10 2307@40449544

The Corn Mother in America and in Indonesia
Author(s): Gudmund Hatt

Source: Anthropos, Bd. 46, H. 5./6. (Sep. - Dec., 1951), pp. 853-914
Published by: Anthropos Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40449544 .
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The Corn Mother in America and in Indonesia 853
The Corn Motherin Americaand in Indonesia
By GudmundHatt
Contents :
1. The Corn Mother in America
a) In the Southeastern Area
b) In the Eastern Woodland Area
c) In the SouthwesternArea
d) In the Plains Area
e) In NorthwesternMexico
/) In Mexico-CentralAmerica
g) Corn Folklore which is common to North America and the
Mexican-Mayan area
h) In South America
2. The Corn Mother in Indonesia
3. The Corn Mother concept in New Guinea and Melanesia
4. The Corn Mother concept in New Zealand
5. Male originatorsof vegetable food
6. The world-tree
7. The stealing of food plants in the sky
8. Self-workingagriculturalimplements
9. How old is maize cultivation in Asia ?
10. Conclusion
There is in Americanagriculturalfolklorea body of motifswhichare

also metwithin the Old World,especiallyin Indonesia. I proposeto study
oneofthesemotifs, theCornMother,whichis foundin certainpartsofAmerica
arid,in similarforms,in Indonesia. The CornMotherhas a centralposition
in the agriculturalfolkloreof certainareas ; in otherregions,however,this
motifis subordinate or entirelyabsent. It willalso be necessaryin the course
of the investigationto considersome othermotifswithinthe agricultural
folkloreof Americaand Oceania.
CornMothers- of varyingcharacters- are knownfrommostof the
world'sancientagriculturists.However,pre-Columbian America'sagricultural
folkloreseems to have more in common with Indonesia - and Melanesia-
thanwithany otherpart of the world.

854 GUDMUND HaTT Anthropos46. 11)51
1. The Corn Mother in America
or divinewomanwhogivesmaizeto mankind,
The idea ofa supernatural
and who is identifiedwiththe maize, is widespreadin aboriginalAmerica.
It is notpresent, however,amongall theagriculturaltribes.In SouthAmerica,
it seemsto be almostabsent,outsideof Peru. In CentralAmerica,themaize-
deity is generallymale ; but the Mexicansalso had a femalemaize-deity.
In northwestern Mexico,in the folkloreof the Cora, the Huichol,and the
Tepecano, the CornWomanis a prominentfigure.And northof Mexicoshe
plays a considerablerle in the Pueblo regionand also amongsome of the
agriculturalPlains tribes. She is knownto many agriculturaltribesin the
EasternWoodland; and the tales about her are mostcomplexand elaborate
in the SoutheasternArea, especiallyin the folkloreof the Cherokeeand the
CreekIndians,collectedby Mooney and Swanton.
a) In theSoutheastern
Area
In the Cherokeemythabout Konti and Selu ("The Lucky Hunter"
and "Corn"),thestoryofthe originofcornis linkedto thestoryofthe origin
of game, as the Corn Woman is marriedto the Masterof Game. A third
motif,the Blood-clotBoy, is also bound up with the tale ; a "Wild Boy"
arose fromthe blood of the game when it was washed in the river. This
"Wild Boy" becomesthe playmateof Konti's and Selu's son, and is the
mischievouspersonin the tale. The boys spy upon the hunter,Konti,who
keeps all the world'sgame enclosedin a cave wherehe goes now and then
to fetcha deer or a couple of turkeys.The boys open the door of the cave
and let all the animalsout. Now the mother,Selu, takes care of the house-
hold needs, bringingmaize and beans froma small storehouse.The boys
spy uponheralso, and theydiscoverthatshe producesthe maizeby rubbing
her stomachand the beans by rubbingher armpits. They considerthis
procedureto be witchcraft, and theydecide to kill the mother.She knows
theirthoughts,and beforeher death she teaches them the followingrite:
"Whenyou have killedme, cleara largepiece of groundin frontof the
houseand dragmybodyseventimesaroundthe circle. Then dragme seven
timesoverthe groundinsidethe circle,and stayup all nightand watch,and
in the morningyou will have plentyof corn."
The boysperform thisrite. And wherethe blood of Selu has moistened
the soil, maize sprouts1.
Amongthe CreekIndians,the southernneighborsof the Cherokee,the
cornmythis notlinkedto the gamemyth. Maize and beans are producedby
the Corn Woman,rubbingher own body or shakingherself2. In some of
the Creekversions,she is an old womanwho takes care of an orphanboy,
or a blood-clotboy. However,the boy spies upon her, and he becomes
1 Mooney,
1900, pp. 242-249. - Mooney, 1888, pp. 98-106.
2 Swanton,
1929, pp. 9-17, 168.

The CornMotherin Americaand in Indonesia 855
disgustedwiththe foodwhenhe discovershow it is made. Afterthat,the

CornWomansacrificesherself,that is to say, she lets herselfburnup with
her own house, or she disappearsin some otherway, and whereshe used
to live, the maize shootsup. In one of the Creekversions,the CornWoman
lets her body be draggedover the newlycleared field,sayingto her foster
son : "Take me and dragme all overthatplace, and afterthreemonthscome
over and look at me." When the boy returns,maize and beans are growing
in the field3. - In someof the Creekversions,the CornWomanlets herself
be lockedup in a corncribforfourdaysorfora singlenight.A greatrumbling,
a roaringor merelya rappingnoise is heard fromthe corncrib; and when
people come to let her out, the roomis filledwithmaize.
Amongthe Natchez,similartales about the Corn Woman have been
recorded4. In one of the versions,she is living togetherwith a pair of
girltwins,who act the same part as the orphanboy in the Creekversions.
The girlsspy upon theirfostermotherwhile she is producingmaize and
beans ; and afterthat, they findthe foodloathsome. Then she commands
the girlsto kill and burnher. And so it is done: "They killedCornWoman
and burnedher body and when summercame corn,beans, and pumpkins
sprangup."
The Corn Woman tales in the Southeasternarea contain then the
followingelements:
-
(1) Maize - and beans are givento mankindby a woman,and maize
is identifiedwiththat woman. She may sometimesappear in the shape of
a maize plant5 or an ear of corn6.
(2) CornWomantakescareofneedy,hungrypersons,especiallyorphans.
Oftentimes she confersbenefitsupon a blood-clotboy.
(3) CornWomanproducescornfromher own body by rubbingherself.
This conceptseems to be bound up withthe notionthat the CornWoman
is an ear ofmaize. It mayperhapsbe a sortofreflection ofthe old technique
of shellingcornby rubbing with the hands.
(4) CornWomanlets herselfbe lockedup in the storeroomwhichshe
fillswithmaize and beans. In severalCreekversionsit is mentionedthatthe
inflowof thegrainintothe storeroom generatesa peculiarcontinuoussound.
or
(5) The person persons on whom the CornWoman bestowscharity
spyuponherand so discoverin whatway the foodis produced.Theyconceive
a loathingforthefoodand fortheCornWoman,considering herto be a witch.
3 Swanton, 1929,pp. 14-15.
4 Op. cit.,pp. 230-234.
5 In a Cherokeetale, she givesa huntermagicaladvicewithregardto hunting,
and
speakingto himin theshapeof a cornplant,thenassumingthe formof a woman
disappearing. Mooney, 1900, p. 323.
6 The Seminlesof Florida have tales about corn womenwhose bodies were
like big ears of corn. "Cornwomenlived in the woodsand werebig,fat,and heavy.
Theirbodiesweremadelikea big ear of corn. Theyscrapedtheirlegs and kernelsfell
offon the ground/'It is relatedthat a cornwomanstoleand rearedan Indian boy,
and lateron she gave himfourkernelsof maizefromwhichfourbig cornplantsarose.
"That is the way the Indians obtainedcorn." Greenley, 1945, p. 141.

856 GUDMUND HaTT Authropos40. 1951
(6) She sacrificesherself.In many versionsshe is killed by her own

fosterson. She gives him instructionas to the procedurehe must follow
in orderthatmaize and beans shall sproutfromherbody. At the same time
she giveshimsomeinformation withregardto thefuturecultivationofmaize.
These six elementshave not the same geographicaldistribution.In
Americatheyare not foundtogetherin any otherarea than the southeast.
On the otherhand,we shall findin the CornWomantales of otherAmerican
areas a fewtraitsthat are not knownfromthe southeast.
b) In theEasternWoodland Area
In the EasternWoodland,feature(2), the CornWoman'sfostering an
orphan child,seems to be missing. However, in several tales she comes to
the rescueof people who are suffering fromfamine. She is a beautifulgirl
who marriesa youngIndian (2a).
Feature (3), her producingcornfromherown body by rubbingherself,
is missing; however,in a Seneca tale she bringscornto the famine-stricken
village in a mysticalway, withoutcultivation(3a).
The lockingup of the Corn Womanin a storeroomwhichshe fills,is
absent; but she ordersthe Indians to clear theircornbins,and in the night
a peculiarsoundis heard,the sound of fallingcorn,streaminginto the bins
in a mysterious way (4a).
The spyingupon the CornWoman'sdoingsis missing.Insteadof that,
disagreementbetween Corn Woman and humankindmay arise in other
ways (5a, b, c).
Element (6), the immolationof CornWoman,is the dominantfeature
in some of the EasternWoodlandversions,but absentin otherswhereit is
replacedby anotherelement: CornWomanfleesfromthe humanworld(6a).
Her husbandfollowsher- a traitwhichremindsus somewhatoftheAmerican
Orpheustales - and he findsher abode, wherehe is informedabout the
cultivationof plantsand the agricultural rites(7).
Therefore,we must distinguishbetweentwo types of Corn Woman
tales in the EasternWoodland,one characterized by herimmolation, another
by her flight.
The immolationtype prevailsin New England Algonquiantales from
the Penobscot7, the Abnaki8, and the Malecite9. The Penobscotversion
containsthe followingelements:
(1) Maize identifiedwith a woman.
(2a) She marriesa youngIndian whosetribeis suffering fromfamine.
(5a) Her husband discoversthat she meets an illicitlover, a snake.
(6) Upon her own request she is immolatedby her husband who
- obeyingher orders- dragsher body amongthe
stumpsof a clearingin
the forest,whereafterwards maize and tobacco sproutforth.She tells him
that she is the motherof cornand tobacco.
7 Speck, 1935, 75.
p.
8 Brown, 1890, 214.
p.
9 Mechling, 1914,
pp. 87-88.

In the Abnaki and Malecite versions,element(5a) is absent.

In Iroquoistales,theimmolation typeis connectedwiththecosmogonie
myth. A Huron versionidentifiesthe Corn Woman with the woman who
fellfromthe sky. She bore twins,one good, the otherevil ; the evil twin
brokethroughhis mother'sside and killedher. She was buried,and fromher
body sprangthe variousplants whichthe new earth requiredto fitit for
the habitationof man. From her head grewthe pumpkinvine; fromher
breasts,the maize; fromherlimbs,thebean and the otherusefulesculents10.
The storyof the Corn Woman's immolation,especiallythe dragging
ofherbodyoverthe field,mayhave something to do withan old agricultural
rite. Schoolcraft relatesthat it was an Ojibwaycustomto have the wife,
some dark night,divestherselfof clothing,and drag her principalgarment
aroundthe cornfield.This was a safeguardagainst pests, and insuredan
abundantcropn. x
The flight typeoftheCornWomantaleis knownfroma Senecaversion12,
containing the followingelements:
(2a) She marries a youngIndian whosetribeis suffering fromfamine.
(3a) She bringscornto the famine-stricken people in a mysticalway,
withoutcultivation.
(4a) She ordersthe Indians to clear their cornbins. At night corn
streamsinto the bins in a mysterious sound of
way, and the characteristic
fallingcorn is heard.
(5b)Herhusband'sbrother insultsherbythrowing cornbreadintothefire.
(6a) She fleesfromthe humanworldto her mother.As a resultof her
flight,the cornbinsare emptied.
(7) Her husband followsher and reaches her home where she lives
withhermotherin a largemaize field.She giveshimfoodforhis people,and
forseeding,an ear of cornof each variety,some beans of each variety,and
also a squash. Fromtheseseedsare propagatedthefoodplantsoftheIndians.
To the flighttype a Shawnee version13 also belongs,containingthe
followingelements:
(5c) Corn Woman is insultedby a man who has sexual intercourse
with a maize ear of peculiarshape.
(6a) She fleesfromthe humanworldto Our Grandmother who created
her. As a resultof her flight,the corncribis emptied.
(7) A rescuerhas to cross fouroceans to findher. She is persuaded
to returnto earthwhen the rescuerarguesthat it was Our Grandmother's
intentionthat she shouldbenefitthe Shawnee on earth.
However,not all Corn Woman tales in the Eastern Woodland area
belong to the immolationtype nor the flighttype. In a Seneca-Tutelo
10 Hale, 1888, pp. 180 ff.
11 Cited by Beauchamp, 1898, p. 198.
12 Curtin and Hewitt, 1918, pp. 636-642.
13 Voegelin, 1936, p. 7.

858 GUDMUND HAT 4(5.1U51
Aiifchropoe
legend14an old Indian womanin a village hears the Corn Woman singing
on the river. The old Woman paddles out in her canoe and bringsin the
CornWoman- who in a mysticalway was kept above wateron the back
ofa beaver,suggestive ofa cosmogonie myth.Nextday,a maizeplantsprouts
on the riverbank wherethe CornWoman landed. The object of the Corn
Woman'svisitis notonlyto bringhumanitythemaizeplantbut also to teach
the womencertainrites,corn dances and songs. Afterthat,she returnsto
the place fromwhereshe came, singing: "We, the varietiesof corn,beans,
and squashes,are the mothersof the people of the wholeworld". The idea
of a pluralityof CornWomenis also apparentin anotherSeneca version15,
whereseveralCornWomenvisita sick and hungryman,bringing himhealth
and comfort,because of his piety and forthe reason that he had always
carefullycollectedthe grainsof maize, beans, and squash whichhe found
spilledon the path. He informsthe councilof elders,and corn dances are
introduced.- In anothermoralizingtale "The weepingof the Corn,and
Bean, and Squash people"16,it is relatedhow the Iroquois once forgotto
take care of theircornfields,so that the plantslanguishedand faminecame.
A very old woman,matronand chiefof her clan, heard the plants weep,
and theytold her theirgrievances.
In theseversions,themoredramaticepisodesoftheCornWomantale are
absent.Only(1) the identification of the maize plantwitha womanremains.
In a tale fromthe Tuscarora,"The originof WhiteCorn",maize is the
resultof a sexual act 17.CornWoman,singingon the top of a mountain,calls
an old man, copulateswithhim and disappears. Afterwards the man finds
a sprouting maizeplantwherethe Womanhad been lying; in thisway white
corn originatedamong the Tuscarora,it is said. A self-immolation of the
Corn Woman seems to be impliedin this tale ; she instructsthe old man
about the tendingof the comingmaize plant, and she says : "As to me, I
shall die". This recallsfeature(6).
The idea that a cultivatedplant came into existencethrougha sexual
act is foundhereand therein aboriginalAmerica. In the Southeastern area,
in Creekfolklore, the tobaccoplantis said to have originatedfromthe copu-
lation of a man and a woman18.
c) In theSouthwestern
Area
In the Southwest,the CornWomanplays a prominent rle amongthe
Sia and otherKeresantribes.In Sia mythology,Ut'set,theMotherof Indians,
is also the Motherof Corn. Aftertheiremergencefromthe underworld, the
Indians had to subsiston seeds of certaingrasses. But Ut'set desiredthat
her childrenshouldhave otherfood; therefore she made fieldsand planted
bitsofherheart,and cornwas evolved,afterwhichshe declared: "This corn
14 Curtin-Hewitt, 1918, pp. 642 ft.
17 Curtin-Hewitt, 1918, pp. 652 f.
18 Swanton, 1929,
pp. 19, 87-88.

is my heartand it shall be to my people as milkfrommy breasts"19. This

idea,thatthegreatMotherof Indiansis identicalwithcorn,and thatshe took
thefirstgrainsofcornfromherownbody,is alsoheldbyotherKeresantribes20.
The cornfetishor sacred ear of cornholds a veryimportantplace in
the ceremonialand religiouslifeof the KeresanIndians. In a Cochitimyth
it is relatedthat the Motherof Indians, Uretsete, went into shipapu and
so returnedto the underworld, leavingher children.The Indians got them-
selves into troubleby quarrellingand were punishedby a great epidemic.
They sent an embassyto Uretsete to fetcha remedyfortheirills, and she
made the firstcorn fetishor iareko by windingthongsof deer hide around
an ear of cornand placingfeathersat its top 21. The cornfetishis especially
connectedwith curing. It is also a protectionforinfantsagainst witches,
beingplaced forthis purposenear to the child22. In the mortuaryrite,an
ear of cornrepresentsthe heart of the deceased,and foodis placed before
it forfourdays23.
In a folktale, the sacredear of maize,the CornMother,protectstwo
desertedchildren,rescuesthem,and leads themto theirparents24.
The corn fetishmust be a perfectear of maize, symmetrical withno
kernelmissing25. Dumarest tells us that whenever a man finds an ear of
thissortin his field,he places it apart,and the grainsof such an ear are not
eaten,but theyare sown. In thisthereseemsto be an elementof artificial
selectionwhichmayhave a practicalvalue. At Isleta, accordingto Parsons,
the perfectlykerneledcorn ears are likewisekept for planting. Another
kindof ear, also regardedas sacrosanct,is flattenedat the tip and thought
of as motherand child. Such an ear is placed,at Zui, in the middleof the
corn store26. Goldfrank tells us fromCochitithat at the harvest,when
the cornears are stacked,the husksare lefton fourears of corn,and these
are placed in the fourcornersofthe stackand are called "the mothers".The
restof the cornis piled on top. In Laguna, an entirecornstalkis placed in
each corner27.This is, for comparativepurposes,a very importanttrait.
Cornfetishesare also usedby theZui (mi'li) and by theHopi (tiponi)28.
But theyplay the greatestrle amongthe easternPueblo Indians,especially
amongthe Keresan Tribes,wherethe Corn Motheris dominant,holdinga
positionas importantas that of the Sun or the War Twins at Zui and as
the culturehero and god of death Masauw among the Hopi 29.
19 Stevenson, 1894, 39.
p.
20 Boas, 1928,
pp. 1, 232, 276.
21 Dumarest, 1919, pp. 215-216, 155.
22
Op. cit., p. 142.
23
Op. cit., p. 167.
24
Op. cit., pp. 231-233. - Benedict, 1931, pp. 77, 228.
25 Dumarest, 1919, p. 155. - Parsons, 1929, p. 249. - CxOLDFRANK, 1927,
- Parsons, 1932, p. 277.
p, 66. - Stevenson, 1894, p. 40. - White, 1935, pp. 29, 161.
26 Parsons, 1939, pp. 319 i
27 Goldfrank, 1927, 92.
p.
28 Parsons, 1933, p. 65.
29 Parsons, 1939, 182.
p.

860 GUDMUND HaTT Anthropos4G. 1951
The Tewa and the Zui mythologyhave many Corn Maidens. The
CornWomanconceptis splitup intoa wholegroup,each ofthecolorvarieties
of maize havingone or morerepresentatives, and the CornMaidensare also
-<-as theircolors- associatedwiththe cardinaldirections.
The Corn Maidensare also called Mothers.In a tale fromthe Tewa
Indians of San Juan pueblo, 'The enviousCornGirls",the moralis spoken
by ShrivelledCornOld Womanwho says to the enviousgirls: "You are the
Mothersof the people. You are not the ones to treatany one wrongly30."
In Zuiritualand myth,theCornMaidensfleefromtheeroticattempts
of some male power. This male elementtakes the formof fluteplayersin a
ceremonialdance31,or it is describedas the god of music,butterflies, and
flowers 32,or as the twinsons of the Sun 33. The flightof the Maidenscauses
great mourning, because it means the loss of the nourishingcorn. Several
emissaries, Eagle, the Falcon, the Raven, go out, seekingthemin vain.
the
At last, however,they are foundin the farawayocean, hidingbeneaththe
wingsof a duck. They returnto earth,or they send theircorn. In one
version,"each maidenbathesherself,and takes the rubbingsfromher body
and makes theminto a shape like an ear of corn,each ear coloredlike its
maiden maker34." This featureremindsus stronglyof the Corn Woman's
producingcorn fromher own body in Cherokeeand Creek myths. - In
anotherZuimyth,theflight oftheCornMaidensis causedby thecarelessness
of people who were playingwith corn bread and throwingit away, and
throwingthe corninto the cornrooms heedlessly,not pilingit up carefully.
When the CornMaidenshad fled,it was as if lifehad leftthe corn; it was
not nourishing, and it did not sproutwhen it was planted. Therefore, the
priests sent out emissariesto discover the whereabouts of the CornMaidens
and bringthem back 35.
In Pueblo Indian folktales, the love adventuresof the CornWomen
are sometimestreatedof. Summerand WinterfightforYellow Corn and
at last theyagreeto divideherfavours,each havingherforsix months.The
flightmotifis treatedin a San Juan tale : WhiteCornfleesfromher Indian
husband because he is disloyal to her, having let himselfbe seduced by
anotherwoman,Flowers-from-the-field. WhiteCorngoes underwaterwith
her child, seekingrefugebeneath Fortunestream."White Corn stayed at
Fortunestreamand became largerand whiter. And the baby became the
littlewhitecorn that the Indians now have36."
A comparisonbetweenthe Corn Woman tales of the Pueblo Indians
and thoseof the Southeastand the EasternWoodlanddisclosessimilarities,
but also differences.
30 Parsons, 1929,
pp. 264, 289-300.
31 Cushing, 1896, 435.
p.
oa
bTEVENSON, 1904, p. 48.
03 Parsons, 1916,
pp. 392-399.
34 Parsons, 1916, cf.
Stevenson, 1904, p. 54.
35 Bunzel, 1932, 914-917.
pp.
36 Espinosa, 1936,
p. 69-133.

