Once upon a time, a Huichol youth cut down trees every day, trying to clear a field for crops. But all his hard work was in vain every time. The next morning, large trees again grew in the area cleared yesterday. Eventually, the Huichol decided to cut down all the trees and see what happened next.
And then this is what happened: an old woman with a staff appeared in a bare clearing. It was the Earth Goddess herself, the great ancestor of Nakawe. It was she who made the felled trees grow again and again. She told the young man that all his work was in vain, because in less than five days there would be a flood. He needs to be saved. He can do this only with the help of a wooden box, in which he should hide with five grains of corn, five beans, a smoldering coal, five branches to maintain the fire and a black dog. Cover the top with a tight lid.
No sooner said than done. And now the Huichol is in a box with everything he needs, and Nakawe closes it with a lid. She covers every crack with resin to prevent water from getting inside.
They had barely managed to do all this when it started to rain. The flood began. Nakave sat on top of the box, with a Macao parrot on her shoulder, and swam away. At first, she sailed south on a box for a whole year, then turned north, then west, and only in the fourth year - east. Meanwhile, the entire earth was flooded with water. Only after a couple of years the water began to subside, and the box stopped on the mountain.
But the goddess Nakawe disappeared, and the Huichol began to live in a cave. He cleared his field for crops and was very glad that he always had dinner waiting for him when he came home.
Finally, he wanted to know who was taking such good care of him. Hiding, he managed to see that this black dog, having shed its skin, turns into a woman and takes charge of the house. She had just prepared the stew when the Huichol grabbed her skin and threw it into the fire. She whined pitifully, pitifully, like a dog...
The Huichol doused the woman with a stew she had prepared from water and mashed grain. She felt better, she calmed down, and from that time on she remained a woman. The woman and the Huichol raised a large family. Their sons and daughters got married. So gradually the world was populated by people, and they lived in caves.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru