Split Boys

Kiowa · quartigod · Kiowa traditional religion; continuing · quartigod

The Split Boys, Kiowa Zaidethali ('Half Boys'), are the twin culture-heroes of Kiowa mythology. They come into being when Sun Boy throws his ring against his grandmother's warning and it divides him into two identical youths. As a pair they roam the early world destroying the monsters that prey on people. Their story ends in a double transformation: one of the twins walks into a lake and is never seen again, while the other changes himself into ten portions, becoming the Talyi-da-i or Ten Medicines, the holiest bundles of the tribe. Because Kiowa narrative consistently treats them as a single dyadic hero-pair born of one body, they are registered here as one figure rather than two.

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