(1) The fundamental element,the identification of cornwitha Woman;

is foundeverywhere.
(2) The storyofCornWomanas fostermotherof an orphanor a blood-
clot boy seemsto be missingin the Pueblo area ; but CornWomanis often
the guardianof children.In a Pueblo folktale she marriesan Indian (2a).
(3) The productionof cornfromherbody by rubbingoccursin a Zui
myth,wheretheCornMaidens,afterbathing,producecornfromtherubbings
of theirbodies.
(4) The lockingup of CornWomanin a storeroom seemsto be missing
in the Pueblo area. However, in a Zui tale, the empty houses in a deserted
villageare filledwithcornin a magicalway, a grainof cornbeingput into
each house37.
(5) The spyingupon CornWomanand the loathingforher cornseems
to be entirelymissingin the Pueblo area.
(6) Her self-immolation is also missing.However,a trace of this idea
may be seen in the Sia tale about the Motherof Indians,who plantedbits
of her own heart fromwhichmaize sprouted.
(6a) The flightelementis veryprominent in the Pueblo area. In the
Zui myth,the CornMaidensflee,frightened away by eroticadvances. This
remindsus of the Shawneeversion,mentionedabove (p. 857). In a folktale
fromSan Juan, the Corn Woman flees because of her human husband's
unfaithfulness.
(7) As a sequel to the flightof the CornMaidenscomesthe searchfor
them,theirdiscoveryin a hidingplace beneath a duck's wing,and their
return,or at least the returnof the cornwhichtheyrub fromtheirbodies.
d) In thePlainsArea
In the Plains,the CornWomanplays a considerablerlein mythsand
rites. She is well-knownamong the Pawnee38,Cheyenne39,Mandan and
Hidatsa40, and Arikara41. In the mythologyof the middle and northern
tribesof the Caddoan stock (Pawnee and Arikara),Corn Woman is one of
the central figures,as dominantas she is in the Keresan tribes of the
Pueblo area.
In the Arikaramyth,as given by George Dorsey, the creator-god
planted maize in the heavens and took fromthe fieldan ear of corn and
turnedit into a Woman. This CornWomanwas sent downto the earthto
worldto the
help people there. She led humankindout of the subterranean
surfaceof the earth. Also afterthisemergence,Mother Cornwas the leader
and helperof humankind,actingthe part of a culturehero.
37 Parsons, 1917, II, pp. 319 f.

38 Fletcher, 1904. - Dorsey, 1906, pp. 52-56, 58-61, 137.
39 Kroeber, 1900, pp. 163, 186-187. - Grinnell, 1907, pp. 179-194.
40 Wied, 1841, II, pp. 182-184.
41 Matthews, 1877, p. 12. - Grinnell, 1893, pp. 123 it. - JAtL, XX11, 1909,
pp. 90-92. - Dorsey, 1904, pp. 12-38, 124-125.

862 GUDMUND HaTT Anthropos40. 1951
Her functionas culturehero and leader is also apparentamong the

Pawnee. MotherCornis the dominantfigurein the Hako ceremony 42; she
leads the embassywhichis to establisha bond of friendship, peace, and
security between two distinct of
groups persons,belonging to differentclans
or tribes. Even if the Hako ceremony may be a rite,
fertility meant to benefit
certainindividualsby bringingthem the promiseof children,a long life,
and plenty,it certainly also has a politicalpurport, theestablishingofalliances
in a dangerousworld. And it is verycuriousto see that CornMothermay
even be a leader of warriors.There is a seemingdisparitybetweenthe
compassionateCorn Motherwho rescuesdesertedchildrenand this shrewd
adviser of a war party43. However,in both appearancesher functionis
protective. Evidently,Corn Motherhas - among the Pawnee and the
Arikara- assumedall thefunctions ofa protective goddess. Thisis probably
what the Indian meant who said to Grinnell : "Just as the whitepeople
talk about JesusChrist,so we feel about the cornu."
Anothercharacteristic featureof the CornMotherconceptamongthe
Plains Indiansis the close connectionbetweenthe cornand the buffalo.The
agricultural and huntingPlains Indianshave, so to speak, two staffsof life;
and thisfundamental factis verymarkedin theirmythology.
In a Cheyennetale, a supernaturalold woman,livingin a spring,is
visitedby two youngmen. She showsthemon one side fieldsof corn,on
the otherside herdsof buffalo.One of the youngmenbringsback corn,the
otherbuffalomeat, and the people feast on both. That nightthe buffalo
come out of the spring; and since then therehave been herdsof buffalo,
and cornhas been grown45.
The Pawnee have a morecomprehensive mythabout the old woman,
living in a cave from which a springissued, who gave to the Indians the
buffaloand the corn 46. Evidently, the old woman in the cave is the Corn
Motherand also the Moon. The identification of Corn Motherand Moon
appears also from other Pawnee myths.
Related to this old woman is the Mandans' Old-Woman- Who-Never-
Dies. She is said to live in the moon,and she controlsthe maize and other
foodplants and the buffaloand otherfood animals. Maximilian zu Wied
describesa corn-medicine dance, held by the Mandan womenin spring,at
thetimewhenthewildgeese,theswans,and theducksreturnfromthesouth,
sent by the Old-Woman- Who-Never-Dies.These birds are symbolsof the
cultivatedplants,the wild goose signifying the maize,the swan the squash,
and the duck the beans. Outside the village, scaffoldswere raised upon
whichdriedmeat was hungup as a sacrifice.Elderlywomen,representative
42Fletcher, 1904.
43Fletcher, 1904,pp. 158-159.Cf.Dorsey, 1906, 136-137,wherea warrior
pp.
does not followMotherCorn'sadvice. The Moon- anothermanifestation of Mother
Corn- turnsblack. Nevertheless, he goes on the warpathand is defeated.
44Grinnell, 1893,p. 114.
45 Kroeber, 1900,pp. 163. Cf. Grinnell, 1907, pp. 179-194.
46Dorsey, 1906,pp. 21-28.

of the Old-Woman- Who-Never-Dies, danced aroundthe scaffolds, whilethe

old menmade musicwithdrumsand rattles.The elderlywomeneach carried
an ear of maize,mountedupon a stick. Young womenfedthemby putting
a littlepemmicaninto theirmouthsand each receiveda fewkernelsof the
consecratedmaize, one kernelfor eating,the othersfor mixingwith the
seed corn. - Anothercorn-medicine dance was held in the fall. On that
occasion,the womeneach carrieda wholemaize plant. The maize,and also
the birds whichsymbolizethe cultivatedplants,were called by the name
of the Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies ; and the womencried: "Mother,take
pityon us ! Do not send us the severecold weathertoo early! Do not let all
the game leave, let us keep some forthe winter!" The Old-Woman-Who-
Never-Diesdoes not live onlyin the moon; she has verylargecornfields on
earth,guardedby deer and birds. At one time she dwelt at upper Little
Missouri,whereshewas visitedby someHidatsa Indianswhomsheentertained
froma smal pot of maize that could neverbe emptied47.
The connectionbetweenthe corn and the buffaloin the mind of the
Plains Indiansis also seen in the tale about the Indian who marriedBuffalo
Woman and Corn Woman. This tale is knownfromthe Skidi Pawnee48,
the Omaha49,the Teton Dakota 50,the Cheyenne51,and also the Crow52-
althoughthe Crowdid not attemptto cultivateotherplants than tobacco.
In all versionsof the tale about BuffaloWomanand CornWoman,the last-
named plays a ratherinsignificant rle. Both womenleave the husband's
home,because theirsons quarrel; and the husbandfollowsBuffaloWoman.
The synthesisof corn and buffalois also apparentin the feedingof
CornWoman or her representative withmeat. We have alreadyseen that
feature in the corn-medicinedance of the Mandan women, mentioned
above. Amongthe Arikara,therewas in everylodge "a large ear of corn,
whichhas lasted forgenerations, stickingout of the mouthof a medicine
bag. At theirfeasts,they make offerings to the corn by rubbinga piece
of meat on it, while they pray to it forplentifulharvests,and addressit
by the name of "mother"53.
The same idea, the feedingof the corn with meat appears in a rite
amongthe South Band Pawnee: aftera successfulbuffalohunt,a woman
wouldbuild a small fireat the end of her fieldand put on the firea small
piece of the intestine,so that the smokewould permeatethe field54.
Furthermore, theconnection betweenbuffaloand maize findsexpression
in certainoriginmyths,wheremaize sproutsor is producedfromthe body
47 Wied, 1841, II, pp. 150-180.
48 Dorsey, 1906, pp. 62-68.
49 Dorsey. 1890, pp. 157-162.
5Walker, 1907, p. 183.
51 Kroeber, 1900, pp. 186-187.
52 Lowie. 1918, pp. 110-115.
53 Matthews, 1877, p. 12.
54 Weltfish, 1937, p. 29. - In a tale by Schoolcraft (1856, p. 193), probably
fromtheMiami,theGreatSpirittemptedthecornto comedownto earthbypromising
it thatthe Indianswouldseasonit withgame,and so givethe cornmeatto eat.

864 GUDMUND HaTT 40. 1951
Anthropos
of a buffalo.Such originmythsare knownfromthe Osage 55and the Oto 56.

The Omaha have a traditionthattheyreceivedthe maize fromthe Arikara;
and an Omaha mythtellshow the Arikarafirstreceivedthe corn: A young
hunterfoundthe firstmaize plant in a place wherea buffalobull had been
standing.As the buffalo'strackwentto the spot and endedthere,it looked
as if the buffalobull had turnedinto the maize plant57.
It will be noticedthat the vegetation-spirit is male in these stories
about the originof the maize fromthe buffalo.However,a Brul Dakota,
BatisteGood,made a pictographwhichgivesa traditionabout The-Woman-
from-Heaven,The-White-Buffalo-Cow, whose milk was maize which she
spilledall over the earth,that people mightlive 58. And the immolationof
the female vegetation-spirit, similarto the immolationof the CornMother
in theEasternareas,was also foundin the Plains.In an Arikaratale, "Mother
Corn'svisit to the Arikara",MotherCorncomesfromthe East in response
to a ceremonialinvocationin the plantingseason. She teaches the people
many lessons; and she also procuresa herd of buffalo,tellingthe people
that the buffalowill arrivein fourdays. Most of the men go hunting; but
in the meanwhilethe enemyattack the village, and in the melee Mother
Corn is killed,causinggreat griefamong the people. "They took Mother
Cornand buriedher. Fromtheplace whereshewas laid,grass,weeds, bushes,
trees,and almosteverything sprangup 59." Evidently,MotherCorn'sdomain
is vegetal life; she is trulythe vegetation-spirit.
The Skidi Band of the Pawnee tribeon certainoccasionssacrificeda
maiden,capturedfroman enemytribe60. Dorsey has given an account
of this sacrificialceremony,based upon explanatorymythsand information
fromSkidi Pawnees. The objectof thisceremonywas to appease the mighty
deityof the MorningStar and therebypreventthe consumption of the earth
by the fireof the sun ; and at the same time the sacrificewas supposedto
cause the renewalof the lifeof the earth; the earthitselfwas conceivedas
beingreborn. The maidenascendeda scaffoldand was shot to death with
arrows,the thoraciccavity was opened with a flintknife,the chiefpriest
thrusthis hand insideand smearedhis facewithblood. This bloodysacrifice
remindsus stronglyof the old Mexicanritetlacacliliztli , killingby shooting
with arrows61. The renewalof life probablymeant a strengthening of the
fertilityof the two staffs of life, corn and the buffalo. We are told in
Schoolcraft's account of the immolationof a Sioux girl by the Pawnees
in the monthofApril1838,thatthe victim'sfleshwas broughtto a cornfield
and bloodsqueezedout uponthenewlydepositedgrainsofcorn62. And from
55 Dorsey, 1888, 379.

p.
56 Whitman, 1938,
pp. 194 ff.
' Rechter and JLa Jplesche, 1911,
pp. 76 tt.
68 Mallery, 1893,
pp. 287-291, PL XXI A.
59 Dorsey, 1904,
pp. 36-37.
60 Dorsey, 1907,
pp. 65-70.
61 LOEWENTHAL. 1922.
62
Schoolcraft, 1856, pp. 77-78.

Dorsey's account we learn that the maiden's blood was allowed to drop
on the head and tongueof a buffalowhichwereburnedbeneathherbody63.
The shootingof the victimwitharrowswas probablya symbolicsexual
act. I findthis conjecturestrengthened by a Comanchestory,"The man
who marrieda buffalowife",recordedamong the South Band Pawnee64.
In thistale,a youngmanshootsa femalebuffalo withtwoarrows.She escapes
and maintainsherlifethroughhermysterious power. The arrowshave made
herpregnant.Later in the tale, she turnsinto a handsomewoman,and her
calf turnsinto a boy, who goes to his father.The BuffaloWoman and her
boy are both receivedin the Indian village. And now, the BuffaloWoman
performs essentiallythe same rle as the CornWomanin EasternWoodland
tales. Food beingscarcein the camp,the BuffaloWomanfeedspeoplewith
a smallpiece of drymeat and fatwhichnevergivesout - analogousto the
inexhaustible cornpot whichappearsin manyCornWomantales. Afterwards
she fillsa parflechein everyhouseholdwithdrymeat in a magicalway -
reminiscent of the Corn Woman's fillingthe corncribswith maize. Later
on, her human husbandhurtsherfeelingsby drinking froma stream,although
shehad told him not to do so. Thenthe BuffaloWoman and herson are again
transformed into a buffalocow and a calf,and they flee - just as the Corn
Woman fleeswhen her feelingsare hurt. The husbandpursues- just as
the Corn Woman's human husband always does when she has fled. (The
storyis unfinished.)
The magicalfillingof storerooms withcornis foundin a Pawneemyth,
"The man who called the buffalo65". And we findthe same motifin an
Arapahotale 66. A woman,placedundertheprotection ofBuffaloand Mother
Corn, has power from the gods; and she performs miracleof fillingthe
the
cellarswithcorn,beans, and squash,by puttinga fewgrainsofmaize,beans,
and squash seeds into the cellarsand coveringthe cellarsup forfourdays.
A special featurewhichI do not knowfromotherpartsof America,is
the throwing of MotherCorninto a river.In an Arapahotale, MotherCorn
informsthe people that in time they must dress her up and put her into
the river. Later on, this is actuallydone, the idea being that MotherCorn
should go down the Missourito the place whencethe Arikarahad come.
MotherCorn- i. e. the cornear whichrepresented her - was taken from
the bundle,paintedand wrappedin a dress of tannedbuffalohide. A lot
ofwornchildren'smoccasinsweretiedto her- thatthe childrenmightgrow
up intostrongmenand women. In a sequel to the tale, CornMotherreturns
to the Arikaravillage, takes part in a bundle ceremony,and disappears
again67. (In the Old World,the customof throwingthe corn-spirit into a
riveris known, g.e. from the Tamils in Ceylon68.)
63 Dorsey, 1907, p. 70.
64 Weltfish, 1937, pp. 218 ff.
65 Dorsey, 1906, p. 95.
66 Dorsey, 1904, pp. 124-125.
67
Op. cit., pp. 35-36.
68 Drummond, 1901, p. 457.
Anthropos46. 1951 M

The most notable peculiarityof the Corn Woman tales in the Plains
area is the closeconnectionbetweencornand buffalo.Anothercharacteristic
is the Corn Woman's many-sidedactivityas leader of humankindout of
the subterranean world,as culturehero,as leader and helperin the Hako
ceremony and even in warlikeexpeditions.On the whole,the CornWoman
plays a rlenot less dominantin the Plains area than in the easternpart of
the Pueblo area. And her functionsare morevaried and extensivein the
Plains area than anywhereelse.
Amongthe main elementsof the CornWoman tales in the Southeast
and the Eastern Woodland, (2) is only weakly representedin the Plains
area ; Corn Motherdoes not fosterorphans,but she relievesfaminesand
sometimes marriesan Indian,(3) is missing,(4)-is partlyabsent,as thelocking
up of Corn Woman in a storeroomis missing; however,the magical filling
of storeroomsoccurs in Plains tales ; (5) is missing. Immolationof Corn
Woman,or of a representative of anothervegetation-spirit,occurs; but the
self-immolation (6) is absent. The flightelement(6a) and the search for
the CornWoman (7) are almostabsent,althoughtracesof themare found
in the Comanchestorymentionedabove (p. 865), whereBuffaloWoman,
in some measure,acts Corn Woman's part.
It must be admittedthat the Corn Woman tales of the Plains have
ratherlittle in commonwith the tales of the Southeastand the Eastern
Woodland. It seems unlikelythat the Plains Indians receivedtheirCorn
Womanideas fromthe East. It is moreprobablethat importantinfluences
reachedthe Plains fromthe Pueblo area. The dominantrle of the Corn
Womanand thegreatimportance ofthecorn-earfetisharetraitswhichconnect
the Plains area withthe easternpart of the Pueblo area.
e) In Northwestern
Mexico
In northwestern Mexico,the CornWoman is foundin the tales of the
Cora69,the Huichol70,and the Tepecano71.
In the Cora version,the antsplay a rle. They knowwherethewoman
lives who owns the maize, and theygo therein the night,to steal corn. A
man goes withthem,desirousof obtainingcorn. The ants foolhim; while
he is sleeping,theycut his hair,makinghim bald, and leave him. The blue
magpie,the CornWoman'sbird,giveshiminformation about the road. The
man arrivesat the Corn Woman's house, askingfora littlecorn. She lets
himmake his choicebetweenher daughters,the CornMaidens,who are clad
in dressesof differentcolours. He asks forthe blue CornMaiden. The Corn
Motherdirectsthe man to take her daughterwithhimand to treatherwell,
to keep her in his house, neverto let her bake tortillas,and to make two
or threestorehouses.Reachinghome,themanletshisyoungwifewaitoutside
while his mothersweeps the house; this feature,the ceremonialsweeping
69 Preuss, 1912,
pp. 182-189.
70 Preuss, 1907,
pp. 185-190.
71 Mason, 1914,
pp. 155-162, 204-205.

