Part 14

363. Next day he went again to the north and climbed high among the peaks of Depe'ntsa, where no trees grow and where the snow lies white through all the summer. Here he found a lean old woman, sitting on the bare snow, without clothing, food, fire, or shelter. She shivered from head to foot, her teeth chattered, and her eyes streamed water. Among the drifting snows which whirled around her, a multitude of snow-buntings were playing; these were the couriers she sent out to announce the coming of a storm. "Grandmother," he said, "a cruel man I shall be. I am going to kill you, so that men may no more suffer and die by your hand," and he raised his knife-club to smite her. "You may kill me or let me live, as you will. I care not," she said to the hero; "but if you kill me it will always be hot, the land will dry up, the springs will cease to flow, the people will perish. You will do well to let me live. It will be better for your people." He paused and thought upon her words. He lowered the hand he had raised to strike her, saying: "You speak wisely, grandmother; I shall let you live." He turned around and went home.

364. When Nayénezgani got home from this journey, bearing no trophy, Wind again whispered in his ear and said: "Tieín (Poverty) still lives." He asked his mother where Poverty used to live, but she would not answer him. It was Wind who again informed him. "There are two, and they dwell at Dsildasdzi'ni."

365. He went to Dsildasdzi'ni next day and found there an old man and an old woman, who were filthy, clad in tattered garments, and had no goods in their house. "Grandmother, grandfather," he said, "a cruel man I shall be. I have come to kill you." "Do not kill us, my grandchild," said the old man: "it would not be well for the people, in days to come, if we were dead; then they would always wear the same clothes and never get anything new. If we live, the clothing will wear out and the people will make new and beautiful garments; they will gather goods and look handsome. Let us live and we will pull their old clothes to pieces for them." So he spared them and went home without a trophy.

366. The next journey was to seek Ditsi'n, Hunger, who lived, as Ni'ltsi told him, at Tlóhadaskaí, White Spot of Grass. At this place he found twelve of the Hunger People. Their chief was a big, fat man, although he had no food to eat but the little brown cactus. "I am going to be cruel," said Nayénezgani, "so that men may suffer no more the pangs of hunger and die no more of hunger." "Do not kill us," said the chief, "if you wish your people to increase and be happy in the days to come. We are your friends. If we die, the people will not care for food; they will never know the pleasure of cooking and eating nice things, and they will never care for the pleasures of the chase." So he spared also the Ditsi'n, and went home without a trophy.

367. When Nayénezgani came back from the home of Hunger, Ni'ltsi spoke to him no more of enemies that lived. The Slayer of the Alien Gods said to his mother: "I think all the anáye must be dead, for every one I meet now speaks to me as a relation; they say to me, 'my grandson,' 'my son,' 'my brother.'"[157] Then he took off his armor--his knife, moccasins, leggings, shirt, and cap--and laid them in a pile; he put with them the various weapons which the Sun had given him, and he sang this song:--

Now Slayer of the Alien Gods arrives Here from the house made of the dark stone knives. From where the dark stone knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.

The Offspring of the Water now arrives, Here from the house made of the serrate knives. From where the serrate knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.

He who was Reared beneath the Earth arrives, Here from the house made of all kinds of knives. From where all kinds of knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.

The hero, Changing Grandchild, now arrives, Here from the house made of the yellow knives. From where the yellow knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.[280]

368. His song had scarcely ceased when they heard, in the far east, a loud voice singing this song:--

With Slayer of the Alien Gods I come, From the house made of dark stone knives I come, From where dark knives dangle on high I come, With implement of sacred rites I come, Dreadful to you.

With Offspring of the Waters now I come, From the house made of serrate knives I come, From where the serrate knives hang high I come, With implement of sacred rites I come, Divine to you.

With Reared beneath the Earth now do I come, From house of knives of every kind I come, Where knives of every kind hang high I come, With implement of sacred rites I come, Dreadful to you.

Now with the Changing Grandchild here I come, From the house made of yellow knives I come, From where the yellow knives hang high I come, With implement of sacred rites I come, Dreadful to you.[281]

369. As the voice came nearer and the song continued, Estsánatlehi said to the youths: "Put on quickly the clothes you usually wear, Tsóhanoai is coming to see us; be ready to receive him," and she left the lodge, that she might not hear them talk about the anáye.

370. When the god had greeted his children and taken a seat, he said to the elder brother: "My son, do you think you have slain all the anáye?" "Yes, father," replied the son, "I think I have killed all that should die." "Have you brought home trophies from the slain?" the father questioned again. "Yes, my father," was the reply; "I have brought back wing-feathers, and lights and hair and eyes, and other trophies of my enemies." "It is not well," said Tsóhanoai, "that the bodies of these great creatures should lie where they fell; I shall have them buried near the corpse of Yéitso." (He got the holy ones to carry the corpses to San Mateo and hide them under the blood of Yéitso, and this is the reason we do not see them lying all over the land now, but sometimes see them sticking out of the rocks.)[159] He took the trophies and the armor and said: "These I shall carry back to my house in the east and keep them safe. If you ever need them again, come and get them." Promising to come back again in four days, and meet Estsánatlehi on the top of Tsolíhi, he departed.

371. At the end of four days Estsánatlehi went to the top of Tsolíhi and sat down on a rock. Tsóhanoai came, sat beside her, and sought to embrace her; but she avoided him, saying: "What do you mean by this? I want none of your embraces." "It means that I want you for my own," said the bearer of the Sun. "I want you to come to the west and make a home for me there." "But I do not wish to do so," said she. "What right have you to ask me?" "Have I not given your boys the weapons to slay the alien gods?" he inquired, and added: "I have done much for you: now you must reward me." She replied, "I never besought you to do this. You did not do it on my account; you did it of your own good will, and because your sons asked you." He urged another reason: "When Nayénezgani visited me in the east, he promised to give you to me." "What care I for his promise?" she exclaimed; "I am not bound by it. He has no right to speak for me." Thus four times she repulsed him. When he pleaded for the fifth time, saying: "Come to the west and make a home for me," she said: "Let me hear first all you have to promise me. You have a beautiful house in the east. I have never seen it, but I have heard how beautiful it is. I want a house just the same built for me in the west; I want to have it built floating on the water, away from the shore, so that in the future, when people increase, they will not annoy me with too many visits. I want all sorts of gems--white shell, turquoise, haliotis, jet, soapstone, agate, and redstone--planted around my house, so that they will grow and increase. Then I shall be lonely over there and shall want something to do, for my sons and my sister will not go with me. Give me animals to take along. Do all this for me and I shall go with you to the west." He promised all these things to her, and he made elk, buffalo, deer, long-tail deer, mountain sheep, jack-rabbits, and prairie-dogs to go with her.

372. When she started for her new home the Hadáhonestiddine` and the Hadáhonigedine`, two tribes of divine people,[160] went with her and helped her to drive the animals, which were already numerous. They passed over the Tuintsá range at Péslitsi (Red Knife or Red Metal), and there they tramped the mountain down so that they formed a pass. They halted in Tsinlí valley to have a ceremony[161] and a foot-race, and here the animals had become vastly more numerous. When they crossed Dsillizi'n (Black Mountain),[162] the herd was so great that it tramped a deep pass whose bottom is almost on a level with the surrounding plain; at Black Mountain all the buffaloes broke from the herd and ran to the east; they never returned to Estsánatlehi and are in the east still. At Hostódito` the elks went to the east and they never returned. From time to time a few, but not all, of the antelope, deer, and other animals left the herd and wandered east. Four days after leaving Tsinlí valley they arrived at Dokoslíd (San Francisco Mountain), and here they stopped to perform another ceremony. What happened on the way from this mountain to the great water in the west, we do not know, but after a while Estsánatlehi arrived at the great water and went to dwell in her floating house beyond the shore. Here she still lives, and here the Sun visits her, when his journey is done, every day that he crosses the sky. But he does not go every day; on dark, stormy days he stays at home in the east and sends in his stead the serpents of lightning, who do mischief.

