THE APACHE MYTH OF THE CREATION OF THE WORLD

At the beginning, tells us as the Apache myth of the creation of the world, nothing of the world we know today existed except darkness, water and hurricanes. No human being existed only the Hactcin, who were the masked Gods, the Jicarilla supernatural beings. There were Black Hactcin and White ones. The dark world where they lived was a desert without any living creatures.

But the Hactcin had the necessary material for making the Great Whole. They created first the Earth, then The Hells and at last the Sky. They made the Earth with the form of a woman that they called Mother. Then they made the Sky with the form of a man that they called Father. With clay, the Black Hactin modelled an animal with four legs and all animals derived from it. At that times, all the animals could speak and they spoke the Apache language: the Jicarilla. With mud, the Black Hactin modelled a bird that it launched into the sky and a lot of birds were created.

But a lot of animals got bored and asked the Black Hactcin for creating the man and when this one had been created, they asked again the Black Hactcin to give him a female partner and so, the woman was created.

All these things occurred into the Hells where lived the Hactin. At that times, there was neither Sun nor Moon. And so, the Black Hactcin and the White Hactcin drew from their magic bag a small Sun and a small Moon that grew into their hands, and they put these stars into the sky. And World was created.

But the vision of these stars excited the human beings and particularly human Shamans who claimed for the creation of these two stars. Even human groups began to fight claiming the privilege for having created these two celestial bodies. These miserable disputes made the Hactcin angry who decided to punish the human boasters.

And so the Hactcins made disappeared the Sun and the Moon from the Sky and required the human Shamans to make appear again the day and night stars. By human beings were unable to do this, even their shamans. After a lot of ordeals performed without any success by the human beings, at least the Hactcins accepted to put again the Sun and the Moon into the Sky.