ofthehousebeforethemaizecomesin,recallstheold Mexicanharvestfestival,
Ochpaniztli, "sweepingout". In the night,theyhear the slow soundof corn,
streaming the storerooms.However,verysoon the man's mothermakes
into
trouble. The old womanbakes tortillasof the corn,but she does not give
any food to her daughter-in-law, whomshe scolds forlaziness. Afterfive
days the daugter-in-law cannotstandthe scoldingany longer,and she starts
makingtortillas. She burnsherself,her hand adheresto the griddle,she
screams,and at the same timeshe disappearsin a gust of wind. The corn
in thestorerooms disappearsalso. She returns to hermother'shome. However,
the Corn Motherwill not receiveher. When the man comes to bringher
back, the CornMothersays : "Take her away, I will not give her anything
more,I willstripher" (i. e. take awayhermaizedress,so thatonlytheempty
corncobremains).
The Huichol have almost the same tale. The man's motheris, also
here,the cause of the tragedy,by compellingthe youngCorn Woman to
make tortillas.The CornWoman burnsher hands and disappears,and all
the cornvanishesat the same time. The man triesto get the CornWoman
back ; but he is rejectedby the Corn Mother.
The Tepecano versionis long and mixed up withChristianideas and
European folklore,differing fromthe Cora and the Huichol tale in several
points. The part about the ants is entirelylacking. The man, a lazy and
stupidpeasantboy, sees three younggirls(CornMaidens)bathingin a lake.
One of themfallsin love with him and proposesto marryhim. She brings
him to God, Our Lord, who plays a rle similarto the CornMotherin the
Cora and Huicholversions. God warnshis daughteragainstthe man. But
the man promisesnot to maltreatherif onlyhe mayescape work. He brings
his brideto his mother'shouse,and he letshis mothersweepthehousebefore
she enters. The bride's supernaturalcharacterdisplays itself in several
ways. Suddenlyshe appears as a heap of writhingserpents.And her face
becomesinvisiblein a cloud as she approachesthe house. Duringthe night
she is alonein a big room; and in themorning theroomis fullofmaize. One
halfof a grainof maize is enough to filla pot whencooked. On the second
morninganotherroomis filledwithbeans, one grainof whichis>enoughto
satiate the family. However,very soon troublearises. The man's mother
makes tortillasand burnsthem,whichgives the Corn Woman a scorched
face and burnedclothes. And the man is fickleand faithless.He keeps
mistresses,firstthe tortoise,who makes corncakesand burnsthem,which
gives the Corn Woman burnsin her face; and then the raven,who steals
maize. The Corn Woman makes remonstrances, and the man gives new
promises and breaks them again. The Corn Woman forbidshim to see her
face. Inquisitive,he disobeysthe order,lights a candle and looksher in the
face at night. He sees that she is exceedinglybeautiful; however,a spark
falls in her face and awakensher. (Evidently,this is a borrowedelement
fromthe Psyche motif.) Afterthat, the Corn Woman flees,and the corn
and beans also disappear. The man triesto followthe fleeingwoman,and
he comesagain to God wherethe CornWomanhas takenshelter.The man

868 GUDMUND HaTT Anthropos4C. 1951
asks forgiveness and makesnew promises.And God allowshim to take the

CornWomanwithhimagain.But againhe fails. And again theCornWoman
flees. The man goes to God, askingforher. God turnshim away, saying
that the womanis not withhim. And now the man seeks her all through
the world,askingeverybodyif theyhave seen her, the birds,the animals,
a hermit, thewind,thesun,themoon. Nobodycan givehimanyinformation.
Again he asks the wind who admitsthat he has neverbeen in the city of
Merlin. Going there,they findthe Corn Woman imprisoned.With great
difficulty and by magicalmeans she is released. (This part of the storyis
influencedby a folktale of European origin72.) Fleeing fromthe prison,
the Corn Woman changesherselfinto grainsof maize, whichsproutinto
youngcorn plants. She has informedhim beforehand,and entreatedhim
to watchher carefullyfora month. However,again the man proveshimself
unreliable.Afterfifteendays he leaves and becomesbetrothedto another
woman. At the wedding,the CornWoman appears,seizes him,and brings
himto God who punisheshimby fastening himto the soil,head downward.
The man turnsinto a sortof vegetation-spirit ; maize and otherplantsgrow
up around him.
The Tepecano also have a shorterversionof this tale, withthe same
main elements. Accordingto Mason, this mythis of great importancein
Tepecano religion73.
In the Tepecano prayers,collectedby Mason, we learn that certain
corn plants,called Milpa Cuata, are regardedas sacred. The Milpa Cuata
is any cornplant whichgrowswitha forkedstalk and has an ear on either
branch. At the harvest,the Milpas Cuatas are leftstandingafterthe other
ears are gathered. Then ceremonialprocessionsare made aroundthe field
as manytimesas thereare Cuatas within,and a prayeris recitedin which
the CornMaidenand herFatherand Motherare addressed,the reaperasking
forgiveness of the CornMaiden. Whencornis planted,afterthe firstheavy
rainin June,thekernelstakenfromtheMilpasCuatasmustbe plantedfirst74.
Comparisonof the Corn Woman tales of northwestern Mexico with
those of the Southeasternarea and the Eastern Woodland area will bring
out many pointsof conformity ; especially,the similaritywith the Seneca
version,mentionedabove (p. 857), is verystriking.
(1) Maize is identifiedwith a woman.
(2a) The CornWomanmarriesa youngIndianwhosepeoplearesuffering
fromfamine.
(3a) She bringscorn to the famine-stricken people in a mysticalway,
withoutcultivation.
(4) The Indians clear theirstorerooms.The CornWoman stays alone
in a storeroom at night,and cornstreamsintothe room,producinga peculiar
sound (in the Cora version).
72 Espinosa, 1914,
pp. 213, 229.
73 Mason, 1914, p. 205. note.
74 Mason, 1918,
pp.134, 132.

(5b) Her husband's motherinsultsher by compellingher to make

tortillas,wherebyshe burnsher hands (Cora and Huichol versions); or by
makingtortillasand burningthem, therebyscorchingthe Corn Woman
herself(Tepecano). This is analogousto the brother-in-law's throwingcorn
bread into the firein the Seneca version. - An interesting featureis the
husband'sspyingupon the Corn Woman at night by means of a lighted
candle; this certainlyreveals an influencefromthe Psyche motif,but at
the same time it remindsus of the spyingupon the Corn Woman in the
Southeasternversions.
(6a) The CornWoman fleesto her motheror to God, her father. As
a resultof her flight, the corn-storesare emptied.
(7) Her husband follows her and reaches the Corn Mother'shouse
(Cora and Huichol versions)or God her father(Tepecano). However,he is
not - as in the Seneca version- well-received.On the contrary,he is
rejected. - In the Tepecano version, he is punished,by being fastenedto
the soil and turnedinto a sortof vegetation-spirit. The immolationof the
CornWoman'shusbandis a substitutefortheimmolation oftheCornWoman
herself, which is a main feature in the southeastern area and also in many
versionsin the Eastern Woodland area.
On the whole, the accordancebetween the northwestMexico Corn
Woman tales and those of the Southeastand Eastern Woodland is very
striking.Thereis muchless agreementwiththe versionsof the Plains area.
However, to the versionsof the Pueblo area there are certain specific
similaritieswhich are not foundin the easternareas : The Corn Mother's
daughtersseem to be identicalwiththe CornMaidensof the Pueblos. The
unfaithfulness of the Corn Woman's husband (Tepecano) occurs also in
Pueblo folktales and causes the flightof the Corn Woman.
/) In Mexico- America
Central
In Mexicanmythology, the maize is a male god, born froma union
a
between god and a goddess.
In a traditionfromChalcoconcerning the originofmaize and the other
cultivatedplants,it is related that all the gods descendedfromheaven
into a cave where a god Piltzintecutli ("the chief of princes",the young
Sungod)slept with a goddess Xochi quetzal("the erectedflower",the young
Moon-goddess).She bore a son, the Maize-god,Cinteotl.He wentunderthe
ground,and fromhis haircottonoriginated, fromone ofhis eyes an excellent
plant whichthe Mexicanslike to eat, fromhis othereye a similarplant,
fromthe nose anotherplant called chian (Salvia chia), fromthe fingersa
tuberousplant,camotl(Ipomaeabatata), fromthe nails a big sort of maize,
and fromotherpartsofthe bodyoriginatedmanyotherkindsoffruitswhich
the people collectand plant. Therefore, this god was beloved above all the
others,and theycalled him Tlaopilli ("the beloved prince")75.
75
Jonghe, 1905, pp. 31-32.
- Loewenthal, 1918, pp. 42 f, - Krickeberg,
1928, pp. 13, 319.

870 GUDMND HaTT 46. 1951
Anthropos
Accordingto anothermyth,the maize was in olden timeshiddenin

a mountain,fromwhereit was broughtby a god,assistedby helpfulanimals.
The maize was necessaryforthe life of mankind. Therefore, the bringing
of maize is part of the mythabout the creationof mankind76.
The tale about thehiddenmaizewhichis foundwiththehelp ofmaize-
eatinganimalsis also knownin modernfolklore fromMexicoand CentralAme-
rica. We have alreadyseen it in the Cora myth. Otherversionsare known
fromthePopolucain southeastern Mexico77and fromthePipil in Salvador78.
In Popol Vuh, the holy book of the Maya people Quiche, the gods
createmankindfrommaize, afterunsuccessful attemptsat creatinghuman
beingsfromearth and clay and fromwood. Yellow and whitemaize grew
originallyin the land called Paxil and Cayala - probablyidenticalwith
the mythicalland Tamouanchanof the Mexicans. From fourmaize-eating
animals: Fox, Coyote,Parrot,and Crow,the gods learnedthe whereabouts
of the maize. And so the gods obtainedthe food whichwent into man's
fleshand blood79.
The Cakchiquelshave a somewhatsimilartradition80.
In these Mexican and CentralAmericanmythsabout the originof
corn, two fundamental ideas predominate : 1) Maize is a god of the male sex,
the child of a goddess.2) Maize is a substance,necessaryforthe existence
of mankind,and it was broughtfromsomehiddenplace by a god or culture
hero,helpedby certainmaize-eatinganimals. Both of theseideas are found
in old traditions,2) also in modernfolklore.For us in our searchforCorn
Mothermyths,the firstof theseideas is mostimportant.We findit in some
of thereligiousritesof Old Mexico,especiallyin threeofthe annualfestivals,
describedby Sahagun.
In the firstpart of Aprilwas held the so-calledliei tooztli, "the great
vigil",the fourthannual when
festival, everyhusbandmanbroughta corn-
stalkor a greenplantfromeach ofhis fields,and tookthemhome,honoring
them as maize-godswith giftsof food. Afterwards these maize-godswere
brought to the temple of the maize-goddess, whose name was Chicmecouatl
(a date : seven snake). The ears of maize that were to be used forseed were
also broughtto Chicmecouatl'stempleon that occasion,bound together
in bundles of seven ears and carriedby maidensin a solemn procession.
These ears of maize werecalled Cinteotl(Maize-god). Sahagun also tells us
that these maize-gods,the holy ears, were made the heartsor souls of the
barn, wherethey were laid, and later on they were used for seed. (This
remindsus of the placingof sacred ears of corn,called "mothers",in the
cornstacksat the pueblos of Cochitiand Laguna, cf. above p. 859). Fur-
thermore,Sahagun tells us that ChicmecouatVsimage was in the form
' Lehmann,
1906, pp. 248-257.- Seler, 1923, pp. 54-57. - Krickeberg, 1928,
pp. 10 fi., 316 ff.
77 Foster, 1945, 196.
p.
78 Schultze
Jena, 1935, pp. 18-21.
79 Bourbourg,
1861, pp. 197-199. - Krickeberg, 1928, pp. 127-128, 358.
80
Brinton, 1885, pp. 66-70. - Krickeberg, 1928, pp. 130-131, 358.

The CornMotherin Amerikaand in Indonesia 871
of a Woman,and theysaid of her: "She compriseshumannourishment, she

is, as it were,our flesh,oursubsistence, fromwhichwe live". And it was also
said that she, the goddessChicmecouatl,createsall kindsof food,all kinds
of maize,beans of different coloursand kindsand manyothervegetables81.
In the last part June,"the greatlord festival",Uei tecuilhuitl,
of the
eighthannualfestival,was celebrated.On that occasion,the goddessof the
young maize ear, Xilonen,was sacrificed,i. e. the victimwas a woman,
playingXilonen's part. Aftera nightof ritualdancingand singing,Xilonen
and her companyof womenmet the officiating priestwho sacrificedher in
th maizetemple,by cuttingherthroatand tearingherheartout. And then
forthe firsttimeflatcakes made of younggreenmaize wereeaten,and also
forthe firsttime youngvegetableswere cooked82.
At the eleventhannual festival,Ochpaniztli,"the sweepingout", a
harvestfestival,held in the latterpart of August,the Motherof the gods,
Teteoinnan,was sacrificed.Her representative fortheoccasion,a woman,was
decapitated and flayed. A man put her skin upon himselfand acted the rest
ofTeteoinnan's partin theceremony. The birthofherson,Cinteotl, themaize-
god,was represented, and she wore the dressof the maize-goddess.Manypri-
sonersweresacrificed in theusualway at thesacrificial stone,thebreastbeing
cut open and the hearttornout. Teteoinnan- i. e. her male representative
- killedfourof themand leftthe restof the bloodyworkto her priests83.
Teteoinnan,the great Motherof all, the Supporterof all, the Earth
Motherherself,had a veryclose connexionwiththe idea of bloodysacrifice.
It was said thatshe had suffered deathas theveryfirstsacrificein theworld.
Four of hersons had killedherand presentedherheartto the Sun-god,thus
initiatingthe institution of humansacrifices 84.
The Mexican corn-goddesses had several names and also different
natures,corresponding to thephasesofvegetationduringtheyear. However,
they were always the mothers of corn. They mightsuffera warrior'sdeath
at the sacrificialstone,and Teteoinnan officiated in the harvestfestivalas
the sacrificing priest. However, her main function was to bringforththe
maize-god,Cinteotl.
The MexicanCornMothergives birthto the maize, and the Corn-god
whichshebringsforthis male. In thenorthern areas- northwestern Mexico,
the Pueblo region, the Plains, the Southeast, the Eastern Woodland - the
Corn Mother,and eventuallyher daughters,are the corn.
It mustbe admittedthat male corn-spirits also occurnorthof Mexico,
We shall mentionthemlater on. But this hardlyaffectsthe typicalNorth
AmericanCornMothertales.
A reviewof the seven main elementsof the North AmericanCorn
Mothertales show that most of these featuresare missingor only faintly
representedin SouthernMexico and CentralAmerica.
81 Seler, 1927, pp. 82-90.
82 O. cit.. DD. 138-155.
83
Op. cit., pp. 171-184. Cf. Seler, 1908, p. 234, ill.
84 Seler, Codex Borgia, pp. 137, 166.

872 GUDMUND H ATT Anthropos46. 1951
(1) The Corn Mothersof NorthAmericaare dominantfigures.Often

theyare withoutconsorts; and iftheyhave malepartners, theseplay a rather
insignificant sometimeseven a base rle. The Corn Mothersproducecorn
fromtheirownbodies. Theyare thecorn. On theotherhand,in theMexican-
Mayan area, the Corn Mothersbear the Corn-godwho is male.
Elements (2), (3), (4), i.e., the Corn Mother'stakingcare of needy
persons,producingcornfromher own body by rubbingherself,lettingher-
selfbe lockedup in a storeroom whichshe fillswithmaize and beans - all
thesebeneficentfeaturesare absent fromthe Mexicanand the Mayan corn
tales. A fainttrace of (4), the magical fillingof a storeroom, may perhaps
be seen in a Quiche tale in Popol Vuh : the princessXquiq is sent out by
her evil mother-in-law to bringa net fullof cornfroma fieldwhereactually
only one ear of corn is left. The unhappygirlimploresthe goddessesof rain,
maize, and cacao to help her. Then she takeshold of the stylesat the point
of the cornear, and fromthemshe plucksher net fullof cornears,without
takingthe one ear that was left85.
(5) The spyingupon the Corn Motherby those whom she benefits,
and theirconsequentloathingof her food,are entirelyabsentfromthe Mexi-
can-Mayan area.
(6) However,the immolationof the Corn Motherwas an important
Mexicanrite. And the tale about Teteoinnan,the greatMotherof all, who
was killedby her own foursons in the firstsacrificeof the world(p. 871),
may have some bearingupon the killingof the Corn Motherby her foster
childrenin the southeasternarea.
(6a) The Corn Mother'sflightand (7), the search for her, are not
clearlymentionedin mythsfromthe Mexican-Mayanarea. However,they
may have existedin Mexicanmythology.In an old religioussong,No. 11
of the 20 religiouscantaresrescuedby Sahagun, it is said :
"Piltzintecutliweeps,he seeks Xochiquetzal.I shall go to the land of
corruption."
Piltzintecutliand Xochiquetzalare the parentsof the Mexicanmaize-
god, Cinteotl,as we have learnedfroma myth(p. 869). The meaningof the
to
song is, according Seler, that Xochiquetzal, the goddessof flowersand
love, has died, and her loveris goingto seek her in the land of death86. In
otherwords,this seems to be a versionof the Orpheustale - whichis so
widespreadin NorthAmerica. And the storyof the NorthAmericanCorn
Woman's flightand her husband'sfollowingher also sometimesrecallsthe
Orpheustale.
The absencefromMexicoand CentralAmericaofmanyof the elements
of the NorthAmericanCornMothermythis remarkable.It is necessaryto
assumethat maize cultivationcame to NorthAmericavia CentralAmerica-
Mexico. We shouldexpect,therefore, that the folkloreof maize also came
to NorthAmericafromCentralAmerica-Mexico.If that holds good forthe
85 Bourbourg, 1861,
pp. 103-105.
86 Seler, Abh.
II, pp. 1032-1035.

NorthAmericanCornMothermyth,thenthis must,of course,at one time

have existedin the Mexican-Mayanarea. However,in that case it must,
lateron, have undergoneradicalchanges.
to NorthAmericaand the Mexican-Mayan

whichis common
g) Cornfolklore area
Our concentrationupon the Corn Mothertales may give the false

impressionthat only very few traitsof agriculturalfolklorewere common
to NorthAmericaand CentralAmerica-Mexico. To correctthis, I findit
necessaryto mentionsome of the commontraits:
The idea that cornis a male god or spirit- whichis so prominent in
CentralAmerica-Mexico - is knownhere and therein NorthAmerica. In
the Southwestit is foundamongthe Papago 87. - The Hopi also have a
male corn-deity."Moing'iirnamakes corn. Everythinggrowson his body.
He is short,about the heightof a boy. He has a femalepartnerwithhim.
Everysummerhe becomesheavy,his bodyis fullofvegetables: watermelon,
corn etc., grow in his body. When the Hopi plant corn, they invariably
ask himto prosperthe crop; thentheirthingscomeup, whethervegetables
orfruits.Whenhe shaveshisbody,theseedscomeout." 88 His femalepartner
seems quite insignificant; he has assumedsome of the propertieswhichare
generally attributed to the CornMother.- In the Cochitipueblo the Corn
Motherconceptis stronglydeveloped (cf. above p. 859); however,thereis
also a malecorn-spirit,theCorncobBoy,a local culturehero,whoseadventures
are relatedin a cycle of tales89. - In a Navaho myth,whitecorn came
into beingwithFirst Man, yellowcornwithFirst Woman; and afterwards
the firstparentsofthe Navaho werecreatedby FirstMan and FirstWoman,
makingan image of a man fromthe ear of whitecorn,and an image of a
womanfromthe ear of yellowcorn90. This remindsus of a Quichemythin
Popol Vuh (mentioned above p. 870). - In a Mexicanmyth(see above p. 869)
cornand othercultivatedplantssprangfromthebodyofthemaize-godwhen
he wentunderthe ground. In a similarway, maize sprangfromthe heart
of a dead hero,accordingto the originstoryof the Northeastern Yavapai,
a Yuman tribein Arizona. The WesternYavapai have a similartale ; maize,
pumpkins,and beans grewfromthe dead hero's heart91. In the mythsof
anotherYuman tribe,the Walapai, the same motifis found: A man died,
and on his gravecorn,pumpkins,watermelons, and beans grew92. - With
thisshouldalso be compareda mythof the CaliforniaMissionIndians about
the culturehero Wy-t,fromwhose ashes the oak tree sprang,whosefruit,
the acorn,is an importantfood93).
87 Underhill, 1936, p. 25.

88 Wallis, 1936, p. 10.
89 Benedict, 1931, pp. 217-219.
90 Goddard, 1933, pp. 127, 128, 147.
91 Gifford, 1933, pp. 349 ff.,403.
92 G. MacGregor in Kroeber, 1935, p. 13.
93 Bois, 1904, pp. 185-188.