373. As he journeys toward the west, this is the song he sings:--

In my thoughts I approach, The Sun God approaches, Earth's end he approaches, Estsánatlehi's hearth approaches, In old age walking The beautiful trail.

In my thoughts I approach, The Moon God approaches, Earth's end he approaches, Yolkaí Estsán's hearth approaches, In old age walking The beautiful trail.[282]

374. When Estsánatlehi had departed, Nayénezgani and To`badzistsíni went, as their father had bidden them, to To`ye'tli,[163] where two rivers join, in the valley of the San Juan; there they made their dwelling, there they are to this day, and there we sometimes still see their forms in the San Juan River.[164] The Navahoes still go there to pray, but not for rain, or good crops, or increase of stock; only for success in war, and only the warriors go.

IV. GROWTH OF THE NAVAHO NATION.

375. Before Estsánatlehi left, she said to Yolkaí Estsán: "Now, younger sister, I must leave you. Think well what you would most like to do after I am gone." The younger sister replied: "I would most like to go back to Depe'ntsa, where our people came from." "Alas! you will be lonely there," said the elder sister. "You will want for some one around you to make a noise and keep you company." Still, when Estsánatlehi left, Yolkaí Estsán turned her face toward Depe'ntsa. She went with the two brothers as far as To`ye'tli, and, when these stopped there, she set out alone for the mountains.

376. When she got to Depe'ntsa (the San Juan Mountains), she went first to a place lying east of Hadzinaí (the Place of Emergence), named Dsilladiltéhi; in an old ruined pueblo on its side she rested during the day, and at night she went to the top of the mountain to sleep. On the second day she went to a mountain south of the Place of Emergence, called Dsili'ndiltéhi; rested on the side of the mountain during the day, and on its top at night. She began now to feel lonely, and at night she thought of how men might be made to keep her company. She wandered round in thought during the third day, and on the third night she slept on top of Dsiltagiiltéhi, a mountain west of Hadzinaí. On the fourth day she walked around the Place of Emergence, and wandered into the old ruins she found there. On the fourth night she went to the top of Dsiltiniltéz, the mountain which lies to the north of the Place of Emergence, and there she rested, but did not sleep; for she thought all the time about her loneliness, and of how people might be made. On the fifth day she came down to the shores of the lake which surrounded the Place of Emergence, and built a shelter of brush. "I may as well stay here," she said to herself; "what does it avail that I wander round?" She sat up late that night thinking of her lonely condition. She felt that she could not stay there longer without companionship. She thought of her sister in the far west, of the Twelve People, of the gods that dwelt in the different mountains, and she thought she might do well to go and live with some of them.

377. The next morning she heard faintly, in the early dawn, the voice of Hastséyalti shouting his usual "Wu`hu`hu`hú," in the far east. Four times the cry was uttered, each time louder and nearer. Immediately after the last call the god appeared. "Where did you save yourself?" he asked the White Shell Woman, meaning, "Where were you, that you escaped the anáye when they ravaged the land?" "I was at Dsilnáotil with my sister," she said; "but for five nights I have been all alone in these mountains. I have been hoping that something might happen to relieve my great loneliness,--that I might meet some one. Sítsaí (Grandfather), whence do you come?" He replied: "I come from Tse`gíhi,[165] the home of the gods. I pity your loneliness and wish to help you. If you remain where you are, I shall return in four days and bring Estsánatlehi, the divine ones of all the great mountains, and other gods, with me." When he left, she built for herself a good hut with a storm door. She swept the floor clean, and made a comfortable bed of soft grass and leaves.

