There
was a crevice in the rock, with a smooth bottom extending to the edge of
the cliff and deep enough for a ki?koli. A wall was built to close the
outer edge and it was at first intended to build a dwelling house there,
but it was afterward excavated to its present size and made into a kiva,
still called the wikw?lhobi, the kiva of the Watchers of the High Place.
The Walpi site becoming crowded, some of the Bear and Lizard people
moved out and built houses on the site of the present Sichumovi; several
Asa families followed them, and after them came some of the Badger
people. The village grew to an extent considerably beyond its present
size, when it was abandoned on account of a malignant plague. After the
plague, and within the present generation, the village was rebuilt--the
old houses being torn down to make the new ones.
After the Asa came the nest group to arrive was the Water family. Their
chief begins the story of their migration in this way:
In the long ago the Snake, Horn, and Eagle people lived here (in
Tusayan), but their corn grew only a span high, and when they sang
for rain the cloud god sent only a thin mist. My people then lived
in the distant Pa-l?t Kw?-bi in the South. There was a very bad old
man there, who, when he met any one, would spit in his face, blow
his nose upon him, and rub ordure upon him. He ravished the girls
and did all manner of evil. Baholikonga got angry at this and turned
the world upside down, and water spouted up through the kivas and
through the fireplaces in the houses.
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