Ba'ag
Tohono O'odham (Papago) · numen · Tohono O'odham (Papago) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ba'ag, the Eagle, appears in O'odham and neighboring Pima story as a monstrous man-eater. In some tellings he was once a man who took the form of a great eagle; in that shape he raids the settlements, carrying off men and women to his inaccessible crag, where the bones of his victims pile up. Elder Brother undertakes to end the scourge: aided by cunning he scales the sheer cliff, kills the Eagle in its nest, and restores or avenges the captives. Sources vary on the details of the hero's ascent and on whether the Eagle is reckoned wholly bird or a transformed man.
Domains
- monsters
Powers
- seize people and carry them to his crag
Relations
- enemy: I'itoiElder Brother scales the cliff and kills the Eagle, freeing his captives.J. William Lloyd, Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights (Westfield, N.J.: The Lloyd Group, 1911) (secondary)
Sources
- A monstrous man-eating Eagle preys on the villages and is killed by Elder Brother, who climbs to its cliff nest and slays it.: J. William Lloyd, Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights (Westfield, N.J.: The Lloyd Group, 1911) (secondary); Frank Russell, The Pima Indians (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908) (secondary)