Sandoval sat on the floor. "Now begins the Night Chant of 'All is Well'" he said. He chanted and Sam, the interpreter, chanted with him. For them this was sacred. After the chant Sandoval passed his medicine pouch to Sam who took a pinch of pollen and placed it on his tongue and head and threw the remainder in the air to the east. I was told to do likewise. The pouch having been returned, Sandoval placed pollen on his tongue and head. He threw some into the air, sprinkling quite a bit over the manuscript. Then he prayed:
For long years I have kept this beauty within me,
It has been my life.
It is sacred.
I give it now that coming generations may know the truth
About my people.
I give it as the dew falls.
I give it as sacred pollen,
That there may increase a better understanding among men.
My days have been long.
Whoever reads and loves and learns from these stories
Shall profit by them,
And their days shall be lengthened.
I give these in the spirit of generosity
Asking that no harm will come from the Powers
Who have given these stories to us.
May no harm come from them.
May they be accepted as an offering,
As the pollen,
As the dew.
One of the Night Chants, the chant of All is Well[4]
This covers it all,
The Earth and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful before me,
All is beautiful behind me,
All is beautiful below me,
All is beautiful above me,
All is beautiful all around me.
This covers it all,
The Skies and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
[4. Informant's note: This chant is used to correct all the mistakes that anyone may make. The Tqo'adaline Night Chant comes from the story of the Water Baby. It belonged to the interpreter's grandfather. There are several chants like this one which different medicine men use. They differ slightly.]
This covers it all,
The Mountains and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
The Water and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
The Darkness and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
The Dawn and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
Hasjelti and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
Hasjohon and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
The White Corn and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
The Yellow Corn and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
This covers it all,
The Pollen and the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful. . . .
After the bow and arrows of lightning were returned to the Sun, Hasjelti and Hasjohon came to First Man and First Woman and asked them what they thought about all that had happened. "What will take place now will be your plan," they said. "Yes," answered First Man and First Woman, "Now it must be our plan. We will think about it."[5]
The Sun brought a turquoise man fetish and gave it to Yol gai esdzan, the White Bead Woman. She ground white beads into a powder and made a paste with which she molded a fetish like the one the Sun had given her, but it was a woman. When it was finished they laid the two side by side. Then they took the white corn which was brought up from the Dark World where the First Man was formed and they laid it beside the turquoise man fetish. And the yellow corn from
[5. Matthews (1897, pp. 29-33); Hodge (1895, pp. 223-240).]
the Dark World, which was formed with First Woman, was laid by the side of the White Bead Woman fetish.
Here the chanting begins.[6] It covers the two fetishes and the two ears of corn and the four clouds and the four vapors. There are many chants sung here. They were sung before the fetishes could move. Then the two fetishes, the Turquoise Man and the White Bead Woman, and also, the two ears of corn, white and yellow, moved.[7]
When they began to move the Coyote[8] came. He jumped on the bodies and put something first up one nostril and then up the other nostril. He said to the first nostril: "You shall be saved by this." To the second nostril he said: "This shall be your shield." The first turned out to be the trickery of men; the second, the lies that they tell. But once in a while they are saved by their own lies. That was what the Coyote had in mind.
The fetishes and the ears of corn moved but they were not able to rise. So word was sent to all the Holy Beings and to the Upper World where the Five Chiefs of the Wind dwelt. Gifts were offered to the Winds and they accepted them, They sent the Little Breeze down, and it entered the bodies of the two fetishes and the two ears of corn. Little, fine hairs appeared over the bodies, for it is through these that air comes out of the body. It was after that, that the four, the two fetishes and the two ears of corn, became human beings.
Toward the east side of the mesa called Dzil na'odili there is a place named Ta chee. On the top of this small mesa a man and a woman were found. From these two sprang the clan called Tlasch chee, or Tha'tsini, Red Under the Bank. At another place called Ash chee, salt, there arose two persons, a man and a woman. From these two came the clan called Ash chee, or Asi'hi, the Salt Clan. This clan was also called the Beautiful Goods Clan. To the east, toward the mountain called Sis na' jin, a man and a woman arose. From them came the clan called Sis na' jin ee'. Another man and a woman arose at a place called Tse nee tat net tsa. From them came the clan called Tat
[6. Informant's notes: A ceremony called na tdan'y analia took place so that the people would multiply. The subject being: how to increase human beings upon the earth after the monsters had been destroyed.
7. Informant's note: Rarely is much white or yellow corn planted at one time because it is the most sacred.
8. Informant's note: This is the Coyote called First Angry.
9 Matthews (1897, p. 138, and note 167, p. 239) 1. Gens of Tse dzinki'ni, House of Dark cliffs (note 167); tse, rock; dzin, black or dark kin, a straight walled house, not a hogan. Tse, here means cliff: Cliff Dwellers. 2. Gens of Tse'tlani, Bend In a Canyon. 3. Gens of Dzil na odili. . . . 4. Gens of Haskendine, Yucca People.]
nes tsa nee, the home in the side of the cliff with sticks meeting, or joining, in a different way at top.
Now when the two fetishes and the two ears of corn became human beings there were 8 that arose with them, so in all there were 126 male beings and 6 female beings. (There must have been fetishes laid in all the above-mentioned places from which these people came, These 12, forming 6 clans were the first Dîné)[10]
These 12 people first made their home around Dzil na'odili, which means "The People Move Round Me." After so many years they multiplied. Then there were four who carne to them, two men and two women. They came from a place called Tqo toda sihee, which was on the top of mountain Tso dzil. When night came the people gave these four a blanket to sleep on, but they would not accept it. They sat down and, crossing their arms tightly over their breasts, slept that way. From these four started the clan called Bit an he or Bita'ni, meaning, their arms folded under.
There was another people living at a place called Tqo hee tle, where the Pine River nears Ignacio. Here the two rivers empty into the San Juan, and the name of the place is Tqo hee tle. At a place a little above there on the San Juan lived another people. They also came and joined the Dîné. From them came the clan called Tha ban ha, along the water. They were the descendants of the snipe people. Snipe always know where water is to be found. They even know when water will come and will show the high mark of flood water.
By this time there were many people living around Dzil na'odili.
There was a place called Tsa ya hat tso, a large cave lined with red which is southeast of Dulce. There is a black canyon, and farther on there is a cave. The Holy People who planned the White Bead Woman lived there. They said:
There are many people living near Dzil na' odili. They have no guard at the entrance of their home. All others, the Sun, the Mountains, the Plains have guards for the entrances of their homes. Those people down there must have the same as the rest. They must have the red corn and the red banded corn and the dog for their guards.
Here the same ceremony as before was held. There were the turquoise male fetish and the white bead female fetish and the two ears of corn. They call upon the Five Chiefs of the Winds for help and they sent the Little Breeze. Four more people were formed, two men and two women, and from them sprang the clan called Tat chee nee, or Tha'tsini, meaning red lining of the cave.[11]
The Holy Beings formed the dog, male and female. The male dog was dressed with the dawn and he was white. He traveled to the East.
[10. Matthews, (1897), p. 137): Hadahonize asike, Mirage Boy, and Had'ahonestid atet, Ground Heat Girl, married the Corn Boy and Girl.
11. Informant's note: This is my clan; and we call our place of origin the place of the old or holy people. This is also the interpreter's father's clan.]
The female dog was reddish or brownish yellow and she was dressed with the twilight. On their ears sat the Little Breeze. Their ears were made from the winds, and at the tip of the tail also there is a breeze. So when a dog passes another dog he can tell from the mouth to the tip of the tail. Burned food was put on their noses and they were black. A medicine stick, ke et an'dotishe, was placed inside their stomachs, and they say that is why a dog never gets enough to fill him. As he has the wind at the ears and at the tip of the tail he never gets lost. He knows many things, for he was sent to guard the doorways of the people.
The male dog was sent east of the Carrizos and the female dog to a place now known as Tohatchi. The white dog was a welcome animal. The people were good hunters and they fed him and petted him and he grew fat. But the female dog went to evil people who beat her and threw sticks at her and she grew poor and skinny.
The dogs were told to meet at a Placed called Tse ha gaye. There are burning minerals under the ground there and one sees smoke.[12] They met there as instructed, but when they met the male jumped on the female and threw her on the ground. The male dog treated her badly. They fought as dogs do now. Then they crossed. The dog said: "People were good to me and fed me lots of meat." The bitch said: "People were cruel to me. They starved me all the time." So they changed places; the white dog went to the home of the yellow dog, and the female went to the home of the male. And after a time they met again at the same place. This time the white dog had gotten the worst of the treatment and was thin and poor, whereas the bitch was fat. So the two got even with each other.
Then the two dogs started out for a place called Nat ege saka'te, where a lone currant bush grows on a plain south of Fruitland. A little ledge of rock and the lone currant bush are all that are there. When the dogs reached the ledge of rock they sat side by side with their backs toward the people who had been cruel to them. The one dog sent his bad wish with the gas from his stomach, and the other dog sent her bad wish from her backbone to the wicked people. The two then returned to the place -where they were made. Later, the people who had been cruel to the dogs sickened. Their stomachs bloated, and they were very ill indeed.
The being who was called Dotso, the All-Wise Fly, came and said: "The only person to make medicine here is Hasjelti (fig. 15) himself; but don't tell anyone what I have said. Keep it a secret." Now up to this time they had used ceremonies over the sick, but they could not cure them. When Hasjelti made the medicine the people recovered.
[19. Informant's note: This is a place near Newcomb's Trading Post.]
FIGURE 15.--Hasjelti.
This is where the Dog Ceremony[13] begins. The chant is here.
After this Hasjelti took one of the small boys from the clan Tat chee and carried him off to a dance of his people. He carried the boy to a place called Tse'hoghan (To'waya'lane or Taaitalone known as Thunder Mountain near Zuni). When they returned the little boy danced as he had seen those people dance. Hasjelti said: "My grandchild, you will be called Jil yenn taeye, and you must dance like the dancers that you have seen."
Hasjelti said that the dancers must dress in the following manner: 12 tail feathers with little singing birds on their tips for the headdress; the growing corn with a tassel for a nose; the skirt and leggings and moccasins of buckskin with fringe; and a sacred belt with trimmings. Each dancer must hold a sacred fawnskin medicine bag in his right hand.
Now Hasjelti had planned how the monsters should be killed; how the White Bead Woman was to be formed; how the two dogs should be the guards of the people; and how the ceremonial people should dance. He planned the clan called Tat chee. The Tat chee people have fiery tempers, broad faces, and large heads.
[13. Informant's note: The medicine used in the Dog Ceremony is for stomach ailments. They are: Informant's name: tse gan il chee; Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 187), tsigha'jilchi, the dodder, Cuscuta umbellata. Informant's name: chil'dily ese; Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 186), chil dilyisi, dodgeweed, Gutierezzia euthamiae. Informant's name: da'e tinda; Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 77), da'hiqi'hi da', hummingbird food, Scarlet Gilia, Gilia aggregata. These plants are boiled together with native salts.]
Then Hasjelti spoke to the people he had made and said:
My grandchildren, you are not to live in this part of the country. You must go to other people and join them. I have shown you how this dance must be danced. It will be a sacred dance for you. It will be a holy dance for you. The first four dancers will have four words that they must use. These words will be the names of the corn which will grow from the earth.
He continued:
Secondly, they will name the water, the same being the rain from above. Thirdly, they will name the plants, all the plants on the earth. And last, they will name the pollen.
If a mistake is made in the first dance, it will be an evil thing and people will suffer from it. So the dancers must take great care from the beginning to the end. The first four (lancers that come out in this dance will be called "at sal tle." When these first four go out, and the people are well satisfied with them, they will open their medicine bags and sprinkle pollen on their heads as an offering, and they will call on Hasjelti saying: "May it be so from this day on. May we have corn. May we have rain. May we have all the growing plants with all their pollens. May we have the beautiful earth on which we can gather corn, beautiful goods and precious stones and all the animals that we use for food. May the sheep and the horses increase, and may our children increase. May their days be beautiful and may all be beautiful around us. Thus they must pray after the four dancers leave."
Hasjelti said:
The headdress for this dance should be made of buckskin. One medicine man may have 12 or more headdresses which are called tcgich or tqegisch. This includes the hide, the feathers, and the blue fox and swift skins.
He continued:
There are many rules that must be followed. The hide used must be that of a deer not killed by a weapon. The whole hide must be reserved for the headdress. All the different places where the buckskin should be cut must first be run over by a piece of crystal. You must take the sinew from the right side of the spinal cord and use it for the sewing of the right side of the headdress. And from the bone of the deer's right foreleg must be made the awl to sew it with. So with the yellow feathers from the little yellow bird, they must be sewed only on the right side of the headdress. And the whole must be sewed by a right-handed man. Again, from the left side of the back of the deer take the sinew. And from the left foreleg make the awl. Sew the left side of the headdress with the bluebird feathers. And a left-handed man should sew the left side of the headdress. This is how the headdress must be made.[14]
The rattle must be held in the right hand [Hasjelti said]. It represents the Black Water Jar, and the feathers on the right side of the headdress also represent the Water Jar. The feathers on the left stand for the ears of corn. They represent the ears of corn when held in the hand, just as the Corn Father stands.
The face of the mask must be painted a bluish color. The pieces cut out for the eyes and the mouth are tied back on the headdress. The paint used in the
[14. Informant's note: There are many chants sung while the headdress is being made for a medicine man.]
painting of the face of the mask must be made from a soft greenish mineral like turquoise. And the paint used to mark around the eyes and around the mouth must be made of coal dust.
The dancer is the figure representing the Corn Father. The rattle is the ear of corn, but it is also considered the Black Water Jar containing the rain. The feathers are the growing corn or the corn tassels.
Hasjelti said:
Two willows must be brought from the Mancos Canyon. Only this place must they come from.[15] The male willow must be cut going up the river and the female willow must be cut going down the river. You must use those willows when the patient is put through the Heat Ceremony.[16] The patient must lie down. The willows must be placed standing on either side of the patient while he receives the medicine.
After Hasjelti told the people how to make the headdress and the men had learned the dances and all the ceremony, he said: "My grandchildren, go now to a place called Tat chee'. There you must live. You are to take with you the two ears of red corn." So he gave them the two ears of red corn, full ears with kernels to the tip, and they set out for the place called Tat chee'. After a day's journey they camped for the night. The next morning they started out again. Then the chief, who was called A'gily en'taeye, told them to halt. He said: "I have forgotten something. I left those two ears of corn where we started from yesterday." He sat there with his head bent in great thought for a moment, then he said: "I thought of those as my grandchildren. I am their grandfather." He chanted there with his thoughts:
He called me grandchild,
He called me my young child.
He loved me like a mother loves her child.
He chanted three chants and he said: "Let the two ears of corn return to Hasjelti, their grandfather."
The second day they reached the Red Bank Country called Tat chee'ee. And the people called themselves Tat chee'ee. Now when the Red Bank clan reached their new country they began to multiply. All around them the other people were increasing, so there were many people living to the South of Mesa Verde.
[15. Informant's notes: This explains why the Mancos Canyon should belong to the Navaho. It should not belong to the Utes. The Navaho Indians believe that the State line and the Government have nothing to do with it. Cowmen have put up fences, etc. The Navaho have greatly resented this. They have tried many times to have this land returned to them, but they have failed. This area is sacred to them. They feel that it is safe as a National Park (Mesa Verde National Park), but it must not be turned over to the Utes.
16. Informant's note: A pit is dug and a fire built in it. When the ground becomes hot the fire is scraped out and the patient is laid in the pit and covered with the medicine. Willows stand around. This is the Heat Ceremony.]
The Elder Brother spoke: "The World will use me once more. I shall act for the People once again."
There were at that time different places where the water was sacred; but there were other places where people drowned, where people were killed by lightning, while others sank in quicksand or marshes. This is what the Elder Brother was thinking about when he spoke. He went to the Black Yei, who is called Hasjejine, and told him of his plan. Then he traveled to the home of the Water Buffalo.
Here there is a chant:
E'da'ne, e'da'ne, e'da'ne.
I am he who kills the monsters.
With super power I went before the Water Buffalo.
With super power I spoke to the Water Buffalo.
With this super power I told him I had made a plan,
But the Water Buffalo was silent.
So the Elder Brother rolled up the water and went to the home of the Great Buffalo and said: "I want all of my people." The Buffalo said: "No, you cannot have them." The Elder Brother then asked: "Do you mean what you say?" The Water Buffalo answered: "I mean what I say." This was repeated four times. "Very well," said the Elder Brother and he turned and walked away. He then put fire to the water and it sputtered like oil. When the Water Buffalo saw this he went to the Elder Brother and told him that he would have his people returned to him. Now the Water Buffalo had taken all the people who had been drowned, killed by lightning, and lost in quicksand or marshes. In other words he was building himself a kingdom with the people of the earth.
After the people were released from the Water Buffalo's Kingdom the men hugged each other, the women hugged each other, and young men hugged each other as did children, for they were glad to return to the earth.
The water had stopped burning by this time, and the Water Buffalo said to the Elder Brother: "It is well, but I will take some of your people once in a while." So that is why some are drowned, some struck by lightning, and some go down in quicksand or marshes. All this is what the Elder Brother had in mind when he said: "I shall act for the People once more."
All the people from all the sacred places gathered together, and there was a great crowd of Holy Beings waiting when the Elder
[21. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 359): Tqe holt sodi, water ox.]
Brother returned to his home. Even the Sun came down from the sky. When all was ready they decided to give the Elder Brother a name. They thought of all the names they knew and yet no name fitted, so they sent for Hasjejine. He came and said: "Why have you not thought of a name for my grandchild? When you knew that he killed all the monsters that destroyed people did not that suggest something to you? His name will be Na'yei na'zone, He Who Kills the Monsters. And the Younger Brother will be known by the action of his mother, he will be called Tqo ba'ches chini, the "Spring Boy" (whose other name was Nai'dikisi, He Who Scalps).[16]
The Elder Brother's body was painted black, like the Black Cloud. The bow was marked on his left leg, the bow outside and the string inside. A bow was marked on his right leg, but the bow was inside and the string was outside. Bows were drawn on the arms as on the legs, and two bows were marked on the chest over his lungs, and two others on his back. These bows were marked on him for his protection, for he achieved his greatness by these weapons.
Tqo ba'ches chini was painted red with the red paint, hematite. He had the closed cross, queue, representing the scalp drawn upon him (fig. 16). They marked the sign of the scalp on his legs and arms, chest and back, just as the bow had been marked on the Elder Brother.
FIGURE 16.--The scalp.
The Sun asked his wife, the White Bead Woman, where they should send their sons. The White Bead Woman answered: "That must be your plan." Then the Sun said: "We will send the two boys to the placed called Toheil'tle. They will dwell at the middle of the earth. I shall know all things from them." And he told the White Bead Woman: "You too, will know all things from them. They will continue to have power as they now have it."
The two boys were first sent to a place called Tqo'bit cloch, the place where the water hits against a cliff.[19] There, just above the water level is the last pictograph. Right there is a place called Tse'the neesa'en,
[18. Recorder's note: In regard to the names of the brothers, Whitman (1925) follows Matthews (1897). James Stevenson (1801, p. 281) tells their story. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 160) gives the spelling of the younger brother as Tqo bajishchini, Child of Water.
19. Informant's note: Where the Pine and another river empty into the San Juan.]
a rock in the center of the water. On the top of this rock there is the footprint of the Elder Brother, and the footprint of the Younger Brother. Formerly, when no rain fell in the country, a man from the clan called Tqo yali na tline would go there and pray for rain, offering pollen and mixed chips of stone. This has been long forgotten. It is not done in these days.
Again the Sun spoke: "First Man and First Woman, the Coyote-Who-Was-Formed-in-the Water and the Coyote called Atse'hashke', First Angry, these First Four must go to the East beyond the place of the sunrise. They must travel to a place called To dotsos." He said that they were to sit there with their backs toward the Sun. The Sun was not to look upon First Woman again because he had married her daughter. For even though she had not given birth to the White Bead Baby she was considered her mother. The Sun said to his people: "This must become your custom. You must not look upon your mother-in-law. If you disobey me and you see each other the punishment will be blindness, weak heart, and even death."
After the Four First Beings started for the East, First Woman turned back and said: "When I wish to do so I will send chest colds and disease among the people; when I wish to do so I will send death, and the sign will be the coyote." (The old men say that when a coyote howls many people cough. The belief is current that certain appearances of a coyote foretell death.)
So the Four First Ones went East and they took all their powers with them.
The Sun spoke again: "When anyone thinks he sees me he will see me, because it will mean that there is an enemy in the country. The people will suffer from enemies." And the Sun returned to his home and he took all his powers with him.
And Hasjelti and all of his Holy People said: "If anyone sees us it will also be a sign that an enemy is coming into the country. If he hears us call, that same person will be killed by an enemy before the day is over." And so saying they all returned to their homes and all their powers went with them. They were never seen again. (Now if anyone thinks he sees one of the Holy Beings it will not be for the good of the people. It is considered a bad omen.)
Then the time came for the White Bead Woman to depart. Before her stood two persons, one was Niha oni gay hasjelti, and the other was Niha oni gay hasjohon. There were also 12 male beings, the De'n'yeinaki zatana queye hahoni'gay denae e, the Four Rain Clouds, and all the flowers, and another 12 persons, female beings, and with them were the Four Vapors. The White Bead Woman spoke to these people. She said that it was her plan to have all tribes, other than her own people, move beyond the sacred mountains. She said that she wanted her children to live on the land within these sacred mountains. Then she rose up in the clouds and went to a place called Ta'delth hilth tzes taan Ta'dottliztzes taan, and with her went all her power, and there was no more of her power left on the earth. Now people have to work in order to live; they know hardship.
