(This story was told to me years ago by shaman Don Alfonso García, who told it with much more detail and art than I can. All this was said to have occurred in his grandfather's lifetime. His daughter Lupe is one of AMIGA's leaders. -kg)

Many years ago, a traveling cheese vendor from San Pablito was making his rounds from tiny village to tiny village in the mountains in the Northern Sierra. Evening found him just arriving in a little village, where nobody would even open their door when he knocked, much less sell him some tortillas. Finally he stopped at the house of two sisters who said that they would give him some tortillas, and that he should come and sit by the fire. He sat down and ate the tortillas along with some of his cheese. When he finished, he thanked them and went on his way. As he walked down the road, he started to feel ill, and then worse and worse. Clutching his belly he fell to the ground, feeling he would surely die. A woman standing in the door of her house nearby saw him and said, "That's what happens! You ate at the home of two brujas and you didn't even share your cheese with them. They have stolen your guts." "How can I get my guts back and keep from dying?" the desperate man asked? "Your guts are in the drawer of the kitchen table. Go and find them and swallow them. Then, you must go straight home and never tell anyone about this."

When the man arrived home, he fell onto his petate (woven sleeping mat) and would explain nothing to his wife about what had happened to him. He was still very sick, so the village's shamans were called in to see what was the matter, but he wouldn't tell. One night, in his feverish state, he spoke about the matter, and his wife overheard him. She ran to tell the shamans, and they were outraged that the other brujos would dare to cast such spells on someone from their town. They decided among themselves how to avenge this misdeed.

One of the shamans from San Pablito, who was able to change into animal form, would change into a turkey, so that the brujas would take him into their house, and then he would kidnap their baby. Another would form a rainbow that would serve as a bridge back to San Pablito, and the others would take the shape of ferocious beasts to turn away the shamans from the other village.

When the turkey appeared near the home of the brujas , they were delighted, thinking he must have wandered off from someone else's home. They hid him in their house so that nobody would find him, and then they went out again. The turkey turned back into the shaman and quickly grabbed the sleeping baby. He flew out of the house as fast as possible, passed over the rainbow bridge, and hid the baby in a grotto in San Pablito, sealing up the entrance. The ladies returned home and saw the baby and the turkey were missing. They were furious when they discovered the trick and gathered all their village shamans together to attack the brujos of San Pablito. They tried to follow over the bridge, but it had disappeared, and when they arrived near San Pablito, they were fought off by the terrible looking beasts, who were really the shamans. The fight went on for a long time since the shamans were very powerful on both sides, and the battle was very destructive. Finally, the shamans from San Pablito decided that they had taught the others not to put spells on their neighbors any more, so they went to the cave to let the baby out. When they removed the piled up rocks from the entrance they found the baby had been busy. The walls were covered with drawings of the figures we still see today in their beadwork and embroidery.