Navaho Legends

287. The Dĭnéʻ now removed to Tseʻlakaíia (White Standing Rock), where, a few days after they arrived, they found on the ground a small turquoise image of a woman; this they preserved. Of late the monsters (anáye, alien gods) had been actively pursuing and devouring the people, and at the time this image was found there were only four persons remaining alive;92 these were an old man and woman and their two children, a young man and a young woman. Two days after the finding of the image, early in the morning, before they rose, they heard the voice of Hastséyalti, the Talking God, crying his call of “Wuʻhuʻhuʻhu” so faint and far that they could scarcely hear it. After a while the call was repeated a second time, nearer and louder than at first. Again, after a brief silence, the call was heard for the third time, still nearer and still louder. The fourth call was loud and clear, as if sounded near at hand;26 as soon as it ceased, the shuffling tread of moccasined feet was heard, and a moment later the god Hastséyalti stood before them.

288. He told the four people to come up to the top of Tsolíhi after twelve nights had passed, bringing with them the turquoise image they had found, and at once he departed. They pondered deeply on his words, and every day they talked among themselves, wondering why Hastséyalti had summoned them to the mountain.

289. On the morning of the appointed day they ascended the mountain by a holy trail,93 and on a level spot, near the summit, they met a party that awaited them there. They found there Hastséyalti, Hastséhogan (the Home God), White Body (who came up from the lower world with the Dĭnéʻ), the eleven brothers (of Maid Who Becomes a Bear), the Mirage Stone People, the Daylight People standing in the east, the Blue Sky People standing in the south, the Yellow Light People standing in the west, and the Darkness People standing in the north. White Body stood in the east among the Daylight People, bearing in his hand a small image of a woman wrought in white shell, about the same size and shape as the blue image which the Navahoes bore.

290.Hastséyalti laid down a sacred buckskin with its head toward the west. The Mirage Stone People laid on the buckskin, heads west, the two little images,—of turquoise and white shell,—a white and a yellow ear of corn, the Pollen Boy, and the Grasshopper Girl. On top of all these Hastséyalti laid another sacred buckskin with its head to the east, and under this they now put Nĭ′ltsi (Wind).

291. Then the assembled crowd stood so as to form a circle, leaving in the east an opening through which Hastséyalti and Hastséhogan might pass in and out, and they sang the sacred song of Hozóngisĭn. Four times the gods entered and raised the cover. When they raised it for the fourth time, the images and the ears of corn were found changed to living beings in human form: the turquoise image had become Estsánatlehi, the Woman Who Changes (or rejuvenates herself); the white shell image had become Yolkaí Estsán, the White Shell Woman; the white ear of corn had become Natálkai Asiké; the White Corn Boy and the yellow ear of corn, Natáltsoi Atét, the Yellow Corn Girl.94 After the ceremony, White Body took Pollen Boy, Grasshopper Girl, White Corn Boy, and Yellow Corn Girl with him into Tsolíhi; the rest of the assembly departed, and the two divine sisters, Estsánatlehi95 and Yolkaí Estsán,96 were left on the mountain alone.

292. The women remained here four nights; on the fourth morning Estsánatlehi said: “Sitĕ′zi (younger sister), why should we remain here? Let us go to yonder high point and look around us.” They went to the highest point of the mountain, and when they had been there several days Estsánatlehi said: “It is lonely here; we have no one to speak to but ourselves; we see nothing but that which rolls over our heads (the sun), and that which drops below us (a small dripping waterfall). I wonder if they can be people. I shall stay here and wait for the one in the morning, while you go down among the rocks and seek the other.”

293. In the morning Estsánatlehi found a bare, flat rock and lay on it with her feet to the east, and the rising sun shone upon her. Yolkaí Estsán went down where the dripping waters descended and allowed them to fall upon her. At noon the women met again on the mountain top and Estsánatlehi said to her sister: “It is sad to be so lonesome. How can we make people so that we may have others of our kind to talk to?” Yolkaí Estsán answered: “Think, Elder Sister; perhaps after some days you may plan how this is to be done.”

294. Four days after this conversation Yolkaí Estsán said: “Elder Sister, I feel something strange moving within me; what can it be?” and Estsánatlehi answered: “It is a child. It was for this that you lay under the waterfall. I feel, too, the motions of a child within me. It was for this that I let the sun shine upon me.” Soon after the voice of Hastséyalti was heard four times, as usual, and after the last call he and Tóʻnenĭli98 appeared. They came to prepare the women for their approaching delivery.99

295. In four days more they felt the commencing throes of labor, and one said to the other: “I think my child is coming.” She had scarcely spoken when the voice of the approaching god was heard, and soon Hastséyalti and Tóʻnenĭli (Water Sprinkler) were seen approaching. The former was the accoucheur of Estsánatlehi, and the latter of Yolkaí Estsán.100 To one woman a drag-rope of rainbow was given, to the other a drag-rope of sunbeam, and on these they pulled when in pain, as the Navaho woman now pulls on the rope. Estsánatlehi’s child was born first.101 Hastséyalti took it aside and washed it. He was glad, and laughed and made ironical motions, as if he were cutting the baby in slices and throwing the slices away. They made for the children two baby-baskets, both alike; the foot-rests and the back battens were made of sunbeam, the hoods of rainbow, the side-strings of sheet lightning, and the lacing strings of zigzag lightning. One child they covered with the black cloud, and the other with the female rain.102 They called the children Sĭnáli (grandchildren), and they left, promising to return at the end of four days.

296. When the gods (yéi) returned at the end of four days, the boys had grown to be the size of ordinary boys of twelve years of age. The gods said to them: “Boys, we have come to have a race with you.” So a race was arranged that should go all around a neighboring mountain, and the four started,—two boys and two yéi. Before the long race was half done the boys, who ran fast, began to flag, and the gods, who were still fresh, got behind them and scourged the lads with twigs of mountain mahogany.103 Hastséyalti won the race, and the boys came home rubbing their sore backs. When the gods left they promised to return at the end of another period of four days.

297. As soon as the gods were gone, Nĭ′ltsi, the Wind, whispered to the boys and told them that the old ones were not such fast runners, after all, and that if the boys would practice during the next four days they might win the coming race. So for four days they ran hard, many times daily around the neighboring mountain, and when the gods came back again the youths had grown to the full stature of manhood. In the second contest the gods began to flag and fall behind when half way round the mountain, where the others had fallen behind in the first race, and here the boys got behind their elders and scourged the latter to increase their speed. The elder of the boys won this race, and when it was over the gods laughed and clapped their hands, for they were pleased with the spirit and prowess they witnessed.

298. The night after the race the boys lay down as usual to sleep; but hearing the women whispering together, they lay awake and listened. They strained their attention, but could not hear a word of what was uttered. At length they rose, approached the women, and said: “Mothers, of what do you speak?” and the women answered: “We speak of nothing.” The boys then said: “Grandmothers, of what do you speak?” but the women again replied: “We speak of nothing.” The boys then questioned: “Who are our fathers?” “You have no fathers,” responded the women; “you are yutáski (illegitimate).” “Who are our fathers?” again demanded the boys, and the women answered: “The round cactus and the sitting cactus104 are your fathers.”

299. Next day the women made rude bows of juniper wood, and arrows, such as children play with, and they said to the boys: “Go and play around with these, but do not go out of sight from our hut, and do not go to the east.” Notwithstanding these warnings the boys went to the east the first day, and when they had travelled a good distance they saw an animal with brownish hair and a sharp nose. They drew their arrows and pointed them toward the sharp-nosed stranger; but before they could shoot he jumped down into a canyon and disappeared. When they returned home they told the women—addressing them as “Mother” and “Grandmother”—what they had seen. The women said: “That is Coyote which you saw. He is a spy for the anáye Téelgĕt.”

300. On the following day, although again strictly warned not to go far from the lodge, the boys wandered far to the south, and there they saw a great black bird seated on a tree. They aimed their arrows at it; but just as they were about to shoot the bird rose and flew away. The boys returned to the hogán and said to the women: “Mothers, we have been to the south to-day, and there we saw a great black bird which we tried to shoot; but before we could let loose our arrows it flew off.” “Alas!” said the women. “This was Raven that you saw. He is the spy of the Tseʻnă′hale, the great winged creatures that devour men.”

301. On the third day the boys slipped off unknown to the anxious women, who would fain keep them at home, and walked a long way toward the west. The only living thing they saw was a great dark bird with a red skinny head that had no feathers on it. This bird they tried to shoot also; but before they could do so it spread its wings and flew a long way off. They went home and said to the women: “Mothers, we have been to the west, and we have seen a great dark bird whose head was red and bare. We tried to shoot it, but it flew away before we could discharge our arrows.” “It was Dzéso, the Buzzard, that you saw,” said the women. “He is the spy for Tseʻtahotsĭltáʻli, he who kicks men down the cliffs.”

302. On the fourth day the boys stole off as usual, and went toward the north. When they had travelled a long way in that direction, they saw a bird of black plumage perched on a tree on the edge of a canyon. It was talking to itself, saying “aʻaʻiʻ.” They aimed at it, but before they could let fly their arrows it spread its wings and tail and disappeared down the canyon. As it flew, the boys noticed that its plumes were edged with white. When they got home they told their mothers, as before, what they had seen. “This bird that you saw,” said the women, “is the Magpie. He is the spy for the Bĭnáye Aháni, who slay people with their eyes. Alas, our children! What shall we do to make you hear us? What shall we do to save you? You would not listen to us. Now the spies of the anáye (the alien gods) in all quarters of the world have seen you. They will tell their chiefs, and soon the monsters will come here to devour you, as they have devoured all your kind before you.”

303. The next morning the women made a corncake and laid it on the ashes to bake. Then Yolkaí Estsán went out of the hogán, and, as she did so, she saw Yéitso,105 the tallest and fiercest of the alien gods, approaching. She ran quickly back and gave the warning, and the women hid the boys under bundles and sticks. Yéitso came and sat down at the door, just as the women were taking the cake out of the ashes. “That cake is for me,” said Yéitso. “How nice it smells!” “No,” said Estsánatlehi, “it was not meant for your great maw.” “I don’t care,” said Yéitso. “I would rather eat boys. Where are your boys? I have been told you have some here, and I have come to get them.” “We have none,” said Estsánatlehi. “All the boys have gone into the paunches of your people long ago.” “No boys?” said the giant. “What, then, has made all the tracks around here?” “Oh! these tracks I have made for fun,” replied the woman. “I am lonely here, and I make tracks so that I may fancy there are many people around me.” She showed Yéitso how she could make similar tracks with her fist. He compared the two sets of tracks, seemed to be satisfied, and went away.

304. When he was gone, Yolkaí Estsán, the White Shell Woman, went up to the top of a neighboring hill to look around, and she beheld many of the anáye hastening in the direction of her lodge. She returned speedily, and told her sister what she had seen. Estsánatlehi took four colored hoops, and threw one toward each of the cardinal points,—a white one to the east, a blue one to the south, a yellow one to the west, and a black one to the north. At once a great gale arose, blowing so fiercely in all directions from the hogán that none of the enemies could advance against it.

305. Next morning the boys got up before daybreak and stole away. Soon the women missed them, but could not trace them in the dark. When it was light enough to examine the ground the women went out to look for fresh tracks. They found four footprints of each of the boys, pointing in the direction of the mountain of Dsĭlnáotĭl, but more than four tracks they could not find. They came to the conclusion that the boys had taken a holy trail, so they gave up further search and returned to the lodge.

306. The boys travelled rapidly in the holy trail,93 and soon after sunrise, near Dsĭlnáotĭl, they saw smoke arising from the ground. They went to the place where the smoke rose, and they found it came from the smoke-hole of a subterranean chamber. A ladder, black from smoke, projected through the hole. Looking down into the chamber they saw an old woman, the Spider Woman,106 who glanced up at them and said: “Welcome, children. Enter. Who are you, and whence do you two come together walking?” They made no answer, but descended the ladder. When they reached the floor she again spoke to them, asking: “Whither do you two go walking together?” “Nowhere in particular,” they answered; “we came here because we had nowhere else to go.” She asked this question four times, and each time she received a similar answer. Then she said: “Perhaps you would seek your father?” “Yes,” they answered, “if we only knew the way to his dwelling.” “Ah!” said the woman, “it is a long and dangerous way to the house of your father, the Sun. There are many of the anáye dwelling between here and there, and perhaps, when you get there, your father may not be glad to see you, and may punish you for coming. You must pass four places of danger,—the rocks that crush the traveller, the reeds that cut him to pieces, the cane cactuses that tear him to pieces, and the boiling sands that overwhelm him. But I shall give you something to subdue your enemies and preserve your lives.”

She gave them a charm called nayéatsos, or feather of the alien gods, which consisted of a hoop with two life-feathers (feathers plucked from a living eagle) attached, and another life-feather, hyĭná bĭltsós,107 to preserve their existence. She taught them also this magic formula, which, if repeated to their enemies, would subdue their anger: “Put your feet down with pollen.108 Put your hands down with pollen. Put your head down with pollen. Then your feet are pollen; your hands are pollen; your body is pollen; your mind is pollen; your voice is pollen. The trail is beautiful (bĭké hozóni). Be still.”109

307. Soon after leaving the house of Spider Woman, the boys came to Tseʻyeintĭ′li (the rocks that crush). There was here a narrow chasm between two high cliffs. When a traveller approached, the rocks would open wide apart, apparently to give him easy passage and invite him to enter; but as soon as he was within the cleft they would close like hands clapping and crush him to death. These rocks were really people; they thought like men; they were anáye. When the boys got to the rocks they lifted their feet as if about to enter the chasm, and the rocks opened to let them in. Then the boys put down their feet, but withdrew them quickly. The rocks closed with a snap to crush them; but the boys remained safe on the outside. Thus four times did they deceive the rocks. When they had closed for the fourth time the rocks said: “Who are ye; whence come ye two together, and whither go ye?” “We are children of the Sun,” answered the boys. “We come from Dsĭlnáotĭl, and we go to seek the house of our father.” Then they repeated the words the Spider Woman had taught them, and the rocks said: “Pass on to the house of your father.” When next they ventured to step into the chasm the rocks did not close, and they passed safely on.

308. The boys kept on their way and soon came to a great plain covered with reeds that had great leaves on them as sharp as knives. When the boys came to the edge of the field of reeds (Lokáadikĭsi), the latter opened, showing a clear passage through to the other side. The boys pretended to enter, but retreated, and as they did so the walls of reeds rushed together to kill them. Thus four times did they deceive the reeds. Then the reeds spoke to them, as the rocks had done; they answered and repeated the sacred words. “Pass on to the house of your father,” said the reeds, and the boys passed on in safety.

309. The next danger they encountered was in the country covered with cane cactuses.89 These cactuses rushed at and tore to pieces whoever attempted to pass through them. When the boys came to the cactuses the latter opened their ranks to let the travellers pass on, as the reeds had done before. But the boys deceived them as they had deceived the reeds, and subdued them as they had subdued the reeds, and passed on in safety.

310. After they had passed the country of the cactus they came, in time, to Saitád, the land of the rising sands. Here was a great desert of sands that rose and whirled and boiled like water in a pot, and overwhelmed the traveller who ventured among them. As the boys approached, the sands became still more agitated and the boys did not dare venture among them. “Who are ye?” said the sands, “and whence come ye?” “We are children of the Sun, we came from Dsĭlnáotĭl, and we go to seek the house of our father.” These words were four times said. Then the elder of the boys repeated his sacred formula; the sands subsided, saying: “Pass on to the house of your father,” and the boys continued on their journey over the desert of sands.110

311. Soon after this adventure they approached the house of the Sun. As they came near the door they found the way guarded by two bears that crouched, one to the right and one to the left, their noses pointing toward one another. As the boys drew near, the bears rose, growled angrily, and acted as if about to attack the intruders; but the elder boy repeated the sacred words the Spider Woman had taught him, and when he came to the last words, “Be still,” the bears crouched down again and lay still. The boys walked on. After passing the bears they encountered a pair of sentinel serpents, then a pair of sentinel winds, and, lastly, a pair of sentinel lightnings. As the boys advanced, all these guardians acted as if they would destroy them; but all were appeased with the words of prayer.111

312. The house of the Sun God was built of turquoise; it was square like a pueblo house, and stood on the shore of a great water. When the boys entered they saw, sitting in the west, a woman; in the south, two handsome young men;112 and in the north, two handsome young women. The women gave a glance at the strangers and then looked down. The young men gazed at them more closely, and then, without speaking, they rose, wrapped the strangers in four coverings of the sky, and laid them on a shelf.113

313. The boys had lain there quietly for some time when a rattle that hung over the door shook and one of the young women said: “Our father is coming.” The rattle shook four times, and soon after it shook the fourth time, Tsóhanoai, the bearer of the sun, entered his house. He took the sun off his back and hung it up on a peg on the west wall of the room, where it shook and clanged for some time, going “tla, tla, tla, tla,” till at last it hung still.

314. Then Tsóhanoai turned to the woman and said, in an angry tone: “Who are those two who entered here to-day?” The woman made no answer and the young people looked at one another, but each feared to speak. Four times he asked this question, and at length the woman said: “It would be well for you not to say too much. Two young men came hither to-day, seeking their father. When you go abroad, you always tell me that you visit nowhere, and that you have met no woman but me. Whose sons, then, are these?” She pointed to the bundle on the shelf, and the children smiled significantly at one another.

315. He took the bundle from the shelf. He first unrolled the robe of dawn with which they were covered, then the robe of blue sky, next the robe of yellow evening light, and lastly the robe of darkness. When he unrolled this the boys fell out on the floor. He seized them, and threw them first upon great, sharp spikes of white shell that stood in the east; but they bounded back, unhurt, from these spikes, for they held their life-feathers tightly all the while. He then threw them in turn on spikes of turquoise in the south, on spikes of haliotis in the west, and spikes of black rock in the north; but they came uninjured from all these trials and Tsóhanoai said: “I wish it were indeed true that they were my children.”

316. He said then to the elder children,—those who lived with him,—“Go out and prepare the sweat-house and heat for it four of the hardest boulders you can find. Heat a white, a blue, a yellow, and a black boulder.” When the Winds heard this they said: “He still seeks to kill his children. How shall we avert the danger?” The sweat-house was built against a bank. Wind dug into the bank a hole behind the sudatory, and concealed the opening with a flat stone. Wind then whispered into the ears of the boys the secret of the hole and said: “Do not hide in the hole until you have answered the questions of your father.” The boys went into the sweat-house, the great hot boulders were put in and the opening of the lodge was covered with the four sky-blankets. Then Tsóhanoai called out to the boys: “Are you hot?” and they answered: “Yes, very hot.” Then they crept into the hiding-place and lay there. After a while Tsóhanoai came and poured water through the top of the sweat-house on the stones, making them burst with a loud noise, and a great heat and steam was raised. But in time the stones cooled and the boys crept out of their hiding-place into the sweat-house. Tsóhanoai came and asked again: “Are you hot?” hoping to get no reply; but the boys still answered: “Yes, very hot.” Then he took the coverings off the sweat-house and let the boys come out. He greeted them in a friendly way and said: “Yes, these are my children,” and yet he was thinking of other ways by which he might destroy them if they were not.

317. The four sky-blankets were spread on the ground one over another, and the four young men were made to sit on them, one behind another, facing the east. “My daughters, make these boys to look like my other sons,” said Tsóhanoai. The young women went to the strangers, pulled their hair out long, and moulded their faces and forms so that they looked just like their brethren. Then Sun bade them all rise and enter the house. They rose and all went, in a procession, the two strangers last.

318. As they were about to enter the door they heard a voice whispering in their ears: “St! Look at the ground.” They looked down and beheld a spiny caterpillar called Wasekede, who, as they looked, spat out two blue spits on the ground. “Take each of you one of these,” said Wind, “and put it in your mouth, but do not swallow it. There is one more trial for you,—a trial by smoking.” When they entered the house Tsóhanoai took down a pipe of turquoise that hung on the eastern wall and filled it with tobacco. “This is the tobacco he kills with,” whispered Nĭ′ltsi to the boys. Tsóhanoai held the pipe up to the sun that hung on the wall, lit it, and gave it to the boys to smoke. They smoked it, and passed it from one to another till it was finished. They said it tasted sweet, but it did them no harm.

319. When the pipe was smoked out and Tsóhanoai saw the boys were not killed by it, he was satisfied and said: “Now, my children, what do you want from me? Why do you seek me?” “Oh, father!” they replied, “the land where we dwell is filled with the anáye, who devour the people. There are Yéitso and Téelgĕt, the Tseʻnáhale, the Bĭnáye Aháni, and many others. They have eaten nearly all of our kind; there are few left; already they have sought our lives, and we have run away to escape them. Give us, we beg, the weapons with which we may slay our enemies. Help us to destroy them.”

320. “Know,” said Tsóhanoai, “that Yéitso who dwells at Tsótsĭl is also my son, yet I will help you to kill him. I shall hurl the first bolt at him, and I will give you those things that will help you in war.” He took from pegs where they hung around the room and gave to each a hat, a shirt, leggings, moccasins, all made of pes (iron or knives),114 a chain-lightning arrow, a sheet-lightning arrow, a sunbeam arrow, a rainbow arrow, and a great stone knife or knife club (peshál).115 “These are what we want,” said the boys. They put on the clothes of pes, and streaks of lightning shot from every joint.116

321. Next morning Tsóhanoai led the boys out to the edge of the world, where the sky and the earth came close together, and beyond which there was no world. Here sixteen wands or poles leaned from the earth to the sky; four of these were of white shell, four of turquoise, four of haliotis shell, and four of red stone.117 A deep stream flowed between them and the wands. As they approached the stream, Nĭ′ltsi, the Wind, whispered: “This is another trial;” but he blew a great breath and formed a bridge of rainbow,86 over which the brothers passed in safety. Nĭ′ltsi whispered again: “The red wands are for war, the others are for peace;” so when Tsóhanoai asked his sons: “On which wands will ye ascend?” they answered: “On the wands of red stone,” for they sought war with their enemies. They climbed up to the sky on the wands of red stone, and their father went with them.118

322. They journeyed on till they came to Yágahoka, the sky-hole, which is in the centre of the sky.119 The hole is edged with four smooth, shining cliffs that slope steeply downwards,—cliffs of the same materials as the wands by which they had climbed from the earth to the sky. They sat down on the smooth declivities,—Tsóhanoai on the west side of the hole, the brothers on the east side. The latter would have slipped down had not the Wind blown up and helped them to hold on. Tsóhanoai pointed down and said: “Where do you belong in the world below? Show me your home.” The brothers looked down and scanned the land; but they could distinguish nothing; all the land seemed flat; the wooded mountains looked like dark spots on the surface; the lakes gleamed like stars, and the rivers like streaks of lightning. The elder brother said: “I do not recognize the land, I know not where our home is.” Now Nĭ′ltsi prompted the younger brother, and showed him which were the sacred mountains and which the great rivers, and the younger exclaimed, pointing downwards: “There is the Male Water (San Juan River), and there is the Female Water (Rio Grande); yonder is the mountain of Tsĭsnadzĭ′ni; below us is Tsótsĭl; there in the west is Dokoslíd; that white spot beyond the Male Water is Depĕ′ntsa; and there between these mountains is Dsĭlnáotĭl, near which our home is.” “You are right, my child, it is thus that the land lies,” said Tsóhanoai.