After that time the White Bead Woman's[21] home was called the Floating White Bead House, also, the Floating Turquoise House. Around her home is flat country called the White Bead Plain. To the East of her home is the Most High Power to whom she goes and becomes young again, and by whose power she knows all things. In the four directions from her house she undergoes a change. She comes out of her house an old woman with a white bead walking stick. She walks towards the East and returns middle aged; and she carries no walking stick. To the South she walks and she returns a young woman. She walks to the West and comes back a maiden. She goes North and returns a young girl. She is called the White Bead Woman, Yol'gai esdzan. She has three names, and the second is the
[20. Informant's note:
21. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 88): Esdza na'dle, Changing Woman; Yol gai'esdzan, White Shell Woman; Esdza na'dle esdzan, the Changing Woman, the wife of the Sun.
Whitman (1925, p. 99): The White Bead Woman went West to the Great Water; she vent to dwell in her floating house beyond the shore.
Matthews, (1897, p. 133): I want all precious stones, etc., etc., animals (later, horses).]
Changeable Woman, Atsan a'layee. The third is Yol'gai atate, the White Bead girl. She has these three names, that is her power. Only one person knows the origin of her power, he is the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
This was the next plan: four coyote chiefs stood in the four directions. The White Bead Coyote fetish stood in the East; the Turquoise Coyote fetish stood in the South; the White Shell Coyote fetish stood in the West; and the Black Jet Coyote fetish stood in the North. When the Coyote called from the home of the First Man and First Woman the White Bead Woman knew what he called for.[22]
Then there were the Four Sacred Mountains.[23] The first mountain was called Yol gay dzil, White Shell Mountain, and the Changeable Wind called Nlchi de zos was placed inside it. Dotl'ish dzil, the Turquoise or Blue Mountain, was the second mountain, and Nlchi'dotl'ish, the Blue Wind was put inside it. The third mountain was De'chili dzil, the White Shell Mountain, and the Yellow Wind, Nlchi litso, was placed inside it. The fourth mountain, called Baa chini dzil, Black Jet Mountain, had Nlchi'dilqil, the Black Wind, placed inside it.
When the first wind, the Changeable Wind, shakes the mountain all the sleeping plants and animals awaken from their winter's sleep. When the Blue Wind shakes the mountain the leaves come out. When the Yellow Wind shakes the mountain all plants become greener and all animals come out of hiding. When the Dark Wind shakes the mountain all the animals are slick and shed their winter coats. This applies to the snakes and lizards.
Inside the home of the White Bead Woman, on a shelf running east to West on the South side, were four water jars. The first was the Black Water Jar which contained the Black Cloud and the Male Rain. The second was the Blue Water Jar which contained the Blue Cloud and the Male Rain. The third was the Yellow Water Jar which contained the Yellow Cloud and the Male Rain. The fourth was the White Water Jar which contained the White Cloud and the Male Rain. On the north side of the home was a shelf running west to east, and on it were also four jars. The first was a Black Water Jar which contained the Black Vapor and the Female Rain. The second, the Blue Water Jar, contained the Blue Vapor and the Female Rain. The third, the Yellow Water Jar, contained the Yellow Vapor and the Female Rain. And last, the White Water Jar, which contained the White Vapor and the Female Rain. Also, there were jars filled with the seeds of plants and all the beautiful flowers.
[22. Interpreter's note: Coyotes were as the telephone is today.
23. Franciscan Fathers (1910, pp. 136-137): The ceremonial names of the four sacred mountains: Pelado Peak, Sisnajini, Yolgai'dzil (East); Mt. Taylor, Tsodzil, Yo dotl'izh'i dzil (South); San Francisco Mountains, Dookoslid, Dichi'li dzil (West); San Juan Mountains, Debentsa, Bash zhini dzil (North).]
The White Bead woman can use only one kind of seeds during a season[24] for the people's use. These are the seeds used for food. It would cause her sorrow if the people did not eat the ripened seeds of plants whose seeds she planted for them. She has all the seeds of all the plants with her. She has great power over the people.
There stand around her house a white bead walking stick to the East, a turquoise walking stick to the South, a white shell walking stick to the West, and a black jet walking stick to the North. Then all the white beads, turquoise, white shell, and black jet are placed under the water, and from them she gathers corn.
The White Bead Woman sent four persons back to the center of the earth to see how her people were getting along, and how the mountains were standing. The Four who went back were Niha onigai hasjelti and Niha onigai hasjohon and two from the same people.[25] They were to travel around the mountaintops and chant as they went. They went first to the top of the mountain called Yol gay dzil. The chant begins there.[26]
1. The First Mountain rises in sight.
The Mountain Sis na jin rises in sight.
The Chief of the Mountain rises in sight,
Like the Most High Power it rises in sight.
Like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful it rises in sight.
Each of the six sacred mountains with their stones are covered in this chant.
2. The First Mountain near you is beautiful as it rises up. . . .
3. The First Mountain near you is a sacred mountain as it rises up. . . .
4. The First Mountain to which we travel etc. . . ..
5. The First Mountain we near. . . .
6. The First Mountain we reach. . . .
7. The First Mountain we climb. . . .
8. The First Mountain we travel over. . . .
9. The First Mountain where we stand on the summit. . . .
10. The First Mountain we camp on. . . .
11. (Just here the first person dreamed a bad dream, and in the morning he had to chant another chant, which comes in here. It is called My Dream Must not Happen or Come into Being.)
12. From the First Mountain we are starting home. . . .
13. From the First Mountain we are going home. . . .
14. From the First Mountain we are approaching home. . . .
15. From the First Mountain we are sitting down. . . .
[24. Interpreter's note: This explains why, in this country, each year, there is an abundance of one special plant or flower.
25. Informant's note: These were the first two persons who stood before the White Bead woman.
26. Informant's note This chant is called Tsun bey dzil gaye a'desdai, the Chant used to travel safely over the mountains.]
The four persons reported that all the mountains were just as they were originally. They were beautiful and all the growing plants were beautiful. The whole country was beautiful. People were living peacefully. They had rain.
There was a. certain man named Tse bit la'kal, the Man with the Rock Shirt, who lived near the mountain called Chol'i'i. There is a canyon near this mountain and the place is called Tsen chet dzil. This man was tall, a good hunter, and swift on his feet.
On a certain hunting trip he became thirsty about noon and went to the river to drink. It was at the place where two rivers empty into the San Juan, a place called Tqo yah ha'tline. As he was nearing the river he saw a baby swimming in the water, back and forth it swam. The baby would float on its back, and be stood there for a long time watching it. Then he returned to his trail and out of sight of the river. Later he went down to the river at a different place, drank, and returned to his home.
This man wondered what the baby was and whether it was there in the river every noon. About noon on the second day he went back to the place by the river where he had seen the baby, and the baby was there in the water swimming around. On the third day he went again to the river bank, and again he saw the baby in the water just at noon time. Then he noticed that there was tall grass on the shore to the very edge of the water where the baby swam back and forth. He made a plan. On the fourth day he went to the place early in the day and hid himself in the grass by the water's edge. Just at noon the baby rose to the surface of the water. And when the baby approached the bank the man jumped out, and lifting it out of the water ran, just as fast as he could, away from the river. There was a hill not far from the river which he climbed. When he reached the top he looked back and he saw the water standing high up and falling his way. When the water hit the ground he was over the hill.
When he arrived at his home with the baby he noticed that it was a baby girl. Now his wife, who was from the clan Tse na'jini, Black Streak of Wood Clan, cared for the baby and she grew rapidly. They called her their daughter and she called them her father and mother. When she was 13 years of age she made her first cake and the First Maiden Ceremony was held over her. But after this her foster parents noticed that she neither drank nor ate. She said: "Mother, Father, I long to look on my own country." They were greatly surprised, for they had thought that she did not know where she had been
[27. Matthews (1890, p. 103): Co'yet lini, Junction of the Rivers Clan, No. 21.]
found. The man said: "You are right, my daughter, I found you in the water. If it is your wish to return to the place where I found you, it shall be our wish also."
Early the following morning she left them, and she returned that night. She told them that, as she was nearing the river, she heard someone chopping wood, but when she reached the top of the hill the sound of the chopping was heard no more. She said that she had walked all around but there was no sign of a track, nor could she see where wood had been cut. She went out again on the second day. This time she was near the river before the sound of chopping ceased. Again she looked all about but she found no sign of any living being. She went out again on the third day, and she was quite near the river before the sound of chopping stopped. On the fourth morning her father gave her a white shell basket and filled it with all the mixed chips of stone, white beads, turquoise, white shell, black jet, and red stone, and over the stones in the basket he sprinkled a shining mineral called deschee. Still over that he sprinkled blue pollen, tqadidin, and yellow pollen, also called tqadidin; then the pollen from the cattails, tgel tqadidin, water flags they call them, and the crystals found along the shore, which are called tqo bit ech'chee'. These last they sprinkled on the very top of the basket.
The girl took the basket and started out for the place by the river, and again she heard the chopping when she neared it. She arrived at the foot of the hill near the water when she thought that she saw someone move. She went to the spot and she found a blue ax standing against some wood. She was standing there looking at the wood when she saw the river water open, like lifting a blanket. Then she saw a young man step out and stand on the bank. He was a handsome young man. He said: "What are you doing here? Do you know that this is not the place for the earth people?" She said: "Yes, but I have longed to come to this place." Then be asked: "Are you the baby who went to the earth people?" And she answered, "Yes, I am that person." Then the young man said: "Very well, come with me." He rolled the river back like a blanket, and there before them was a path into the river, down which they went. The maiden noticed that there was a track in the sand going the same way that they were going; it was the track of a water horse. She thought that this water horse had the hoofs and the horns of a cow, but the mane and the tail of a horse--in fact it was like a horse except for the hoofs and the horns.
The young man took the maiden to the home of the Water Buffalo. Then the maiden presented the basket to the Holy Being. She motioned with the basket as the sun travels and set it at the feet of the Water Buffalo. The Water Buffalo was pleased with the gift and said: "This is what I wanted when I sent for you." And he continued: p. 117 "There is something that I wish to give you before you return to the earth and become one of the earth people." Then he took the dung of the Water Buffalo and the hair from all the parts of his body where it curled, and the mud from under the water, and he spat on the three and put the four rains and the four vapors on it, and he tied it in a little medicine bag and said: "This will be your medicine. It must be used when the earth people want rain. Your clan will be called Tqo yah ha'tline. Your descendants will be known by that name, and they will be a sacred people. No snakes or lightning will harm them. But I will reclaim two members of your family later. They will return here in your place. Now you must go back to earth, but first I will show you just how a hogan should be built." He told her of his plan of the hogan. This is a special hogan, and inside it a special ceremony must take place.
"The main poles of this ceremonial hogan should be raised with a chant," said the Water Buffalo.
You should pour the water on the poles from the top to the bottom. The water used must come from the sacred springs of the East. This water must be gotten and carried in a water jar. Then the mud from the bottom of the water should be rubbed on the poles from the top down. You must use all growing things, beautiful flowers and all the plants, to finish the hogan. Then only your descendants who know the chants and prayers and have the medicine will enter the hogan. Only they will be able to perform this ceremony. One will be the priest. The mud taken from the sacred water will be rubbed on his body, arms, chest, and back. He must then sit down and make four sounds like a frog. The mud from the sacred water is called tlah la'haddan, gotten from under the water.
He continued to tell them of the preparations for the ceremony. First must enter a young man, bringing in food for the shaman. The food must be made from the plant called quotse, a kind of cactus. After the young man comes into the hogan and places the food before the shaman, those present will say: "Here comes the Black Cloud. Now we have the Male Rain." Next a maiden with a basket of food for the priest enters the hogan (fig. 17). This food is made from the seeds of the plant called tlo de'i, marsh elder. When she puts the basket down the others will say: "Here comes the Black Vapor. Now we have the Female Rain."
Those who wish to attend the ceremony[28] will then enter the hogan, bringing with them the mixed chips of stone as offerings. A curtain will hang in the doorway. The man entering will push it from left to right with his right hand. The hogan faces the East, and when he enters he circles the hogan as the sun travels. A small buckskin
[28. Informant's note: The medicine for this ceremony was kept sacred. It was buried at the foot of the Lukachuki Mountains at the time of the Navaho uprising. It rains often there now.]
having been spread on the ground, the man places his offering of stones upon it, saying: "I come from the Big Water. I come with the Male Rain. I come with the White Corn." His gift must be turquoise.
Then a woman opens the curtain from right to left, and she circles the fire as the sun travels. She must hold her stones, white beads, over the buckskin and say: "I come from the Big Water. I come with the Black Vapor. I come with the Female Rain. I come with all the beautiful flowers." She must then place her stone offering on the buckskin and go to the north side of the hogan and sit down. The men sit on the south side. After this their children and friends place their stone offerings and sit in the hogan. The stones should be crystal, jet, red stone, or shells. The father or mother must bring those, one for each member of the family.
FIGURE 17.--The ceremonial hogan.
There must be no relationship between the shaman and the maiden. They represent the male and the female rain.
The people sit on opposite sides, next to the wall. They chant all during the night until dawn.
Then the man and the maiden both bathe and wash their hair. The man dries himself with white cornmeal, and the maiden uses the yellow cornmeal. Their hair hangs loosely down the back. The maiden should wear a garment of white cotton cloth. The man has buckskin thrown over his shoulders. They leave the hogan and start out chanting. They go either to the top of the Sacred Mountain, Chol'i'i, or to the Place where the Rivers Come Together, or to some sacred spring. The maiden should be a descendant of those Four (the two fetishes and the white and yellow corn). There are very few left. Or she could be of the Beautiful Goods People. The man should be of the clan Tqo yah ha'tline, a descendant of the Maiden.
After they reach whichever holy place is decided upon and make their offering of medicine and the gift of stones, they sit side by side and pray. Should they see flowers, water, clouds, or corn all is well. If they see blood it will be a bad sign.
Then they return and they tell what they have seen.
This is the story of how the Maiden got the medicine, and it is how the clan called Tqo yah ha'tline uses it to bring rain.
The Maiden from the Water Buffalo's Kingdom became a mother and a grandmother. There. were many people counted as her descendants. They planted corn in the canyon where they lived, and their corn ripened, having tassels and bearing rich ears.
One day the people sent a boy and a girl down into the canyon. Suddenly they looked down and saw a flood coming from above. They called to the children, but the flood carried them away, leaving the cornfields unharmed. These two children were taken back to the home of the great Water Buffalo.
There is a clan called the Mexican clan, Nakai dinae'e.[29] This clan is closely related to the clan called Tqo yah ha'tline because a man from that clan captured a Mexican girl and the Spaniards captured an Indian girl. They planned to take the Mexican girl back to her people because the mother of the Indian girl grieved so greatly. They thought to exchange these girls, but the Indian girl escaped and returned; so they kept the Mexican girl and the clan Tqo yah ha'tline adopted her. She founded the clan Nakai dinae'e.
The same clan captured a Ute girl and her clan was called the Ute Clan, No'da dinae'e.[30] They are related to the two above-named clans.
There were many people all over the country by this time.
Now at this time some of the people returned to inhabit Pueblo Bonito and Aztec.[31] They built their homes over the ancient houses. The Blue Bird Clan people went first to Pueblo Bonito, then they moved to Tse dez a', Under the Rock, across from Farmington. From there they moved to the mouth of Salt Canyon.[32] Many seeds were found there, the seeds of many plants then plentiful in the country. The people discovered a rich land south of Shiprock, but they lived there for only a little over 5 years. Then they moved again to south of the Carrizos. They went over the pass, and settled in a cave.
[29. Matthews (1890, p. 103): Nakai (Nakaicine), Mexican or White Stranger Clan or People.
30. Noca, Ute Clan or People.
31. Informant's note: The second occupation of Bonito and Aztec.
32. Informant's note: Salt canyon is south of Mesa Verde. This had been the Informant's forebears' home.]
They had the Calendar Stone with them. The medicine woman who kept this stone saw that the people had made a mistake. The people had been making pots that were coiled up like a snake.[33] She saw that at the home of the Five Chiefs of the Winds their water jars were made of coiled snakes. They were the jars which contained the Chiefs of the Winds' medicine: the clouds and vapors, rain and lightnings. The people of the earth were not to copy the jars of the Five Chiefs of the Winds. This medicine woman saw in the Calendar Stone that the lives of all the people were threatened from above. So word was sent to all the people of what she had seen, and of their mistake. They were told that there would come a tribe to their land called the Dinae'e or Dîné. Now some of the people destroyed the pots that they had made; but others just laughed and said: "The wind never told me to make such jars, it was my own idea. I made the jars with my own hands. This has always been our country, and we shall do as we please in our own country."
The Blue Bird Clan people and the different Corn Clan people got together and destroyed their coiled pots. They took all the different kinds of beads and they put them in a big smooth jar, and with them they placed the flint stone, the two feathers of the giant birds, and the Calendar Stone. They placed this large jar on a rock which they had hollowed out; and they sealed it with four slabs of rock and pitch.
After they had done this the hail fell for 4 days, and through some of the hailstones were little young spruce trees. The hail became soft when it fell on those people who had listened to the warning; but the hard hail, and the little spruce trees, like arrows, destroyed those who would not listen. All those who were willing to leave the country were saved.
Now there were some people living at Aztec who were saved, and they were told to remember this story. And there were some people living near the South Mountain, which is called Tso dzil, and the Blue Bird Clan people and the Corn Clan people, who had moved southwest of the Carrizos, who were also saved; the rest were destroyed. Later, the Blue Bird Clan people on and near the Carrizos moved near Navaho Mountain and built their homes there.
There is a story about one of the men who left the party and followed the Chin Lee Wash until he came to the San Juan River.[34] He got into a log that floated him down the river. He went ashore after a long time and he followed the river. He married a snake maiden. They returned to the foot of Navaho Mountain. They had born to them children. One of these children harmed another child of the tribe. The harm was like a snake bite. The people sent the family away.
[33. Whitman (1925, p. 88).
34. Recorder's note: There are both Hopi and Zuñi legends about the young man who traveled down the river In a log.]
(Today, their descendants are the people who can dance with snakes, the people who hold the Snake Ceremony.) Then, while some of the people moved from the top of the Black Mountain[85] and the country near there, others moved farther south and they built on the top of rocky mesas where the Hopi Villages are today. There is where they made their homes.
Sandoval's grandmother, who was a Hopi Indian, told him that the pictograph of the coil (fig. 18) was the symbol of the Winds.[36] She
FIGURE 18.--The Great Coil above the Square Tower House Ruin, Mesa Verde.
took him to the different places and showed him how the people had carved the coil in the rock so that people would always remember this story and never make the mistake again.
There was once a young man captured by a people whose descendants are the Utes. The peoples were at war and the people of the North carried the young man to their country. They crossed a big body of water. There many gathered and they held a dance. They planned to kill the young man, but Hasjelti and Hasjohon had not forgotten him. They followed their captured grandson.
Now the Northern Indians had tied the young man inside a tepee. He was sitting there when the two Holy Beings appeared to him. They told him not to be frightened, that he would not be harmed. They made known to him that they wanted gifts. If he made these gifts to them he would be saved. They wanted moccasins trimmed with porcupine quills, leggings and shirts of buckskin, fringed, and a headdress with 12 eagle feathers. Hasjelti wanted these. Hasjohon wanted the same clothing, all decorated and fringed, but he wanted
[15. Interpreter's note: A low mountain range beyond Kayante near Chin Lee.
16. Informant's note: The great First Wind is the cyclone. He who travels around, but not the whirlwind. He is very great. The great coil above Square Tower House Ruin, Mesa Verde National Park, is an example of him.
17. Interpreter's note: I think that this story should come after the following story; but it is not clear just where it should be placed, as medicine men differ.]
Recorder's note: I have placed it where the informant gave it.]
his headdress to have 12 yellow tail feathers. So the young man, having been untied, went out and found these things and carefully laid them away.
The plan was to kill him the next morning. Before they left him (and before he had collected the gifts) the two Holy Beings told him that he must not sleep on that night. But it was too difficult for him and he dozed. Toward dawn the two Yei awakened him and said: "Grandson, why did you go to sleep?" He could not explain, but he presented the gifts to them. Hasjelti took time to dress, and then Hasjohon dressed. The young man was fearful that the enemies would come and that he would be caught. He told the Yei: "Why, it is day now!" But the two simply took their time dressing and said: "Do not worry, my child, all will be well." Then the three went to the creek near by and it was daylight. When the three reached the water it lifted, and the young man went under it to the home of the otter. The otter said: "The enemy will not come here. You are safe."
The enemy searched the country for their captive but they could not find him, Later he left the home of the otter and set out for his own land. He traveled a great distance, but he went in a circle and he found that he had returned to the place he had started from, and again the enemy had found his track. He ran along, and he cried as be went. Someone called to him from a tree. It was the owl. The owl asked him why he was weeping, and the young man said: "Oh, the enemy is after me. They are after my scalp." The owl said: "Come up here, Grandchild. They do not come up here." The young man climbed the tree, and the owl circled the tree four times; and he used his medicine, schan'dine,[38] which is the rays of the sun, the rays which one cannot see through. The Northern Indians hunted around and around this tree; then they went away.
The young man set out again toward his own country. He traveled very far, but finally enemy Indians were near him, and he found that for a third time he had traveled in a circle. He was running along with tears in his eyes when someone spoke to him. It was the whitish ground squirrel, hasjel'kaeye.[39] This ground squirrel pulled up a greasewood bush and blew four times under it. He went down into the hole and called to the young man to follow him. He held the greasewood bush on top of them, and they remained hidden until the enemy went away. Then the young man came out of the hole and started off again. He traveled for a long time, when, to his surprise, he found that for the fourth time he had lost his way and become turned about. He was running along weeping when a mountain rat
[38. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 158) shandin, sunlight.
39. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 188) hazai, or, taiditi'ni, squirrel or ground squirrel.]
called to him and asked him why he was distressed. He said: "The enemy is after my scalp." The mountain rat said: "Never mind. They never enter my house." He quickly opened his home under the rocks, and after the young man had passed, he sealed the rocks in place. Again the Indians of the North searched all about, but they did not find him.
After the enemies had left the young man again started for his home. He traveled far, living on berries. He reached the San Juan River and the river was high. He walked along the river bank, and he ate the fruit from the little bushes that grew there. He heard someone behind him. He looked around and saw a man of dark color standing there. The man said: "My grandson, what are you doing here?" The young man said: "I have come this far from the country of the enemy. I am trying to reach my home, but the river is high and I cannot cross." The man said: "Shall I take you across?" So the young man climbed on the dark man's back.
A chant begins here:
I went on top,
I went on top,
With the black basket
Now we cross the big canyon with water in it.
I went on top,
I went on top,
With the black basket
Now we travel across.
I went on top,
I went on top,
With the black basket
Now we settle down on the shore.
Now the two had crossed the river. After he had put the young man down safely the dark man became a black rock hill near the San Juan. He grew and grew and his arms became great wings. He is still there, and is called Tse bit i'ie,[40] the Rock with Wings, Shiprock.
All during this time a ceremony was taking place in the young man's home. A footprint pointing away was made in a basket. When the young man started toward home the footprint was turned. This ceremony that w as taking place was the Mountain Chant. And the place was the Beautiful Mountain, Lukachugai. A rock on a peak was the hogan and the rocks around were the bushes. The ceremony was held for the young man's safe return.
The chant sung by the young man who crossed the river on the dark man's back is continued. It is sung as the young man approaches his home. The words of the chant are the same as the preceding chant except for the last line.
[40. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 357): Tee bida'i, the Winged Rock, Shiprock.]
. . . . . . . . .
Now his head comes in sight.
. . . . . . . . .
Now he is standing in sight.
. . . . . . . . .
Now he is ready to be washed.
He is bathed before he is allowed to enter the hogan with the others. They then sing the last verse:
. . . . . . . . .
Now he comes inside the hogan.
After he enters the hogan the young man tells all that has happened to him from the time he was taken captive until his return. He is now called the Holy Young Man and there are a great many chants sung here. This is when the medicine men grow the yucca; they grow the cherry; they wash their hands with burning pitch; they swallow the arrow; and they hold the Fire Dance. This dance is a part of the Mountain Chant. This ceremony is the Earth's medicine, and this ceremony was taken over by the tribe called Dîné
Now after the Holy Young Man was bathed and entered the hogan, and after he told all that had happened to him, they sang the songs of the Night Chant all the night long. There were a great many songs sung, and toward dawn the chants of the Great Gambler were used.
After that they went to the mountains and gathered the herbs for medicine and the plants whose berries are used for food. They brought them back and ground them together and they boiled them. The Holy Young Man drank the beverage before he was put through the Heat Fire Ceremony. He vomited all that he had eaten among the enemies. This treatment was repeated inside the hogan on four mornings.
After the Fire Ceremony was over they held another Night Chant in which they sang a certain number of chants called One Night Chants. In these they tap a basket with a yucca stick.
They bathed Hashkil zas kaeye,[41] the White Snow Warrior, the Holy Young Man, and washed his hair and dressed him. Feather medicine was tied to his arms above his elbows and on his moccasins. He was given one of two bags made of twin fawn skins to carry. They contained cornmeal. He took this cornmeal to the mountain called Sis na'jin; and, also, he took it to the mountain called Tso dzil.[42] He visited the sacred people living there. He sprinkled cornmeal over them and said: "I have come for your power."
[41. Franciscan Fathers (1912): p. 214, warrior, hashkae'he; p. 182, snow, yas, or, zas; p. 218, white (referring to the country to the north), dza'gai.
42. Informant's notes: Sis na'jin, Pelado Peak; Tso dzil, Mount Taylor. The sacred mountains of the East and South.]
Now another young man was sent Out as a messenger. Tla testine'e was his name. He was dressed exactly like the Holy Young Man. He was sent to Dook'oslide and Debe'ntsa.[43] He went to the sacred people and he told them that he had come for their power. He was never to jump over a stream, but always to go to the head of it.
When they started out the first young man went to the East, and the second young man to the West. One carried one fawn skin filled with cornmeal, and the other took the other one. When they returned, they arrived at the same time.
In these days they dress two young men as the messengers and they send them to two medicine men whom they wish to take part in the Fire Ceremony. The Holy Beings that the first two young men carried the cornmeal to, as an invitation, were to come and take part in the Fire Ceremony on the last night.
The making of the sand paintings took 3 days. These were made before the last day. On the evening of the next to the last day, the two men (who followed the young man) went to a cleared place; and one of them took corn pollen and sprinkled it around in a large circle. This marked the place where the big brush corral was to be built. When he finished the marking, the corral was built. All the people who came to take part in the ceremony, and to look on, went inside.
On the night of the last day of the ceremony two dancers entered the circle, as the sound of the basket tapping was heard. They began to chant. Six more dancers entered, and with the first two, they danced the first dance. These eight people were considered the same as the four who danced in the other ceremony which is called Atsel tle.[44] After them came the dancers who danced around a great fire. They held feathers in their hands. They burned them, then spit upon them and they were whole again. This they did, and then they went out. This is called ne'gaeye.[15] Later they grew the yucca and performed much magic. The two medicine men who return with the messengers (in these days) perform different tricks of magic. Some grow yucca, some wash their hands with pitch, and so on. The last dance is at dawn. The dancers carry little spruce trees in their hands.
The Fire dancers sing first in a circle. While they chant they chew on a medicine which protects them against fire. This is their chant:
Right where the people come out
There it fell on me.
The Big Blue Star fell on me without harm.
I am tried with the same,
So it fell on me without harm.
[43. Dook' oslid, San Francisco Peak; Deben'tsa, San Juan Mountains. The sacred Mountains of the West and North.
44. Informant's note: Atsel'tle, the dance of the Night Chant, is called Yelbitchi.
45. Recorder's note: The word ne'gaeye is given by Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 136) ne'gai, local pain.]
They first made four torches of cedar bark, from a tree struck by lightning. When the dancers entered for the first time they spat the medicine on the first torch and threw it to the East. This is done in order to spread the medicine. They repeat this for the four different directions. They make a strange buzzing noise as they throw the torch. They dance with other torches in their hands. They posture, they circle the great fire, and they put the burning torches under each other. They have the medicine and they are not hurt by the fire. When they end the dance and retire, the people rush in and gather up the medicine (the ashes fallen from the dancers' torches), which is used when children are burned.
In the beginning, when the dance was over and finished for the Holy Young Man captured by the Northern People, and it was morning, the mother frog and the mother turtle and the mother fish and the mother duck all placed a complaint. "Our babies have been crushed in the dance," they said. So all the people returned and the four babies were restored to life and made whole. The four mothers went away satisfied. A powerful medicine was used. Medicine men can cure animals of certain ailments. But an expectant mother must not see a sandpainting, for it harms the baby after it is born.
This ceremony and the Baby Ceremony were made for the tribe called Dîné. The Baby Ceremony is a very small one; but Mountain Chant, the Night Chant, the Yeibitchai, and others are great chants.[46] They were given to the Navaho People.
Beyond Debensa, La Plata Mountains, there is a yellowish colored mountain and near it there is a mountain with shiny rocks on it, this mountain is called Dessos. Now the man who was formed inside the first mountain is called Tso y natlaye', and the man who was formed in Dessos is named Klay ya, ne'yan, One Who Was Raised inside the Earth.
There is a 4-day ceremony here called the Arrow Spirit Ceremony.
The first man had no children. The second man had twin boys. These boys were given the names of the First Holy Twin Brothers: the elder was called Na'yei na'zone, but the younger was called La'chee na'yana, He, Who Grew in One Day, as well as that of To ba'ches chini. Both boys grew up in one day.
[46. Matthews (1887, pp. 379-467; Matthews (1903, vol. 16, pp. 61-64; Stevenson, James (1891, p. 281).
47. Morris (1921, vol. 26, pp. 115-121). Morris, (1924, vol. 26, p. 192): "The basketry shield and numerous burial accouterments indicate that the individual occupied a position of unusual importance in the pueblo. Probably this was due in part at least to his great stature."]
The Elder Brother took a long journey. He covered the whole country-mountains, plains, and all. When he was on the side of La Plata Mountains he saw a fire on the mesa, which is a part of Mesa Verde. He saw this fire at night. Now this boy knew of three strong medicines, so when he got to the place where be had seen the fire, and found people living there, he was not afraid, for he had a plan.
Among these people there were two beautiful maidens who turned away many suitors from all parts of the country. The reason was that it was believed that only young men with superpower were to marry the two maidens, and there were no such young men to be found. Their father decided that whoever could shoot an arrow into a little hole far up in the side of the cliff would be the persons to marry his daughters.
All the hunters and warriors gathered there with their bows and arrows. They all tried, but not one could shoot into the hole in the cliff. Then there came two old men, one was the Bear and the other was the Big Snake. The warriors asked: "Where do you come from?" And when all the other men saw the two old men with their bows and arrows they all laughed and said: "Whoever heard of old men shooting that far." But one shot at the hole far up on the side of the cliff and the arrow went into the hole. Then the other old man shot and his arrow went into the hole also. It was decided however that they were too old to have the maidens. The father said: "Whoever shoots an arrow over the cliff will have my daughters." All the other men tried and failed; but the two old men shot at the same time and their arrows went, side by side, clear over the cliff. But it was again decided that they were too old to have the maidens.
Now at that time there was a strong people living at the place now called Aztec. For their chief they had a tall, strong warrior whom everyone in the country feared. He was a great warrior and whatever he said was law.
The uncle of the maidens said: "Whoever kills the Great Warrior of Aztec will have my two nieces." He said that it would be 3 days from that time before they would start the war against the Great Warrior.
At the end of the third day the Elder Brother joined these people. He gathered together a party of warriors and they started out for Aztec. The two old men followed behind them. The people tried to persuade the old men to go back. They said that the two were too old to fight; but the old men would not listen to them.
The first night the two old men camped not far behind the warriors. One slept on one side of the fire and the other on the opposite side.
[40. Recorder's note: The story of the Younger Brother was not given.]
And on this first night an old woman came in sight of the warriors. She had with her a group of boys. They camped near the warriors, and they made a. frightful noise all the night long. The warriors could hear them, but they could not pass them for they sang the chants against the enemy. The second night the camp was again made and the old woman and her boys camped nearby, and the boys made a fearful racket. The two old men also camped near; and one slept on one side of the fire and the other on the other side. On the third night the old woman and her boys camped just opposite the warriors, and the boys played and fought and yelled all the night long. The two old men camped nearby as before, and they slept peacefully.
On the fourth night the Elder Brother and his warriors made their camp, and the old woman and the boys camped just ahead of them. That night one of the boys broke a bough from a cedar tree toward the east side, and he laid it down and said: "May I kill the Great Warrior!" Another boy broke a bough from a piñon tree on the west side, and he laid it across the cedar branch and said: "May I kill the Great Warrior!" Then all the rest of the boys jumped up and taking stones piled them on the two boughs, and each said as had the first two: "May I kill the Great Warrior!" There was a very great pile of stones.
The Elder Brother was angry. He said: "Go kill one of those boys."
But these were Holy Beings, the grandsons of the old Hard Flint Woman, Beshyhl he dot'tlinth, and the boys were the Beshyhl he dot'linthe, the Flint Knife Boys. They came from the land of the Flint Mountain near Dulce.
The next morning the young boys bathed themselves in mud.[49] They jumped off a cliff, rolled down the slopes and had a fine time. Then the boys went to the Elder Brother and said: "Now kill us all." And there was lightning flashing from their toes, knees, sides of the body, arms, head, and tongues. When the Elder Brother saw this he begged them saying: "I was only teasing. It is all right for a grandfather to tease his grandchildren." So they turned and went away.
Soon they were approaching Kin teel,[50] Aztec. The Flint Knife Boys were striking their flint knives and the flashes shot up into the sky. The Elder Brother went against the town and the enemy came out.
The Flint Knife Boys and the Elder Brother and his warriors killed all the enemies and took their scalps. The old woman filled
[49. Informant's note: The origin of the Mud Ceremony, which is sometimes given with the Scalp Dance. These Flint Knife Boys are very sacred, and appear in different ceremonies.
50. Interpreter's note: There is different spelling for this place: Kin teel, Khintqeldae. It is not to be confused with Kin tqel, Wide Ruins, Arizona.]
her basket full of scalps before they marched away. As they neared home they made camp and they lined up all the scalps, but the Great Warrior's scalp was not to be found, nor was the scalp of the warrior chief next in rank among those that they had with them.
Now the two old men had drawn the two great warriors and they had killed them. Soon they joined the others and they brought out their two scalps. Everyone knew that they were the scalps of the Great Warrior and of his chief. They returned home, but still the uncle of the two maidens refused to let the two old men take the two girls.
The people held the Great Scalp Dance. While this was going on the uncle of the two maidens said to them: "Go to where the young men are singing and choose whichever young men you would like to be your husbands." So the maidens went to where the young men were singing and they got in the middle of the group.
Now the two old men were camped in a brush shelter, one lay on one side of the fire and the other on the other side. Toward nightfall they got up and the old man Bear said to the old man Snake: "Our two young girls are in the pot." (Today they mean a girl dances who has a husband. The reason a maiden dances, except in certain ceremonials, is that she is ready for marriage.) So the Bear rolled a cigarette made of a certain herb, and he drew the smoke from it and blew it in the direction of the singing where the maidens were dancing among the young men. The Snake did the same thing. When the two maidens smelled the smoke the elder said: "Sister, what a beautiful, sweet odor." The younger maiden said: "Let us go and see where it comes from." When they got to the place from which the sweet odor had come they found two handsome young men, one on one side of the fire and the other on the other side. Each youth wore a beautiful robe which covered him. The two sisters thought that these handsome young men were their husbands, so the elder maiden went to the Bear and the younger went to the Snake.
In the morning, when the elder sister awakened, she had her arm around the Bear's neck, and his arm was around the girl. He was still asleep and all his ugly teeth showed. She awakened her sister. A great Snake was coiled around the body of the young girl; their heads were together, and her hand was on the Snake.
The two sisters went through the singing to the four directions, and they went to the river.
After the two young women had crossed the river (the Mancos River) they climbed to the top of La Plata Mountains. They went to the Bear People who lived there. The Bear People said: "Where are you from, sister-in-law?" As the young women were ashamed of their acts they said nothing and left. They traveled on and on until
they came to the mountain called Tse dzil. A community of big snakes lived there. They asked the two young women: "Where are you going, sister-in-law?" Again they were ashamed and they left that place also. From there they went to a mountain called Dzil se'he'dzil et. There also lived another branch of the Bear People; and again they were called "sister-in-law."
Now the two old men followed their brides. They used the smoke from their magic cigarettes to tell them which way the young women had gone. Whichever way the smoke drifted, that way they followed.
The sisters traveled to the mountain called Tso dzil, Mt. Taylor, and they were called "sister-in-law" by the Big Snake People who lived there. They left the place because of their shame and they went to the mountain called Tschosh gaeye, above Tqo hache, and there they were greeted as "sister-in-law" by members of the Bear family. It was after this that they decided to part. One went one way, the other went the other way. The old man Bear followed the Elder Sister, and the old man Snake followed the younger one.[51]
The younger sister reached a people called Nat at tsele, and there were some members of the Big Snake People living with them who called out: "Where are you going, sister-in-law?" Hearing this the girl left them and fled to the Lukaichukai Mountains. But members of the Big Snake family lived there also, and they called after her as before.
By this time the younger sister was very tired. Her moccasins were worn and her garments nothing but rags. She could see the smoke from the Great Snake's cigarette close behind her. She went on to a place called Tsel tiel, Sage Canyon. She was running along when she saw a slender young man lying on a rock. The young man's face was painted with a bluish paint called tlish dot chee.[53] Now this young man was the racer snake, and he asked her where she was going. She said: "I am being chased by the Big Snake." "No big snake comes here," said the young man. "Take off your clothing and come with me." So she took off her clothing and put it behind a rock, and she went to the young man naked. In the rocks there was a tiny hole. The young man blew into the hole four times, and it was large enough for the young woman to enter. When the Big Snake came to the place he grabbed her clothing and said: "Oh, my wife!"
[51. Informant's note: The Younger Sister's story is the origin of the Hojone', or Snake Chant.
52. Informant's note: Here the story parts, and the story of the Younger Sister is given first.
53. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 170): tlish, snake; and p. 86, dotl'ish, blue.]
By his power the young man sent the Big Snake away. After he had departed the two young people started out. They passed through great fields of corn. The young woman had her monthly period, so she made an apron out of the corn husks. That is why some husks are red.
Soon they came to the home of the young man. The maidens there were dressed beautifully. That night the young man was dressed in a beautiful dress, the skin of a snake. But that night the younger sister wished to go out. She started to go forward but there was a throng of snakes ahead of her. She tried again, but there were snakes on all sides of her, so she threw herself on the ground. The next morning the snake people told what she had done when they had coiled and stretched. One snake said: "The sister-in-law is not kind. She stepped on my neck." Another said: "She stepped on my leg." Another complained of his arm, and still another said that she had crossed his body.
Later she had a pain in her abdomen. They gave her medicine and she was quiet. Then came her children. The boy was called Bits is'yenagha'i, male snake, and the girl was called Bits is'quadidin',[54] female snake.
And so whenever the Navaho see these snakes they call them by their names and send them away. They do not kill snakes.[55]
There is a 9-day ceremony held called Hojone hatal', the Snake Ceremony. Rattles are used. There are many sand paintings and many prayer plumes or medicine sticks.
There were 12 young men and 2 young women. The men went hunting and they killed 2 of the Eagle Dancers of Wide Ruin. The Cliff Dwellers were angered over this and they chased the 12 young men to the top of a flat mesa. Now the 12 hunters rode on sun dogs; but the Great Warrior of the Cliff Dwellers and his chief through their power took the sun dogs from them. Soon the flat mesa was surrounded by warriors, and the 12 young men knew that they must make a plan. They cut down a tall cedar tree, and, after trimming off the branches and making it a straight pole, they tied eagle feathers to
[54. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 67): bits'is'ye osho'shi, ceremonial name of the female snake.
Matthews (1898, pp. 228-235), pre-Navaho myths, many from Moquis and Zuni.
55. Recorder's note: Many writers recording myths of Hopi and Zuni have come upon the serpent legends. Parsons (1933, pp. 611-631).
56. Recorder's note: This story was given to me by Sam Ahkeah, the interpreter, with full approval of its inclusion here by his uncle, the informant. He said that the Mountain Top Chant, Dzil quigi, has its origin in the story of the Elder Sister and the Bear.]
the top of it. When it was ready the 2 youngest brothers climbed to its top, and the 10 other brothers dropped it over the side of the cliff. The 2 young men landed safely. They gave the call of the owl, which told the others that they were safe. Now the owl heard this and said: "But the 10 on the mesa top must die." And it was so. The Great Warrior of the Cliff Dwellers killed the 10 young men. Before they died these brothers gave the coyote call, and the 2 who had been saved knew that they would have to kill the Great Warrior of the Cliff Dwellers and his chief.
Now these two warriors of the Cliff Dwellers lived under the ground. They wore strings of shell and turquoise around their necks and their arms and their legs. On their heads they wore large caps shaped like shells[57] with turquoise and white shell beads tied to the middle of them. They would crawl through a little hole in their dwelling and come on top of the ground only when the Cliff Dwellers were at war. After the latter were successful the warriors would crawl back under the earth.
The two brothers traveled far to the great ocean of the West, to the home of the Woman Who Changes. She told the brothers that they must get the help of the Flint Knife Woman who lived on the mountain called Tso dzil, that the Flint Knife People were great warriors and would help the two brothers fight the Cliff Dweller People. The brothers journeyed to the home of the Flint Knife People, and they promised to give their two sisters, who were beautiful maidens, to the two warriors who would kill the Great Warrior and his chief.
The brothers and Flint Knife Warriors started out for Kin teel. It was night when they arrived near it. The Flint Knife men made a fire and held a Fire Dance. They used sticks that made a curious whirring sound. "The enemy will see this," said the brothers. "No, for they will believe it to be stars," said the Flint Knife warriors. The next morning they still danced, and the huge fire sent a great smoke cloud into the sky. Again the brothers said: "The Cliff Dwellers will see this." But the Flint Knife warriors answered: "They will think that they see a storm cloud."
Then the two brothers and the Flint Knife warriors went near Kin teel and they fought the Cliff Dwellers. They took many scalps the first day. That night they looked them over, but the scalps of the two great chiefs were not among them. They waited 3 days and they again fought the Cliff Dwellers. Then they waited for 5 days. At this time two old men appeared. They were the Turtle and the Frog.
These two old men went to the water hole or spring where the women came for water. They took stone axes and they killed all the
[57. Recorder's note: This cap is undoubtedly the cap worn by the priests of the bow in Zuñi, as is shown on ceremonial pottery. It is also the old cap of the warriors of the Navaho.]
people who came for water. They took their scalps and they tied them to a pole. (This is the origin of the pole in the Scalp or Squaw Dance which now has branches representing scalps tied to it.) When the Cliff Dwellers learned of the killings at the spring they rushed there and prepared to kill the Turtle and the Frog with their stone axes. "Now they will kill us," said the Frog. The Turtle said: "Be not afraid. Come, get under me." So the Cliff Dwellers struck the Turtle, but their blows glanced off his shell, and they were not harmed.
