Editorial Error in Source Text: Misattribution of "Cherwit Make" in Pima Mythology Excerpt | Thanks for the heads-up!

Ana Moirano — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:59:00 +0000

Forum: ProZ.com Translation Contests
Topic: Editorial Error in Source Text: Misattribution of "Cherwit Make" in Pima Mythology Excerpt
Poster: Ana Moirano
Post title: Thanks for the heads-up!

Hi Ricardo,
Thank you for pointing out this issue.
I'll make the necessary changes as soon as possible and contact all members to submit their translations again.
Thank you again for your collaboration.

Ana
Contest Organizer

[quote]Ricardo Aries wrote:

Hi everyone,

I wanted to flag a clear editorial error in a source text excerpt based on Charles M. Skinner’s Myths and Legends of Our Own Land (1896), specifically the Pima legend "The Ark on Superstition Mountains."

I’m sharing this in case anyone else encounters this passage or similar parenthetical misattributions in working source texts.

The Passage in Question:

"There was one Hauk, a devil of the mountains, who stole their daughters and slew their sons. […] He (Cherwit Make) silently followed him into the Superstition Mountains; he drugged the cactus wine that his daughter was to serve to him; then, when he had drunk it, Suha emerged from his place of hiding and beat out the brains of the stupefied fiend."

The Narrative Contradiction:

Cherwit Make is the creator deity (the butterfly spirit who creates humanity from sweat and later sends the flood).

Suha is the patriarch/human ancestor whose daughters were abducted by the mountain devil Hauk.

Inserting (Cherwit Make) after "He" creates an immediate plot contradiction: if Cherwit Make was the one pursuing Hauk and arranging the drug with his daughter, Suha suddenly stepping out of hiding at the end to execute Hauk makes no sense.

Checking the 1896 Original:
In Skinner’s original publication, the preceding sentence reads:

"The patriarch, whose patience had been taxed to its limit, then made a vow to slay the devil. [...] He silently followed him..."

Here, "He" unambiguously refers back to "The patriarch" (Suha), not Cherwit Make. A later editor misread the pronoun reference and inserted (Cherwit Make) in brackets.

In short, it’s a clear case of an editor attempting to 'clarify' an ambiguous pronoun and accidentally breaking the narrative logic instead. [/quote]

Editorial Error in Source Text: Misattribution of "Cherwit Make" in Pima Mythology Excerpt

Ricardo Aries — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 04:02:00 +0000

Forum: ProZ.com Translation Contests
Topic: Editorial Error in Source Text: Misattribution of "Cherwit Make" in Pima Mythology Excerpt
Poster: Ricardo Aries

Hi everyone,

I wanted to flag a clear editorial error in a source text excerpt based on Charles M. Skinner’s Myths and Legends of Our Own Land (1896), specifically the Pima legend "The Ark on Superstition Mountains."

I’m sharing this in case anyone else encounters this passage or similar parenthetical misattributions in working source texts.

The Passage in Question:

"There was one Hauk, a devil of the mountains, who stole their daughters and slew their sons. […] He (Cherwit Make) silently followed him into the Superstition Mountains; he drugged the cactus wine that his daughter was to serve to him; then, when he had drunk it, Suha emerged from his place of hiding and beat out the brains of the stupefied fiend."

The Narrative Contradiction:

Cherwit Make is the creator deity (the butterfly spirit who creates humanity from sweat and later sends the flood).

Suha is the patriarch/human ancestor whose daughters were abducted by the mountain devil Hauk.

Inserting (Cherwit Make) after "He" creates an immediate plot contradiction: if Cherwit Make was the one pursuing Hauk and arranging the drug with his daughter, Suha suddenly stepping out of hiding at the end to execute Hauk makes no sense.

Checking the 1896 Original:
In Skinner’s original publication, the preceding sentence reads:

"The patriarch, whose patience had been taxed to its limit, then made a vow to slay the devil. [...] He silently followed him..."

Here, "He" unambiguously refers back to "The patriarch" (Suha), not Cherwit Make. A later editor misread the pronoun reference and inserted (Cherwit Make) in brackets.

In short, it’s a clear case of an editor attempting to 'clarify' an ambiguous pronoun and accidentally breaking the narrative logic instead.

ProZ.com Translation Forums

Editorial Error in Source Text: Misattribution of "Cherwit Make" in Pima Mythology Excerpt | Thanks for the heads-up!

Editorial Error in Source Text: Misattribution of "Cherwit Make" in Pima Mythology Excerpt