Mullaqat creation story

GRANDMOTHER HEN, COYOTE AND THE COLORS OF THE WORLD

In the beginning, the world was without color, and Grandmother Hen made her nest deep in the ground and settled down to brood over her beloved egg. From time to time, Grandmother Hen would poke her head out of the nest to look for color, but finding none, she would settle back on her egg and go back to sleep.

But one day Grandmother Hen came up and saw the color red and said, “I name you Horizon.” And the next day she came up and saw the color gold, and said “I name you Sun.” And the next day she came up and saw the color brown, and said “I name you Dirt.” On the fourth day she saw blue and named it “Sky,” and on the fifth she stuck her head up and saw a green seedling pushing its way up from the dirt and said “I name you Life.”

And deep in her nest, Grandmother Hen pondered the colors of the world and her egg in the belly of the world, and decided it was time to hatch. She pecked it with her beak and it split open, and out came all the people and all the animals and all the plants.

The people ran off to the four corners, but some stayed with Grandmother Hen and her plants and animals, growing happy and fat. “Take want you need,” Grandmother Hen told them, “but remember you were all born of the same egg.”

One day Coyote came home to Grandmother Hen with a multitude of the people behind him and said “You know, we’ve been thinking, and uh, it occurs to us that you are just a simple hen, and why do we listen to you? We have grown so much more clever than you will ever be!”

Grandmother Hen replied: “You’re about to fuck up, Coyote.”

Coyote said, “Ha! I see no evidence of that! Oh, and by the way, Grandmother – Look! Over there! A monster!”

“A monster!” Grandmother Hen said, clearly alarmed. But when she looked where Coyote had indicated, the people from the Four Corners rushed her and pinned her down. “See?” Coyote said. “You really are a just a silly bird. And since the world belongs to the clever, not the simple, we are going to take your food, because we deserve it. And besides, you can’t stop us.”

Grandmother Hen replied: “You’re fucking up, Coyote.”

But Coyote and the people from the Four Corners all laughed, and proceeded to eat everything the Grandmother Hen and her family had. Filled with all Grandmother’s food, Coyote and the people from the Four Corners grew to immense size, and celebrated their power by throwing an elaborate feast. But soon all that food was gone, and as big as they had become, Coyote and the people from the Four Corners found that they were ravenously hungry. And with no more food to be found, they set upon each other, tearing each other to bits and devouring the pieces.

Finally, only Coyote was left, and he was so hungry that he ate all the colors in the world, until it fell cold and still all over again. Remorse filled him, and he sang a lamentation song. “I fucked up, didn’t I Grandmother Hen?” he said.

“Of course you did, dummy,” Grandmother said. “You always do. Now come over here and fuck me before you die so that I can make a new egg.” And so Coyote fucked Grandmother Hen and then promptly died, and Grandmother Hen laid her egg in a deep underground nest and waited for color to return to the world.

Not so very long afterward the color returned. Grandmother Hen pecked open the shell of her egg and out came the people and the plants and the animals. The people immediately ran off to the Four Corners, but a few children stayed with Grandmother Hen and started wandering about, just looking around at the colors of the world, and they were called the Mullaqat.