The Cliff Dwellers said: "Now we will burn them." The Turtle said: "This time they will kill us." But the Frog answered: "Be not afraid." And after they were thrown into the fire the Frog made water and put it out. "We will boil them," said the Cliff Dwellers. They brought out a huge pot and filled it with water. This time it was the Frog who was frightened, but the Turtle reassured him. Arid when they were thrown into the pot the Turtle expanded his shell and cracked the pot and they were free. Finally the Cliff Dwellers decided to drown them. They threw them into the river where they swam off to the opposite shore.
Now when the Brothers and the Flint Knife warriors counted the scalps on the pole which the Frog and the Turtle had made they did not find those of the Great Warrior and his chief among them. So on the seventh day they prepared to attack again.
Then two old men came and sat on a rock One was the old man Bear and the other was the old man Snake. "Where do you come from?" the Flint Knife warriors asked. "I come from the mountains, said the Bear. "I come from the plains," said the Snake.
While the warriors were fighting, the Bear said to the Snake: "Let us look around." So they climbed into the cliff dwelling. Presently they saw coming toward them two creatures crawling on their hands and knees. Taking up a stone, the Bear struck them and killed them. The Snake split their skins and took them, covered as they were with turquoise and shell beads. Then the two old men went back to the rock and waited.
Again when the Flint Knife warriors and the Brothers returned and counted the scalps they did not find those of the Great Warrior and his chief. Then the Bear and the Snake threw the two skins on the ground, and the others saw what they were. They asked who had killed them. "You killed them," said the Bear indicating the Snake. "No, you killed them," returned the Snake.
The Cliff Dwellers cried aloud and wept, as they knew that now they would all die.
The two Brothers were greatly troubled when they thought that they must give their two beautiful sisters to the two old men, the Bear and the Snake, so they stopped many times on their journey to their p. 134 home and held games. Each time they held the games they promised that the winners would have their sisters, and each time the Bear and the Snake won.
At last they came to the place where the two maidens waited. They prepared to give a great Scalp and Squaw Dance. The two maidens were dressed in ceremonial robes; and the warriors of the Flint Knife People were also dressed in ceremonial attire. The brothers said: "Now we will let the maidens choose their own husbands." Soon the dance began and the maidens danced and danced with the young warriors.
Now the two old men, the Bear and the Snake, climbed to the top of a nearby mountain. They bathed and clothed themselves, and they appeared as two handsome young men. They took their pipes and filled them with certain herbs from their medicine bags and began to smoke quietly.
About this same time the maidens grew weary and were covered with sweat. The elder sister said: "Come, let us go apart and bathe." And they went to a little stream, and the elder maiden took the water in her hand and threw it into her mouth, and the younger sister cupped her hand and so drank. After they had bathed and drunk and were refreshed the older sister said: "I smell a sweet odor." "Let us find out what it is," said the younger maiden. And they went in search of the origin of this sweet smoke. They had no idea that it came from the pipes of the Bear and the Snake.
The maidens climbed the mountain, and when they reached the summit they saw the two beautiful youths there smoking. "Where did you come from?" asked the elder maiden. "I came from the mountain," said the Bear. "And I came from the plain," said the Snake. "Give us also something sweet to smoke," said the younger sister. The two youths gave them their pipes, and after a few puffs the maidens fell asleep.
When the maidens awakened they found that they had slept with a Bear and a Snake, for the two creatures lay there beside them.
Being very frightened, the two sisters started to run down the mountain path. "Wait," said the Bear, "if you return your brothers will kill you." So the Bear and the Snake gave the sisters each a basket with feathers tied to the outer rim. "Place the basket on the ground and step into it if you are in trouble or in danger," said the Bear, and the Snake repeated this advice. And so they let the sisters go on their way.
When the sisters came to the place where their two Brothers and the Flint Knife people waited they saw at once that they would be killed. The warriors tied their hands behind them and prepared to beat them to death. The elder sister said: "If we are to die we should be allowed p. 135 to stand in our baskets." And as soon as they stepped in the baskets they disappeared.
Now the two sisters landed on the summit of a mountain. And as soon as they stepped from their baskets, they sent them back to the Bear and the Snake by the Wind. Almost at once they saw the Bear and the Snake coming towards them. "We must separate," they said. The elder sister stayed in the mountain, and the younger sister ran down to the plain. On and on they traveled. They became thin and almost without clothing.[58]
The elder sister came to a great cave, and, being very weary, she wished to enter it. She saw two bears guarding the entrance. They were fierce and she knew that she could not pass. Just then she heard a whistling and she saw a chipmunk. He said: "Follow me." She did this, and he whistled so lively a tune that the two bears listened to him and let her pass. Next they came to a second cave, and guarding the entrance were two dlo'ee, [59] animals with faces like dogs, one was white and one was yellow. The chipmunk whistled his tune again, and again they passed unharmed. The entrance of the third cave was guarded by two cranes, male and female. From there the elder sister and the chipmunk went into the big kiva of the Yei'bichai. Four men and four women in ceremonial robes came forward to meet her. The women took her aside and bathed her; they rubbed her first with cornmeal and then with pollen and she was beautiful. They dressed her in ceremonial robes and led her into a room lined with fur. And there her little baby girl was born. The child had little tufts of hair back of its ears and downy hair on its arms and legs.
After the child was born the Yei instructed the people to give the Mountain Chant.
They all went to the hogan of the old Mountain Woman (which is the mountain near Taos.) There they ate yellow cornmeal. They left the baby in the home of the old Mountain Woman. Then they went to the great flat plain towards Taos, and there they ate white cornmeal. The old Mountain Woman and the Elder Sister, or the Bear Maiden as she was now called, traveled together. A great Squaw Dance was given and the Flint Knife Warriors came. The Turkey Maiden ground the corn into meal while the Squirrel sang and played the flute. The men liked the old Mountain Woman and the Bear Maiden best, because the Turkey Maiden had pimples on her long neck, and the Dove Maiden rolled white lids over her large eyes, and the Rattle Snake Maiden had long, sharp teeth.
[58. Informant's note: From here the narrative follows the Elder Sister. The Younger Sister's adventure is another story.
59. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 84): dlu'i, weasel.]
After that they traveled to the Black Mountain near Ignacio, about 40 miles from Durango--the Turkey Clan lived there. They had snowshoes on their feet, the snow being deep. Here another dance was held. And the old Mountain Woman and the Bear Maiden danced with the young men. Then they took them into the mountain and they either starved to death or sickened and died, having sores on their bodies.
Later the Bear Maiden married a man and lived with him in his hogan. There a son was born. But a famine came and everyone left. The Bear Maiden left the little baby tied on his cradleboard hanging from a beam.
Now an owl flew by and she heard the baby crying. She planned to take the baby home for food for her young. When the owl had carried the baby safely, to the nest he cried so pitifully that she felt sorry for him and she decided to bring him up with her own children. The boy grew rapidly, being half holy or sacred. The owl fashioned a bow for him; and she made arrows, using her own feathers for the shafts. Soon the boy could shoot everything the owl needed for food. Then the owl became frightened and said: "Soon he will kill me and my children. I must kill him." But she had forgotten that she had taught him to understand what the Wind said. Now the Wind had heard her and he told the boy that he must leave the owl and go to his own people. The sticks in the nest told him that he must follow the Mancos River eastward.
The boy started out at once and came to the place of an old campsite. He saw a little burned stick which told him to go on. The next day he came to another campsite, and there a little potsherd told him to go on. Each time he traveled and came to an old camp, something told him to go on: first a little stick, then the piece of a bowl, then an itching on his arm told him, then a hiccup, then a buzzing in his ears, and lastly a tickle in his nose. Finally he came to some hogans. An old man and an old woman were there, and a boy and a girl ran about. But the Owl's Boy as he was now called, thinking that they were strange animals, shot them with his arrows. The people came out of the hogans and chased him, and he fled toward the North.
The Owl's Boy needed more arrows. He cut the branches of the mountain mahogany, tses'gizie,[60] and the chokecherry, did se,[60] for new shafts. And each time he cut a branch there sprang into being a person. Some were male and some were female. Some had red lips and some had blue lips. This was the origin of the No'daa', the Ute tribe. And today, some have red lips and some blue.
Now the boy came to the Montezuma Valley, and an old man, da'sani, the porcupine, saw him, and as the boy was very tired he took him on
[60. Franciscan Fathers (1910): tse'es dasi, mountain mahogany (p. 198); dzidze, chokecherry (p. 197).]
his back to the foot of the mountain called Dzil na'gine.[61] There they entered a hole in the ground. And only just in time, for the warriors were after them and they came and stuck their spears in the hole and almost touched the boy. The old porcupine was so frightened that the boy soon left. But he took with him the old one's medicine which, by its magic, made any burden light to carry.
In his travels the Owl's Boy met the Rat and then the Spider, and he gave them gifts, and they taught him many things. When he was 24 years of age he married the daughter of a great chief and he was known as a medicine man. They had born to them two daughters. Now after the two little girls were born his wife's sister came to live with them. Now this girl he wished to marry and he made a plan.
He pretended to be very ill. He told his wife that be would die. He had them build a frame of four upright poles and poles crosswise on top. Branches were piled on the poles and a fire laid under it. He told his wife to take the three young girls, their two daughters and her sister, and to leave that place after she had lighted the fire. He told her that she must marry her sister to the stranger who would help them. Then he climbed to the top of the structure and lay there, apparently dead. His wife lit the fire, and taking the girls, departed.
But this man rolled off the burning frame and, screened by the smoke, got away. He followed the woman and the girls for about a year. He would kill a deer and eat, and soon he grew healthy and young. He dressed himself in buckskins. He went hunting, and killing a deer he carried it to the woman's camp. They were in need and they gladly accepted the gift. This be did several times, always coming after dark. The woman remembered her husband's words, and she married her young sister to the man. The young wife lived with the man for some time before she discovered that he was her sister's husband. She told the first wife, her sister, who beat him for his wickedness. But after that he lived with them both. When the young wife bore him a son she hid the baby in the bushes. This baby was found by the Bear.[62] [63]
1. With beauty before me,
With beauty behind me,
With beauty above me,
With beauty below me,
With beauty about me,
With sacred pollen the White Bead Woman circles her foot.
With sacred pollen I circle my foot.
[61. Interpreter's note: Dzil na'gine is Sleeping Ute Mountain.
62. Informant's note: The Chant "With Beauty" was sung when this part of the story was told.
63. Recorder's note: The Informant held a short ceremony here. He chanted "With Beauty. . ."]
[The last lines alone change in the verses.]
2. With the sacred pollen the White Bead Woman circles her ankle.
With sacred pollen I circle my ankle.
3. . . . her knee.
With sacred pollen I circle my knee.
4. . . . her thighs.
With sacred pollen I circle my thighs.
5. . . . her breast.
With sacred pollen I circle my breast.
6. . . . her arms.
With sacred pollen I circle my arms.
7. . . . her hands.
With sacred pollen I circle my hands.
8. . . . her head.
With sacred pollen I circle my head.
The younger of the Twin Brothers,[64] the sons of the Man Raised in the Mountain, also traveled over the country as had his elder brother. He was a great hunter and he always carried his bow and arrows. One day, on one of his journeys near Dzil na'odili, he came upon a hogan. He left his bow and arrows on the outside of the dwelling and entered. There sat a beautiful maiden; she was lovely to see. She was making a pretty dress of buckskin and decorating it with porcupine quills. After the youth entered the home he heard someone coming. In came an old man with his bow and arrows in his hand. He said: "My daughter is narrow-minded, son-in-law. My daughter is all alone and she needs male help." Then again the young man heard someone coming. It was the girl's mother. The old man called out to his wife and said: "Your son-in-law is present. Now don't be foolish." So she ran away from the hogan.[65]
Now the old man's name was Tloth ilth ine', One Who Looks at a Fish. He spoke to his son-in-law: "We are a poor family. We have nothing. Let us go out and see what we can find." So just before dawn they went out and they traveled to where people lived near Pueblo Bonito. They sat down, weapons in hand. The old man said: "I will sit here. You go farther on and sit there." It was not long before two beautiful maidens walked toward them. They wore beautiful dresses and had many beads around their necks and earrings in their ears. The maidens did not stop by the youth, but went on to the old man. The old man killed the two girls and took their scalps, their clothing, and their beads. Then he returned to the home.
On the second morning the old man said: "This may be your lucky day, my son-in-law. Let us go out again." They went out as before.
[64. Recorder's note: See p. 126 "The Story of the Flint Knife Boys," etc.
65. Recorder's note: Mother-in-law taboo.]
The old man sat down and the young man went farther on. Again two beautiful maidens came toward them, and again they passed the young man and went on to the old man who killed them and took their belongings.
When they returned the young wife took her husband aside and said: "I will tell you what my father uses. He has a strong medicine. My father has the medicine of the enemies, the medicine from the Giant and the medicine from the Bear. You have nothing. He has the enemy's spinal cord, a short piece, dried, and the enemy's heel cords; and he has the unborn baby. He has all these for his medicine. Go and kill an antelope and also find a gopher heavy with young." The young man went out and did as his wife told him. She took the cord from the antelope, and the unborn from the gopher, and she made them look the same as her father's medicine. She exchanged them for the real medicine which she took home to her husband. Then she taught him the chants which her father used, and the prayers also.
The next morning the old man said: "Son-in-law, let us go out again. It may be your luck this time." The young man said: "Since this is to be my luck I will sit down first and you must go farther on." The young man chanted as his wife had taught him. Then came two beautiful maidens with turquoise beads, earrings, and dresses of beautiful goods. They passed the old man by and came toward him. He killed them and took their scalps, their beads, and their clothes.
Now the old man felt bad because he had lost all of the turquoise. He did not know that his medicine had been changed, and that he carried the imitation medicine.
On the fourth morning again the young man sat down first and the old man went farther on. The young man chanted, and again came two beautiful maidens. They passed by the old man and they came to the young man, who killed them and took their scalps, beads, and clothing. Then the old man came to him and said: "My son-in-law, by what medicine do you do these things?" And the young man answered: "I have nothing." The old man drew his body away from the young man and said: "Without a chant and medicine it is impossible. You alone cannot draw anyone." Now the old man's real medicine which the young man had in his possession was the same medicine with which the old man Bear had drawn the Great Warrior of Aztec and killed him. He took this medicine out and showed it to the old man who examined it closely. He sent for his own medicine. When it was brought to him he laid the articles side by side and said: "They truly look alike." Then he shook them in his hands and took the real medicine himself, but the young man said: "Mine is the oldest because I had the using of the last power. I had the medicine on me." So the young man recovered the real medicine.
After this the young man went after all the enemies he wished to capture. Those that he drew, he killed. Soon his home was full of turquoise, beads, and beautiful goods. But after a while the young man and his wife sickened. The cords of their legs drew up, and their heads ached as did their stomachs. They chanted all the chants that they knew but none helped them. Only Hasjel na' yei nazone,[66] the Black Yei, knew of the proper medicine.
Hasjel na'yei nazone was to he the shaman. The friends of the young man took the skin of a deer not killed by a weapon to the Yei, but he would not look at it. Then the young man sent two buckskins, but the Yei would not accept them. He sent three, four, but Hasjel na'yei nazone would not look at them. Then the same person who told them that Hasjel na'yei nazone would act as shaman came and said: "My children, did you use him?" The young man and his wife both said: "We sent gifts but he would not look at them. We do not understand." So then Dotso, the All-Wise Fly (and here given as the old Man of the Mountain) showed them how to make the medicine stick to take to Hasjel na'yei nazone. They did this, and they took it and presented it to the Yei. Then he asked: "Who thought of the medicine stick?" They said: "We did, ourselves." He said: "No. Only Dotso could have thought of it. He is the only one who knows. Nevertheless I will come tomorrow." They begged him to come that day, but he said: "No. Nothing shall happen. I will come tomorrow."
Then he showed them how to make the jar drum, and what to use. He said that he had his own jar drum and the stick with which to pound it.
The next day he started out. He camped quite a way from the hogan of the young man and his wife, but they could see his fire. Different ones went to him and asked him to come at once; but to them all he said: "No. I will come tomorrow, in the morning."
Now by this time the two were very ill and they needed the Yei immediately. But he kept saying: "I will come tomorrow. Nothing shall happen to them." Then he told the friends of the young man to kill a young buck for him and for his friends. The buck must have two points on his horns. The next morning he arrived, but not before he stopped and demanded his meat.
They brought the deer, which they had killed, to him and there came buzzards, crows, coyotes, wolves, and all the creatures who had eaten the bodies of the enemies. They ate the deer which had been killed.
After this Hasjel na'yei nazone entered the dwelling of the sick couple. And their friends stood outside and beat the drum and
[66. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 44): The Black God or Fire God, Hashchezhini.]
chanted and called out the names of the sick ones, as also the name of Hasjel na'yei nazone. Then others came out and placed beautiful goods, symbolic of the spoils of the enemy, over their shoulders. And inside the dwelling the Yei burned the barks of the piñon and the willow trees, the bladder pod and the sage, and the sheepgrass and the radishgrass. These they burned while Hasjel na'yei nazone chanted and sprinkled the ashes of these plants over the persons of the two sick ones.
Many chants were sung here and during the decorating of the medicine stick (fig. 19). Today the chants are those of the Two Brothers, the twin sons of the Man Who Was Formed in the Earth or Mountain. From the Elder Brother come the Mountain Chant and Dance (the First Mountain Chant comes from way back in the beginning, the Bear being the last to add his medicine to the old ceremony) and the Snake Chant and Dance. From the Younger Brother comes the Summer or
FIGURE 19.--Artifacts used In the Summer, or Scalp, or Squaw Dance and designs on the Medicine Stick. 1, The Rainbow stick to beat the drum with. Today an oak stick is used. The enemy is pounded into the ground symbolically. When the ceremony is over it is straightened out and, with a chant, is taken to the mountains. 2, The jar drum. Inside it are all the sacred waters mixed with the blood or spittle of the enemy. It is covered with skin and tied, with rain strings. 3, Scalp of the monsters. It is behind the stick. 4, The skin of a fawn not killed by a weapon, and two strings. Used as a covering for the jar drum. It has a face, eyes, and mouth. The strings hang down. 5, On the medicine stick: the bow of Hasjel na'yei nazone, the Black Yei. 6, On the medicine stick: an opening in the bow and a little object that represents a knife. 7, The rain, the narrow black streaks of rain. 8, The medicine stick is (was) taken from the root of a reed growing from one bank to another across a stream. Today a cedar stick is used.
Scalp or Squaw Dance (fig. 19) and its chants.[67] From Hasjelti came the Yei'bickai. Hasjelti is the god or Yei of the East or Dawn; Hasjohon is the Yei of the West and Twilight. Yolgai esdzan, the White Bead Woman is Nature or the Mother goddess. These three are the chief actors.
The one who holds the jar drum must stand with her eyes and mouth turned away from the drummer. In the first Dance the Black Cloud was used to cover the jar. Today they use a goatskin. Today, also, they use all kinds and colors of yarns around the sticks carried in the Summer Dance. They used the seeds of the columbine and the seeds of the sweet-smelling grass. They were blown on the medicine stick after it was finished.
Today the Dance is as follows: On the first day the medicine stick is taken to the person representing Hasjel na'yei nazone. They sing and dance all of that night. The second day the person representing Hasjel na'yei nazone goes only part of the way. They sing and dance at the place all of that night. The morning of the third day they come near and make camp not far from the hogan of the sick person. Food is then taken to the party, the gift of the sick person. After they have eaten they go to the hogan. On the fourth and last day, while the visiting party stand outside chanting, the women relatives of the sick person go out and distribute presents such as calico, ribbon, and candy. This is an old custom. (The gifts are given in the spirit of our Christmas gifts.)
To continue the story: at dawn Hasjelti came and sang three chants. There are no words, only the tune. Then came Hash chel bai,[68] the Yei known as the clown, also called Tqo'nenili, the Water Sprinkler. He was the last to sing.
Yo ho, yo ho, ye hi,
Ha'he he, he'a,
He'ya ena.
That was the last chant, and after he had finished singing everyone went his way.
Today the Summer Dance is performed in this manner but without the chants. The ceremony takes 3 days. It is held a second time over a person.
Now after the first ceremony was held over the young man and his wife they recovered. The young man went out again and killed more enemies. After a time again they both sickened. Dotso came and told the young man that when he went out and killed the enemy the blood of the enemy was upon him when he returned to his wife. That
[67. Tozzer (1909), p. 337); Matthews (1394 a, p. 203); Parsons (1919, pp. 465-467) Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 289).
68. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 384): The Water Sprinkler, Tqo nenili, also called the Gray God, Hash chel bai.]
accounted for her illness as well as his. Therefore the ceremony was held a second time.
This second time Hasjel na'yei nazone told them they must use the small branch of the cedar,[69] but it must not have two points at the end. On the east side of the branch, he who cut it must so mark it: there must be drawn a bow with an opening, and a scalp on the opposite side. Then the stick must be painted red. It must then be blackened with the same medicine which they burned. They must blow on it the seeds of the sweet-smelling grass and the columbine. Yam or cotton cloth or red flannel must be tied to the stick, and these must hang down like rain. This medicine stick must be taken to Hasjel na'yei nazone.
