopped paddling, opened the doors on top of their heads, and let themselves be guided. Almost immediately the water smoothed out, and they felt their rafts caught up in a gentle current. Before long they landed and joyfully jumped out upon a sandy shore. "The Fourth World!" they cried. "We have reached our Place of Emergence at last!" Soon all the others arrived and when they were gathered together Sotuknang appeared before them. "Well, I see you are all here. That is good. This is the place I have prepared for you. Look now at the way you have come." Looking to the west and south, the people could see sticking out of the water the islands upon which they had rested. "They are the footprints of your journey," continued Sotuknang, "the tops of the high mountains of the Third World... now watch." As the people watched them, the closest one sank under the water, then the next, until all were gone, and they could see only water. "See," said Sotuknang, "I have washed away even the footprints of your Emergence; the stepping-stones which I left for you. Down on the bottom of the seas lie all the proud cities, the flying patuwvotas, and the worldly treasures corrupted with evil, and those people who found no time to sing praises to the Creator from the tops of their hills. But the day will come, if you preserve the memory and the meaning of your Emergence, when these stepping-stones will emerge again to prove the truth you speak." This at last was the end of the Third World.... 
Tuwaqachi: The Fourth World
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