As we have seen, the CornMotheris a prominentfigurein the myths

and rites of some Plains tribes. However,male gods or spiritsare also
mentionedas originatorsof corn and other cultivatedplants. We have
alreadynoted originmythswherebuffalobulls bringthe corn (p. 864). In
Caddo traditions, the GreatFatherhimselfgivesseeds to the Snake Woman
- evidentlya variantof the CornMother- and she again distributes them
to mankind,helped in this beneficentworkby her two sons94. In Omaha
mythology, the trickster,Idinike, "created fruitsand vegetables,as well
as grapes,out of parts of himself95".
In the Eastern Woodland area, the male corn-spirit is also known.
The AlgonquiantribeMissisauga,Ontario,has a traditionabout the origin
of maize. It came to a boy who was fastingin solitude. It was "a littleold
man withonlya littlehairjust on his forehead".And lateron, it was an ear
of cornwitha littletuftof silk (styles)at the top. The kernelsof that corn
ear wereplanted96. - From the Chippewa,Schoolcraft relatesan inter-
estingtraditionabout the male corn-spirit. Duringa famine,a Miamihunter
comesto a smalllodgewherehe findsa decrepitold man who is Cornitself.
The old man displayssupernaturalpowersby feedingthe guest fromthe
kettlewhichcan neverbe emptied. But afterwards he reveals the causes
of the famine,complaining to the guestof the bad behaviourof the Indians:
"My backboneis brokenin manyplaces ; it was the foolishyoungmen and
youthsof yourtownthat have done me this evil, forI am the Mondamin,
or corn,that came down fromheaven,fortheyplayed and threwcorncobs
and cornears at one another,thusthinking lightlyand contemptibly of me ;
I am the corn-spirittheyhave so injured. This is the reasonyou experience
bad luck and famine."The hunterbroughtthis information to his tribe;
and therefore"Indians are very cautious and do not now play with corn
in the ear : theyare carefulnot to breakthe ears whengatheringit. After
the harvestis over, the corn returnsto heaven,the ears that are in good
conditioncomeback to earthagain thenextspring,ifthe Indianswhoraised
such corn paid properattentionto it 97".
This curiousidea - that the corncobmust not be broken,in order
that it may come back as a well-filled cornear - stronglycalls to minda
widespreadhunter'sbelief,thatthebonesofgameanimalsshouldbe carefully
handledand not broken,in orderto ensurethe reincarnation of the game.
It is temptingto regardthis idea as primarilybelongingto the hunter's
cultureand secondarily transferred to the maize-cultivator's
mind. However,
it mustbe notedthatthe comparisonor identification ofboneswiththe hard
parts of plants and the belief in a new life dependentupon these hard
remnants,is also knownfromCentralAmerica. The Quiche Indians regard
the bones as equivalentto the seeds in a fruit,and in that way the belief
94 Dorsey, 1905, 18.

p.
95 Dorsey. 1888. d. 213.
96 Chamberlain, 1889, pp. 143-144.
97 Schoolcraft, 1856,
pp. 193-195.

is explainedthatnew lifemay arisefromthe bones98. The same idea exists

amongthe Pipil in Salvador".
The Maya agriculturists treat the corncobwith religiousrespect-
accordingto Girard 10.It is strictly prohibitedto burnthe corncob,destroy
it, expose it to the public view or to any disrespectafterthe grainshave
been removed. This "bone of the maize" is secretlythrowninto a place
wherenobodysees it, so that it may rot and returnto nature'scirculation
in the woods. The Indiansbelievefirmly thatby actingagainstthiscustom,
theirshelled corn would quicklydeteriorate,and the cornfieldsown with
maize fromoutragedcorncobswould witherinstantly.
This beliefhas a strikingsimilarityto the one describedby School-
craft fromthe ChippewaIndians. It seems likelythat it may also have
existed elsewhereamong aboriginalmaize-cultivators of North America.
Above (p. 859 and 870) we mentioned the placing sacredears ofcorn
of
as protectors ofthe cornstacksor barnsin thepueblosofCochitiand Laguna
and also in Mexico. A similarriteis knownfroma Maya people,the Chorti;
theyplace in the fourcornersof the barn,as protectors, fourpiecesof copal,
made in the form and size of maize ears101.
It is widely believed that a person,comingacross grains of maize
spilledon the ground,should pick themup, as he would otherwiseoffend
the maize. This was a part of good behaviourin ancientMexico102,and
is also mentionedhere and therein NorthAmerica; cf. a Seneca tale about
Corn Women comforting a sick and needy man because he had piously
collectedspilled grains103.
The idea that cornand othercultivatedplantsoriginatedin a western
land, is old in Mexico104and is also met with here and therein North
America,e. g. among the Pawnee105and in New England106. Seler has
explained this idea as a piece of moon mythology:the new moon first
appears in the west; and everywherein the world the waxing moon is
associatedwith growth107.
The idea that eatable plants were formerly hidden,and that some
helpfulanimaldivulgedthe secret,importantin Mexicanand Mayan myths
about the originof corn,is not veryevidentnorthof Mexico. It is known,
however,fromnonagricultural California. In a Yuki tale, Coyote steals
acornsand otherseeds fromsomebodywho is hidingthem. Coyoteshows
98 Schultze Tena, I, p. 19.
99 Schultze
Jena, II, p. 21.
100Girard, I, p. 252, III, pp. 909, 951.
1UiWisdom, 1940,
pp. 403, 446-447.
102 NUTTALL, 1897,
p. 271.
103Curtin-Hewitt,1918,pp. 649ff.
104Seler, 1923,IV, p. 123.
105Dorsey, Traditionof the Skidi Pawnee. Cit. by Seler, 1923, IV, p. 123.
106Williams, 1643,p. 110. Kautantowwit,
The greatSouthWest God,to whose
house all souls go, and fromwhomcame theirCorn,Beans, as theysay. Cf. Trum-
bull, 1903, Kautantowwit.
107Seler, 1923, IV, 129.
p.

the seeds to the people and spreadspart of themso that everykind should
grow fromthe soil108.
However,not all of the elementsof the agriculturalfolkloreof abori-
ginalNorth Americacan be pointedoutin Mexico. We have alreadyremarked
that essentialpartsof the NorthAmericanCornMothertales are not known
fromthe Mexican-Mayanarea.
h) In South America
The CornMotherconceptexisted- in colonialtimes- in agricultural
ritesin Peru. This factwas broughtforwardby Mannhardt 109who found
a remarkablelikenessbetweenthe Peruvianmamazaraor "mothermaize"
and the NorthEuropean Corn Mother. These analogiesfromtwo opposite
regionsof the earthwere,to him,proofsof "gleichenpsychischen Antrieben"
(similarpsychicimpulses). Later on, Frazer also dweltupon theseanalogies,
supplementing them with a numberof North Americaninstancesof the
CornMotherconceptand relatedideas uo. On the otherhand, von Sydow
has warnedagainstusingAmericanfolkloreas a meansof interpreting North
European customs m. "It is evident that Mexican mythology cannotprove
anythingabout European beliefs." And von Sydow maintainsthat the
conceptionof plantshavinga spiritlike man "is not to be met witheither
among Teutonic peoples, or among Indo-Europeanpeoples except purely
sporadically".
I shall not discussthe NorthEuropean Corn Motherhere. However,
von Sydow's warningis sound and has some bearingupon our present
problem. The fact that the PeruvianIndians have a Corn Motherconcept
does not,of course,provethat all the elementsof the NorthAmericanCorn
Mothertales exist in Peru.
The PeruvianCorn Motherconceptis knownfromthe "Extirpacin
de la Idolatradel Peru" by FatherPablo Josephde Arriaga, Lima 1621112.
This writerexplainsthat thereare threekindsof Maize Mothers: (1) maize
stalks,dressedup like women; (2) carved stonesin the likenessof cobs of
maize; and (3) fruitful stalks of maize or two maize cobs naturallyjoined
together.These last were the principalZara-mamas,and were reveredby
the Indiansas Mothersof the Maize113.In a similarway,whentwopotatoes
werefoundgrowingtogether,theywerecalled Potato-mothers (Axo-mamas)
and kept in orderto get a good crop of potatoes. Quinoa-mothers (Quinoa-
mamas)and Coca-mothers {Coca-mamas)were made of leaves of quinoa and
108Kroeber, 1932,
pp. 925 ff.
109Mannhardt, 1884,
pp. 342-348.
110Frazer,
pp. 171-207.
111Sydow, 1934,
pp. 291-309.
112This work has not been accessible to me. It is cited
by Frazer, pp. 172-173.
Extracts are given in Rivero and Tschudi, 1854, pp. 151, 171-173. -Cf. Tschudi,
1891, pp. 159 f.
113Cf. from the Zui,
Parsons, 1939, p. 319 : "... the ear which flattensout
at the tip and whichis thoughtof as motherand child and placed, at Zui, in the middle
of the corn store." Cf. also from the Tepecano, Mason, 1918, pp. 134, 132.

coca, dressedin woman'sclothesand worshipped. FatherArriagareportsupon

his eradicationof thisidolatry; in 18 monthshe destroyed45 Zaramamasm.
FatherJoseph de Acosta and, afterhim,FatherBernab Cobo have
also given accountsof the PeruvianCorn Mothercult115. In the harvest
month (22. May-22.June) the people observeda rite in honor of Mama-
Zara of whomall familiesweredevotees. "This feastis made comingfrom
the Chacraor farmunto the house,sayingcertainsongs,and prayingthat
the Mays may long continue. . . They take a certainportionof the most
fruitfulof the Mays that growsin theirfarms,the which they put in a
certaingranarywhichtheydo call Pirua, withcertainceremonies, watching
threenights; they put this Mays in the richestgarmentsthey have, and
being thus wrappedand dressed,they worshipthis Pirua, and hold it in
great venerationsayingit is the motherof the mais of theirinheritances,
and thatby thismeansthe maysaugmentsand is preserved.In thismonth
they make a particularsacrifice,and the witchesdemand of this Pirua,
if it hath strengthsufficient to continueuntil the next year; and if it
answersno, then they carrythis Mays to the farmto burn,whencethey
broughtit, accordingto everyman's power; thenmake theyanotherPirua,
with the same ceremonies,sayingthat they renewit to the end the feed
of Mays may not perish,and if it answersthat it hath forcesufficient to
last longerthey leave it until the next year."116
The idol or fetishmade froma cornear, or sometimesfromcornstalks
or wholemaize plants,is widelyknownin NorthAmerica,as we have seen,
in the Plains, the southwestarea, and also in Mexicoand CentralAmerica.
It is evidentfromthe Peruvianriteshere mentioned,that maize - and
also other cultivatedplants - were thoughtto be dependentupon and
in a way identifiedwith powerfulfemalespiritsor "mothers". However,
we do not know fromPeru any mythsor folktales similarto the North
AmericanCorn Mothertales.
In Peruvianmyths,maize and othercultivatedplants are createdby
a creatorgod. One of these tales has some affinity to the Mexican myth
about the love affairof Piltzintecutli and Xochiquetzaland the birth of
Cinteotl(cf.above p. 869). It is relatedin the Pachacamacmyth117 that in
thebeginning oftheworldtherewas notfoodenoughfora man and a woman
whomPachacamachad created. The man died fromhunger,and the woman
was leftalone. One day whenshe had set forthin orderto seekforsomething
eatable amongthe thornsand thistlesof the fields,she raised her eyes to
the Sun and complainedof her hungerand her lonelystate. The Sun heard
her complaintsand was moved to compassion. He orderedher to dig for
roots,and while she was workingat that, the Sun's rays enteredher, she
became pregnant,and afterfourdays she bore a son withgreatjoy. Now,
114Rivero and Tschudi, p. 151, note.
116Acosta, II, p. 374. - Cobo, III, p. 344, IV, pp. 108 f.- Means, 1931, pp. 384 f.
116Acosta, II, p. 374.
117Calancha, 1638, p. 371 (Lib. II, Cap. XI). Cf. Tschudi, 1891, pp. 22 f. Tello
1923, pp. 148 ff. Krickeberg, 1928, pp. 246 ff.

she expectedgood fortuneand much food. However,it came about other-

wise; the god Pachacamacwas angeredbecause the Sun had receivedthe
adorationdue to him,and he fearedthat the child'sbirthwould bringhim
disrespect,as the Sun's child was Pachacamac'shalf brother.Thereforehe
snatchedthe newborndemigod,killedhim and cut him to pieces. And lest
somebodyshould in futurecomplainof his fatherthe Sun-godnot having
providedfood, and lest the distressof human beings should again bring
it about that another than he should receive the highest adoration,
Pachacamacsowed the teeth of the dead body, and maize sproutedthere-
from,the kernelsresembling teeth. He sowedthe ribs and bones,and from
themarose manioc>anotherrootwhichin its lengthand whitenessresemb-
les bones, and also the other tuberousplants of the country.From the
fleshpumpkins,pacayes,and all otherfruitsand treesissued. Henceforth,
faminewas unknownand people did not have to complainabout want.
In this myth,the femaleelementhas a decidedlysubservientstatus.
The male Sun-godprocreatesa son, fromwhosebody anothermale creator
producesmaize etc. The masculinepredominance is evident. This is very
differentfromthe worshipof a femalevegetation-spirit whichis apparent
in Arriaga's and Cobo's reportson the Zara-mamaconcept,prevalentin
early colonial times among Peruvianpeasants. It is likely that not only
rites,but also mythswere associatedwith the Zara-mamaconcept. But,
unfortunately, we do not knowthese myths. The wordsZara-mama,Axo-
mama, Quinoa-mamaetc. indicate a belief in powerfulvegetation-spirits,
identifiedwiththe cultivatedplantsand upholdingthe vitalityof the plants.
The Peruvian peasantryalso worshippedother female powers. Religious
servicewas given to Pacha-mama,"MotherEarth"118. Cobo tells us that
theyused to place a long stonein the middleof theirfieldsin honorof this
goddessas an altar or a statue,in orderto make prayersand invocations
to her there,beggingher to guard and fertilizetheirfields; and the more
fertilea fieldwas, the moretheyhonoredher. Cobo relatesalso that the
coast dwellers- of whom a great part were fishermen - called the sea
Mama-cochaand worshippedher, prayingthat she should not get angry
and that she give them plentyof fish119.
In the Andeanregionnorthof Peru,mothergoddesseswereprominent.
The Chibcha goddess Bache emergedfroma small lake with a three-
year-oldboy whomshe marriedlateron and borea greatnumberofchildren,
4 or 6 at each birth. She travelledover the world, the motherof all
mankind.At last she returnedto the same lake, gave a speechto thepeople,
exhorting themto peace and rectitude,and thenshe and herhusbandturned
into big snakes and disappearedin the lake 120. Bache was a protector
of crops,and incensewas offeredto her. As Kroeber says, "both myth
and cult smack of the farmingpopulace"m.
118Ondegardo,
pp. 155, 166, 167. - Acosta, II, p. 304.
119Cobo, III,
p. 333.
120Simon,
pp. 241-242 (Cuarta Noticia, Cap. II, 2).
121Kroeber, 1946, p. 908.

And the beliefin powerfulfemaledeities has not disappearedfrom

the Andeanregion. "MotherEarth" is stillworshippedby primitiveAndean
Indians. E. g. the Uru at Lake Titicaca and Rio Desaguadero and their
near relatives the Chipaya of Carangas in Bolivia worship the earth-
goddess,Pacha-mama , and.oftenconfuseher with the VirginMary122.
The Cagaba Indiansin SierraNevada de Santa Marta,Colombia,have
a veryimpressivemothergoddess,Gauteovan(and othernames),the mother
of all things123. It is said that Gauteovanwas createdby the Motherof
the lakes, who made her as a humanbeing and as a snake124.We notice
the same close relationbetweenlake, snake,and mothergoddessas in the
Chibchamythof Bachue.
A small primitivetribein southwestern Venezuela,the Yaruros,non-
agriculturalriver nomads, believe in a mightymothergoddess,Kuma 125.
A greatmothergoddessis also knownto the JibaroIndians,east of
the EcuadorianAndes. The Earth MotherNungiiiand her loyal husband
are reveredas originators of Jibarocultureand play a great rle in agri-
culturalrites126.
- We recapitulate: Corn Motherswere worshippedby the Peruvian
peasants, mothergoddesseswere well-knownin the Andean region,and
theyare stillreveredby severalprimitiveIndian tribes. However,we have
not been able to find,in the literatureaccessibleto us, any SouthAmerican
mythor folktale similarto the NorthAmericanCorn Mothertales. We
are lookingfor the story about the woman who was the corn, who
produced corn from her own body, nourishing needy people, the
womanwho was spied upon by ungrateful and inquisitive people,
and who sacrificed herself in introducing the cultivation of corn,
or who fled from aggressive and ungrateful beneficiaries. This
storyhas not, as far as I can ascertain,been recordedin South America.
However,certaintracesof it are foundin northernSouth America,among
the Choc Indians of Panama and among the Warrau and the Carib
Indians of Guiana.
The Choc relate that in the distantpast their forefathers had no
maize. There was an orphan boy living with anotherfamily. The step-
mothertreatedhim badly. At last he fled,took a boat withroofand went
off. One nighta beautifulgirl came ; she was fromthe underworld.The
boy wishedto followher, and she took him with her to the underworld,
and there they were married. In the underworldthe people made their
chicha frommaize,whichtheycultivateddown there. He had a son from
his wife. One day the youngman visitedthe earthwithhis wifeand child;
but before they started,they let the child swallow some whole maize
kernels,because the parents-in-law would not allow that theybringmaize
122La Barre, 1946, pp. 582-583.
123Park, 1946, p. 885. - Preuss, 1926, pp. 64 ff.
124Preuss, 1926, pp. 133-134, 186.
125pETRULLO.1939, pp. 236 ff.
126Karsten, 1935, pp. 125 ff.,371 f.

880 GUDMUND HaTT 4G.1951
Anthropos
with them to this world. Afterwards, when the child had defecated,the
man extractedthe maize kernelsfromthe excrement.This process was
repeated several times, and in that way they carried different kinds of
maize up to this world. However,the man's stepmotherdid not like her
daughter-in-law nor the child, and at lat the girl could not stand it any
longerand wentback to theunderworld, takingwithheralmostall themaize.
She left only one ear of maize of each kind; and fromthese have origi-
nated the different kindsof maize whichthe Chocosare now cultivating 127.
One trait in this tale recalls the Cora-Huichol-Tepecano maize myth
(cf.above p. 866f.): the unfriendly mother-in-lawmaltreatsthe supernatural
girlwho bringsthe maize, and the girltakes the maize withher whenshe
returnsto her home. The girlacts as a sortof CornMother; fromher son
the maize springs,althoughhis functionis rationalized.- The featurethat
seed is stolenby eatingthemwholeremindsone of the Quechua tale about
the fox stealingquinoa seeds in the sky128,and also of the Cagaba tale
about the deer eating all kinds of seeds in the sky129.
The widespreadmyth about the Sun's twin sons is recordedfrom
Guiana Indians130in two versions,and containscertaintraitswhichseem
to be transformed elementsoftheCornMothermyth. In theWarrauversion,
the motherof the twinsdies beforetheirbirth; but the Frog, a kind old
woman,rescuesthe childrenby cuttingthe dead mother'sbody open. The
Frog takes good care of the fosterchildren.They growup and soon become
hunters,and she preparesthe game and the fishwhichthey bringhome.
She invariablysends them for firewood, and by the timetheyreturn,the
food is nicelycooked, althoughthey never see any fire. This makes the
boys suspicious,and the next timetheyare sent forfirewood, one of them
changes himself into a lizard and returns,runningup into the roofto see
what is goingon. He not only sees the old womanvomitout fire,use it,
and lick it up again; he also sees her scratchher neck,whenceflowssome-
thinglike balata (Mimusopsbalata) milk,out of whichshe preparesstarch.
Afterthis discovery,the brothersresolveto kill the old woman. Clearing
a large field,they leave in its centera tree, to whichthey tie her; then,
surrounding herwithsticksof timber,theyset themon fire.The firewhich
used to be withinthe old womanpasses into the surrounding faggots.Since
then, firecan be producedby rubbingsticks together.
In the Caribversion,the motherof the twinsis killedby Tiger. Tiger
sparesthe unbornchildrenand Tiger'smother,Rain-frog, rearsthem. Later
on, the twinskill Tiger and Rain-frog.Afterthat, the two boys proceed
on theirway, and fora while theytake up theirquarterswitha veryold
woman,who is really a frog. They go out huntingeach day, and return-
ing they invariablyfind that their hostess has baked cassava for them.
Theythinkthatthisis verycuriousas thereis no maniocfieldnearby. Next
127
Nordenskild, 1928, pp. 133-134. - Wassn, 1933, pp. 107 f.
128
MTRAUX, 1934, pp. 97 f.
iaa Preuss, 1926,
pp. 175 f.
ldURoth, 1915,
pp. 130 ft.

morning,instead of going into the forestto hunt, they hide themselves

behind a tree whencethey can see what takes place in the house. They
notice that the old froghas a whitespot on her shoulders,and they see
her bend down and pick at this spot, and observethe cassava starchfall.
On theirreturnthey refuseto eat the usual cake, havingnow discovered
its source. Next morningthey pick a quantityof cottonfromthe neigh-
boringcottontreesand tease it out on the floor.They tell the old woman
that theyare makingsomethingnice and softforher to lie upon. But no
soonerhas she sat down upon it than the two boys set fireto it ; thereby
her skin is scorched,givingher a wrinkledappearance.
The tale about the victorioustwinsis ratherwidespreadm. But the
featureof the frog-woman's feedingthem with meal fromher own body
seems to be restrictedto the Warrau and Carib versionsfromGuiana. It
does not constitutea necessarypart of the twin-myth ; it is only one of
numerousincidentswhichare linkedwithit. The meal-producing and some-
times fire-concealing frog-woman is one of the powerfulbeings which are
destroyedby the crafty and victorioustwins.
However, this featureabout the womanwho feedsthe twinswith
frog-
meal fromher own body and is so badly rewardedby them,is strikingly
similar to the Creek and Cherokee stories about the Corn Mother-
elements(2), (3), and (5) - althoughcassava is substitutedfor corn,in
accordancewiththe fact that maniocis much moreimportantthan maize
in Guiana. It should also be noted that the frog-woman is destroyedby
fire,reminding us of the burningof the Corn Woman Creektales. The
in
frog-woman featureis probablya remnantof a moreelaboratetale which
may have been an originmythof agriculture.
The originof cornand otherfoodplantsis a favoritethemein South
Americanfolklore.Possibly,the competition betweendifferent sets of agri-
culturaloriginmythsmayhave been unfavourable to the CornMothermyth.
The motifof the world-tree whichbore all kindsof fruitis verymuchalive
and widespreadin South America. There is also a large varietyof tales
about the originof cultivatedplantsfromthe bodies of personsor animals.
In some of thesetales, plants originatefromsacrificedchildren.The motif
forthebenefitofmen- liketheself-immolating
ofself-sacrifice CornMother
in NorthAmericantales - also occursin South America. An interesting
tale of that kind is knownfromthe southeasternGs tribeKaingng: The
Indians sufferedfromfamine. A chief,Nara, told them to clear a piece
of land and to bind a liana aroundhis neck and draghim over the ground.
Thiswas done. Threemonthslater,his penisproducedthe maize,his testicles
the beans, and his head the gourds132. This Kaingngtale has a striking
similarityto element(6) in Corn Mothertales fromthe southeasternand
EasternWoodlandareas of NorthAmerica; however,the CornMotherseems
to be unknownin Kaingngmythology a male cultureheroplayingher rle.
131Koch-Grnberg, 1920, p. 314, note 3.

