Summary Of Sikokame

According to the Huichol legend, Sikoakame was a child that had been abandoned by his mother, Nakawe. His brother Wakuri searched for him to bring him back home, but Sikoakame refused, and to escape, became a snake. But Wakuri followed him and Sikoakame, irritated by his brother’s persistence, became a lighting bolt and stroke him. Wakuri then shattered into many pieces that became corn grains of many colors: white, blue, yellow, red and black, and these were scattered all over the Blue Mountain, where they became corn-children.
Sikoakame wandered on and became friends with the corn-girls, daughters of Kukurúwimari, the White Dove. They were Niwetsika, creatures linked to the colors of the kernels and the cardinal points: Yuawime to the dark blue corn from the South; Tuxame to the white corn from the North; Talawime to the purple corn from the West; Taxawime to the
yellow corn from the West; and Tsayule with the red from the Center.
Sikoakame played with the girls who had always to be wary of the ants, who were trying to kidnap them.
Once, they tried to take him too but they couldn’t, so they took his eyelashes and hair and left them almost blind. When Sikokame heard the Dove, he went to tell her he was hungry. She gave him tortillas and atole, and told him he could have more food the next day, if he wanted so. She told him where her house was and he found it. When he arrived there, he found an old lady with her husband, and they both fed him more tortillas and atole. When he was done eating, Sikoakame asked them for some corn seeds to bring back to his mother. The elders then asked the Niwetsika if any of them wanted to go with him, but none accepted. The old lady recommended him to build five barns and one adoratory, or xiriki, and to put, during five days, red cempasuchil flowers in the south, yellow in the north, betonies for the east, tempranillas for the west and Corpus flowers in the center. For five days he had to light a candle, take care of the girls, put them in the adoratory, always clean it, and never scold the
girls.
The young man did what was asked from him and he had abundant food; but one day his mother asked one of the Niwetsika to grind the corn and when she did, her hands started to bleed and burn, so she went back to her mother and never came back; the other girls simply vanished. Sikoakame and his mother went without food and they had to work hard to feed themselves, just like everybody else in the land does.