But this second time, on the last day, the White Bead Woman came and made the medicine. The herbs she used would heal the patient. She gave a beverage to the young man to drink, but the wife took her medicine outside the dwelling. The Crow stood between them. The Crow represented the third person, and is always shown between a man and his wife. Now after the young man drank the medicine he took a little string from the yucca and drew it away from the tip of his heel. Then he laid it down. He took another and another and drew them, separately, away from all parts of his body. When a medicine man draws the yucca string away from the body of the patient, the Crow, outside, calls, and another medicine man, sitting near where a scalp has been buried, puts ashes over it four times. All this was added to the second ceremony.[70]
Today a wife goes through the same ceremony with her husband. The sick man remains in the hogan. Then they throw over her shoulders the robes, buckskins, belts, long strips of velvet, calico, red flannel, ancient squaw dresses, etc. These are the gifts of the friends and family of the husband. She takes them and gives them to her relatives one by one. She keeps nothing; everything is given to her relatives.
Now after the Great Gambler had been sent up into the sky the Sun wanted the people to know about the medicine that the Gambler had used and had taken up into the sky with him. So he made a plan.
[69. Informant's note: A small branch of cedar is the sign of a medicine man.
70. Informant's note: If a man kills an enemy before his child is born, that enemy's spirit will harm his child afterward. it is said that the scalp, or spirit, of the enemy killed would have this power. If the child becomes ill the ceremony, with its medicine, is held over the child.
Sandoval, the Informant, said that his father had killed an enemy before he was born. When he reached middle age his legs "drew up." He was sick and vomited blood. He could not smell tobacco. This ceremony was held over him and he recovered.
71. Pepper (1909, pp. 178-183).]
There is a place called Gaeye net be'e at the foot of the mountain called Tso dzil, Mount Taylor. At this place there lived a poor woman who worked hard for her living. Now the Sun had visited this woman secretly, and she brought forth a baby boy. After the child was 10 or 12 years of age he ran a race each morning around Tso dzil. He thus became a great runner.
The woman and her son left Gaeye net be'e and went to live at Tse be' an y i, the Place Where Poles Hold up the Rock, Pueblo Bonito.[72] At this place the people had the custom of making many turquoise offerings between the split cliff rocks. The woman discovered this place of offering. She picked up all the pieces of turquoise that she could find, then she went to the people and exchanged them for food. After the second time that she went to them the people began to ask among themselves: "I wonder where the poor beggar woman gets her stones?" Then they guessed that the turquoise must be the offerings made to the rock. They went to the place and found her tracks and where she had picked up the turquoise. When they reported that she had been taking the offerings to the rock, the head of the people decided to kill both the woman and her son. But the two heard of the plan and quickly left that part of the country.
From there they went to a place opposite Farmington. People were living under the big cliff at that time. While they stayed there they lived on what they could find. Some of the people gave them food, but others drove them away and were cruel to them. It was not long before the woman discovered the sacred places where the people made their stone offerings. These offerings she gathered and traded for food. She was caught and the people planned that the two should die. But someone told the woman of the plan that they were both to be killed. The beggar woman called to her son and they left.
They followed a ledge of rock so that their tracks could not be found. They stopped at a place opposite Fruitland and they built themselves a little home there. All around that place the seeds were plentiful. They ate those and once in a while they killed a rabbit or a rat. After a time the people discovered them. They were no longer safe and they left that place. They traveled to the Hog Back Mountains and they built a little house there. (Today they call this place Kinda ligene, the Little Ruin on the Side of a Rock). They made grass mats for the floor and matting to cover themselves with. They also made robes of rabbit and rat fur. These robes were at first small, about the size of a saddle blanket, but later they were larger. By this time the boy had grown into a youth.
They had thought that all was well, but they were discovered again. They left their home and passed Shiprock; they traveled to the other
[72. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 228): Tse biya hania'hi, Pueblo Bonito.]
side of the Carrizos. Today you can see a ruin high up on a rock. It is called Kine'gauge'. It was the house the youth built for his mother. He was a good builder by that time. But soon the seeds from the plants got scarce, and the mother told her son that they must leave and go south of the Carrizos near Beck shi'bi tqo, Cow Springs, were a people lived at a place called Kiet seel.
When they climbed to the top of the mountain called Dzil li'jin, the Black Mountains of Arizona, they came, all of a sudden, upon a man who was gathering wood and wrapping it in a bundle. They frightened the man so that he nearly lost his breath. Now this man was the head or chief of the little village called Kiet seel. The man tied up a bundle of wood for the woman and one for her son, and on the top of each bundle he put some loose pieces. When they reached the village the man collected the loose wood and laid it near his house. He carried the three bundles of wood inside. Then the man brought a quantity of food for the woman and her son. He told them to burn the pieces of wood he had left outside the house that night. They built a fire and ate and lay down and slept.
They were no sooner asleep than some boys, and even grown men and women, came and threw sticks and stones at them. They threw mud and water and ashes. They bothered them all through the night. The next day they prepared to leave, but they returned the wood that they had used, for the mother said: "The man who gave us the food must be a kind man." They brought the wood to the house, but the food that they received was only barely enough. So that night they camped farther away from the house. Again they received cruel treatment at the hands of the people. The next morning they brought more wood, but this time they were given but one piece of food each. That night the same people came and bothered them again. However, the following day they brought more wood to the man's house, but this time they received nothing at all for their work.
They left that place and traveled toward the South to a place called Ya'kin. When they neared this place they came upon a man gathering wood. This man, as had the other one, tied the wood into three bundles and placed loose pieces on the top. He also carried some. That night the mother and her son made their camp outside his house, and they received all that they could eat. But that night the boys came and pulled their hair and burned them with burning sticks. These boys played every mean trick they could think of on the two strangers. At dawn they left them. That day and the following the woman and the youth carried wood to the man's house and received a little food; but on the fourth day no food whatever was given them; and each night they had received wicked treatment.
They left that place and journeyed to a place called O'zeye. Near there they again found a man gathering wood. He seemed very p. 146 pleased to see them. He tied the bundles of wood for them, and the three carried the wood back to the village. They were taken inside the man's house and given lots of food to eat, and even some to carry away with them. They were told to camp outside the house. That night, as in the two other villages, the boys and then the people came and treated them in every cruel way they could think of. The two cried and hugged each other all night long. They carried wood to the man on the second day, and the food they received for their trouble was barely enough. That night they camped at a distance, but the boys found them and teased and tormented them all during the night. The third time that they brought wood they received no food. They camped far away and slept until dawn before the boys found them. Fortunately their wickedness lasted but a short time.
Then they went to a place called Tala hogan.[73] There they made themselves a shelter out of the bark of trees. This time young girls came out each day and teased the mother and her son, saying: "We want a husband to gather wood for us." Now they teased the pair because they were so poor. One girl said: "He is to be my husband." And another: "No, I chose him for my husband first."
To avoid meeting these girls the youth would start out early each morning and hunt for rabbits or rats or whatever he could find. One day when he returned to the shelter his mother told him the following:
I was sitting here today when all of a sudden everything inside our shelter turned white. I looked and someone stood out there. It was a man who asked about you. I told him that you stay away all day because the girls come and tease you. He asked me about our food and about our bedding. I had baked four little seed cakes. I showed him those four and I told him we ate seed cakes and the rabbits you killed. I showed him the woven grass mats which we use for bed and cover. The man then took a piece of the bread and ate it and said: "This is my food also."
The woman continued: "I turned my head for a moment, and the man was gone. But there was only one track outside. The piece of seed cake he bit into is here." The youth told his mother that he did not believe this story. "It is foolish to think that any people as poor as we are would be visited by a Holy Being. It is you who have bitten the bread and made the track."
The next morning the youth went away as usual. That night when he returned his mother told him that at noon that day she had again seen the Holy Person, and that he was a handsome man. "This time he ate half the bread cake. I looked away for a moment and he was gone. I ran outside and looked about, but I saw only two tracks in the sand." Then the youth told his mother that she had eaten the cake and made the tracks.
[72. Fewkes (1898, pp. 527, 595-603). Brew (1949, p. 22): "There is also a Navajo name for the town. . . Talla Hogan, Talla Hogandi, Tally Hogan."]
The third day the youth went hunting as usual, and in the evening, when he returned to his home, his mother told him the same story. But this time the man ate almost the whole seed cake, and there were three tracks outside.
The fourth morning the youth left again. When he returned his mother told him that she had again seen the Holy Man. And that this time he had eaten the whole piece of bread. "And this is what the man told me, my son: he wants you to wash your hair in the morning, and to bathe your whole body, drying yourself with cornmeal and pollen. Then you are to get some water in the jar, and sit beside it in the shelter. You are to sit there and keep looking into the water. After he had departed there were four foot prints outside."
The next morning the young man did all that his mother had told him to do. She sat beside him looking into the jar filled with water. He became restless and doubted her. She said: "Son, the Sun is at noon."
At that moment all outside and inside the shelter turned white. In the midst of the glow there stood a young man. This Holy Being told the woman that he was going to take his younger brother, her son, but that he would return. The poor mother said: "No, you cannot take my child. He is all that I have in this world, and I would starve to death without him." The mother was asked to let her son go four times. Then the youth said: "Let me go, mother. Did you not hear him say that I would come back to you?" So the woman gave her consent.
A white rainbow flashed to the youth's feet, and the Holy Being told him to raise his right foot. With the first step they were on top of the mountain called Sis jin de'lea. The second step brought them to Natsi'lid be'tqo, Rainbow Springs. From there they went to Bitda'ho chee, Red Mountain, then to the top of Tqo jin whee tsa. There they stepped into a house whose first room was filled with trash. They entered another room and someone called out: "Um-m-m, I smell earthly people." And this person added: "The fool-hearted youth must be bringing someone home." When the two young men got to the fourth room they saw a man, a woman, and a girl. They were called Tqo jin whee tsa hastin, Tqo jin whee tsa esdzan, and Tqo jin whee tsa chike'. They were the people of the mountain, the man and his wife and daughter.
They washed the youth, and the maiden gave him a white bead basket. He was washed four times. He was also given a turquoise basket, a white shell basket, and a black jet basket. And each time that he was washed he was dried with corn pollen. Then he was trimmed and formed like the maiden herself. She put her head p. 148 beside his and he was formed like her, all except the feet. He had big feet.
Then the Sun came.
Now the Man of the Mountain wanted to dress the youth, and his wife wanted to dress him. But the Sun said: "No, he is my son, and I will dress him myself." Then the White Bead Woman came, and she said: "If he is the son of the Sun he is my son also. I will dress him myself." The four Holy Beings had different minds. Their thoughts were changeable. There are four sections to the chant sung while he was being dressed by the White Bead Woman.
The White Bead Woman's Chant
She dressed me with her white bead moccasins.
She dressed me with her white bead leggings.
She dressed me with her white bead garment.
She dressed me with her white bead bracelets.
She dressed me with her white bead earrings.
She dressed me with the perfect white bead called ha'da tehe which she had on her forehead.
She dressed me with the perfect crystals of pollen, the beautiful goods pollen, which were her words
And with which I can call for beautiful goods and pollen and they will come at my word.
She dressed me with the turquoise feather
On top of which sat the blue bird with his beautiful song.
I am dressed like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
All is beautiful before me.
All is beautiful behind me.
All is beautiful around me.
All is beautiful everywhere.
This chant is repeated, and then sung twice with this difference: "I am all dressed. . . ." instead of "She dressed me. . . ."
After this the Sun and the White Bead Woman returned to their home.
The Man of the Mountain gave the youth blue gum,[74] and he gathered four herbs for his medicine. From the east side he gathered a plant called tlo cho ae tso[75] which had black flowers. From the south side he got a plant called cholchin ilt ai,[76] which had white flowers. The plant from the west was called aze bi'ni i,[77] medicine of the mind.
[74. Informant's note: The powdered petals of a flower are used with pinon gum to make blue gum.
Matthews (1986, pp. 767-777): tha'di'thee do tlij', blue sacred powder, Delphinium scaposum Greene.
75. Informant's note: Tlo che whee tso is a small mountain below San Francisco Peak where these plants grow.
Matthews (1886, pp. 767-777): tlo ta hi tso, great tlo ta hi, Chenopodium album.
76. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 73): cho'hojilyai, Jimson weed, thornapple, Datura stramonium.
77. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 44): aze bi'ni i, medicine of the mind, in reference to its bewitching effects. Akin to locoweed.]
It is a very poisonous medicine herb which is said to make them insane. It is akin to locoweed. The plant from the north is called aze tlo' hi;[78] this plant had yellow flowers. The flowers from the north had their mouths open, and if touched they laughed. It was called the laughing medicine. It was the medicine the Gambler had used, as were the others. The youth now learned the chants the Gambler had used. After that the Mountain Man got pieces of all the beautiful goods which were inside the mountain, and he tied them in a little bundle and gave them to the youth. All the trash that he had seen on entering the first room was now piles of beautiful goods and food. The youth was then told that he must climb to the top of the mountain called Dzil nit chee, Red Side Mountain; there he must shoot an arrow into a deer bush, into four different bushes eaten by deer. This he did. He was instructed to draw the arrows out of the bushes and to place them pointing back to the place he had come from. This was the price he had to pay for learning the chants and for the medicine.
From Red Side Mountain the Rainbow carried him back to the doorway of his mother's home. When he entered the dwelling she ran out; she looked about but saw no one else. Then the old woman grabbed him and said: "What have you done with my son? Did I not tell you that you would take him away from me? Where is he?" The young man said: "Mother, it is I." She did not hear or understand, and she asked the same question, shaking him. She did this four times, becoming more and more excited. The young man said: "Mother, don't you hear? I am your son." Then she fixed her eyes and looked long at him. He had changed, he was different. His hair fell to his ankles. She asked again four times if he was indeed her son.
The youth chanted the chants that he had learned and he chewed the blue gum, and he blew to the East, South, West and North, and they found themselves in a home like the home of the Mountain Man. Then he heard the maidens coming for their wood. When they opened the door of the house he blew toward them with the blue gum and they all fell back. He heard them whispering about all the beautiful things that they had seen inside his dwelling. He went out and led them to the forest; and he cut wood until each had her load. They carried the wood home, and they were ashamed of themselves, but also glad that he had helped them.
The chief of the village had two daughters. Their names were To chine'e and O chine'e. These maidens were well guarded and their father kept watch over them. The elder daughter went to the spring
[78. Matthews (1886, pp. 767-777): a zay tlo ee, medicine hay, Arenaria aculeata. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 45): aze tlo'hi, bluegrass, Sysyrinchium mucronatum.]
for water early in the morning. Now each time the maidens went to the spring, when they returned their father asked them to make water. So early one morning the young man went to the spring and waited for the elder sister. She came, but she did not look at the young man while she filled her water jar. The young man asked her for a drink and she filled a dipper from the spring and gave it to him. "No," said the young man, "I want the water from your jar." She threw the dipperful away and dipped out the water from her jar and gave it to the young man without looking up. He drank some of the water and threw the rest on her. She brushed the water from her clothing without looking up. Then she began to fill the water jar, but he blew with the gum on the jar and it tipped over. She filled it a second time, and she filled it a third time, and then she looked up and just a little smile came to her lips. She filled the water jar a fourth time, but he blew on it with the gum and it tipped over. After that she smiled and said: "How do you do this?" And he said as he gave her a piece of the gum: "This is how I do it." She put the gum in her mouth. She filled her water jar and blew and it tipped over. She did this a second time. Then she let the young man become her husband.
After that she returned home and her father told her to make water. When he saw that she had been visited by a man he went to the spring, and he measured the man's foot track with a stick. He called all the men of the village together and measured their feet. Every measurement of the men's feet were short by a long way. He next went to the neighboring villages and measured the men's feet; he even traveled a long way from where they lived, but all the men's feet were smaller. He returned to his home and he wondered whose foot track he had measured.
Now the Little Breeze told the young man that the father would never guess where to go after he got home. So the young man used the chant, that he had learned, that drew people, and then the father remembered the son of the poor woman. The Little Breeze told the young man that the father was coming, and he chanted until the father came to the door. The father entered and sat down, and the young man lay on his back. The father measured the young man's foot, and the size was exactly that of the stick. The father said: "My son-in-law, do you know that you are an expectant father?" He told the young man that his daughter was soon to have a baby.
When the father returned to his home in the village he saw that many people were about his house getting ready for the birth of the baby. A baby boy was born. And the people made ready to carry the baby and gifts to the young man. They carried a basket filled with meal. They chanted many chants as they walked, and the songs that they sang at that time are the songs that should be sung during the birth of p. 151 a child. When the people were near the young man's home they wrestled with each other and laughed. The baby was brought into the house and placed on the young man's lap. Then they washed the baby.
The words of the chant that they sang are these:
I am the Sun's son, into my hands he is given.
I am the Sun's son, Into my hand he comes.
He has for his moccasins the turquoise moccasins, into my hand he comes.
He has for his leggings the turquoise leggings, etc.
He has for his garment the turquoise garment, etc.
He has for his earrings the turquoise earrings, etc.
A perfect turquoise is placed on his forehead, it comes to my hand.
He has for his feather the turquoise feather, it comes to my hand.
He is the turquoise boy and he comes to my hand.
Nothing can harm him as he comes to my hand.
Like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful he comes to my hand.
For all is beautiful before, behind, above and below, and it comes to my hand.[79]
The people gave their gifts to the young man, and they brought his wife to him. The young man, in his turn, gave them gifts of venison. They carried home a quantity of meat. After the people left they found that they had brought the younger sister also to be his wife. He had a baby and two wives. He went to the home of his father-in-law. There he was given a longhouse. His mother remained behind where they had lived. There also remained all the beautiful goods.
The next morning he drew a woman with his chant. She gave him her leg wrapping, and he told her that she would see old age. He made a beda[80] like an antelope. The young man laced it with the woman's leg wrapping. Early the following morning he got up and counted the doorways of all the houses in the village, then he went to where there was a herd of antelope. He could do this, for he wore the beda that he had made over him. He killed as many antelope as there were doorways. When he returned home he told the people that one man from each doorway should go out and carry home an antelope. When they brought the meat home, the people said: "Our son-in-law is very great. He must have two longhouses."
The next morning he went out and killed two antelope for each doorway; and he told the people to send two men from each doorway to bring home the meat. He was given three longhouses.
On the third morning he killed three antelope for each doorway. And when he returned to the village he told the people to send three men from each dwelling. He received four longhouses. The fourth day he killed four antelope for each doorway, and four men from each house went out for them. He was given five longhouses. Then all
[79. Informant's note: This is the song that is sung as they wash the baby; but not all know about it.
80. Recorder's note: A beda consists of the head and hide of an animal. It is explained in the second hunting story.]
the people said: "Our son-in-law is very great. We will have plenty of meat.
On the fifth day San'hode'di', the Beggar's son, set out for the home of the Mountain People called Tqo che o whee tso. He started to hunt, as before, but when he neared an antelope herd, a coyote hit him with his hide and blew four times upon him. The coyote then took his beda, the antelope headdress, and placed it on his own head. He went away after the antelope, while the poor young man was left behind in the form of a skinny coyote.
Now the coyote was unable to kill one antelope, even with the beda. He took the discharge from his eyes and laid it in a row and stepped over it four times and it turned into fat. This he took to the two young wives. But the younger of the two sisters told the elder that the man who came to them was not their husband.
The Beggar's son in the coyote's skin turned to the East and lay that night under a cedar tree.[81] He ate the berries of the cedar tree. The second night he traveled to the South and he laid under the bush called kin jilth ie'[82] and he ate its berries. The third night he went to the West and he stayed under an iron bush.[83] Its berries are called maida to this day because he ate them. He traveled to the North on the fourth day, and he lay under a wild-rose bush[84] that night, and he ate its berries.
After the fourth day he went out and fell down for he was almost dead by that time. Now the person called Dotso went to the place called Tqo che o whee tso and told the people living there that the young man had been hit by the coyote's hide, and that he lay in the open almost dead. Then the same Holy Young Man, who had called him brother in his mother's home, went to him. When he found the skinny coyote, he said: "What are you doing here, Tqo che o whee tso tsel kee?" The poor coyote got to his feet and tried to say something, but all he could do was howl like a coyote. Then his "brother" made a ring out of a young cedar, big enough so that he could push the coyote through it. When he pushed the coyote through the cedar ring the skin ripped open and the head of the young man could be seen. Then the Holy Being made a ring out of the bush called kin jilth ie and the hide fell down and exposed half of the young man's body. The third ring was made from the iron bush, and after it was passed over the young man the skin fell down to his knees. The fourth time the ring was made from the wild-rose bush, and this freed the young man.
[81. Informant's note: The berries of the cedar tree are called dit tse.
82. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 198) kinjil'ahi, currant, Purshia tridentata.
83. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 198) ma'ida, coyote food, or iron bush, the wild cherry, Prunus demisa.
84. Franciscan Fathers (1910), p. 197): cho, or chu, the wild rose, Rosa fendleri.]
Now all this took place in order that the people might have medicine for another wrong that they would do. The Beggar's son was instructed about this thing. In cases where a brother and sister cohabit one or both persons will sicken. They usually become mad. There are several sicknesses, however, that come from this. It was necessary for the Beggar's son to go through this black magic transformation so that he could make known the medicine. There is a certain kind of plant,[85] with pretty flowers, that attracts both moths and butterflies. They fall dead if they light on it.
While the young man was being told what should take place in the ceremony by the Holy Being they saw the coyote with the beda going by. So the young man was told to go and hit him with his own hide and to blow four times upon him. This he did and the creature resumed his true form. The headdress, however, was an awful looking thing, for the hide had spoiled it. But the young man, even so, was able to kill one antelope before going home.
