Eagle
Akimel O'odham (Pima) · numen · Akimel O'odham (Pima) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Eagle is a man-eating monster of the early world, in some tellings a youth who took eagle form. Nesting on an inaccessible cliff, he seizes people from the villages of the great houses and heaps their bones about his eyrie. Elder Brother scales the cliff, kills the Eagle, and restores a measure of its victims to life. The episode belongs to the culture hero's cycle of monster-slayings and is preserved in the Thin Leather tellings gathered by Russell and Lloyd.
Domains
- monster
Powers
- carry off people from the villages
Relations
- enemy: Elder BrotherElder Brother scales the cliff and kills him.J. William Lloyd, Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights (1911). (primary)
Sources
- A man-eating Eagle preys on the great-house villages until Elder Brother climbs the cliff and kills it.: J. William Lloyd, Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights (1911). (primary); Frank Russell, The Pima Indians (1908). (primary)