132Ploetz-Mtraux, 1930, p. 212.
46. 1951
Anthropos &<>

Anthropos
- Female vegetation-spirits,
analogousto the CornMother,may have
in South America. A "Motherof the Manioc" was
had a wide distribution
prayedto by the Tupi tribeMunduruc,who also worshippedMothersof
Game and of Fish 133.
2. The Corn Mother in Indonesia

The Corn Motherconcept in Indonesia has been studied and eluci-
dated by Alb. C. Kruyt whoseintensivefieldworkwas mainlydone among
the Toradjas of Celebes. I shall not attemptto give a summaryof Kruyt's
great work,but only mentionsome of his results.
The Indonesiansthinkthat the rice has a soul. The rice is not only
animate,as otherplants; the rice soul is of the same stuffas the human
soul. However,the soul-powerof the rice is in a way concentratedin
certainrice plants. "Amongmost of the peoples of the Indian Archipelago,
special rice plant or certainplants of the firstcuttingof rice carriesthe
name of "Rice Mother",among some also the name "principal,prince,
leader" etc., a conceptwhichis also expressedin the word "mother".By
somepeoples,the Rice Motheris intentionally plantedforthe purpose,thus
in Lombok,in Minangkabauand in Atjeh; by mostof the people,however,
the Rice Motheris not designateduntilthe rice is ripe. The markswhich
indicatethe Rice Motherare vigorousgrowth(she is taken fromthat part
where the rice is highest or most dense), special numbers(the sacred
number7 and 9), peculiaritiesin growth(7 joints,or plantswherethe kern-
els grow against the ear . ..). All these marks indicatea great measure
of 'soulstuff'."134 The functionof the Rice Mother,th sacred sheafof
rice,is to attractand preservethe soul-stuff of the rice-field.The sacred
sheafis treatedwith special rites,oftendressedup like a woman. At last
she is placed in the rice shed. Sometimesshe is laid under the rice,
sometimesshe is hung up above, mostlyshe is placed in a special spot in
the shed. As a rule,the Rice Motheris not eaten; some people eat her in
the stressof hunger135.
Paul Wirz thinksthat the choosingof special rice plants forthe
formationof the Rice Mothermay originallyhave had a practicalsigni-
ficanceas an artificialselectionof seed grain. In Sumatraand amongthe
Dayaks of southeastBorneothis is still the case ; the prettiestand biggest
ears are cut for the sacred firstor last sheaf,and this providesthe seed
rice forthe following year136.The purposeof the wholeRice Motherinsti-
tutionis to benefitand ensurethe rice crop. To the aboriginalIndonesian
mind, the preservationof the soul-stuff is absolutelyvital; the rie soul
is the sum of the rice plant's ability to sprout,grow,mature,and give
nourishment to men137.
m
MTRAUX, 1949, pp. 578-579.
134
Kruyt, 1903, p. 384.
135
Kruyt, 1903, p. 410.
136
Wirz, 1929, p. 65.
137
Wirz, 1929, p. 32.

Very similarideas seem to lie behind the Corn Motherrites in the

Pueblo region,in Mexico,and in Peru. We have already noticed (p. 859)
that the selectionof perfectears of maize forcorn fetishesby the Pueblo
Indians seems to have had a practicalvalue forplant breeding.We have
also seen that, in the pueblos of Cochitiand Laguna, Corn Motherswere
placed in the fourcornersof the stack - a parallel to the placingof the
Rice Motherin the Indonesianrice barn. Similarly,in Mexico, the ears
of maize that were to be used forseed were broughtto the templeof the
maize goddess,and so became maize-gods,whichwere made the heartsor
souls of the barn and lateron used forseeds (p. 870). The Chortiof Guate-
mala place in the fourcornersof the barn pieces of copal, made in the form
and size of maize ears (p. 875). The Mama-Zara and Pirua ritesof the
Peruvians,describedby Acosta and Cobo, also had for theirpurposeto
augmentand preservethe maize by means of the CornMother,represented
by a "portionof the most fruitful of the Mays that growsin theirfarms".
When this representative lost strength,a new one was made (p. 877).
We may add that the Toradjas in Celebes also have a Maize Mother
doing the same servicefor the maize as the Rice Motherfor the rice. A
Maize Motheris selectedbeforethe maize harvestbegins. In Bada, they
select an ear with an outgrowth,or one whose tassel resemblesthe hair
of a humanhead, or one growingnear the top of the maize plant, or one
that is unusuallyheavy and big. This last peculiarityis also observedby
othertribes. And all the tribesobservethe rule that the fruitsof the Maize
Motherare cut last, and theirkernelsare used for seed in the following
season. In Pakawa, they look for a well-filledmaize ear which inclines
towardsone of the mountainswherethe rice-spirits are supposedto dwell;
that is the "Maize Woman". At the footof that plant an offering of sirih-
pinangis placed, and the maize mistress is invoked. Afterwards,when all
themaize is cut,the Maize Motheris hungin the house,above the fireplace,
and aroundher the ears whichare to supply,togetherwithher, the seeds
forthe next plantingof maize. Kruyt gives severalothervariantsof the
Maize Motherritesamongthe Toradjas138.
The maize ritesof the Toradjas may perhapshave arisenin connection
withor as a sortof imitationof the ricerites. However,whenKruyt asked
the Toradjas, with what kind of grain they had, in their opinion,first
become acquainted,rice or maize, most of them answered: maize. This
opinion,says Kruyt, is of coursewithoutany value. And he adds : if there
is, afterall, any value in it, this may be soughtin the fact that the inha-
bitantsof Middle Celebes knew Coix agrestisearlierthan rice, and maize,
which was introducedmuch later, has to a large extent taken the place
of the Coix 13d.
The questionof the age of maize in Asia has in later years become
somewhatless easy to answerthan in Alb. C. Kruyt's days when every-
138Kruyt, 1938, IV, pp. 236-237. - Adriani en Kruijt, II, pp. 296-297.
139Kruyt, 1938, IV, p. 230.

884 GUDMUND HAT! Anthropos4G. 1951
body took for grantedthe post-Columbian introductionof maize. .'I shall

offera few remarkson this questionat the end of my paper.
- Corn Mother tales, reminiscent of those of America,are known
fromIndonesia,especiallyfromCelebes.
The Toradjas have several storiesabout a motherlywoman feeding
her familywith rice or sago fromher own body, or transforming herself
into a food plant.
It is said that a heavenlyprincessappeared froma leaf of a tea tree
(a sort of a breadfruittree,ArtocarpusBlumei). When her childwas born,
the people had as yet no rice. She procuredrice by rubbingthe palms of
her hands against each otherabove a pot 140.
Anothertale runs this way: Once therewas a marriedcouple. The
man oftenwentout fishing.Every timehe returnedhome,he founda pot
fullof rice. He didn'tunderstandwherehis wifegot it. Therefore. one day
he spied throughchinksin the wall, and he saw that the wiferubbedher
hands againsteach otherabove the pot. The dirtthat fellfrom, the hands
into the pot became rice. The man got angryover that disgustingproce-
dure and scolded his wife. Then the wifechangedinto a rice plant, and
the man changedinto a sago palm141.
A somewhatsimilartale treatsof the womanwho changedinto a sago
palm : Everyonein the house wonderedabout the delicate dish (sago pap)
whichthe housewifeservedout now and then,because theydid not under-
stand whenceshe got the raw material,as she neverlefther house. One
of these people spied secretlyupon the woman,and saw that she rubbed
her hands against each other above a cookingpot, whereuponsago fell
out of the hands (in anothervariant of the tale, the woman scrapes the
dirt fromher body and cooks it as sago ; in fact,it.is even said that the
woman fetchedthe sago fromher vagina). When it became knownhow
the womancame by the sago, they decided to kill her, as a personacting
thatway mustbe a witch. Beforeshe was cut to death,she told the people
that they must come and look at her grave afterseven nights. They did
so, and they found on the spot a metroxylon(sago) that had grownout
of the ground142.
These tales are remarkably similarto the NorthAmericanCornMother
tales. The last one, about the Sago Woman,containsmostof the elements
whichare characteristic of the Corn Mothertales of the southeasternarea
of NorthAmerica: (1) The womanis identifiedwith a sago palm. (3) She
producessago fromher own body by rubbingherself.(5) She is spied upon
by one ofthepersonswhomshe is benefiting.The peopleconceivea loathing
forher foodand decide to kill her as a witch.(6) She is killed,but firstshe
givesinstructions withregardto the plant thatshallsproutfromher grave.
Elements(2) and (4) are presentin otherToradja tales. (2) The rice-
spiritis oftenverykind and helpfulto poor people and to children.E. g.,
140Kruyt, 1938, IV,
p. 18.
- m Op. cit., pp. 17-18.
142
Op. cit., pp. 272 f.

thereis a tale about an orphanboy whomthe rice-spirit helped,appearing

firstin the shape of a big fresh-watersnail,and afterwards as an old woman.
The snail filledthe boy's basketwithriceby crawlingoverit, the ricefalling
out of the snail's house. And thenthe snail turnedinto an old womanwho
took care of the boy until he could supporthimself143.
The magical fillingof the storeroom(4) occursin severaltales, some-
timestogetherwith(2), the takingcare of orphans. In such a tale, the rice
spiritappears as an old womanin a whitedress. She lefta richman who
let much of his grainfall on the road while bringingin the harvest. The
old woman took her abode with an orphangirl who could not make any
field,so thatherricebin was empty. Howeverfromthe timethe old woman
came, the bin was always full. One day when the girl came home she did
notmeettheold woman. She called : "Grandmother ! Grandmother !" Then
she heard a voice from the rice shed : "Here I am ; I have again turned
intorice; youshallnotsee me again,but youshallnevermoresuffer want."144
(6a) The flightof the rice-spiritfroma rich man who treated his
harvestcarelesslyby lettingmuchof the grainfall upon the road, reminds
one somewhatof the flightof the Corn Woman in some NorthAmerican
tales (element6a). The flightmotifis moredistinctin a Buginesetale from
SouthernCelebeswherethe rice-goddess, SangiyanSari, leaves severalplaces
because people are carelessand wastefulin treatingthe rice and unfriendly
to the cat, althoughthis animal fightsrats and mice, the enemiesof the
rice. At last the rice-goddessdecides that she will leave the wickedearth
for ever and ascend to heaven. However,a benevolentdeity persuades
her to returnto the earth,and therebya generalfamineis avoided145.
In some Toradja tales, the rice-spirit appears as a couple of children,
a boy and a girl (i. e., the rice-goddess and her consort). This bridal pair
helps good and needypeople,especiallyold folksand orphans,fillingtheir
emptyricebins in a mysticalway146.In one of thesetales, the two super-
naturalchildrensay to the old man whomtheyare helping: "We shall die ;
bury our corpsesin the fieldand make our shroudsof cotton." The old
man buriedthe corpses. Afterthreedays he went and looked at the spot,
and he found that rice was growingthere,and wiloeroe,ioso (mediinal
plants),coro, maize etc.
In Java and Bali, the agricultural mythology has the impressof Hindu
influence.The Javanese and the Balinese have two rice-goddesses;one of
theseis associatedwiththe drymountain-rice, the otherwiththe wet rice.
The latter,Demi ri, is of Hindu origin,the wifeof Vishnu.:The former;
Tisna Wati, is the daughterof the ancestralhero, Botara Guru; she had
no mother,as she was bornfroma pot. The mythsof Tisna Wati and Dewi
ri axe fullof love adventures.Batara Guruwantedto marryhis pot-born
daughter; she resistedfora long time,and when at last she surrendered,
143Op. cit., p. 25.
144Op. cit., pp. 25-26.
145Bezemer, 1904, pp. 376-377.
146Kruyt, 1938, p. 26.

Anfchropos
she died. Fromherbodysprangseveralfoodplants. Mostimportantamong

these was mountain-rice, which sprouted fromher navel. As usual in
Indonesianmyths,the coco palm sprangfromthe head. Later on, Dewi
ri also surrenderedto an importunatelover, with similar results; she
disappeared,and at thespotwhereshe was last seen thesameplantssprouted
as at Tisna Watt'sgrave- withthisdifference that the rice,whichsprang
fromher navel, requiredwet cultivation 147.
This mythharmonizeswith the theorythat wet-ricecultivationwas
introduced intoIndonesiaby the Hindus,and laterthandry-rice cultivation.
Demi ri is worshippedas a deificationof rice itself,and her name
is also used by other Indonesian peoples; the Minangkabauof Middle
Sumatra call the rice-soulor Rice MotherSaning Sari, the Buginese of
SouthernCelebes call her Sang-hyangSari 148.
The love affairoftherice-goddessis, in themyth,an essentialcondition
forthe cominginto existenceof rice and otherfood plants. And in Java,
especiallyMiddle Java, certain rice ears are selected by the ceremonial
masteror priest,beforethe harvest,to representthe bridal pair, the rice
goddessand her consort149. In Bali, the bridalpair is likewiserepresented
by two small dolls, made of rice ears at the beginningof the harvest150.
Sexual union and death must take place, to ensurethe procreation
of vegetal life and the productionof food for humanity. In agricultural
mythsboth of these conditionsare set forth.However,in many tales the
second condition,death, is the dominantmotif. The basic idea, that
cultivated plants sprang from the bodies of persons who were
sacrificed or who immolated themselves, is expressedin numerous
Indonesiantales. Sometimesthe sacrificedpersonis a mother,very often
it is a child,less oftena man. The materialis abundantfromthe Toradjas
of Celebes - thanksto Alb. C. Kruyt, N. Adriani, Jac. Woensdregt ;
however,numerousmythsabout the originof cultivatedplants have also
been collectedin otherparts of Indonesia. The backgroundof the tale is
always the necessityof providingfood forhungrypeople.
In some of the West Toradja tales, a motheris broughtto despair
by the cryingof her hungrychildren; she rolls herselfdown a mountain
side and dies, whereuponthe rice comes into existence. In one of the
versions,the mother'sbody becomes rice, Lagenaria vulgarisgrowsfrom
one of her knees, and maize sproutsfromher teethm.
In a mythfromTo Koelawi, a tribe of the WesternToradjas, it is
related that the firstwomanon earth gave birthto a girl,and wherever
the blood drops fell,rice sprouted. Her husband shelled the kernelswith
his fingernails and ate the kernelsraw. And whenthe rice was consumed,
the man thought: "The rice originatedfromthe blood of my wife; what
147Gelpke, 1874,
pp. 114-125, - Wmz, 1927, pp. 221-228.
148Toorn, 1890,
p. 63. - Wmz, 1927, pp. 287-288.
14aBezemer,
1904, pp. 417-419. - Mayer, 1897, II, pp. 451-455.
150Soekawati,
1926, pp. 433-434.
161Kruyt, 1938,
IV, p. 7.

if I slaughteredher?" He did so, and he sprinkledher blood over a large

area, rice sproutingagain fromthe blood. By experiencehe learnedthat
the rice prosperedwell whereit got sunshine,and whereit was not ham-
pered by weeds. In that way, rice cultivationoriginated 152.
Child sacrificeoccursin a creationmythfromMiddle Celebes. Ala
Tola createdtwo menand two womenand said to them: "Whenyou people
bringfortha boy, cut him to pieces. The head you must throwto Bada',
the body you mustcut to pieces and strewout in Rampi' and Leboni,Seko
and Bada'. And verily,not long afterthat, one of the womenbore a boy
and did with him as Ala Tala had ordered. From the head a coco palm
arose, and frompieces of the body buffalosarose153.- The buffalos,very
importantin rice-cultivation,take in this myththe place whichis usually
held by rice and otherplants.
of a man is motifin a myth,that calls to mindthe
The self-sacrifice
Kaingngstoryabout the self-sacrificing chief(above p. 881). A nobleman
in the provinceof Besoa in MiddleCelebes was much concernedabout his
serfswho had nothingto eat except roots. He had his people clear seven
mountains,cuttingdown the bushes and makingthe soil ready. When
thisworkwas done,the people asked : "What are we goingto plant on this
ground?" The noblemanansweredthat he would take care of that. He
had themplace a woodenscaffoldin the middleof the field; it was covered
witha many-coloured cloth,and an egg was placed upon it. The nobleman
himself,dressedin brilliantclothes,went firstto the many-coloured cloth,
then he ran fromleft to rightin circles,each time nearerto the edge of
the field. The longer he ran, the more his body disappearedinto the
ground: firsthis feet were no more visible, then the knees disappeared,
thenthe hips, and at last onlyhis head was visibleabove the ground.But
beforethe head disappeared,it spoke: "For the future,you shall eat me
who am your fellowman, foreverything that is good to plant shall come
out of me. Listen to the names of plantswhichI shall name: rice,millet,
Job's-tears,bananas,sugarcane." When he had named themall and given
manyinstructions regardingrice cultivation,the head disappearedinto the
ground.Afterseven days, the people saw growingin the fieldall the plants
that were named: rice had sproutedfromhis blood, Job's-tearsfromhis
teeth,sugar cane fromhis long bones, pumpkinsfromhis head 154.
The Toradjas of the Sa'dan, Masoepoe, and Mamasa rivershave a
mythabout the originof maize froma man called Padakka. He died from
a disease and was buried,and maize sproutedfromhis teeth,tuberousfood
plants fromhis body, and a pumpkinfromhis head 155.
In Flores and Ceram,the motifof child sacrificeis predominantin
the mythsabout the originof foodplants. Accordingto the creationmyth
of the Manggaraisin WesternFlores, the Highest Being, Mori Kerang,
162Adriani en Kruijt, II, pp. 230-231.
153 WOENSDREGT, 1925,
p. 99.
154Kruyt, 1938,IV, pp. 8-9. - Kruyt, De Rijstgeest,pp. 6-7.
155Kruyt, 1923,pp. 330-331.