On the way he met a little creature coming out of the ground. This person said: "I saw that you had a hard time." The young man answered: "I had a hard time of it, Grandfather." The person said: "You were given power from the Sun and the White Bead Woman, and also from Tqo che o whee tso hastin, the Mountain Man; but there are one or two things that they did not tell you. That is why you have had all this trouble. Come home with me." He raised a greasewood bush and blew four times into the hole, and they went down into the opening.
Now this person told the young man that he had heard that the Earth People's tobacco was very sweet and he longed to taste it. So he rolled four cigarettes made from the young man's tobacco, and each time he smoked one he killed little animals and brought them back to life. He said: "I see, my Grandson, your tobacco is very good." He then told the young man of the ceremony that was not before made known to him. He taught him all the chants and what was to be done. After this the person wanted a gift, so the young man gave him the antelope hide. He put it over the little creature and blew four times over him, and it became his coat. He is known as ha zeylth gaeye,[86] the ground squirrel. He was well pleased.
There was in this ceremony, the young man learned, a prayer from the East, a prayer to begin way in the East and come home. It is called
[85. Informant's note: His father showed this plant to him. It was large and covered with many flowers of different shades of purple color. Around it lay dead moths and butterflies.
Recorder's note: The Hopi call it the butterfly flower because it attracts them. The Navaho name is chil aghani, poison weed.
Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 72): chil agha'ni, killing plant, fatal to flies, moths, etc.
86. Interpreter's note: Ha zelyth gaeye is a member of the chipmunk family.
Franciscan Fathers(1912, p. 188): hazai, or tsidit i'ni, the rock or ground squirrel.]
tche'whee a te'he'. This prayer is told from the East, from the home of the four plants of Tqo che o whee tso. It is also told from the South home, from the West home, and from the North home; but it is called "From the East back to the home of the Tqo che o whee tso people and the four plants." They say that it comes from the South, from the home built with cholchin ilt a'i;[87] from the West it is from the home built with aze bi'ni i;[88] from the North it is from the home built with aze tlo'hi,[89] the laughing medicine. This was the prayer of the White Bead Girl, and this prayer is very long. This prayer was given by the White Bead Girl herself and was to be used for any person who became possessed or insane. It was also to be used over any young man or woman who became mad over drink, gambling, or sex. They were the medicines of the Great Gambler, and had only now been made known to the young man. They were the medicines that the Great Gambler had used against the people.
Then the Beggar's son went to a place called Tse jinjede lia. At this place he went through another prayer ceremony. It is called the prayer of the Turquoise Boy, Des chee del ja. It was the Turquoise Boy himself who gave it to the young man for his protection.
Then the young man was made so that nothing in heaven or on earth could harm him, and he was ready to return to his home.[90]
When San'hode'di' begaeye returned to his home the younger sister recognized him and said: "Did I not tell you that the other person was not our husband? And you answered me and said that there was no other person like him." His father-in-law came out and said: "Did I not tell you that that person (the coyote) ate a whole lot more than my son-in-law?" The father of the two women commanded that the children begotten by the coyote should be killed, but the young man said: "No." They took them down to a place called Tqo che eko, and they became little animals somewhat like a coyote, but with black faces, short tails, webbed feet, and they climbed trees. They lived along the water and were called tapan mai, along-the-shore or water-edge coyote.[91]
By this time the son, San'hode'di's first-born, was a youth. The Beggar's Son called to the youth and said: "Come here, my son, and stand before me. You will now go to the mountain called Taho chee, and you will live there. You will be over all the game. And because of you the People of the Earth will have game forever." When he began his chanting his son started out on his journey. He went first
[87. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 189): cholehinilt'ai, Geranium incisum.
88. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 44): aze bi'ni i, medicine of the mind, akin to locoweed.
89. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 184): aze tlo'hi, sandwort, Arenaria aculeata.
90. Informant's note: There are some medicine men who specialize in these ceremonies. They know all of the chants and prayers.
91. Informant's note: There is a saying among Navaho men that if a man marries a girl not a virgin, "The young man has gotten a coyote."]
to Rainbow Springs, and he circled the springs four times as the Sun travels. Then the antelope of the plains came and circled around the youth. After this he ran ahead of the antelope and they all went to the mountain that San'hode'di' had told his son about, and they all disappeared out of sight into the mountain.
The Beggar's Son then went to his mother's home. His two wives wished to go with him but he told them that they were to remain in the village. However, after he left, they said: "We have nothing to do here now. We will follow him." So they trailed behind him until they reached his mother's house. Once there, by his magic, he gathered all the beautiful goods together and made them into a small bundle which he put in his bag. Then the four started out. They visited all the places where the beggar woman and her son had received ill treatment. Now in every village where the men and the boys had treated them badly the Beggar's Son took their wives. This was done to get even with them. When they arrived at a place at the mouth of Tse gee (Sage) Canyon they found that his two wives had worn out their moccasins. There was a small rock at this place. He stood the two sisters on top of it side by side. He placed his flute on their feet, but first he made their footprints on the rock. Then he began to chant. In this way he sent them back to their father's house on the flute, and the flute returned to him.
Now he built a house up in the canyon, and the two lived there, the man and his mother. The house which he built is called Kin'nee nii gaeye, the house with the white bands.[92] At first he called his mother "Mother," but as he was a Holy Being and remained young and she grew old, he called her "Grandmother." The woman said "My son," then she said "My grandson."
During the time that the Beggar Woman and her son lived in the house in the side of the cliff San'hode'di' begaeye went out each day to the people of the canyon who had been cruel to them, and he visited all their wives. Then he told his mother that they would return to all the other places where they had been ill treated. They left their house and followed the top of the canyon. They crossed the head of the canyon called Tse he'lain and traveled to a place called Tsin tlo heyan', and from there they went to a place called To'jo'hogan. While they were camping at this place for the night, a little dog came near them. He
[92. Informant's note: He said that he had seen this ruin once. It is now known as White House in the Canyon de Chelly. A very long time ago he went to see a regiment marching through the Reservation. They marched up Tse gee Canyon and camped there. When he (Sandoval) reached the camp the chief officer decided to go up the canyon and look around. The White House was way up In the side of the cliff. It had a white center band around the house, and yellow above it. They tied two poles together and the officer climbed to the first ledge. The officer threw a lariat over a pole sticking out of the house. The officer climbed to the ruin and was there a long time. When he come down he asked who had built the house. Sandoval knew that this was the place where the Two had made their home. He had heard that the footprints were there, but he did not see them.]
was a pretty little dog, black with brown legs and brown around the eyes. Each time that the man tried to catch the little animal he ran away. The next morning the man went after him, but he jumped just when he was about to be caught. That night when the little dog came into camp again the man tried to catch him; and all the next day the dog managed to stay only a little way ahead of the man. He would jump for the dog, but the dog would always run. In this way the dog led him to a lake called Tqo' del tqo'.[93] When they got near this lake the dog ran and jumped into the water. And the man saw the water rise up into the air. Then he ran, just as fast as he could, back on his own tracks. Just as he reached the summit of a hill near the lake the water fell just behind him. And the water ran back into the lake. When he returned to his mother he said: "Mother, Grandmother, the dog was from the lake called Tqo' del tqo'. The water nearly caught me. The water is cruel there."
From there they traveled over the pass called Besh el chee'beage.[94] They went from there to a place called Cha bin i'ee, Beavers' Eyes. There is another lake there, and in it lived the Water Buffalo. When they neared this lake the water rose again, but they ran to safety. The water hit the ground just behind them. They left there and went to a place called Whee cha'. They camped on a little hill. They planted the turquoise walking stick on the East side; a white bead walking stick on the South side; a white shell walking stick on the West side; and a black jet walking stick on the North side. That night, near their camp, they heard chanting and the sound of a basket being pounded. They listened. These were the words of the chant:
I am the White Corn Boy.
I walk in sight of my home.
I walk in plain sight of my home.
I walk on the straight path which is towards my home.
I walk to the entrance of my home.
I arrive at the beautiful goods curtain which hangs at the doorway.
I arrive at the entrance of my home.
I am in the middle of my home.
I am at the back of my home.
I am on top of the pollen foot print.
I am on top of the pollen seed print.
I am like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
Before me it is beautiful,
Behind me it is beautiful,
Under me it is beautiful,
Above me it is beautiful,
All around me it is beautiful.
[93. Informant's note: Tqo' del tqo' is near Crystal, N. Mex. It is now a dry lake. The bank broke a few years ago (1936).
94. Recorder's note: The road near Drolet's Trading Post, and over the mountain to Crystal, N. Mex.]
The man planted a forked stick to see where the chant came from. He went to the place and found one kernel of white corn. He planted that kernel and it grew. With four chants he started it, before he prayed. He planted it in the center of a flat clearing, and it grew up before him. On his right side grow six white ears standing up. On his left grew six yellow ears standing up. There were 12 ears on the one cornstalk. Then he cut those ears and husked them, the white corn alone, and the yellow corn alone.
In the center of the field he planted the white corn by itself, and he planted the yellow corn by itself. Then he heard people there, and some were laughing. The next morning he saw that the whole field had been planted in corn, and some of the kernels were split open. It grew that way because of the laughing of the planters. On top of the cornstalks and on each side there were ears covered with kernels to the tip. Do'honot i'ni they were called. Then on one side was an ear split into five parts, and each little cob was covered with kernels, and it was called nadan tlane'.
The hill called To whee cha' was to be a sacred hill, and the people were to pray from the top of it from time to time. The Beggar's Son left his mother there with all their beautiful goods and the corn. He left her and he traveled to the place under the high rock across the river from Farmington. There he got even with all the men who had been cruel to them. He visited their wives.
From there he went to a place called Be'he'kitna'ha tzis, a lake hollow. He made little snares with his hair to catch the little gray birds which are to be found on the plains. These birds are called ga'tet lo'he.[95] When he caught a number of them he strung them together and roasted them for his meat.
San'hode'di heard that there were two maidens in the village of Ken tiel who were guarded. These maidens were sacred.[97] All the young men who came as suitors were sent away. The Beggar's Son said to himself: "So the young maidens will say: 'Eat my brains.'" He went to the top of the hill and he saw many people from the village gathering wood. Holding the flowers from the plant of many different colors before him he sang three sections of a chant. The first part is this:
When I arrived
I had in my hand these many colored flowers.
I am To che o whee tso dzil kin schleen young man.
[95. Pepper (1908, pp. 178, 181) calls them prairie larks.
96. Pepper (1908, pp. 178, 179, 180).
97. Informant's note: These maidens were called Do'bede klad, Not Shone On By The Sun.]
Now when they look my way
Their eyesight will hold different colors.
The reddest circle of the Sun is my feather.
All the Sun's circles surround me.
The Sun's pollen covers my body.
To che whee tso's pollen covers my body.
The Earth-Traveling-Laughing-Being,
My feather's pollen, affects the mind.
My feather is looked at and is seen as beautiful.
All the beautiful goods in the home are in my hand.
(There are three sections of this chant.)
In the coat of the bluebird, San'hode' di flew over the people. Then he put on the feathers of the rock wren and went to all the houses. Then in the form of another little rock bird he went, and this time he flew to the opening in the roof of the house where the two maidens sat. The hole in the roof was for the purpose of letting sunlight into the dwelling.
(There are chants to tell just how he entered.)
He looked down through the opening and saw that the two maidens were sitting facing each other with their legs together. They were trimming a dress made from the skin of an antelope. Their legs were as shown in figure[20]. The skin was spread across their knees.
FIGURE 20.--Position of maidens' legs.
The man laughed, and the younger of the maidens said: "What a beautiful laugh!"
(Here the chant continues.)
The young man said: "What a beautiful laugh down below." And he named the one who had laughed. Then the two maidens looked up to where they had heard his laughter, and he told them his name and that he had laughed.
After this he stepped into the form called ho no gaille,[98] the butterfly. It was a large one with many beautiful colors. He sat between the two maidens. The elder said: "Sister, what a beautiful thing has come to us. Look at all the beautiful colors. Right there is our design. We will use it for our pattern." The younger sister said: "No. Leave it alone. It might not be good for us."
[98. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 45): kalu'gi, small butterfly; kalugi ya'zhe, large butterfly.]
(Here the chant begins with: "Sister, what a beautiful thing has come to us.")
The sisters tried to catch the butterfly. He flew this way and that, and all the beautiful coloring, the dust from his wings, filled the room. The maidens stumbled over their water jar and over their food in their effort to catch him. He flew through a crack in the door, and out they came after him.
She ta'ge, younger sister,
Lo la he'he, lo la he'.
The maidens ran outside and looked all about for the butterfly, but he had disappeared. A little yellow bird passed them and they ran after it. The little yellow bird hopped here and there in the pumpkin field.
The elder sister felt very had because the butterfly had gone. She was very sorrowful. So San hode'di left the form of the yellow bird and entered the form of another insect. This insect is called alt'an e, the ripener. It is small and greenish in color and looks somewhat like the locust when it is still in the ground. This insect sings a pretty song: "Tlo-o-o-o-o-o," in a high key.
(There are two sections of a chant here.)
The two maidens tried to catch this beautiful little insect. When they were among the pumpkin vines San'hode'di resumed his own form and stood up. The maidens felt ashamed and stood there looking down and twisting their bodies and feet, for he had asked them why they had followed him.
The elder sister turned to the younger and said: "Sister, let us go back." But the younger sister said that she had advised leaving the butterfly alone in the first place. "But now that we are here," she said, "we will stay and see what comes of it."
The man took the two maidens to his camp. He fed them the meat of the little birds he had caught with his own hair. When the elder sister tasted the meat of the birds she spit it out. The younger tasted the meat of the birds and swallowed it. She told her sister that it was not bad.
That night the two maidens sat down and slept hugging each other. The man jumped into the water and rolled in the feathers from the little birds and slept that way. He told the maidens that that was how he lived. He said that they had made a sorry mistake coming after him.
In the morning he started out for his mother's home. Before leaving he told the maidens that, should they wish to catch birds, by no means to break the hair snares. But when they caught a bird the hair tangled and the snare broke. And San'hode'di got soaked with the rain that poured down on him. When he returned to his camp he p. 160 found the maidens cold and hungry. He told them that it was because they had had no fears that they were out there.
On the fourth night he lay with each of the maidens. And on that night he chewed his blue gum and he sang his chant. He blew to the four directions, and at once he had a beautiful home with all the beautiful goods inside it. He covered both girls with beautiful robes. Men the elder sister awakened she did not know where she was. She shook her sister and said: "Sister, look where we are. We are in a home now, a home better than our old home ever was."
San'hode'di told the maidens that they should return to their own home, for their father was cruel and so was their mother. He gave the elder sister the feather that had come from the Sun's mother; and he gave to the younger sister the top of the cattail rush. He told them that if they were in trouble they should use those two things."
He placed the two sisters on the rainbow and they found themselves standing in the center of the courtyard back of their house. But before they started out they asked themselves where they should place the feather and the cattail rush. One suggested that they place them in their hair. The other thought that the place to hide them should be their moccasins. The sisters knew that when they returned to their home they would be stripped of their clothing and punished. So the last thing they decided upon was to hold their treasures under their arms.
When the maidens were discovered in the courtyard out came everyone on the housetops. They noticed that the men brought bundles of willow switches. The sisters were stripped of all their beautiful clothing, not a stitch was left on them, and they were made to march around a circle of men. These men held the switches and they hit the sisters whenever they wished to do so. The sisters walked around the circle twice, and toward the end of the third time they could stand no more. The elder sister cried out: "Sister, where are our feather and cattail rush?" The younger sister threw down the cattail rush and blew four times at the people. Immediately they found themselves standing before San'hode'di in his home.
He was sorry that he had let them return and suffer such punishment. So he shot his arrow toward the village and down poured the rain and it thundered and the lightning destroyed all the people. However, his wives told him that, even though they had suffered, they were sorry for their people; so the man went to the village and made a certain medicine which restored the people to life. Then the chief, the father of the two sisters, said: "My son-in-law, you have strong medicine. You are a great man. All the houses are yours."
[99. Recorder's note: Pepper (1908, pp. 182-188) gives hailstones.]
But San'hode'di lived at his home with his wives. He came to the village only now and then. Now one day when the three had been to the village and were on their way home, he sent his two wives ahead, and he went to see his mother, using the rainbow path. When he saw his mother the first thing that she asked him was: "Son, where are your wives?"[100] The young man said: "Mother, I sent my young wives home from the village." His mother told him: "Quick, quick, my son, the White Butterfly will steal your wives if you are not careful."
San'hode'di returned to his home, but his wives were not there. He went at once to the place on the trail where he had left them. There he saw three tracks going East. He saw, too, that the three had kicked off the flowers along the way. He followed after the three until he came to the edge of the water. There he noticed a little home on one side. Smoke was coming out of the top of the home. An aged, red woman, the Spider Woman, came out and asked the young man what he was doing there. He told her that his wives had been stolen and that he was on their track. The Spider Woman said: "It was not long ago that I saw the White Butterfly with two beautiful maidens." The young man was about to start out again when the old woman said: "My son, the White Butterfly is dangerous. You cannot go to his place." But the young man said: "I will follow him; and I will eat his brains when I find him."
The young man ran on and he came upon a man hoeing in a garden. This was the old Frog Man who said: "Where are you going, Grandchild?" The young man said: "My wives have been stolen and I am on their track." The Frog said: "It has not been long, my grandson, since the White Butterfly passed here with two beautiful maidens."
Then the young man wondered and looked at the Frog Man and thought: "What a funny leg he has." The Frog answered though the young man had not spoken a word: "Yes, Grandson, I have a funny leg, and rough, isn't it?" Then the young man thought: "What funny eyes he has, popping out they are." And the Frog said: "Yes, Grandchild, I have funny popped-out eyes." Then the young man thought: "What funny humps all over his body." And the Frog said: "Yes, my Grandson, my body is covered with these funny things." And he continued: "Come inside, my Grandchild. The White Butterfly's home is a dangerous place. I will ask your father first to make all the sacred places known to you. Give me the thing you travel by, the rainbow path."
So San'hode'di let the Frog have the rainbow, and the old man just seemed to walk out of his home and come back. The young man asked: "I thought that you were going to take my story to my father."
[100. Informant's note: Whenever San'hode'di returned to his mother's home and addressed her as "Grandmother," he became a young man again.]
The Frog said: "Yes, yes, Grandchild, every place is made known. Your Father and the rest of the Holy Beings said that it was time for the White Butterfly to die. You see I sent word with the sunbeam."
The young man was about to start off. "I will go now, Grandfather," he said. "Hold on", said the Frog. "Who will you make medicine to now? The Sun has set." The Frog had shortened the day.
There was nothing to do but spend the night with the old Frog Man. The next morning the Spider Woman, who had received a gift from the young man, brought her two daughters and all the people from the sacred places to the Frog's garden. The Wind had blown over the White Butterfly and he told them just how the White Butterfly was dressed. He had for his headdress a hummingbird plant which was covered with red flowers and a lot of hummingbirds. So they made one like it for the young man. Then the Spider Woman blew her web across the water and the people crossed over on it. The Wind blew and the people outside the village had their eyes filled with dust. So they were on the land of the White Butterfly before he knew it. They chanted against the White Butterfly so that when they reached his home the flowers on his headdress had wilted and the hummingbirds were almost dead. But the flowers on the young man's headdress were blooming and the humming birds were humming and he looked his best.
One of San'hode'di's wives was grinding corn. She was the younger sister and she looked up with tears in her eyes and said: "Did I not tell you that this person (the White Butterfly) was not our husband. There is our husband who has come for us. You have thought that there was no one like the White Butterfly."
It was decided that San'hode'di and the White Butterfly should go through the same games that the Great Gambler used. And the young man won each of the games. The bat was used again at the first. All was the same except the guessing game of the water jars. That was not there. The last thing was the foot race.
When the ram started the White Butterfly was ahead four different times. He had with him the weapon like the one carried by the Great Gambler. He threw it but missed the young man four times. Then, believing that he had harmed the young man, he sprinted ahead and told him that it was his last race, and to take his time. But the young man had recovered the weapon and he shot the black magic of the White Butterfly back into his body. This stiffened the White Butterfly and slowed up his pace so that the young man passed him and finished the race first. All the party of his friends were dancing and singing. The people of the White Butterfly were weeping.
Now when the White Butterfly came in he brought forth his ax. He told the young man to kill him while he was still warm. The young man stepped forward with his own weapon and split the head of the White Butterfly in two. Instead of brains his head was filled with all different colored butterflies, and out they flew. The young man caught one, and holding it in his hand he said: "Though you came out of the head of the White Butterfly you will not enter the brain of a man hereafter. You will be of little use to the people. Only when they catch you and put your pollen on their legs and arms and say:
May I run swiftly,
May my days be long,
May I be strong in arm.
Then the same person will live to see old age. But he must let the butterfly go without harm."
Then all the wives of the White Butterfly wept and cried out. San'hode'di spoke to these women: "What are you crying about?" he asked. "The White Butterfly either killed your husbands or made slaves of them."
Now there was a great tower that the White Butterfly had built, and a large house extending from it where he kept his wives. And at quite a distance from this there was another house into which he had thrown the bodies of the husbands that he had killed. The young man discovered this. And afterward he spoke to the people. He told them that they were free and could go to whatever country they wished.
San'hode'di brought back only his two young wives and the two daughters of the Spider Woman who had accompanied him. They came back across the water, but his two wives stopped at the lake to drink. The young man saw that they had tears in their eyes, for they were not happy. So when the two young women stepped down to drink their husband pushed them into the water, head first. All that the man saw was an animal with horns that came up out of the water.[1] The young man said that the father of these two women should offer a prayer to the water.[2]
The two maidens, the daughters of the Spider Woman, were brought back to this country and adopted by the Navaho tribe. Their descendants are many this day. Their hair turns gray early and they also lose their teeth.
