Origin of the Saguaro and Palo Verde Cacti
Pima (Arizona)

Once upon a time an old Indian woman had two grandchildren. Every day
she ground wheat and corn between the grinding stones to make porridge
for them. One day as she put the water-olla on the fire outside the
house to heat the water, she told the children not to quarrel because
they might upset the olla. But the children began to quarrel. They upset
the olla and spilled the water and their grandmother spanked them.

Then the children were angry and ran away. They ran far away over the
mountains. The grandmother heard them whistling and she ran after them
and followed them from place to place, but she could not catch up with
them.

At last the older boy said, "I will turn into a saguaro, so that I shall
live forever and bear fruit every summer."

The younger said, "Then I will turn into a palo verde and stand there
forever. These mountains are so bare and have nothing on them but rocks,
I will make them green."

The old woman heard the cactus whistling and recognized the voice of her
grandson. So she went up to it and tried to take the prickly thing into
her arms, but the thorns killed her.

That is how the saguaro and the palo verde came to be on the mountains
and the desert.

The Thirsty Quails
Pima (Arizona)

A Quail once had more than twenty children, and with them she wandered
over the whole country in search of water and could not find it. It was
very hot and they were all crying, "Where can we get some water? Where
can we get some water?" but for a long time they could find none.

At last, way in the north, under a mesquite tree, the mother quail saw a
pond of water, but it was very muddy and not fit to drink. But the
little quails had been wandering so many days and were so tired they
stopped under the shade of the mesquite tree, and by and by, one by one,
they went down to the water and 'drank it. But the water was so bad they
all died.

The Boy and the Beast
Pima (Arizona)

Once an old woman lived with her daughter and son-in-law and their
little boy. They were following the trail of the Apache Indians. Now
whenever a Pima Indian sees the trail of an Apache he draws a ring
around it; then he can catch him sooner. And these Pimas drew circles
around the trail of the Apaches they were following, but one night when
they were asleep, the Apaches came down upon them. They took the man and
younger woman by the hair and shook