888 GUDMUND HaTT Authropos4G. 1051
broughtthe firstpeople forthfromthe bamboo. They had only tree fruits

for food. A familywith one child receivedan orderfromMori Kerang,
that they should kill the child,cut its fleshin small pieces and spread it
upon the field. This was doneby the father.Afterfiveor six days,all kinds
of food plants grew in the field. However,the sacrificedchild talked to
its motherand fatherthroughthe plants,warningthemnot to come near
- untilMori Kerangtaughtthemcertainrites: a specialharvestlanguage,
special offerings, a respectfuland carefultreatmentof the grainsof rice
and maize. In mostofthe versions/the firstchildofthe firsthumanparents
is sacrificed.In one tale, a boy and a girlare killed,the girlbecomingrice;
the boy maize156.
The Riung tribein MiddleFloreshas a similarmythabout the origin
of food plants. The firsthuman parentswere Tz and Lna. Tz, the
wife,firstexisted alone; she became pregnantwhile sleeping beneath a
flowering treewhena flower felluponher. She borea boy,Lna ; whomarried
her later on, and they had children. Tz and Lna made a field,felling
the bushes and burningthe weeds,but they had no crop. One day, Lna
took two of theirchildrenwithhim out to the field,killedthem,cut them
to pieces and spread blood, flesh,and bones all over the field; thus th
foodplantsarose. Tz,missingherchildren, wentsearchingforthem.When
she came to the field,the youngrice,maize,and otherplantscried: "There
is our mother,there is our mother,you are our mother,we are your
children." Tz did not returnhome. Afterhalf a month,Lna went out
to searchforhis wife,and in that attempthe disappearedalso. Beforehe
left,he called all his childrentogetherand told themto divideand eat what
Tz and Lna had left157.
In Ceram,the victimis a miraculouschild,risenfroma man's blood,
mixedwith the sap of a coco palm, i. e., a sortof a blood-clotchild. The
mythwas taken down by G. de Vries 158,and afterwards Ad. E. Jensen
collectedseveral versionsof it 159. In the versiongiven by de Vries, the
miraculouschildis a boy ; in Jensen's versionsit is a girl,called Hainuwele
("Coco-palmbranch"). Ad. E. Jensen gardsthe Hainuwelemythas the
expressionof an old philosophyor view of the world160,a primitiveunder-
standingof the sombrenecessityof death in the lifecycle. He may be right
in that. However,Hainuwele,the wonderfulyoung girl who gave richer
to mankindand, at her sacrificialdeath,turnedinto a profusion of nourish-
is
ing plants, related, not only to the child
sacrificial of the firstparents;
but also to the CornMother,the mightymaternalbeing,whosemercyand
power is clearlyvisible in bountifulgardensand fields.
And this maternalbeing also appears in the shape of an old woman
in two legendsof WesternCeram. One of these tales is about two orphan
158Burger, 1941,
pp. 411-423.
157Arndt, 1935,
pp. 334, 351.
158Vries, 1927,
pp. 152-157.
159Tensen, 1939, pp: 59-65.
160
Jensen, 1938-1940, pp. 199-216.

girls,stragglingin the woods. They met an old womanwho said : "Go to

the villageand tell the people to come and kill me. When I am dead, each
of you may take one of my eyes." The left eye became a tuberousfood
plant,the righteye a valuable ear pendant161. Here - as in many other
Indonesiantales - jewels seem to be equivalentto food. The otherlegend
is the storyof the driftingsago grove162.This sago groveoriginatedfrom
an old womanwho,at her approachingdeath,said to her grandsonToewale
that he shouldburyher close by her hut. He did so. And fromher grave
a youngsago palm sprouted,growingvery quickly and in a shortwhile
developinginto a great grove,where Toewaleand those of his household
beat all theirsago. The reason why this sago grove once left the place,
driftingwiththe riverto anotherlocality,was the fact that the people did
not use it any longer. It wantedto be used. The full-grown trees should
be felledby sago-beatersand not be left standingto rot.
3. The Corn Mother concept in New Guinea and Melanesia
The fundamentalelementin the Corn Mothermythis the idea that

a foodplant - or severalfoodplants- are identicalwitha femalebeing
who may producethe vegetablefood fromher own body for the benefit
of needy persons,oftenchildren. This fundamentalelementis found in
some localitiesin New Guinea and Melanesia.
A curious rationalizedversion of the tale about the woman who
producesvegetablefood fromher own body, is foundamongthe Arapesh,
a Papua people livingon the northcoast of mandatedNew Guinea,in the
Aitape-Sepikdistrict.A woman,Sherok,is spared by the rain-spirits who
a
flood village and drown people, swine, and dogs. Sherok is rescued by
climbinga coco palm. When the water subsides,she descends. She puts
yams insidehollowsin her body,in her hollowfingers, toes, feet,and hair.
They appear on her body as boils. Her frightful appearance makes her
repulsive to all men. However, she findsadmissionas a servantin a village
where the people make their soup of wooden chips. Sherokmakes the
soup of yams which she takes fromher own body. The people findthe
soup good, and Sherokinstructsthem in agriculture,teachingthem to
cultivateyams. (The motifof "the self- workingimplements"is part of
the tale, see below p. 901 163.)
This tale about the Yams Womanhas also been recordedby Gerstner
in the neighboring But district164.
Anotherversionof the Yams Woman tale - but withoutthe culture
hero featureis knownfromthe Kai people in the hinterlandof Finsch-
hafen165.The woman,friendless and withoutlivingrelatives,makesherself
161Jensen, 1939, p. 71.
162Vries, 1927, pp. 257 f.
es fortune, 1942, pp. 217-219.
164Gerstner, 1939, pp. 260-264.
165Keysser, 1911, pp. 222-225.

890 GUDMUND HaTT AnthroposIG. 1U51
hideous and deformedby swallowingyams,placingthembeneaththe skin

in her arms,legs, and body. Having met a compassionateman,she relieves
herselfof the yams, cookingthem as food forpeople, and so regainsher
beauty.- A different Yams Womanstoryis toldby the Jabimat the Huon
Golf166.An ugly old woman,coveredwith sores,is despised and abused
by people,untila tenderhearted womanwashesher and takes her into the
house. The old womanwants to stay in the dilapidatedyams house, and
next morningthe yams house is transformed into a prettynew building,
well-provided with yams, which are nicely arrangedin heaps, each kind
by itself,and the old woman is also transformed and made beautiful.She
explains: "The disorderin the yams house made me sick and ugly; but
you, good wife,took me into your house and made me well; therefore I
have given some yams to you and your child."
The Yams Woman,producingyams fromher own limbs,introducing
yamscultivationand demandingorderand cleanlinessin the barn,embodies
the same fundamentalidea as the rice-producig Rice Woman and sago-
producingSago Woman of Toradja myths and the Corn
maize-producing
Woman of North Americanmyths.
The Bola people, living on the Villaumezpeninsulain New Britain,
have tales about benevolentsupernatural womenwhoprovidefoodforneedy
children.In one of the tales, the flowerof a wild sugar cane turnsinto a
womanwho feedsa poor littledesertedgirlwith taro, bananas etc., after-
wards again turninginto a wild sugar cane 167. Anothertale is about the
originof cultivatedplantsfromthe womanRunepai: Formerlypeople lived
upon a black substancewhich they got fromthe beach. Once, all the
childrenof a villageweresittingtogetherin the sunshine,waitingfortheir
parentswho had goneto the beach to fetcha new supplyof thatblack stuff.
Then the womanRunepai came to the children.When she had seen some
of the black stuffthe childrenhad to eat, she asked themto bringher some
firewood.She made a fire,put stonesupon it, stretchedherselfupon the
fire,and the childrencoveredher withstonesand leaves. Then the children
went offto play. Runepai turnedherselfalternatelyrightand left,and
by and by she was transformed into bananas, taro, yams,sugar cane, and
other vegetables. When the childrencame back, they saw nothingmore
of Runepai; they saw only taro, bananas, greens,yams, and sugar cane
in greatprofusion.The childrenate and weresatisfiedand danced forjoy.
When the parentscame back, the childrenbade themthrowaway the black
stuff,and the parentsalso ate of the new food. Afterwards, they made
clearingsand plantedslips of taro,banana, yam,sugarcane etc.168.
From the islands Mono and Alu in the BougainvilleStrait,Western
SolomonIslands, comes a tale about "the womanwho used to cut up her
168Zahn, 1911,pp. 393-394. Cf. also a Yams Womantale fromthe island of
Graged,AstrolabeBay, "The Dugan-woman",in Dempwolff,1926, pp. 326, cited
by Reschke, 1935,pp. 57-59.
187Kroll, 1939,
pp. 410-411.
168Op. cit., 378.
p.

body"169.The self-sacrificing womanin this storydoes not turninto vege-

table food. She boils her own fleshin the pot togetherwithtaro and serves
it to her daughterand son-in-lawfor pig's fleshwhen they returnfrom
workin the garden. The youngpeople wonderwherethe pig's fleshcomes
from,and one day they spy upon the old woman and discoverhow she
procuresthe flesh. They get disgusted,and the daughterkills her mother.
This remindsone of element(5) in Americanand Toradja CornMothertales.
Element(5) is also presentin a tale fromBuin (in the Solomonisland
Bougainville)about the originof the sea 17. Atoto,the motherof the hero
Kugui, had borne her childrenwithoutthe help of any man. She lived
in her son's house. Kugui and his sisterworkedin a garden. Atotocooked
taro in her own "water"whichshe collectedin pots and in a hole beneath
her bed. When Kugui returnedfromthe garden,the food was ready and
he ate. One day, however,Kugui spied upon his mother,and when he
discoveredher secrethe beat her and brokeall her pots. The "water"ran
out, and thus arose the salt water of the sea. Sea water is still used for
cooking,because it is salty.
Element (6) of the Corn Mothermyth,the killingof the motherand
the sproutingof a food plant fromher body, is also foundin a Buin tale.
Twobrothers killedand burnedtheirmother, and afterwards buriedthebones,
surrounding them with From
stones. the bones,the coco
first palmsproutedm.
The idea that cultivatedplants sprang fromthe bodies of persons
who were immolatedor who sacrificedthemselvesis widespreadin New
Guinea and Melanesia and is also knownfromPolynesia. The Bola tale
about Runepai belongs in this group. The Arapesh in New Guinea also
have a storyabout a motherlywomanwho is changedinto vegetablefood
forthe benefitof her children.Part of the time she is a cassowary,and
she teaches her human sons how to lay noose traps forcassowaries. She
herselfgets caughtin one of the traps; and whenher sons come to inspect
the traps,her body is alreadyfoul. They cover it withtrees,and whenit
is decomposed,theytake the bones and put themin the house. The bones
turn into yams and are planted172.
4. The Corn Mother concept in New Zealand
The humaraor sweet potato (Ipomaea batatas), the most important

of the cultivatedplants of the Maoris,was borne by the goddess Pani,
accordingto a Maori myth. The names of Pani' s childrenare the names
varietiesof humara. It is said that she gave birthto the humara
of different
tubers in water; this seems verycurious,as the sweetpotato is a dryland
product. Elsdon Best supposes,that the ancestorsof the Maorimay have
169Wheeler, 1926, p. 205.
170Thurnwald, 1912, p. 347.
171Thurnwald, 1912, 399.
p.
172Fortune, 1942,
pp. 231-232. - Cf. a similar tale by Gerstner, 1939,
pp. 264-265.

892 GUDMUND HAT 4t.1951
Anthropos
transferred mythand name fromanotherplant growingin water (rice?)

In a South Island versionof the Pani myth, it is said: "The husbandof
Pani wonderedgreatlyhow his wifeprocuredtheirfood. He watchedher
one day go down into the water and rub the lower part of her stomach,
and then he soon afterwardssaw her fillingbaskets with kumara" In
anothermythit is said that Pani was the aunt of the Maui brothers; and
whentheylost theirfatherand mother,Pani took care of the orphans. She
cooked kumaraforthemin an oven, whilethe Maui brotherswent fishing
upon the ocean. The brotherswere delightedwiththe new food,and they
asked Pani whereit came from,but she would not tell them. One of the
Maui brothersspied upon Pani and observedhergivingbirthto the kumara
in the water; he saw the act, and said : "We are beingfedby the secretion
ofPani." ThenPani discoveredthatshehad been observed,and greatshame
was hers,so thatsheretiredto thelowerworld.Maui soughtherby meansof
hismagicdart; he descendedand foundhertendingherkumaracultivation 173.
This is a versionofthe flighttypeof theCornMothermyth,comprising
mostof the elementswhichwe have met in NorthAmericaand Indonesia:
(1) The food-plantis given to mankindby a woman. (2) She takes
care of orphans. (3) She producesfoodfromher own body - givingbirth
to the food(or,in one tale, rubbingthe lowerpart of her stomach). (5) One
of the personson whomshe bestowscharityspies upon her and discovers
in whatway the foodis produced.He speaksdisrespectfully about the food.
(6a) She flees to thelowerworld. (7) The manwho spieduponherand caused
herflight, followsherand findshertendinghercultivationin thelowerworld.
5. Male originatorsof vegetable food
The mythicaloriginatorof vegetable food is not always a woman;

In New Guinea, Melanesia,and Polynesiait is quite as oftena man.
On Pentecostisland in the New Hebrides,the yams clan of the Imir
tribehas a mythabout the originof yamsfromtheirancestor: An old man
was sittingbeforehis door, paring the nails of his toes and fingers.He
discoveredthat the paringssproutedand that they tasted delicious. He
conceiveda plan and carriedit into executionimmediately.He ordered
his childrento clear a piece of groundand burnthe bushes. And whenthe
fieldwas ready,he told his childrento cut him to pieces and plant the
differentparts of his body, and then carefullywatch forthe results. The
fieldgave an abundantharvestof yams,of many different forms; the legs
producedlong and straightyams,the heartroundyams,the bowelscrooked,
twistedyams, etc. - The membersof the yams clan have inheritedthe
rightand the duty to plant the firstyams each new season. One member
of the yams clan possessesthe secretof the formulasand wordsto be used,
and he gives the signal to start the different
kinds of workin the course
of yams cultivation174.
173
Best, 1925, pp. 48-51. Ci Luomala, 1949, pp. 117-118.
174
Tattevin, 1928, pp. 450 f.

The storyof the fatherwho sacrificedhimselfby turninginto vege-

table food for the benefitof posterity,is also known from Polynesia.
William Ellis foundit in Tahiti: In formerdays, when the people lived
on red earth,a fatherrescuedhis only son who could not thriveupon the
red-earthdiet. Afterhaving prayed to his god at the familymarae, the
fathersaid to his wife: "I am about to die. WhenI am dead, take mybody,
dismemberit, plant my head in one place, my heart and stomach in
another,etc., and thencome into the house and wait. When you shall hear
firsta sound like that of a leaf, then of a flower,afterwards of an unripe
fruit,and subsequently of a ripe round fruit falling on the ground,know
that it is I, who am become food for our son." He died, and his wife
followedhis instructions.Next morningshe beheld a large tree, the first
breadfruittree. Ellis adds : "The originof the coconut,chestnut,and
yam, are derivedfromsimilarsources; the coconut grew fromthe head
of a. man,the chestnutfromhis kidneys,the yamsfromhis legs - and other
vegetableproductsfromdifferent parts of his body. The importanceof the
breadfruit and coconut,in theestimation ofthe natives,may also be gathered
fromthefactoftheirfabuloustraditionsassigningtheiroriginto thehead and
heartofhimwhoseaffection forhis son was stronger thanhis love of life."175
This mythabout the originof the breadfruittree fromthe body of
a father,is also toldin Hawaii, althoughin a different version.The mythical
fathersays to his children: "When I die, both of you watch the tree that
will growat the door of our house; its fruitshall be yourfood; the hands
and hair are the rootsof that breadfruit tree,the legs are its branches,the
"testiclesthe fruitthereon." 176
beingwho originatedthe foodplants,is in American
The self-sacrificing
mythsfrequentlyfemale,althoughin some .Americanmythsit is of the
male sex. In Indonesia,it is also generallyfemale,althoughin a fewmyths
it is male. In New Guinea, Melanesia,and Polynesia,the male element
seems to be more prominentin mythsabout the originof food plants.
The MelanesiantribesUlau and Suein in the Aitape districton the
northcoast of New Guinea have tales about a male sago-spirit, Tenl-Pisn
(in someplaces it is two brothers).This sago-man has his home in the West,
near the Dutch border. He went towardsthe East, and afterwardshe
returnedtowardsthe West, everywhereintroducingsago. He is the sago
himself.He is whiteas washedsago. He is associatedwiththe moon,which
is believed to consistof whitesago. He is also connectedwith the intro-
ductionof otherfoodplants: bananas,tuberousplants,breadfruit treesetc.
His travelscame to an end in Aropwherehe was detainedby a greatfestival
or "sing-sing".A heavy rain came on, he could not get away, and he
dissolved,as his body,consistedof sago. That is why Arop is particularly
rich in sago-groves177.
The Tami, livingat the Huon Golfin New Guinea,have a tale about
175Ellis, 1831, I, pp. 68-70.
176F.qrnander, 1919, V, pp. 676-678, .
177Meyer, 1932, pp. 439-441.

894 GUDMUND ' HaTT AnthroposIG. 1951
the origin of the coconut, containinga featurestronglyreminiscentof

element(5) in the CornMothermyth. A man always had remarkableluck
in fishing.One of his wives triedto discoverthe secretof his luck. She
asked him to take her treasuresack withhim in his boat while she went
to workin her garden. In the sack she had concealedher littleboy whom
she had instructed to spy upon the father.The boy thensaw thathis father
fishedby usinghis own head as a sort of bait. He took offhis headband
and held his dirtyhead in the water. Fish came fromall sides and sucked
upon his hair. Carefully, he raised his head with the fishesadheringto it,
and shook themoffinto the boat. This was repeateduntil he had plenty
of fish,then he replacedhis headband and returnedhome. The boy told
his motherwhat he had seen, and the womenbecame disgustedand very
angry. When the man urgedthemto go to the boat and bringin the fish,
that theymighthave somethingto eat withtheirtaro, theytold him that
he was an abominablefellow,he had lied to them and let them eat his
stinking dirt,but now,nobodywouldeat his fishanymore.Thismadetheman
very sad. He was sittingsilentlyin the villageplace untilnight; thenhe said
to his eldestson : "Keep an eye uponthisspotwhereI am sitting.Whenyou
see something comeup outofthegroundhere,watchit and distribute it among
the people." Next morning, the man had disappeared. However,aftersome
weeksa plant sprouted,and it grewinto a largetree,the firstcoco palm178.
A tale fromBuin, Bougainville,about the originof taro and yam,
remindsus somewhatof the Bola tale about Runepai, mentionedabove.
However,in the Buin tale, it is the male culturehero Tntaniiwho brings
the foodplants to the hungrychildren; and insteadof immolating himself,
Tdntanudefecates,and his excrementbecomes taro and yams179.
NumerousMelanesiantales relate about the originof the coco palm
froma man's head 180. This idea is also knownfromNew Guinea181. In
mythsfromthe southernNew Hebrides,Tangaroa,who is a giganticeel
or sea snake,dies afterdrinkingkawa ; his wifecuts his head off,according
to his own instructions, and the firstcoco palm sproutsfromit 182.A similar
tale is known fromMangaia where the firstcoco palm sprang fromthe
head of Tuna, a giant eel whose head was cut offby his beloved Ina 183.
The snake as originatorof numerouscultivatedplants plays a rle
in Melanesia and New Guinea184. This idea is also expressedin South
178Bamler, 1911,pp. 546-547.
179Thurnwald, 1912,pp. 394-395.
180Meier, 1907,pp. 660-663(Admiralty Islanders).- Meyer, 1910,pp. 717-721
(BismarckArchipelago). - Bley, 1914, p. 200 (New Britain).- Parkinson, 1907,
pp. 684-685. (The Gazelle Peninsula.)
181A. Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales, London 1910, pp. 92 ff.
(cited by Jensen,
1939, p. 20).
182Ray, 1901,pp. 150-151.
183Gill, 1876,p. 77.
184For the AdmiraltyIslands,see Meier, 1907,
pp. 650-658,and Parkinson,
1907, pp. 708-709. For the Kai people in NorthernNew Guinea, see Keysser,
1911,pp. 180-185.