It was for this purpose that the young man was born, and the White Butterfly stole the wives and lured their husbands across the water and killed them.
[1. Informant's note: tqo'holtsodi, the water buffalo.
2. Informant's note: The Hopi and other tribes have medicine sticks planted near this spring and lake.]
When San'hode'di arrived at his home the person called Dotso came and whispered to him, saying: "There are two more maidens over here who are calling for suitors. Go try your luck."
Before he went to this village he chewed poison ivy[3] and blew some of the plant over his body. Sores broke out all over him. In this way he went to the home of the two maidens. There was a ladder outside the house. He made one step on the ladder when the mother of the maidens stopped him and said: "What are you doing here?" The young man replied in a mild voice: "I have come to marry your two daughters." But when the woman saw the sores that covered his body she told him to go away.
The next day he chewed another poisonous plant called zen chee'e,[4] which has a blue flower and grows about an inch high. It is found on the mesa near Shiprock, and blooms in the early spring. He blew some of this plant on his body and dreadful sores appeared. Then he returned to the home of the maidens and climbed two rungs of the ladder. The mother came to the top of the ladder and said: "What are you doing here again?" He said: "I have come to marry your two daughters." The woman said: "I say no. With those sores! You go away."
The third day he came with still more dreadful sores. They were called na'kit.[5] The sores covered his hands and his body. He came in this condition to the home of the maidens, and he climbed three rungs of the ladder. The mother stopped him again, and sent him away. He said: "However, I am going to marry your two daughters."
He went away, but the fourth time he blew another kind of sore over himself. This is called des chit.[6] With this disease he returned, and he climbed four rungs of the ladder. This time the mother let him come up and he entered the house.
The maidens had a guessing game, and up to this time no suitor had been able to guess correctly, so the old woman felt safe. The maidens brought out their basket with the guessing game in it and sat down (fig. 21). The young man reached into the basket and took the husk pointing East. He unwrapped the husk as the sun travels; and he wiped the juice that was on it, circling the basket with it. He took the turquoise out and swallowed it with a piece of bread.
The two maidens felt for the stone but found none.
[3. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 182): ish ishjid, poison ivy, Rhus toxicodendron.
4. Matthews (1886, pp. 766-777): azay'ha chee'nee, red body medicine, Lithospermum angustifolium Michaux.
5. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 126) na'kidtso, Spanish pock, also called cha'ch'osh, syphilis.
6. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 108) des chit, ishchid, or, qiuichchid, a prostitutional disease. Dideschi, blood poison.]
FIGURE 21.--The Guessing Game.
Then the young man unwrapped the husk that had pointed to the South, in the same way, and he took the white bead and swallowed it. The maidens felt for the stone but they could not find it.
He unwrapped the third husk that had pointed to the West, again in the same way, and he took the white shell and swallowed it. The maidens felt for the shell but it was gone. They had tears in their eyes this time, for the young man was covered with dreadful sores, and this did not please them.
Then the young man took the red stone from the center of the basket and swallowed that also. The maidens felt for it but it was not there.
Now all this happened so that medicine might be made known that would cure poison ivy and the other diseases of the skin. Since then the medicine of the young man is known for these sores.[7]
Now they take four leaves from the poison ivy, East, South, West, and North, and they cut a hole through the four leaves. They chew the leaves of the poison ivy mixed with powder of ground chips of stones. Whoever receives this medicine gets it through the holes in these leaves. Afterward he can travel around poison ivy and other poisonous plants. This was San'hode'di's medicine, and with it he cured himself.
[7. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 113): "Syphilis was supposedly removed by a beverage (yidla) of syphilis medicine. Cordylanthus ramosus (chach'osh aze') and the buttercup (la'etso ilja'e) which were powdered and taken in water every morning."
Interpreter's note: The Oregon grape was also used for this sickness.
Franciscan Fathers (1910, pp. 113, 115): (The Young Man's medicines.) Swellings, nanchad, were removed by applying the plant, nanchad aze, Thellipodium wrightii. Sores in general: a liniment made of the leaves and branchlets of the cancer root, ledol'aezi. Pimples, naeetsa, were rubbed with leaves of a plant called naeetsa aze. Also spurge is chewed and used as a liniment for pimples. Boils, chozh aze, a liniment made from Euphorbia, khetsi halchi, and, behetsi halchi. Blood poisoning is cured with a poultice prepared from a plant known as ndochi (?).]
After he had won the guessing game he took the two maidens to a new home. Each morning when the sisters returned home to their mother their father asked: "Did he touch you?" And the old man wondered where the young man had gotten the power to guess the game.
After the fourth day San'hode'di was as well as before. Then he lay with the two maidens, and they told their father. They told him also that in the morning they found themselves sleeping under beautiful robes, and in a home filled with everything they could wish for. Their father came over and when he saw all he was pleased with his son-in-law and said: "My daughters have wished for many things. I see that they have them all now."
Then San'hode'di departed from there and returned to his mother.
He told his mother that she should live where she was. It is a place called Whee cha'. This Whee cha' is a hill between Gallup and Shiprock. And nearby there is still another hill called Be'es jade'. "You will have the power over the cornfields of the People called Dîné," he said. "Your two homes will be sacred places. The people will bring precious stones as offering when they come to pray for rain. I will return to you from time to time."
Then he went back to the two wives he had sent to their village on his flute.
There is a peak this side of San Francisco Mountain which is called Tocho whee tso. It is near Tlo chee ko. And that is the place where San'hode'di went with his first two wives. He is there. His home and those of his mother are considered sacred places. They say that the Beggar Woman worked for the Dîné, while her son, afterward, went to another tribe.
Now all that has been told before this time was about the people living in the country before the coming of the Dîné, the Navaho.
The White Bead Woman wished now to have her own people. She wished to have a people that she could call her grandchildren. They would carry on the lore that she would teach them. They would respect and hold holy the prayers and the chants that she would give them.
She took a white bead stone and she ground it to powder. She put this powder on her breasts and between her shoulders, over her chest and on her back; and when this powder became moist she rubbed it off her body and rolled it between her fingers and on the palm of her hand.
[8. Recorder's note: The following are given: Dîné, Dénés, Dinae e, meaning the People. There is Navajo and Navaho. The Early Spanish appellation was Los Apache de Navajoa.
Hodge (1895, pp. 223-240).
Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 28): Migration of the Dénés.]
From time to time a little ball dropped to the ground. She wrapped these little balls in black clouds. They arose as people. She placed these people on the shore of a big body of water.[9]
These people lived there and they brought forth children. These children played along the shore where the waves broke on the sand. The waves rolled up all kinds of shells, big and little ones. The children played with these shells.
Then the White Bead Woman asked the Twelve Holy Beings to lead her children far away from the Great Water. She said that the shells should be planted for corn and for different kinds of food plants. So the people made ready and they moved far inland from the sea.
These people had four chiefs, they were the head men. The names of the four chiefs were: Ba'nee, Ba'nee kosa, Guish to' and Ba'no'tilthne'.
In the mud of the mountain called Dzil chal'yelth, Night Mountain, a cub bear was found. This cub was brought to the people. Then on another mountain called Dzil yel soie, Yellow Mountain, a young mountain lion was found. These two animals were given to the people.[10] This was all in the White Bead Woman's plan, and the animals were raised by her power.
Then one of the Twelve Holy Beings came and told the four chiefs that they were wanted at the home of the White Bead Woman. They started out. When the five got to the shore of the Great Water, over the sea there appeared a white house with a wide flat land of white bead in all directions. When it settled down and floated to the shore they stepped on it and were taken way out to sea.
They entered the white house and saw a very old woman sitting inside. Now she got up and she went into the east room, and she carried a white bead walking stick in her hand. When she returned she was only a little past middle age. She then went into the south room, and she carried a turquoise walking stick in her hand. She came out a young woman, without a walking stick. She went into the west room and returned a beautiful maiden. She went into the north room, and returned a girl. So she is called the Changeable Woman as well as the White Bead Woman and the White Bead Girl.
Then the White Bead Girl sat down and said:
My grandchildren, I did not create you to live near me. You are now ready to go to a place called Dine'beke'ya, the Land of the People. You will go with two of my children, two of the Twelve Holy Beings. You will go to the mountain called Neilth sat'dzil; then to the mountain called Nit tlez'dzile; and to the
[9. Informant's note: The Pacific Ocean.
Informant's note: Now there were two old men who told different stories as to how these animals were raised. The first old man said that the animals were raised on cornmeal; but my (Sandoval's) grandfather said that this was not so. He said that he had learned that, as the animals were formed by the Holy Beings, they were also fed by them.]
mountain called Ka'ta'dine dzile.[11] To these mountains you must go. I made you so that you can live there. I will give you the seeds of different plants for your food, and I will give you pretty flowers to seed over the whole country. I will give you rain. Then should another people come crowding into your country I will do what I think best. Whatever I do will be for your good.
You must go now. When you reach your present home you must start out. In your travels you will cross the mountain called Yol gaeye dzile, and the mountain called Yodot ligie dzile, and over another mountain called De chili dzile, and over still another, Ba'chini dzile.[12] From there you will go to a place called Tse'ha dole'kon, the place of solid rock. At this place the first chiefs were made. And as long as the footprints are there I will know that all is well with my people.
From there the Holy Beings will return to me. After this happens you must go to a place called Tse'bit e'tine. You must travel on the south side for there are people living there who are not peaceful. From there you must go to a place called Dzil ines gaeye. You must go to the north side there. From there you will see a mountain peak In the distance. It is called Na'ysis an', Navaho Mountain. You must go beyond that mountain to a place called Tqo da'enet tine. From there you must follow the range of mountains called Dzil le' gine; then to the north of the canyon called Tse Ji or Segi (Canyon de Chelly). Then you must go to a place called Tse'hel ne'; and to a place called Tsin tlo hogan. Follow the range of mountains to a place called Tse'ta je'je, and over the mountains to a place called Ha'ha'tsia. From there you will go on to a plain where there is a place called Tseast tso'sa'kade, Big Cotton Wood Tree.
The country is good there. You must plant your corn there. When the corn grows up and ears develop, the lowest ear above the ground will not grow to a full ear. Break those off and put them into a basket which contains water; and after you have placed them In the water raise one out and say: "May we have the Male Rain. May we have the Female Rain." These ears of corn you must boil and eat.
Then the White Bead Girl brought four bundles of strings and placed them before her. She took a string from each bundle and threaded four white beads on it; and she laid the string, with the four beads, from the first bundle on the first bundle, and in like manner, the others on the other bundles. She placed the white bead walking stick on the first bundle. On top of the second bundle she laid the turquoise walking stick. On the third bundle she placed the white shell walking stick. And on the fourth she placed the walking stick of ha'dan'y yei, male banded stone. Now the first bundle went to the first chief, and the second, third, and fourth to the respective chiefs as they were named.
Each chief was to take his bundle, beads, and walking stick. The walking stick was to be used in the country where there was no water. When the people got thirsty the first chief was to put the white bead walking stick into the ground and give it one turn, and the water would
[11. Informants' note: These mountains are far to the Northwest.
12 Interpreter's note: The ceremonial names of the four sacred mountains of the Dîné: East, Yolga'dzil, Pelado Peak; South, Yo dotl'izh'i dzil, Mount Taylor; West Dichi'li dzil, San Francisco Peak; North, Bash'zhini dzil, San Juan Mountains.]
come forth. The second time the second chief was to put the turquoise walking stick into the ground and give it two turns, as the sun travels. The third time the white shell walking stick was to be used; and the third chief should turn it three times for water. The fourth walking stick was to be turned four times; and after that they had to repeat the whole thing beginning with the first and so on.
Then the White Bead Plain with the house floated near the shore and the four chiefs and the two Holy Beings landed. They traveled to their home and joined the people. They all crossed over the first four far mountains named. By that time the load that they were carrying got very heavy. They opened the bundles of strings and they found strings of beautiful beads. They had a great many strings of beads.
When they got to the rock where they saw the footprints, made carefully by the first two chiefs so that they would remain forever, the two Holy Beings left and returned to the White Bead Woman.
The people moved to the next place which was called Tse bit e'tine. They camped there, and in the afternoon they sent two men out to see what they could find. The men returned and said that there were people living not far away. They said that they had cornfields and that the corn was ripe to eat.
They remained at this place until they got acquainted with the people. These people were known as the Ga dine, the Arrow People. After a time some of the young men went to the maidens of this other tribe. They gave them beads and they took them for their wives. They also gave some of their maidens to the young men of the Arrow People, and the maidens were given different cornfields.
One day when the corn was ripe the chiefs went to the sweat house to take a sweat bath. While they were inside, Chief Ba'nee' said: "We were not made to live here. We are going to the country which will be our country. In two days from now we must move on. We have made friends and we have exchanged maidens. Those who wish to go with us will go. Those who wish to remain will remain." Then the other chiefs went out and Ba'nee' knew that they were dressing. So they all dressed and went home.
That night Ba'nee' spoke to the people and told them that he planned that they should go on to the land which had been given them. He said that those who wished to go on should do so; and those who wished to stay in this place should remain. The next morning the second chief, Ba'nee'kosa, made a speech about their leaving. So when the 2 days had passed they started out.
They made camp the first night, and after another day's travel they made a second camp. They made their second camp just about twilight. p. 170 Now the bear, who was with them, pulled up two little spruce trees and crossed them; and they noticed that he sat on them. Then Ba'nee' said: "Now we shall see what my pet will do and what he knows."
The bear chanted:
Terrifying is my home.
I am the Brown Bear.
Terrifying is my home.
Lightning flashes from my home.
Terrifying is my home.
Like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Terrifying
My home is terrifying.
There are 10 sections to this chant. And the people heard it sung by the bear. Then Ba'nee' received the chant and it was his.
The next morning, just at dawn, they heard the bear chant two more chants. And these chants went to Ba'nee' and were also his. And Ba'nee' said: "I wonder what my pet knows? There must be something wrong. Now we shall see what my pet knows."
The bear ran around in a circle four times, then to the East he went. Now the other tribe had followed them, but they did not know it. The Arrow People intended to follow them, kill them, and take their beads and their women. During the night they had circled around them. They planned to attack the first thing in the morning; but the Arrow People retreated because of the bear's chanting. They called from a distance: "We have followed you because we have loved you, and we wish to have a talk with you once more." Then Ba'nee' said: "We will not listen to you. You had murder in your hearts when you circled our camp in the night. If you had had peace in your hearts you would have come up in the day time. Now go away while you have a right mind."
Then some said: "We are going back." But by this time some others wished to go on with the Dîné. However, Ba'nee' told the Arrow People that those who wished to go on should join the people in the daytime not the night.
Then the Dîné, with the bear, moved on.
They came to a country where there was no water. Ba'nee' used the first walking stick and the water came forth and the people drank. Because of this the descendants of this First Chief who used the first walking stick were called Tqo a'ha'ne', Near Water Clan.
Then they moved on, and the next time they grew thirsty the Second Chief used the turquoise walking stick. When the water came out of the ground it was bitter to the taste, so the people who used the turquoise walking stick were known as the Tqo tachee'nee, the Bitter Water Clan.
On the third night of travel the Chief who used the white shell walking stick found water that was salty to the taste. His people were then called Tqo te' gonge', the Salt Water Clan.
The fourth Chief used the banded male rock walking stick. He found that mud came first, and then came clear, sweet water. His people were called Has'klish nee, the Mud Clan.
They were now in a country where there was no water and both plant food and game were scarce. After a time they grew hungry. Early one afternoon, after they had made camp, they saw the mountain lion asleep on a pile of goods. Ba'nee' said: "My pet, what is wrong with you now? is that all you can do, just sleep? Now wake up and see what you are good for." The mountain lion got up, stretched, and disappeared out of sight. When he returned there was a little blood on his mouth. They went at once to see what he had killed, and they saw that he had killed an antelope and that he had eaten only the heart. They brought the antelope to the camp and the people ate it.
The second day the mountain lion killed two antelope; the third day he killed three, and the fourth day, four antelope. At the end of the fourth day they were carrying extra meat. Then the people knew that the bear had been given to them to warn them of their enemies, and the mountain lion had been given to them to get their meat.
About this time the Dîné reached the place called Dzil ines gaeye, the Mountain with White Bands. Here another group of people joined them. The men of this people wore two feathers on their heads and it made them appear as though they had horns. They came from the South. They were the same people who had first come from the White Bead Woman.
The chief of this party carried a basket full of pollen for the Big Snake. The Big Snake killed their meat. When the parties joined they said: "Our pets are equal. So we will be one people and go on together." From these people sprang the clan called Kin ye'a ane, Standing House.
This made five clans.
Then they arrived at a place called Tqo da'enet tine. There was a mesa there, and from this mesa flowed springs. Now, when they got there they found another party of people following them. These were some of the Arrow People who wished to join the Dîné. This they did, and they were called the Ga dine, Arrow Clan. This made six clans.
They had, by this time, passed Navaho Mountain. There were tall, standing rocks near, and around these rocks and through this country were many mountain sheep. So they lived there for some time. p. 168 They killed the sheep for food, and they used both the wool and the hides.
One spring they decided to move on. They wanted to name this place. "What shall we call it?" they said. Then they named it Ag'thlan, Much Wool, because they had gathered much wool from the mountain sheep. Then they followed the foothills of the Black Mountains, and the bear found tlochin,[13] wild onion, for them. They ate the wild onions. They also gathered a low plant with little white and red flowers and flat leaves called chas tigee.[14] They dug up the roots and ate them. And they ate the roots of another plant called il so'nee,[15] Mariposa lily.
Then they went to the mouth of the Tse'ji or Segi Canyon and crossed the Tse'hel ne' to Tsin tlo hogan. They made camp in the daytime because one young woman, who was a little lame, got tired, but some of the party pushed on. Now a light-skinned young man came to the camp and slept with the lame girl. The next morning when the party was about to start out they delayed because the young man had taken to himself a wife.
This young man was from Tse ne'e jin, which is just over the Lukaichukai. The girl was from the clan Has klish nee, but her descendants are known as the clan Tqo tso nee and they are related to the Mud Clan. The young man was from the clan called Ta chee', and he took his young wife back to a place called Tqo tso, also near the Lukaichukai.
Then they traveled to a place where there is a gap between two rocks.[16] They put down a walking stick on one side of the gap and a spring came up; and on the other side as well, a spring appeared. They called the place Al nash'ee tqo (Al nash ha'tline) meaning Opposite Springs. Then they went to Bear Spring, Shash'bitqo, which was later the site of Fort Wingate.
Now this country was not like the country they were told to go to so they crossed over the mountain. Then they moved back to where Tqoha chi is now. The place was called Ba'has tla. They found good ground there and they planted their corn near a grove of big cottonwoods.
Men they were living there there were some people among them who quarreled. And over at the foot of Red Mountain, at a place called Dzil lechee, there was a village, and the people there were very strong. The village was so well fortified that the people who marched against it were killed. So the people who made war against this
[13. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 171): tlochini, wild onion, strong smelling grass, Allum palmeri.
14. Informant's note: Chas tigee, edible roots, a low-growing plant with flat leaves and whitish and reddish flowers.
15. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 193): alt sini, mariposa lily (Calochortus loteus).
16. Informant's note: Na'nzhosh, the site of Gallup, N. Mex.]
village said: "These people who have just come from their Grandmother have for their pet a bear. Now our only chance is to borrow this pet. Some of us will go over to see what they will say." Then some of them went over to the Dîné and asked for the loan of the bear. They told the Dîné how each time they had been defeated when they marched against this village. Their enemies were very strong.
After the Dîné had listened to the chief, Ba'nee' spoke: "My pet," he said to the bear, "these men have come for our help. They wish to make war against the village near Red Mountain. What do you think about it?" The bear got up, stretched, and let his tongue out. It stretched and circled up. He made ugly faces and the hair above his spine stood straight up. Then Ba'nee' said: "I see, my pet, that you agree that we should help these people, and that we should march against this village. We will set out 3 days from now."
They camped near this village. The bear pulled up two little spruce trees, crossed them, and sat on them. Then he chanted. And the first chant he used was this:
Ponder well what you think of me.
I am he who killed the monsters.
There are 6 sections of this chant, and 10 sections of the following:
Ponder well what you say of me.
Etc. . . .
They were told that the enemy had strongly fortified houses and that their spies were out at all times. So the bear chanted and told how he wished it would be when he went against the enemy. He was not to be seen. He was the mirage. He was the heat waves over the desert. He sang about 20 sections of the chant here. In the last two verses the Bear named only himself. He said that he would take the scalps, that he would carry the scalps.
Then the Bear went forth and there settled a great cloud on the earth. The enemy could not see the Dîné and the others. The bear ran four times around the village, and he killed many enemies.
Long ago when the Big Hail fell there were only three villages saved, and this village was one of them. And now the bear destroyed it.
The sign or symbol of the knife is called A'cha whee tso. The people crossed, as shown in figure 22.
They had sung 75 chants[17] by the time they returned. When they neared their home the bear made a mark.
This was the bear's mark (fig. 23), and they stepped over it. The bear was behind them.
[17. Informants' note: These were the Bear Chants. The Informant knew them. These chants are used today in the Navaho country In cases of "coughs" or similar illness. They are used against anything that bothers the people, whether enemies or disease. And it is told that every time the Bear chanted he gave the chant to the chief, and it became his.]
FIGURE 22.--Where the people crossed the running water, the level land, and the mountains.
FIGURE 23.--The Bear's mark.
