A beautiful maiden who always dressed in
white buckskin once went to a spring in
the Tres Hermanas Mountains to fetch
water. Her people waited and waited for
her return, but she did not come back to
their camp. They went to the spring and
found her olla.Then they found her
tracks going higher up into the mountains.
They followed her as far as they could,
but then her tracks went straight up the
stone face of the summit and disappeared.
Her people called for the shaman to search
out her lost spirit. He sang and smoked
four days, and then said, "She is alive
up there in the mountains." He knew the
mountains well.
They went to the stone face and sang. The
cliff opened onto a hall full of wolves,
bears, and mountain lions. The shaman sang
some more, and the people and animals
joined in. Another door opened, and
there stood the maiden with a bear, who
changed into a wolf.
"Come with us," the shaman said. But the
maiden refused, saying, "Stay close to
this holy place; keep your camp near these
mountains. I will always be among you,
and no enemy will trouble you. Keep sight
of this place." The people returned to
their camp, but they decided to leave the
Tres Hermanas Mountains. Four days later
they were massacred.
At night a wolf howls in the Tres Hermanas
Mountains, calling for her people to return.
