Corn
Akimel O'odham (Pima) · numen · Akimel O'odham (Pima) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Corn (Huñ) is the personified spirit of maize. In the widely told tale of Corn and Tobacco he is a young man living among the people who, slighted or shamed, commonly by a woman's insult during a gambling game, withdraws from the Gila villages, taking the crops with him and bringing famine. Only after entreaty and proper ceremony is he induced to return, restoring agriculture. His story, paired with that of Tobacco, encodes O'odham teaching on cultivation, reciprocity, and ritual etiquette.
Domains
- agriculture
- sustenance
Powers
- withdraw the crops in anger
Relations
- companion: TobaccoCorn and Tobacco quarrel and depart in the linked tale of their origins.Frank Russell, The Pima Indians (1908), pp. 226-229. (primary)
Sources
- Corn is a personified young man who withdraws from the people after an insult, causing famine, and is later induced to return.: Frank Russell, The Pima Indians (1908), pp. 226-229. (primary)