When the Dîné returned from fighting the enemy the bear seemed never to have finished fighting. Whenever he saw an object in the distance he went after it, determined to kill. Chief Ba'nee' said: "My pet, you can never be peaceful again I see. You came from the mountain called Night Mountain, now you must go to the East to a mountain called Black Mountain. You will join your people there." He spread out a buckskin, the hide of a deer not killed by a weapon. It is called do'gi gi. Then he spoke to the bear. "My pet, now sit on this." The bear sat on the buckskin. Ba'nee' tied five white beads in each of six different strings. He tied five beads around the bear's four legs, and then he tied five beads on a string across the chest one way, and the same the other way. Then Ba'nee' took a turquoise, and giving it to the bear told him to put it in his mouth. The bear put the turquoise in his mouth and then laid it on the buckskin. This is called shash biza nas'tan. Then Ba'nee' gave the bear a white bead and told him to put it in his mouth. The bear put the bead in his mouth, and taking it out, placed it with the turquoise. Then he sprinkled corn pollen all over the bear, and Ba'nee' told him to shake the pollen off. The bear did this. The medicine from the bear, or other animals, is gotten in this way. Now men were to use this medicine against all sorts of diseases. It was to be for their protection.
Here is the chant:
De yana he'a now it starts out
De yana he'a,
De yana he'a.
A Big Black Bear starts out.
Now he starts out with the black pollen for his moccasins.
Now he starts out with the black pollen for his leggings.
p. 175 Now he starts out with the black pollen for his garment.
Now he starts out with the black pollen for his headdress.
He starts out for the Black Mountain plains.
He starts out for the doorway of the two crossed spruce trees.
He starts out on the straight pollen trail.
He starts out for the top of the pollen foot prints.
He starts out for the top of the pollen seed prints.
He is like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
With beauty before him,
With beauty behind him,
With beauty above him,
With beauty below him,
All around him is beautiful.
His spirit is all beautiful.
There are three sections of this chant: "Now he goes . . ."Now he is gone . . .". Only one knowing all the chants can possess a bear fetish, among the Navaho people.
Now after the first chant was sung the bear's hair lay down and was smooth. And after the chants were sung he went peacefully on his way.
The plan was also to send the mountain lion back. He had come from the Yellow Mountain, Dzil let'tsoie. He was returned to that place. He was sent back without a chant or a prayer, or without any dress or trimming because he had been peaceful.
By this time tassels were coming out on their cornstalks and ears of corn had begun to form.
When some of the silk on the ears of corn had turned red, two girls and two boys were sent to bring in some ears of young corn. Returning they carried the ears of young corn. They poured some water in a basket and placed the corn in it, and then they took the ears out with the water dripping from them and said: "May we have the Black Cloud which brings the Male Rain. May we have the Black Cloud which brings the Female Rain. May we have all the beautiful flowers and their pollens." And then they boiled the young corn and they ate it. They ate this green thing as they had been instructed to do.
After 4 days had passed Chief Ba'nee' sent four more children, two boys and two girls, to the cornfields. He said: "There may be more young corn by now." The children went to the fields, but only the two girls returned bringing the young corn. They told the people that after they had gathered the young corn they were playing hide-and-seek. They could not find the boys. Their tracks ended right out in the open where they had stood side by side. So then Chief p. 176 Ba'nee' told the people that he could guess that the boys had returned to their Grandmother. So nothing more was done about the missing boys.
After 4 days passed Ba'nee' sent four more children to gather the young corn. This time a boy and a girl came running back and said: "The missing boys have returned, and they say that they have lots to tell. But first, they want a brush shelter built. The main poles must be touched with corn pollen. You must lay a branch of mountain mahogany,[18] tses ta'zee,[19] and a branch of joint pine, tlo ho'zee'e, crossing each other. And you must make four footprints from the entrance to the inner side with corn pollen."
The people made all those things ready. Then Chief Ba'nee' and some others went out and brought the boys to the shelter. When the boys entered they stepped on the footprints. They stood on the crossed branches and were washed. After this was done they told their story.
When they were playing hide-and-seek, their grandfathers, Hasjelti and Hasjohon, stood before them. They said: "Your grandmother wishes you to come. Now raise your right foot." Just as they did so they were taken to the top of the peak called Chush gaeye,[20] and, with the next step, to a peak called Tsin'beleye. On the top of this latter peak they were washed just as they had been washed in the brush shelter. From there they went to the mountain called Tlo gaeye dzil, and then on to their grandmother's home.
There they stood before the old woman. She rose up, and, with the help of her walking stick, hobbled into the east room of her dwelling. She returned younger, and she went into the south room. From there she came back a young woman. She went into the west room, and she came back a maiden. She went into the north room, and she returned a young girl.
The White Bead Girl told the boys that they were to learn the Night Chant and all the prayers that went with it. For it was by this ceremony that they should live. So the two boys learned all the chants and the prayers that they were to use in the spring when the plants and the flowers and the young animals come out, and at the time of the harvest.
[18. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 198): Mountain mahogany, tse'esdazi, heavy as stone, Cercocarpus parvifolius.
19. Recorder's note: Tses ta'zee, joint pine, also called joint fir, Mexican or Mormon tea, teamster's tea, canatilla, and popotillo, is Ephedra. It was known and grown in China ages ago.
Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 189): tlo'aze, grass medicine, Ephedra trifurcata.
20. Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 31): ch'osh'gai, white spruce.]
After this the White Bead Woman said: "The Dîné shall have horses."[21] And the first chant that she sang is this:
From the East comes a big black mare.
Changed Into a maiden
She comes to me.
From the South comes a blue mare.
Changed into a maiden
She comes to me.
From the West comes a sorrel mare.
Changed into a maiden
She comes to me.
From the North comes a white mare.
Changed into a maiden
She comes to me.
The chant is divided into two parts, two sections are sung and then four sections.
The White Bead Woman chanted again:
This is my plan:
I am the White Bead Woman.
In the center of my home I planned it.
On top of the beautiful goods I planned it.
The white bead basket which contains the horse fetishes,
They lay before me as I planned it.
All the beautiful flowers with their pollens
And the horse fetishes,
They lay in each other,
They lay before me as I planned it.
To increase and to multiply, not to decrease.
They lay inside (the animals) as I planned it.
There are about 20 sections of this chant. It changes slightly each time.
After the White Bead Woman's chanting, the four horses began to move, the white-bead horse fetish, the turquoise horse fetish, the white-shell horse fetish and the banded stone horse fetish. These four stone fetishes were made into living horses.
Life came into them and they whinnied. Then the White Bead Woman took the horses from her home. She placed them on the white bead plain, on the turquoise plain, on the white bead hill, and on the turquoise hill. Returning, she laid out four baskets--the white bead basket, the turquoise basket, the white shell basket, and the black jet basket. In these she placed the medicine which would make the horses drop their colts. The White Bead Woman then went outside
[21. Recorder's note: The introduction of horses, although apparently of great antiquity as evidenced by the earlier part of the myth, is of comparatively recent origin. The three-toed horse existed in the Americas and disappeared because of the tsetse fly. The horse was reintroduced by the Spaniards.]
and chanted,[22] and down came the horses from the hills; but instead of four there came a herd. They circled the home, and they came to the baskets and licked up the medicine with one lick. Now some of the horses licked twice around the baskets; so once in a long while there are twin colts. But the horses that licked out of the black jet basket licked more than once, and they have many colts. Then out of the herd there came one with long ears. She snorted and jumped away; and the second time she approached the basket she snorted and ran away. So she was not to have young, either male or female.
It was planned that the fetishes of the horses were to be laid in the center of the earth, in a place called Sis na' dzil, near, or beyond Hanes on the road to Cuba (N. Mex.).
The White Bead Woman told the boys that they were to have the horses in their country; that when she believes it is for their good they will multiply, or again, they will decrease. So they do not always multiply. Some years, when there is poor grass and deep snow, many die.
The White Bead Woman then sent the two boys to the Twelve Holy Beings, the Dîné na' kiza'tana gaeye. They were to teach the two boys more chants. They were to show them how to make the medicine for a male colt and a female colt. They were to run strings through a white bead for a female, and a turquoise bead for a male colt. And they were shown how to tie it in the mouth of a colt and run the string around the lower jaw. The colt must nurse with it for 4 days. The umbilical cord must be tied and left until it dries and drops off. The sacred earth from the mountains must be used for the female, and for the male colt, the crystal. Four turquoise beads must be placed in the medicine bag for the male colt. The same is done for the female, but white beads replace the turquoise. The sacred earth from the mountains and the banded male stone (agate), hada'huniye, are used when there are prayers for horses. And when they ask for any goods or rain this banded stone is used.
Then the boys were told that the horses' hoofs are hada' huniye, the banded male stone. The hair of the mane and tail is called nltsa'najin, little streaks of rain. The mane is called e'alinth chene. Horses' ears are the heat lightning, that which flashes in the night. The big stars that sparkle are their eyes. The different growing plants are their faces. The big bead, yo'tso, is their lips. The white bead is the teeth. Tliene delne'dil hilth, a black fluid, was put inside horses to make the whinny. Should a horse have a white spot on its forehead or a bald face it has been made by the big stars. If a horse has white stockings, he also sees by them.
[23. Informant's note: There are 85 Horse Chants. They are to be used for the good of the horses. The interpreter and the son of the informant, Sandoval Begay, know many of them.]
Then the boys were taken home by the same way they had come. They went through the whole ceremony, beginning with the bath. In the first Night Chant the boys chanted the songs that they had learned. This lasted all night. They then chanted the chants of the horses in the same manner as the Night Chant.
After they had finished there came a man from near Sis na'dzil.[23] Now this man saw a horse standing in the distance, to the East. He went over to it, but he found that it was only a plant called ga'tso dan, jack-rabbit corn.[24] The next day he saw another horse standing in a place to the South. He went to it, but it was only the grass called nit'dit lede.[25] The next day he saw another horse. This was to the West, and when he went to it, it proved to be only tlo nas tasse, sheepgrass.[26] The fourth time he saw the horse was to the North. And it turned out to be only the droppings of some animal.
Now this man was one of the people who had come from the mountain Sis na'jin. And the person Dotso came to him and said: "What are you doing here, my Grandchild?" The man said: "I saw a horse four times; and each time it turned out to be a plant or something." Dotso told him that he should go to the home of his father, the Sun. When he got there he was asked what he had come for. He said: "I have seen a horse four different times, and each time it turned out to be only some grass or plant."
There the man saw horse fetishes to the East, South, West, and North. Then he was taken to the opening in the sky, to a place called Haya tsa'tsis. He was asked to look back. "From where did we start?" he was asked. Now the Little Breeze whispered in the man's ear: "If you do not tell him aright, what you came for will not be granted." Then the man said: "Way over where the two rivers come together, there is where we started."
Then he chanted:
I am the Sun's son.
I sat on the turquoise horse.
He went to the opening in the sky.
He went with me to the opening.
The turquoise horse prances with me.
From where we start the turquoise horse is seen.
The lightning flashes from the turquoise horse.
The turquoise horse is terrifying.
He stands on the upper circle of the rainbow.
[23. Informant's note: That is the place where the Mud Clan claims that they buried the beads and the white bead walking stick. Different ones have searched for them; but they have never been found.
24. Matthews (1886, pp. 767-777): ga tso dan, or kat so tha, jack rabbit grass, Eurotia lunata Moquin.
25. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 136): ndid li'di, mountain rice, Oryzopsis cuspidata.
26. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 171): tlo nas tasse', sheepgrass, tlo nastqasi, grama grass, Bonteloua hirsuta.]
The sunbeam is in his mouth for his bridle.
He circles around all the peoples of the earth
With their goods.
Today he is on my side
And I shall win with him.
This chant is used to thank the Powers for horses. These are the last two sections. The chant was correct as a prophecy, for the horse, or team, is used to earn "goods'--money with which to buy blankets, clothing, food.
The Sun told the man that he must offer a gift to the plant called ga'tso dan that he had seen in the East. He should go to that place and camp. Then he should go to the South and camp, and offer a gift to the grass called nit'dit lede; then to the West and camp for the night, and the next morning offer a gift to the grass called tlo nas tasse. Then he should go to the North and camp, and offer a gift to the droppings of some animal. After that he would see the horse.
When the man returned to the earth he obeyed the Sun. He chanted four sections of the chant that he sang when he went to the four directions.
I came upon it.
I came upon it.
I came upon it.
I am the White Bead Woman,
I came upon it.
In the center of my home,
I came upon It.
Right where the white bead basket sits,
I came upon it.
The basket has four turquoise decorations,
I came upon it.
The white bead basket has a turquoise finishing around the edge,
I came upon it.
The white bead horses stand toward the basket from the four directions,
As I came upon it.
All the beautiful flowers are its pollen,
Black clouds are the water they have in their mouths,
As I came upon them.
White poles for its enclosure (corral)
As I came upon them.
Blue poles for its enclosure,
As I came upon them.
Yellow poles for its enclosure,
As I came upon them.
Iridescent poles for its enclosure, flashing,
As I came upon them.
The rainbow for its gate,
As I came upon it.
The sun closes its entrance (gate of corral)
As I came upon it.
The white bead horses pour out,
p. 181 As I came upon them.
The turquoise horses pouring out,
As I came upon them.
The white shell horses pouring out,
As I came upon them.
The male banded stone horses pouring out,
As I came upon them.
All mixed horses, together with the sheep, pouring out,
As I came upon them.
As the horses pour out with the beautiful goods,
As I came upon them.
The earth's pollen (dust) rises as they pour out,
The shining dust of the earth covers their bodies,
As I came upon them.
To multiply and not to decrease,
As I came upon them.
Like the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful are my horses,
As I came upon them.
Before my horses all is beautiful,
Behind my horses all is beautiful.
As I came upon them.
As I came upon them.
From that time the horses were given to men, but the rainbow and all the supernatural powers were taken from them by the Holy Ones. Also, the Holy Beings were not to be seen again by men. The medicine and the chants have been used and learned by those who wished to learn and use them. Those who discredit them and do not wish to use the medicines or learn the chants will have a difficult life. It is the belief that those who learn and use and care for these sacred things will not regret it. Their work will be made lighter for them.[27]
Now that the horses were given to the people, and there were a great many people in the land, they commenced to crowd each other. Some of the people wanted to go to war over the slightest thing. They taught their children to be quarrelsome; they were not raising them in the right way. They did not have peace in their hearts. At this time there appeared in the country many plants with thorns, in fact these were more numerous than any other kind of plant. Even the grass became sharp and spiked. It was because of the people's ill nature, and the plants and the grass, that another plan was formed.
[27. Informant's note: When the horse-meat plant was put up in Gallup, N. Mex., and the ponies were taken from the Navaho, the old men said: "Our Grandmother will not be pleased with this." They believe that that is why there is little rain now over the Reservation. Cattle and sheep stay near waterholes and springs. The ponies go far to graze. Good horses, fat horses, would grow poor and die on the little grass and water now available In the country. The wiry little ponies are acclimated, and they can carry a man as far as a finely bred horse. They are strong, and can go without feed and water much longer than can a heavy horse. The farms near Shiprock have fatter horses; but also, they have plenty of water and feed. The ponies are range horses.]
This time Hasjesjini, the Yei of all the burning minerals in the earth, started a great fire. All the red rocks that we see now burned then. After this the Apache and several other tribes moved eastward. And a number of years after the great fire plants grew again, and this time without thorns. They were better and less harmful.
Again there were four chiefs of the Dîné. The first was Tan jet gaeye; the second, Atsel gaeye; the third chief was Yot aysel gaeye;[28] and there was a fourth whose name has been forgotten. They began to wonder where the other people were who had traveled toward the East. The four chiefs, with some of their men and their wives, started out to find them; but they left the children with those others who remained at home. They headed East, camping here and there. They always sent out scouts. They hunted and made their clothing and moccasins, of buckskin. After 2 years they found where a fire had been made, and they wondered if the fire had been made by some of their own people. Then they found water. Whenever they found a spring they camped, and from there they sent the scouts out in different. directions.
One day a scout reported having seen the track of a man. They moved to the next spring, and they saw two tracks. The first track was a very old one. They tried to follow it, but they had to abandon it. However the fresh tracks led them to a spring in a rock, a little wall of rock, so they moved there and camped.
Two scouts were sent out from there. They came to a narrow canyon and they saw water in the bottom. They found a place where they could descend; so the scouts let a buckskin rope down into this canyon, and with its aid, they climbed down to the water and camped at the water's edge. The two men stayed there over night. They had been away from their party for 2 days. When they returned they reported having seen plain tracks of a man of their own people. The scouts told also of having seen plenty of seeds of plants which are used for food. And there was water, and it was near the water that they had seen the tracks. So they all moved to this place and camped.
After this happened the four chiefs. sent three men out. They returned and reported having seen smoke rising up in the distance. The following day the four chiefs sent four men out, each with two quivers full of arrows. The scouts were told to be careful when they neared the other people's camp, to stay hidden until dark, and then for one man only to go into the camp. When the men got to within sight of the camp, two went on and two stayed behind. Then one stayed just outside and one went in. It was very dark, but he could see the light of the fires. He was making his way slowly, like a mountain lion after its prey, when he touched something that rattled. He reached
[28. Informant's note: Yot aysel gaeye means Heaven with Tail Feathers.]
around and found that he was in a cornfield, and that the corn had been visited by frost. After he went on for a little while he heard someone call, and everyone went over and entered a dwelling.
Then this scout heard different ones coming from different directions. The language that they spoke was his own language. So he left his bow and arrows behind and went into the dwelling with the rest. He began to be noticed. Men whispered to each other. The head man, who had been out that day, told the others what he had seen, where the game was plentiful, etc. At last he said: "That is all now. Where is that stranger you told about?" And one man spoke: "Now we will have a fresh scalp to dance by." But the chief said: "No. Place him here in the center, this stranger who is among us." So he was placed in the center of the room; and he was asked where he was from.
"I am from Nlth san dzil naa'dine, the range of Rain Mountains, Yote dzil naa'dine, the range of Beautiful Goods Mountains, Nitlez dzil naa'dine, the range of Mixed Stones Mountains, and Tqate dine dzil, the range of Pollen Mountains, and from the place where the Dîné came up from the lower world."
Then the chief spoke angrily to his people. "I have always said to be careful in whatever you do or whatever you say. What little you know is at the end of your tongue when it should be in your head." He said this because of the one who had spoken of the fresh scalp.
Then the scout told of his people who were coming, and he named his chiefs, Tan jet gaeye, Atsel gaeye, Yot aysel gaeye, and the last whose name is forgotten. Those were the four chiefs bringing with them a company of men and women. He told them to what clans the different ones belonged. Then the people in the dwelling spoke up and said: "I belong to that clan." "I belong to that clan."
Then the chief said: "Your people must join us tomorrow and make their camp with us."
Now the reason of their being together was because they were holding a Hail Ceremony, Nloae. They made ready and they began the chant. Soon the scout of the Dîné sang a chant. Different men nodded their heads and the chief said that it was correct. So he was given a drumstick with which to pound the overturned basket drum. After that he pounded the basket and led the chant all night. In the morning he took the basket and went out and got his bow and arrows and left. He joined his friends who were patiently awaiting his return.
Then the people from this country joined the people whom they had been searching for and had overtaken. When they came into the camp the people of the different clans came together and hugged each other and shook hands. They all lived there that winter and the next p. 184 summer and for another winter. Then the people who had come last begged the first people to move back with them to the center of the earth. But the people who had moved to the East said: "Our new country here is good. We have no worry. It makes our whole body sick to think of all the griefs that happened back there. We do not want to return to a country where there is nothing but trouble."
Toward the middle of the second summer, being of two minds, they started to quarrel. The Dîné with the four chiefs decided to return. They said: "You can stay here forever now. And if we ever see each other again there will be a change upon earth." (Meaning that they would be enemies should they meet again.)
Then the other people said: "Start out for your home in your own country if you like. But your chiefs will never reach there." So they called to each other bitterly, and they split.
Now one of the chiefs was struck by lightning; one of them was drowned while crossing a river; one was bitten by a snake and died; and the other went out and was frozen to death.
When the rest of the party got back to the edge of the mountains, the eastern end of the range, they found more of their people living there. They were the Apache. After a time some of them left and went south to a country where there was much wood.[29] They sent to the people on the plains asking them to join them. They said that they had found a place where there was a lot of wood. But the people of the plains said: "All you ever say or think of is wood, chiz. You will be called Chizgee." Then the people on the mountain said to the Chizgee: "Come up to the mountain where it is cool." But the Chizgee liked their own place, and said: "All the words that you use are of the mountain top. You will be called Dzil an'ee, Mountain Top."
Then the traveling Dîné reached Dzil na'odili, the mesa near Farmington, and they planted their corn there, and they lived there.
The Apache came and camped with them when the corn was ripe, and they carried corn home with them. The following year, when the corn was ripe, they came again. Their language was slightly different, but they could understand each other. They said: "My friend, Dîné, at this time of the year everything is ripe. My friend Dîné will be called Anelth an'e', The People that Ripen."
So the Navaho are the People Who Ripen to the Apache. They were called the Apache of the Green Fields, or Apaches del Navajo. The Apache have the Night Chants and many other chants that are the same as those of the Navaho. The Apache like to have their young girls marry Navaho; and many Navaho men marry them.
After the great fire spread over the country, the people went in different directions, and most of them were never seen again. They have
[29. Informant's note: The Apache of the South are the White Mountain Apache.]
never wanted to return to this country. So that was how the Dîné[31] scattered. They moved this way and that, large parties and single families. They joined other tribes or settled by themselves, but many were lost.
So the People who started from the world below came up to this White World, and they have gone in all different directions. They were made here in the center of the earth as one people. Now they are known as Indians wherever they are.
[31. Matthews (1897, p. 211, note 1): Athapascan, or Dène; Navajo, Navaho, Diné, Tinnéh, Tunné.]