A very long time ago, there was nothing but water on the earth. In the east a Huruing Wuhti, one of the goddesses of rocks, clay, minerals, and other hard substances, lived in the ocean. Her house was a kiva, like the kivas of the Hopi today. Two fox skins, one gray, one yellow, were usually tied to the ladder leading into the house. In the west lived another Huruing Wuhti in a similar kiva, with a turtle-shell rattle attached to her ladder.

The sun rose and set on this world of water. Shortly before he appeared in the east, he dressed himself up in the skin of the gray fox, creating the white dawn of the Hopi. After a little while he took off the gray skin and put on the yellow skin, which brightened the sky into the yellow dawn of the Hopi. Then he rose, emerging from the opening in the north end of the kiva in which the Huruing Wuhti lived. When he had crossed the sky and arrived in the west, he announced his arrival at the western Huruing Wuhti's kiva by fastening the rattle on the top of the ladder beam. Then he entered the kiva, passed through an opening in its north end, and continued his course eastward under the water.

By and by, the two goddesses caused the waters to recede eastward and westward so that some dry land appeared. The sun passing over the land noticed that no living being could be seen. When he mentioned this to the goddesses, the one in the west invited the one in the east to come and talk about it. The Huruing Wuhti of the east travelled west over a rainbow, and the two deities deliberated and decided to create a little bird. The Huruing Wuhti of the east made a wren of clay and covered it up with a piece of mochapu, native cloth. Both goddesses sang a song over it, and after a while a live bird came forth. Since the sun always passed over the middle of the earth, the deities thought that he might not have seen living creatures in the north or the south. They sent the little wren to fly all over the earth, but it returned and said that no living being existed anywhere. (Actually Spider Woman, Kohkang Wuhti, lived in a kiva somewhere in the southwest at the edge of the water, but the little bird failed to notice her.)

The deity of the west proceeded to make many birds of different kinds, covering them with the same cloth under which the wren had been brought to life.

Both Huruing Wuhtis again sang a song over them, and presently the birds began to move under the cover. The goddesses took them out, taught every bird the sound that it should make, and let them scatter in all directions. Next the Huruing Wuhti of the west made different kinds of animals in the same way, teaching them their own sounds or languages and sending them forth to inhabit the earth.

Now the goddesses decided that they would create human beings. The Huruing Wuhti of the east fashioned first a white woman and then a white man out of clay and brought them to life. She made two tablets of a hard substance (tradition does not tell whether it was stone or clay), drew characters on them with a wooden stick, and handed them to the man and woman. The humans did not know what the tablets said, so the deity rubbed the palms of her hands first against the palms of the woman and then against the palms of the man. Suddenly the couple understood the meaning of the tablets. Then the deities taught them their language, after which the goddess of the east took them out of the kiva and led them over a rainbow to her home in the east. They stayed four days, and Huruing Wuhti told them to go and select a place to live. They travelled around a while and, finding a good field, built a small, simple house, similar to those of the Hopi.

Soon the Huruing Wuhti of the west told the eastern goddess, "All this is not finished yet." By then Spider Woman had heard what they were doing, and she also created a man and woman of clay. But she taught them Spanish and fashioned two burros for them, and the couple settled down near her. Spider woman continued to create people in the same manner, giving a different language to each pair. But she forgot to make a woman for a certain man, and this is the reason why today there are always some single men. Then as she continued turning out people, she found that she had failed to create a man for a certain woman. "Oh my!" she said, and told the woman, "Somewhere there is a single man who went away. Find him and if he accepts you, live with him. If he doesn't, both of you will have to stay single. Do the best you can."

The two finally found each other, and the woman said, "Where shall we live?"

The man answered, "Why, anywhere." He went to work and built a house for them, but before long they began to quarrel.

"I want to live alone," the woman said. "I can cook for myself."

"Yes, but who will get the wood for you and work the fields?" the man said. "We had better stay together." They made up, but it didn't last. They quarrelled, separated, came together again, separated again. If they had managed to get along, all the Hopi would live in peace today. But other couples learned quarrelling from them; this is why there are so many arguments between husbands and wives.

These were the kind of people that Spider Woman created -- rough-mannered. The Huruing Wuhti of the west heard about it and soon called the goddess of the east to come over. "I don't want to live here alone," the deity of the west said. "I want some good people around me." So she created a number of people, always in pairs. But wherever Spider Woman's people came into contact with them, there was trouble. Human beings at that time led a nomadic life, feeding mostly on game. Whenever they found rabbits or antelope or deer, they would kill and eat. This led to many quarrels.

Finally the goddess of the west said to the people: "You stay here; I'm going to live in the middle of the ocean in the west. When you want anything, pray to me there." Her people were sorrowful, but she left them. The Huruing Wuhti of the east did the same, and that's the reason why  their kivas are never seen today. Hopi who want something from them must deposit their prayer offerings in the village. And when they say their prayers, they think of the two goddesses who live far away, but who, the Hopi believe, still remember them.
 
 
 

* Based on a story reported in 1905 by H R Voth