Americanmyths185.On the otherhand, the originmythof the coco palm

seems to be unknownin South America.
In southernNew Guinea, northof TorresStrait and in the Islands
of TorresStrait,the notionprevailsthat the sexual act is essentialin the
developmentof vegetablefood. This findsexpressionin ritesand in myths.
Cultivatedplants spring,froma dead female'sbody aftercopulation. And
a male heroproducesall sortsof foodplantsby sowinghis own semen,espe-
ciallyamongthe Kiwai Papuans 186.AmongtheMarind-anim in thesouthern-
mostpart of Dutch New Guinea,the beliefin the efficacy of humansperm
as a means of producingand augmentingthe fruitfulness of food plants,
-
is also apparentin ritesand myths187.This notion in verycrudeforms
- plays a comparatively greatrle in this region. However,the idea that
foodplantsoriginatedfroma sexual act is known,sporadically,elsewhere;
it is apparent in an agriculturalrite in Java and Bali, celebratingthe
marriageof the rice-goddessand her consort; we have seen it in myths
fromeasternNorthAmerica(above p. 858); and it seems to lie behindthe
Mexicanmythof the originof the maize-god,and also the Peruvianmyth
about the procreation of the childwho was killedby Pachacamacand trans-^
formedinto food plants.
We shall yet have to considerthree agriculturalmyth-motifs which
are representedin Americaand Indonesia: the world-tree, the stealingof
food plants in the sky, the self-working implements.
6. The world-tree
The storyabout the wonderfultree that bore all kinds of fruitsand

fromwhich all food plants came, is widespreadin South Americaand is
especiallyimportantin the northernpart of that continent. It is well
knownfromseveral papers by Wassn 188who gives the literatureupon
the subject. I may mention,additionally,that a fainttrace of the motif
has reached a nonagricultural tribe,the Yaruros in Venezuela,in whose
creationlegendit is said : "Then one man founda tree with all the fruits
on it. He did not tell the others."189- The northernGs tribeApinay
has the motifin the special formthat the wonderfultree bore all manner
of maize cobs. The star-womantaughtthe people to use maize. The men
felledthe maize treewithgreatdifficulty,and the star-womanadvisedthem
-
to make a clearingand plant maize190. . In a versionfromthe Arawak
185In a tale from the Sipia Indians, see Nimuendajtj, Anthropos 1919-1920,
pp. 1033-1034. Also in a tale fromthe Taruma Indians, see Farabee, 1918, pp. 147-148.
186 - Landtman, 1917,
(Haddon), V, 1904, pp. 28-37, VI, 1908, pp. 19-23.
- Landtman, 1927, pp. 73-74, 81,
pp. 144-115, 119 ff., 317-320, 327-329, 329-330.
86-87. 93-94, 100, 109, 123.
187Wirz, 1922, I, Teil II.
188Wassn, 1933, pp. 109-110, 120-130. - Wassn, 1934, pp. 3-5, 21-25. -
Wassn, Ymer, 1934, pp. 249-261.
m Petrullo, 1939, p. 241.
190NiMUENDAj,1934, pp. 165-167.

tribesWapisiana and Taruma in BritishGuiana, the fellingof the world-

tree signifiesthe endingof a paradisaicalera. The creator'sbrother,Duid,
used to feed the people withall kindsof fruitsand edible tuberswhichhe
broughtin a large basket. People wanted to know whereDuid got the
food. At last theircuriositywas gratifiedfortheysucceededin findingthe
large tree that bore all kinds of vegetablefood,and they told Duid that
he did not need to bringthem any more. When the creatorheard what
had happened,he became angryand cut the wonderfultree down,letting
the people select seeds etc. for planting. Its stump is Mt. Roraima. A
destructivefloodcame fromthe stump. And in aftertimes,people have
had to work in order to provide food for themselves m.
The tale of the originof food-plantsfroma huge tree, whichwas
felledwithgreatdifficulty, has also reachedCentralAmerica,as it is known
fromthe Kekchis and the Mayas of BritishHonduras192.
Wassn 193has also pointed out that the myth of the abundantly
producingworld-tree is foundin Micronesia, referring to . Krmer : Palau,
Hamburg 1929 61 der
p. (Ergebnisse Sdsee-Expedition 1908-1910,H. Ethno-
B.
graphie, Mikronesien, 3).Bd. In Indonesia, the idea is also knownthat
all kindsof fruitscame froma wonderful big tree. Especially,rice is said
to have that origin. The Bare'e Toradjas of MiddleCelebes say that some
people in formerdays foundthe firstrice plant growingupon the fallen
trunkof a figtree194. The West Toradjas of MiddleCelebes say that the
wonderful treegrowsin the moon. It is a largeFicus withaerial roots. The
dark spots in the moon are this enormoustree and an old woman,sitting
underthe tree. That big tree in the moon bears all kinds of fruits; two
kindsare speciallymentioned: rice and beads. Againwe see that valuables
are reckonedequivalentwithfood; glass beads are believedto give strength
to the personwho wearsthem. It is relatedthat a verysmall bird flewup
to the moonand sat downupon a twigof the big tree. The twigbroke,and
the fruitsupon it fell down and were spread over the earth,and so they
came into the possessionof mankind195.In anothertale, a man, shooting
withhis blowgun,sent an arrowtowardsthe moon and hit a twigon the
big tree with such forcethat the twig broke196.
In. a tale fromthe Modle in NorthHalmaheira,the miraculoustree
growsup fromthe breastof a self-sacrificing mother; it bloomsand produces
all sortsof valuables; and in the top of the tree hangs a chest,whichis
found to containthe motherherself197.The wonderfultree,whichbears
all sortsof valuables and is at last felled,is also knownin tales fromthe
191Ogilvie, 1940,
pp. 65-67.
192Thompson, 1930,
pp. 134-135.
193Wassn, 1940,
pp. 69-70.
194Adriani en Kruijt, II,
p. 230.
195Kruyt, 1938, II, pp. 377-378, IV, p. 10..
196Kruyt, De
Rijstgeest, pp. 16-17.
197Ellen, 1916,
pp. 226-228.

Loda in NorthHalmaheira198,and fromthe Tontemboanesin Minahassa,

NorthernCelebes199.
In a tale fromthe MentaweiIslands, the wonderfulbig tree is felled
withthe greatestdifficultybecause the hole closes up again everytimethe
workstops200.This featureis knownfrommanySouth Americanversions.
In a Dyak myth about the originof rice201,the miraculoustree,
loaded withfruits,has its rootsin the sky and its top downwards,so that
the branchestouch the sea. A youngseafaringDyak went up in the tree,
reachedthe sky,and came to the countryof the Pleiades,wherehe learned
to eat rice and was taught everythingabout agriculture.He got grains
of threekindsof rice and was sent back to earthby means of a rope. He
introducedrice cultivationamong the Dyaks.
In thistale,the motifoftheworld-tree is linkedtogether withthe motif
ofthebringing ofcultivatedplantsfromthesky,whichis also knownin parts
of SouthAmerica. In mostof the versions,the seeds are stolenin the sky.
7. The stealing of food plants in the sky
This motifoccurs in westernand northernSouth America. In a

Quechua tale, Fox visitsthe sky,helped by Condor. He steals food,and,
havingfilledhimselfwithquinoa, he returnsby means of a rope of straw.
On Ms way down he gets into a squabble with Parrot,who cuts the rope.
Fox fallsto the groundand is killed; the grainsflyfromhis stomachand
are spreadall overthe plateau. Sincethenpeoplehave cultivatedquinoa 202.
A Kgaba mythtells how seeds of the Canchi tree, the Ahuacate,
the Guajava and "all kinds of plants" were stolen at midnightin the sky
by the priestHi and his wifeBunkuiwho took the shape of a deer and
the ownersof the stolenplants,came
ate all kindsof seeds. The sky-people,
down to revengethemselves; but Hi's father-in-law, the priest Sintana,
magically transformed them into birds203.
Fromthe CaribtribeTaulipng,Koch-Grnbergrecordeda tale about
a visit in the sky. The hero conceals a kernelof maize in his mouthand
takes it withhim back to the earth; at that time,people on the earthhad
no maize as yet. When he had again reachedhis relatives,he plantedthe
maize kernel; and that was the beginningof maize cultivationon earth204.
In Polynesia,the stealingor robbingof food plants in the sky is
knownin mythsfromTonga205and fromSamoa 206.
198Baarda, 1904, pp. 448-450.

199Schwarz, 1907, pp. 77-81.
200Vries, 1925, I, pp. 349-350.
201Roth, 1896, I, pp. 307-308.
202MTRAUX,1934, pp. 97 f.
203Preuss, 1926, pp. 175 f.
204Koch-Grnberg, 1916, II, pp. 81 ff.
205REITERt 1934, pp. 497-514.
206Krmer, 1903, II, p. 136.
Anthropos46. 1951 7

In Indonesia, the stealing of rice in the sky is a very important

myth-motif.
Toradja mythsrelate that the heavenlyLord gave mankindrice,but
only stampedrice whichcannotbe used forseed. Men asked forunhusked
rice, but that was denied them. At last a man who was suffering froma
disease that gave him fissuresin the soles of his feet,succeededin stealing
unhuskedricekernelsin the sky,secretingthemin"thefissures ofhis feet207.
This motifoccursin many variations. In one Toradja versionit is linked
withthe swan-maidenmotif.A man pursuessevenheavenlywomen,ascen-
dingthe rainbow. In the sky,the womenget away fromhim; but he comes
to a dryingplace forrice in the heavenlyvillage. He steals some kernels,
secretesthemin his mouth,and hurriesalong, down the rainbow,pursued
by the ownerof the rice who overtakeshim and depriveshim of the stolen
rice. The thiefhas woundedhis feet by runningupon the rainbow. He
followsthe ownerof the rice back to the sky, and goes into his serviceas
a watchman,to guard the rice. He hides a handfulof rice in the wounds
of his feet and asks forpermissionto returnto the earth. He is searched
forrice, but the stolen grainsare not found. As soon as he reachesthe
earth,he preparesa fieldand plants rice. And whenrice cultivationpros-
pered on earth,it did not succeed any more in the sky208.
The storyof stealingrice in the sky is also the motifin certaintales
fromMinahassa209,NorthHalmaheira210,WesternCeram2n,and someother
localitiesin Indonesia.
8. Self-workingagriculturalimplements
The mythof the vegetation-spirit who producesfood fromher own

body, and nurtures needypeople,belongsto a groupof tales about a happy
past, a sort of paradise,wherehumanlifewas freefromhard work. Some
of the tales about the stealingof food plants in the sky and about the
world-treealso reflectthe belief in this happy past when humanityhad
access to the sky and could live comparativelyfreefromcare and work.
This belief is prominentin Indonesianfolklore 212. Traces of it are also
visible in Americanfolklore.
Some of the tales about the happy past treatof self-working agricul-
turalimplements.This motifis knownfromthe southeastern area in North
America. A Natchez tale describeshow the hoes workedin the fieldby
themselves.But some inquisitivepersonsspied upon the self-working hoes
in operationand foundthe sightso ridiculousthat theylaughedat it ; and
207Kruyt, De
Rijstgeest, p. 14. - Kruyt, 1938, IV, pp. 13-14.
208Woensdregt, 1925,
pp. 118-120.
209Bezemer, 1904,
pp. 300-303. - Schwarz, 1907, pp. 342-348.
210Vries, 1925, I,
pp. 144-145.
211Vries, 1927,
pp. 268-269. - Jensen, 1939, pp. 74-81, 83-84.
2ia Fischer, 1932.

afterthat, the helpfulhoes would not work by themselvesanymore213.

The Creekhave a similarstory: ploughsand harrowsworkedby themselves,
until some bad womenlooked at them and laughed214.
A traceof thismotifis foundin a Quichemyth. The wonderful twins
Hunahpu and Xbalanqu go to the woods to make a clearingfor a milpa.
They set the hoe into the groundand the axe into a tree,and then these
implementsworkby themselveswhile the brothersgo huntingwith their
blowguns. However,when their grandmother approaches,bringingthem
theirlunch,the boys take hold of the agriculturalimplementsagain and
seem to be workinghard215.
In South America,the motifof the self-working implements is known
fromthe Carib tribe Taulipang216,the northernGs tribesEastern Tim-
bira217and Apinay218,and the ArawaktribeChane in the northernGran
Chaco219.In the Taulipangtale, the herois the successfulownerof an axe,
a cutlass,and a diggingstick of the self-working kind; even the cuttings
go and plant themselvesin the rightplaces whenhe is preparingthe field.
He is verymuchenviedby his brothers-in-law, who tryto use his magical
utensilswithoutknowingthe magical wordswhichshouldbe spoken. The
resultis disastrous: the axe turnsinto a woodpecker,the cutlassbecomes
a bug that cuts twigs,and the diggingstick changesinto a small animal
whichmakes holes in house floors.Amongthe Eastern Timbiraand the
Apinay,the incidentof the self-working implementsbelongsto the myth
of Sun and Moon. Sun clears woodland by means of a self-working axe
or - accordingto the Apinay - a
a helpfulwoodpecker, snail, and a
quartz. The inquisitiveand foolishMoon slinks after Sun and, hearing
the sound of work in the woods, she stops it foreverby cryingaloud or
by hurlinga cudgel in the directionof the sounds. In the Cha tale,
a self-working spade belongsto the armadillo-god,and he is also helped
in his agriculturalwork by the wind whichblows bad thingsaway from
the field,and by the ducks and doves who bringseeds and sow them. The
armadillo-god'sadversaryis the fox-godwho wins the self-working spade
fromthe armadilloin a game,but refusesto use it becausehe does not want
lazy people to cultivatemaize withoutwork.
In the real, everydayworldsuch good thingscannotexist. However,
in the earthlyparadiseof Temb mythology, Maim and his happy fellows
are entirely free from work. Their fields take care of themselves,plant
themselves,and harvestthemselves.And when the people in that happy
land get old theydo not die, but becomeyoungagain. Unfortunately, the
Temb of our time are not able to findthe route to the happy place 220.
213Swanton, 1929, p. 230.
214Swanton, 1929, p. 76.
215Bourbourg, 1861, pp. 119-121.
216Koch-Grnberg, 1916, II, pp. 124 ff.
217NiMUENDAj,1946, p. 244.
218NiMUENDAj,1934, pp. 163-164.
219Nordenskild, 1912, pp. 266-269.
220Nimuendajtj Unkel, 1915, pp. 287-288.

The conceptof an earthlyparadisewithoutworkand trouble,existing

in the past or in some unattainableplace, is widespreadin South America
and also in NorthAmerica.Evidently,thisidea appealsto humankindevery-
where,and may perhapshave foundexpressionat varioustimesin fantastic
tales. However,whenthe tales are as similaras thoseabout theself-working
agriculturalimplements, it seemsnecessaryto assumediffusion of the motif.
This motifis also found in Indonesia. The Toradjas in Celebes say
that the fieldwork was not so heavy in olden times,because the heavenly
lord had arrangedit so that people had only to set an axe and a cutlass
into a tree, and the implementswent on by themselvesat a tremendous
speed so that a good piece of bushlandwas clearedin a shortwhile. In the
same way, when it was necessaryto weed betweenthe plants a hoe was
placed in the field,and it did the workwithoutany directinghand. And
as to the basketsforbringinghomethe harvestedrice,it was not necessary
forthe peopleto carrythem; the basketsshovedthemselvesalongthe road.
This gloriousera came to an end throughthe malevolenceof an evil woman
who could not stand that the people shouldhave it that way. She ridiculed
the axes-and cutlassesby shoutingat them. Then the implements stopped
working,and the dismayedpeople could not make them start again. She
scaredthe self-moving basketsby jumpingout frombehinda tree,shouting:
"Bah !" The basketsbecameterribly frightenedand stoppedstill. Afterthat,
people had to carry the baskets 221.
The Morirsin East CentralCelebes also have a tale about the self-
movingbaskets. And they relate that the work of the agriculturist was
confinedto theharvesting.As soon as a ripeear was cut,a newear appeared
on the old stalk. Therefore, people had onlyto cut the ears, and therewas
always plenty. The felling sago-treesand beatingof sago was unneces-
of
sary; it was enoughto make a hole in the livingtrunkof the sago palm
and place a basketbeneaththe hole to receivethe sago runningout of the
hole. However,thiswonderful era came to an abrupttermination.A woman
had the bad idea to place the plank,whichshe used fo;rbeatingbast cloth,
in the very spot wherethe rice-goddess was worshipped.This profanation
provokedthe immediateflightof the rice; all the rice ears flewback to the
sky fromwherethe rice had come. Fortunately,one single rice ear had
fastenedin the end of a bamboo rod. Since then,people have had to work
hard to procurea harvest222.
The To Wana in Eastern Celebes, a somewhatprimitivebranchof
the Toradja people,withdrycultivationof rice,but withoutany wet culti-
vation,also have a tale about self-working implements
agricultural : At the
timewhenpeople did not yet knowabout rice,therelived a man, Atnpoee,
with his wife and child. The child did not like the food,whichconsisted
of tubers(ubi), colocasia and plantain; it was frettingforsome otherkind
of food. Then the man said to his wife: "I shall bringsome otherfoodfor
221Woensdregt, 1925,
p. 102. - Kruyt, De Rijstgeest, p. 9. - Adriani en
Kruijt, I, pp. 246-247.
222Kruyt
J., 1924, p. 130.

the child; but you mustnot followafterme,because thennothingwillcome

of it." Nevertheless,the wifefollowedafterthe husbanduntil she arrived
at a place whereshe saw axes and cutlassesworkingat the fellingof trees
and bushes,withoutanybodyhandlingthem. As soon as she appeared at
that place, the implementsreturnedto her husband and would not go to
workanymore.Atnpoecomplainedof his wife'sinquisitiveness, and thenhe
wentup to the sky and turnedinto a constellation which,by its positionin
thesky,indicatesthetimeforburningthebushand preparing thericefield223.
On the northcoast of New Guinea,the motifof the self-working imple-
mentsis linkedto the Yams Woman motif(see above p. 889). Sherok,the
ArapeshYams Woman,charmsstoneaxes, and theydo the workof clearing
the land by night. Also, she charmsbundlesof dry coconutleaves, which
act as torches,and set fireto the dry vegetationby night. The charmed
stone axes finishthe buildingof fencesby night. Furthermore, afterone
yam has been planted in each gardenunder Sherok'sinstruction, the rest
of the yams go out and plant themselvesin the gardens. Sherokcharms
the weed-scrapers, and they finishthe work of weedingthe gardensby
a
night, portion of theworkhavingbeen done firstunderSherok'sinstruction.
She also charmsthe diggingsticks,and they finishby nightthe work of
diggingup the matureyams. And charmedstringbags collect the yams
fromeach garden and bring them to their respectivehouses by night.
However,at last this happy and easy way of cultivatinggardenscomesto
an end, because Sherokdoes not warn her husbandagainstspeakingto the
axes whenhe goesto feedthemwithsago. The man says to theworkingaxes
"slowly,slowly".The axes killhim,eat the sago,and returnto thevillage224.
In the But version,given by Gerstner, the Yams Woman warns
peopleagainstcomingnearwhentheyhear the soundof the axes. However,
her husbanddisobeys,the axes see him and become ashamed; one of the
axes falls and cleaves his head, and then they all fall down and eat him.
The Yams Woman,comingwiththe foodwhichshe has cookedforthe axes,
findsthat theyhave eaten her husband. The axes are ashamed,and the
Yams Woman is ashamed. And forthe future,the men themselvesmust
do the work of yams cultivation225.
The motifof the self-workingimplementsis also knownfromNew
Britain,froma Nakanai tale 226,but it is ratherdifferent fromthe New
a
Guinea versions: The wonderfulwoman, lizard, marries a man, and she
performsall the agriculturaland domesticwork in a magical way, each
job being finishedas soon as she has startedit. It occursalso in a Pala
tale fromNew Ireland; a boy-herois adopted by the Sun, and he is
taught the Sun's miraculousway of doing agriculturalwork, using the
Sun's wonderfuldigging-stick 227.
223Kruyt, 1930, p. 531.
224Fortune, 1942, pp. 217-219.
225Gerstner, 1939, pp. 260-264.
226Hees, 1915-1916, pp. 572-573.
227Neuhaus, 1930-1931, pp. 222-230.

9. How old is maize cultivationin Asia
The axiom that pre-ColumbianAmericanagricultureis of entirely

Americanorigin,was fora long timeunassailed. If this axiom holds,it is
hardlypossibleto assumeimportant betweenSoutheast
culturaltransmissions
Asia and America. And the similarities betweenthe agriculturalmythsof
America and Indonesia must then be due to independentdevelopments
east and west of the Pacific. These strikingand detailedsimilarities
must,
in that case, be regardedas the outcomeof a fundamental samenessof the
human mind everywhere,a remarkablelack of varietyin human dispo-
sitions,compellingman to thinkthe same thoughtsand composethe same
mythswith the same plots and the same details everywhere.
However,of late it seems at least doubtfulwhetherall the cultivated
plants of pre-Columbian Americawere of Americanorigin.
I cannot here go into a full discussionof this question. Julian
H. Steward has latelysummedup the positionin thesewords: "On bota-
nical evidence,the pre-Columbian occurrence in Americaand the Old World
of sweetpotatoes(Maorivarieties),an edibleroot (Pachyrrhizus), calabashes
(Lagenaria), north-Peruvian cotton (Gossypium),plantains (Musa paradi-
siaca normalis),and perhapspeanutsand coconutsindicatesa diffusion from
one hemisphereto the other." 228 Steward does not, in this connection,
mentionthe question of Asiatic maize which has received new interest
throughEdgar Anderson's analysisof a varietyfromRio Loa in Northern
Chile. Anderson foundthis Rio Loa maize, "on the one hand,verysimilar
to earlyprehistoric maize of that same regionand, on the other,to certain
Orientalvarieties. This suggestsverystronglya pre-Columbian transferof
maize betweenthe Orientand westernSouth America. From the evidence
at presentavailable we have no means of knowingwhetherit may have
originatedin the Orient and have spread to South America,there to
continueits development, as outlinedby Mangelsdorf and Reeves (1939),
or whetherit may have originatedin SouthAmericaand spreadin the other
direction.All that we know forcertainis that a primitivetype of maize
fromwesternSouth Americais more like Orientalmaize in several of its
distinctivecharacteristicsthan are any of the more commonlycultivated
races of that polymorphic species". Anderson demandsa re-examination
of the problemof Asiaticmaize. "Not untilextensivecollectionshave been
made in Upper India, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies will we be in a
positionto discuss the question intelligently." 229
Archaeologicalinvestigationsoughtsome day to solve the questionof
the age of maize cultivationin Asia. If imprintsof maize kernelscould
be found in Asiatic clay vessels - crude food vessels fromagricultural
settlements- earlier than Columbus,this would prove, of course, that
maize existed in Asia beforethe Europeans discoveredthe West Indies.
228Steward, V,
1949, p. 744.
229Anderson,
1943, pp. 469-474.

