After a time Gesnip,
looking up from her play, exclaimed, as she saw the black diamond
pattern the weaver was making:--
"Mother, why are you weaving a rattlesnake basket?"
"I am making it to please Chinigchinich that he may smile upon me and
guard you, children, and Cuchuma from the bite of the rattlesnake. There
are so many of them here this year, and I fear for you."
"Thank you, mother," said Gesnip. "If Titas's mother had made a black
diamond basket, maybe the snake would not have bitten her."
"I think Chinigchinich does smile upon you," said Payuchi, "for when we
were so hungry in the month of roots [October] you wove him the hunting
basket with the pattern of deer's antlers, trimmed with quail feathers,
and see how much food we have had: first the rabbits, then the
grasshoppers, and now the fish and elk."
"While you work tell us how the first baby basket was made," begged
Cleeta. The mother nodded; and as she wound and pressed closely the
moist chippa, and the cactus needle flew in and out with the creamy
kah-hoom or the black tsuwish, she told the story.
"When the mother of all made the basket for the first man child, she
used a rainbow for the wood of the back of the basket, with stars woven
in each side, and straight lightning down the middle in front.
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