There are things in nature that engender an awful quiet in the heart of man; Devirs Tower is one of them. Two centuries ago, because they could not do otherwise, the Kiowas made a legend at the base of the rock. My grandmother said:
自然界中有許多讓人們嘆為觀止的事情。魔鬼塔就是其中之一。兩個世紀以前,由于克爾瓦人無法用其他方式來解釋,他們只能在巖石底編造了一個傳說故事。我祖母說:
"Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so, it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper."
“有七個姐姐和一個弟弟,一共八個孩子在玩耍。男孩突然變成了啞巴。他顫抖著,手腳并用地跑動。他的手指變成了爪子,身體也被毛覆蓋。在男孩子那個地方立刻出現了一只熊。姐姐們嚇壞了,她們跑,熊也追著她們跑。她們來到了一棵大樹樁下,樹開口跟她們說話,它允許她們爬到樹上。她們就爬上去了,這時樹開始上升直入云霄。熊過來要殺掉她們,但是它夠不到。于是熊就靠著樹直立起來,用它的爪子四處胡亂抓撓著樹皮。七個姐姐被送上了天,變成了大熊座內的北斗七星。”
From that moment, and so long as the legend lives, the Kiowas have kinsmen in the night sky. Whatever they were in the mountains, they could be no more. However tenuous their well-being, however much they had suffered and would suffer again, they had found a way out of the wilderness.
從那時起,只要這一傳說還存在,克爾瓦人在夜空中就有了親屬。在山里他們只是山民而已。無論他們多么福薄,無論他們已經受了多少苦,將來還要受多少苦,他們已經找到了走出荒原的生存之路。
My grandmother had a reverence for the sun, a holy regard that now is all but gone out of mankind. There was a wariness in her, and an ancient awe. She was a Christian in her later years, but she had come a long way about, and she never forgot her birthright.
我的祖母對太陽懷著敬畏的心情,那是一種幾乎已經從現代人類身上流失的神圣崇拜。在她身上有一神謹慎和古老的敬畏。她晚年成為一個基督徒,但她為此經歷了很多,她從未忘記自己生來就有的權利。