It has long been knownthat maize reachedChina remarkablyearly.

In a paper (1907) B. Laufer producedtwo importantfactsregardingmaize
cultivationin China230. 1. Around1570, maize was cultivatedin eastern
China. 2. Maize did not come to China across the Pacific Ocean ; it came
fromthe West, fromTibet. Portugueseor Spaniardshad no share in the
introduction ofmaizeintoChina. Nevertheless, Laufer did notfora moment
doubt that maize originatedin Americaand was introducedinto Asia after
Columbushad discoveredAmerica. He keeps aloof from"the chimerical
attemptsof some formerwriterswho believedin a pre-American existence
of maize in EasternAsia". Laufer imaginedthat maize* had reached India
fromEurope in some way, and fromthere it had spread to Tibet via
Kashmir,Nepal, or Sikkim. He mentionsthe greatrle whichmaize plays
in the cultureof the little tribe Lepcha in Sikkim,who have fourwords
formaize and distinguish no less than eighteenvarietiesof maize by means
of attributes ; further, the Lepcha have a series of special names for the
head of maize, accordingto its growth.All thesetermsare autochthonous
and it is certainly- as Laufer remarks- an "interesting factthat a small
primitivetribe has exercised no small amount of linguisticabilityconcern-
-
ing an importedproduct importednot quite fourhundredyears ago".
Of the late introduction of maize into Asia, Laufer does not entertainthe
shadow of a doubt. However,he findsit necessaryto assume that maize
reached westernChina around 1540 - which means that it must have
travelledfromSpain to India and acrossthe Himalayasto Tibet and western
China in less than 50 years! And afterwards, in less than 30 years, it
conqueredthe fieldsof China so thoroughlythat, around 1570 "a most
extensivecultivationof maize was carriedon in China", as Laufer states
withgood reasons,quotingthe Augustinian monkI. Gonzales de Mendoza.
The rapiditywith which maize spread fromSpain throughthe Old
World and became one of the most importantcereals of easternAsia -
- as
accordingto Laufer's theory is absolutelystartling.Furthermore,
Laufer pointsout, this happened at a period when travelling and trans-
portation facilitiesin southern and eastern Asia were "not easier than in
earliesthistoryand prehistoric ages". As Laufer drasticallyexpresseshim-
self,maize spread more rapidlythan syphilis. And he declaresthat "the
historyof maize is an instructivehistoricexample which mightbe fruit-
fullyapplied to the prehistoricdisseminationof ancientcereals,givingan
idea, at least, of how cerealsmighthave traveledin prehistoric days".
However,prehistoric researches have not disclosed any such light-
ninglikerapidity in the spread of the Old World's prehistoric cereals. And,
what is perhaps more important, the cultivation of maize in Europe did
not go forwardwiththe impetuousspeed whichLaufer assumes foreastern
Asia. In the 16thcentury,maize was a curiosityin European gardens. In
the 17th century,it became an importantfactor in the agricultureof
230Laufer, 1907, pp. 223-257.

southernand southeasternEurope231. In Croatia, it is said, maize was

cultivatedfor the firsttime in 1611232.
When Laufer wrote, it was an axiom that maize originatedin
America. The Mexican teosinte(Euchlaena Mexicana) was believed to be
the ancestorof maize. This theorywas exploded by the researchesof
Mangelsdorf and Reeves, who have shown that teosinteis a hybrid
betweengama grass (Tripsacumpilosum) and maize. Mangelsdorf and
Reeves assumethatthe ancestorof maize grewin SouthAmerica; however,
botanistshave not yet succeededin finding thewildancestorof maize233.In
theirpaper of 1945, Mangelsdorf and Reeves do not findit unthinkable
thatnewfactsmayaltertheirhypothesis.TheymentionAnderson's revival
of the suggestionthat maize may have been introducedinto Americafrom
the Orient. "The factthat thereare severalrelativesof maize in the Orient,
that popcornis used as foodin partsof the East Indies and that the culti-
vated cottons of America are unquestionablyhybridsof Asiatic cottons
and wild Americanspecies,lends some degree of botanicalplausibilityto
the hypothesis.Thereis, to be sure,muchevidenceagainstit ; nevertheless
it meritsfurtherinvestigation."
The questionofAsiaticmaizeis certainly one ofimmenseimportance.It
shouldalso be takenup by archaeologists.If it couldbe proveddefinitely
that
maize existedin Asia beforeColumbusdiscoveredAmerica,thenit wouldbe
easierto understandthepositionofmaizein Indonesianmyths,and the simi-
laritiesbetweenAmericanand Indonesianfolklore wouldappearin a newlight.
10. Conclusion
The problemupon whichI am tryingto throwlightpertainsto the

similaritiesbetweenAmericanand Indonesianagriculturalfolklore.
If all the cultivatedplants of pre-ColumbianAmericawere of purely
Americanorigin,we should have to assume that Americanagriculturein
pre-Columbian timeshad arisenand developedwithoutanyessentialinfluence
fromthe Old World. In that case it would seem extremelyunlikelythat
any agriculturalmythsor ritescould have spread in pre-Columbian times
fromAsia to Americaor vice versa. And the similarities
betweenAsiaticand
Americanagriculturalfolklorewould thenbe regardedas strikingexamples
of parallelevolution,incontrovertible
proofsof theunityof thehumanmind.
Of course, this would not affectthe historyof agriculturalmyths
withinthe Old World. Indonesia has received powerfulinfluencesfrom
the Asiaticcontinent.Hinduisticideas permeaterice cultivation.Probably,
the whole rice complexcame fromIndia. The Rice Motheror the goddess
231Humlum, 1942, 29.

p.
232Mayer,
Milan, 1908, p. 80.
***Mangelsdorf and 1939. - Mangelsdorf and Reeves, 1945,
Reeves,
pp. 235-243.

of rice is widelyknownand loved in Asiaticlands234. I shall not attempt

to clear up the Asiatic originsof Indonesian agriculturalmyths.
Asiaticinfluences, reachingAmericavia the regionsaroundthe Bering
Sea, have enriched American folklore235. However, this northernroute,
through extensiveterritorieswith huntingand fishingpopulations,can -
-
forclimaticreasons hardlyhave been used by agriculturalpeoples. If
agriculturalmythsand riteshave foundtheirway fromAsia to America,
they must have been broughtby agriculturists across the Pacific Ocean.
The ocean itselfdoes not constitutean insurmountable barrier236.But
agriculturallore must be carriedby agriculturists ; and if agriculturists
crossedtheocean,theymusthave takentheirfoodwiththem.Therefore, ifno
cultivatedplantswerecommonto Asia and Americain pre-Columbian times,
it wouldseemunlikelythatagricultural folklorecouldhave crossedtheocean.
Now, however, as we have seen above, several cultivatedplantsseem
to have been transmitted fromone hemisphere to the otherin pre-Columbian
times. And withregardto the mostimportantAmericanfoodplant,maize
itself,there is some reason to suspect that it did exist in Asia before
ColumbusdiscoveredAmerica.
If pre-Columbian crossedthe ocean withtheirfoodplants,
agriculturists
they certainlyalso broughttheir folklorewith them. And that may be
the reason for the similaritiesbetweenIndonesianand Americanagricul-
tural mythsand rites.
The geographicaldistribution of the folkloreis, of course,onlyimper-
fectlyknown,as the work of collectinghas not been pursuedwith equal
intensityeverywhere.However,the knownmaterialgivesus the impression
of great differences in the distribution of the myths.
The stealingof food plants in the sky is a very importantmotifin
Indonesiaand also in certainparts of Polynesia. However,in Americaits
knowndistribution is limitedto westernand northernSouth America.
The origin of cultivatedplants froma sacrificedchild is also an
importantmotifin Indonesia,especiallyin easternIndonesia. This motif
is conspicuousin Peruvianmythology, and is also knownfromthe Arawak
234For India,see Crooke, 1926,pp. 50,250,252,256,265,267,269,and Crooke,
1919,p. 289. - For Laos and Siam, Major E. Seidenfaden has kindlycalled my
attentionto a paper by Marie-Daniel Faure, TroisftesLaotiennes Vientiane,
in Bulletindes Amis du Laos, lre anne N 1, Hano 1937,wherea harvestfeast
the Soul of the Rice,
is described,pp. 22-27. he object of this feastis to glorify
represented by a doll of strawwhich is at last placed top of the harvestedricein
on
the barn. Furthermore, Major Seidenfaden has givenme the contentsof an article
by P. A. Rajadhana in the Siamese periodicalVarsar Silpakara,3. annual series
No 1, 1949,aboutMae Psop, the Soul of the Rice. It was the customto makea doll
of thelast sheafof rice,representingMae Psop. The grainsof thissheafweremixed
withthe seed cornof the following year,to make it morefruitful.The cult of Mae
Psop did not come to the SiamesefromIndia ; both peoples,Siameseand Indians,
had this cult fromancienttimes. ModernSiamesepeasantshardlybelievein Mae
Psop ; but her cult is probablystill livingin out-of-the-way provinces.
235 1949
HatT)
236HatT) 1949) p 104

tribeParessi in westernMatto Grossowhereit is related that the culture

hero Uazala wantedto kill his children; they fledinto the forest,acciden-
tally set it on fire,and fromvariousparts of theircharredbodies valuable
plants grew237. In a tale whichCount de Magalhes obtainedfroman
Indian tribe on the lower Amazona a miraculouschild dies withoutany
disease, and the firstmanioc sproutsfromhis grave238.
A more easterlydistribution in Americais representedby the "self-
workingagricultural implements" which is also a veryimportantIndonesian
motifand knownfromNew Guinea and Melanesia. In NorthAmerica,it
is foundin the southeastern area, a trace of it appears in a Quichemyth,
and in SouthAmericait is knownfromthe Taulipangin Guiana,someof the
northern Gs tribesin easternBrazil and the Chanein northern GranChaco.
The Corn Mothertales are most complexin the southeasternarea in
North America- althoughthe Corn Motherconcept seems to have no
ritual or religioussignificance in that area. Of the main elementswhich
we have establishedin the CornMothertales, nos. 1-6 are all foundin the
southeasternarea. No. 7, the Orpheuselementor the searchingfor and
finding oftheCornMotherafterherflight, does not occurin the southeastern
area, simplybecause the flightelement(6a) is missingthere. The flight
and the findingof the Corn Woman are the most prominentelementsin
the Pueblo area and in northwestern Mexico. On the otherhand,the immo-
lation of the Corn Mother(element6) is only weakly representedin the
Pueblo area and northwestern Mexico. If we distinguish betweenan immo-
lation typeand a flighttypeof the myth,the immolationtypeis dominant
in the Southeast,the flighttype in the Southwest.In the EasternWood-
land area, both of these types are well represented.In the Plains area,
the self-immolation of the Corn Woman is absent,althoughimmolationof
the CornWoman or a representative of anothervegetation-spirit did occur;
and the flightelementis almost absent,althougha trace of it is foundin
a ComanchestorywhereBuffaloWomanplays CornWoman'spart. Never-
theless,the Corn Motherconcepthad an active value in the religionand
ritesof some Plains peoples,especiallythe Pawnee and the Arikara.
The immolationtype of the Corn Mothermythis probablyveryold.
The immolationof the Corn Motherwas an importantMexican rite. In
Old Mexico,only a fewof the elementsof the NorthAmericanCornMother
tales are clearlyestablished.The CornMothersof NorthAmericaare domi-
nant figures,and theyare the corn. In the Mexican-Mayanarea, the Corn
Mothersplay a morehumblerle; theybear theCorn-god whois male. How-
ever,at certainannualfeasts,theCornMother'srepresentative was sacrificed.
Possibly element (7), the search for the Corn Woman, also existedin
Old Mexico. The religioussong about Piltzintecutli, weepingforand seeking
the dead Xochiquetzal(see p. 872) may be a trace of an old versionof the
Orpheustale. Perhaps the originalsearch for the Corn Woman went to
the land of death.
237Steinen, 1894, 438. -
p. Mtraux, 1942, p. 169.
"a
Teschauer, 1906, pp. 741-743.

Althoughthe Corn Motherconceptis devoid of ritual and religious

importancein the southeasternarea, the Corn Mothermyth is probably
preservedtherein its oldest form. In the Pueblo area, and,-especially,in
the Plains area, the CornMotherconceptwas morelivingand active; and,
forthat reason,her mythwas partlytransformed.
In the southeastern area, the CornMothermythcontainsone element
which"is absentin the otherNorthAmericanareas ; that is (5), the spying
upon CornWoman and the loathingforthe foodwhichshe producesfrom
her own body. This is unknownin the Corn Woman tales elsewherein
NorthAmerica; otherelementsare substitutedto explainthe discordwhich
arises betweenthe Corn Woman and humankind.
However,element(5) is probablyveryold. We finda similarfeature
in anothercontextin a tale fromthe SouthernUte, about the trickster,
Bat, who used to returnlate fromthe hunt,loaded withback muscleand
tallow. His wives slinkedafterhim one day to discoverhow he procured
the food. They foundout that he simplywent to a creek and magically
transformed the ice into tallow and back muscles. Then the womengot
angry and revengedthemselvesby desertinghim239.
It is moreinteresting that element(5) is foundin Corn Mothertales
outsideof NorthAmerica.
In South America,only a few traces of the Corn Mothermythare
found,althoughthe Corn Motherconceptplayed a ritualand religiousrle
in old Peru. In Guiana, a transformed part of the Corn Mothermythis
foundas a featurein the tale about the Sun's twinsons. This part contains
elements(2), (3), and (5) of the Corn Mothermyth; Corn Motheris repre-
sentedby a frog-woman who (2) takes care of motherlesschildren,(3) pro-
duces meal from her own body by scratchingherself,(5) is spied upon by
one of the twins,and whenher magicis revealedthe twinsmaltreator kill
herby burning.The similarity withthe CornMothertale in the southeastern
area is striking,althoughcassava is substitutedfor corn. The killingof
the frog-woman does not give rise to manioc cultivation; but it releases
the firewhichthe frog-woman kept in her body.
In Indonesia,element(5) is foundin a Toradja tale about the wife
who producedrice for the householdby rubbingher hands, which her
husband discoveredby spyingupon her, afterwhich he felt loathingfor
the food,and the wife changedinto a rice plant. And also in a Toradja
tale about the wifewho producedsago fromher own body,was spied upon
and killed as a witch,and afterdeath was transformed into a sago palm.
On the otherhand, element(5) is missingin other IndonesianCorn
Mothertales, especiallyin those whereHinduisticinfluencesare apparent.
Evidently,element(5) is an old feature.
In New Guinea,element(5) is foundin the Tami tale about the man
who was spied upon by his own little son who discoveredthat the father
caught fishby usinghis head as a bait, afterwhichhis wives abused him
839Lowie, 1926, p. 11,

908 GUDMUNDHaTT 46.1951
Anthropos
and refusedto eat his fishanymore.This is a transformation of the Corn

Mothermotif; the injured fisherman is changedinto the firstcoco palm,
thus benefittingthanklesshumanityin his death. - And in Melanesia,
element(5) appearsin the Mono-Alutale about the womanwho fed people
withmeat fromher own body and, whenthat becameknown,was despised,
her food loathed,and herselfkilled. It is also foundin a tale fromBuin
about the originof the sea. (See p. 891).
In New Zealand, the elements(1), (2), (3), (5), (6a), and (7) are all
foundin a mythabout the originof the kumara.
If agriculturalmythsreachedAmericaacross the Pacific Ocean, this
took place at differentperiods. The storyabout the stealingof foodplants
in the sky probablycame late. The tale about the originof food plants
fromthe body of a sacrificedchildalso probablycame relativelylate. Both
of thesereachedwesternSouth America,but have not spreadvery far. The
motifof the self-working agriculturalimplementsprobablycame early,as
it has spread to easternBrazil and southeasternNorthAmerica. The Corn
Mothermythmay belongto the world'soldestagricultural folklore- very
much older than the influenceof Hinduisticculturein Indonesia. The
immolationtype of the Corn Mothermythis older than the flighttype.
And element(5), representedin the outskirtsof the area of distribution,
is probablyone of the originalelementsof the myth.
Authoritiesquoted
Abbreviations
AA American Anthropologist.
ARBE Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
BBE Bulletin, Bureau of American Ethnology.
BTLVNI Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indi.
CA Comptes rendus du Congrs des Amricanistes.
FL Folk-Lore.
Hakluyt Works issued by the Hakluyt Society.
JAFL Journal of American Folk-Lore.
JAI Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
JSA Journal de la Socit des Amricanistes.
MAAA Memoirs of the American AnthropologicalAssociation.
PAES Publications of the American Ethnological Society.
PAM AnthropologicalPapers, American Museum of Natural History.
TITLV Tijdschriftvoor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, uitgegeven door
het KoninklijkBataviaasch Genootschap van Knsten en Wetenschappen.
ZE Zeitschriftfr Ethnologic
UCP UniversityofCalifornia.PublicationsinAmericanArchaeologyand Ethnology.
Acosta, Father Joseph de : The Natural and Moral History of the Indies. Repr.
fromthe English translated Edition of Edward Grimston, 1604, and edited,
with Notes and Introductionsby Clements R. Markham. Hakluyt, LX-LXI,
vol. I-II. London 1880.
Adriani, N. en Kruijt, Alb. C. : De Bare'e-sprekendeToradja's van Midden-Celebes,
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Anderson, Edgar : A Variety of Maize from the Rio Loa. Annals of the Missouri
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Arndt, P. P. : Aus der Mythologie und Religionder Riunger.TITLV, LXXV, 1935,

pp. 333-393.
Baarda, M. J. van : Het Lda'sch, in Vergelijking met het Galela'sch dialect op
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Bamler, G. : Tami. (R. Neuhauss : DeutschNeu-Guinea, III. Berlin1911,pp. 487-566.)
Beauchamp, W. M. : Indian corn stories
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Benedict, Ruth : Tales of the CochitiIndians. BBE, 98. Washington1931.
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Bourbourg, Brasseur de (ed.) : Popol Vuh. Pans 1861.
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accessibleto me.)
Brown, W. Wallace : The legendof Indian corn. JAFL, III, 1890,p. 214.
Bunzel, Ruth L. : Zui Katcinas. An analyticalstudy. ARBE, XLVII, 1932,
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The Corn Mother in America and in Indonesia

Author(s): Gudmund Hatt

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The Corn Motherin Americaand in Indonesia

There is in Americanagriculturalfolklorea body of motifswhichare

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1. The Corn Mother in America

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disgustedwiththe foodwhenhe discovershow it is made. Afterthat,the

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(6) She sacrificesherself.In many versionsshe is killed by her own

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In the Abnaki and Malecite versions,element(5a) is absent.

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is my heartand it shall be to my people as milkfrommy breasts"19. This

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(1) The fundamental element,the identification of cornwitha Woman;

37 Parsons, 1917, II, pp. 319 f.

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Her functionas culturehero and leader is also apparentamong the

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of the Old-Woman- Who-Never-Dies, danced aroundthe scaffolds, whilethe

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of a buffalo.Such originmythsare knownfromthe Osage 55and the Oto 56.

55 Dorsey, 1888, 379.

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asks forgiveness and makesnew promises.And God allowshim to take the

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(5b) Her husband's motherinsultsher by compellingher to make

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Accordingto anothermyth,the maize was in olden timeshiddenin

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of a Woman,and theysaid of her: "She compriseshumannourishment, she

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(1) The Corn Mothersof NorthAmericaare dominantfigures.Often

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NorthAmericanCornMothermyth,thenthis must,of course,at one time

to NorthAmericaand the Mexican-Mayan

Our concentrationupon the Corn Mothertales may give the false

87 Underhill, 1936, p. 25.

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As we have seen, the CornMotheris a prominentfigurein the myths

94 Dorsey, 1905, 18.

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is explainedthatnew lifemay arisefromthe bones98. The same idea exists

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coca, dressedin woman'sclothesand worshipped. FatherArriagareportsupon

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she expectedgood fortuneand much food. However,it came about other-

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And the beliefin powerfulfemaledeities has not disappearedfrom

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morning,instead of going into the forestto hunt, they hide themselves

131Koch-Grnberg, 1920, p. 314, note 3.

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2. The Corn Mother in Indonesia