378. At dawn on the fourth day after the god departed, Yolkaí Estsán heard two voices calling,--the voice of Hastséyalti, the Talking God, and the voice of Hastséhogan, the House God. The voices were heard, as usual, four times, and immediately after the last call the gods appeared. It was dark and misty that day; the sun did not rise. Soon after the arrival of the first two, the other promised visitors came, and they all formed themselves in a circle east of the lodge, each in the place where he or she belonged. Thus the divine ones of Tsisnadzi'ni stood in the east; those of Tsótsil (San Mateo Mountain) in the south; those of Dokoslíd (San Francisco Mountain) in the west; those of Depe'ntsa (San Juan Mountain) in the north. Each one present had his appropriate place in the group. At first Yolkaí Estsán stood in the west; but her sister, Estsánatlehi, said to her: "No, my young sister; go you and stand in the east. My place is in the west," and thus they stood during the ceremony. Estsánatlehi brought with her two sacred blankets called Dilpi'l-naská, the Dark Embroidered, and Lakaí-naská, the White Embroidered. Hastséhogan brought with him two sacred buckskins, and the Nalkénaaz (a divine couple who came together walking arm in arm) brought two ears of corn,--one yellow, one white,--which the female carried in a dish of turquoise.

379. Hastséyalti laid the sacred blankets on the ground, and spread on top of these one of the sacred buckskins with its head to the west. He took from the dish of the female Nalkénaaz the two ears of corn, handing the white ear to Tse`gádinatini Asiké, the Rock Crystal Boy of the eastern mountain, and the yellow ear to Natáltsoi Atét, the Yellow Corn Girl of San Francisco Mountain. These divine ones laid the ears on the buckskin,--the yellow with its tip toward the west, the white with its tip toward the east. Hastséyalti picked up the ears, and nearly laid them down on the buckskin with their tips to the east, but he did not let them touch the buckskin; as he did this he uttered his own cry of "Wu`hu`hu`hú." Then he nearly laid them down with their tips to the south, giving as he did so Hastséhogan's cry of "Ha-wa-u-ú." With similar motions he pointed the ears to the west and the north. Next he raised them toward the sky, and at length laid them down on the buckskin, with their tips to the east. He accompanied each act with a cry of his own or of Hastséhogan, alternating as in the beginning. So the ears were turned in every direction, and this is the reason the Navahoes never abide in one home like the Pueblos, but wander ever from place to place. Over the ears of corn he laid the other sacred buckskin with its head to the east, and then Ni'ltsi, the Wind, entered between the skins. Four times, at intervals, Hastséyalti raised the buckskins a little and peeped in. When he looked the fourth time, he saw that the white ear of corn was changed to a man, and the yellow ear to a woman. It was Ni'ltsi who gave them the breath of life. He entered at the heads and came out at the ends of the fingers and toes, and to this day we see his trail in the tip of every human finger. The Rock Crystal Boy furnished them with mind, and the Grasshopper Girl gave them voices. When Hastséyalti at last threw off the top buckskin, a dark cloud descended and covered like a blanket the forms of the new pair. Yolkaí Estsán led them into her hogán, and the assembled gods dispersed. Before he left, Hastséyalti promised to return in four days.

380. No songs were sung and no prayers uttered during their rites, and the work was done in one day. The hogán near which all these things happened still stands; but since that time it has been transformed into a little hill. To-day (A.D. 1884) seven times old age has killed since this pair was made by the holy ones from the ears of corn. The next very old man who dies will make the eighth time.[166]

381. Early on the fourth morning after his departure Hastséyalti came again as he had promised, announcing his approach by calling four times as usual. When White Shell Woman heard the first call, she aroused the young people and said: "Get up, my children, and make a fire. Hastséyalti is coming." He brought with him another couple, Hadáhonige Asiké (Mirage Boy) and Hadáhonestid Atét (Ground-heat Girl). He gave Yolkaí Estsán two ears of corn, saying, "Grind only one grain at a time," and departed. Yolkaí Estsán said to the newly-arrived couple: "This boy and girl of corn cannot marry one another, for they are brother and sister; neither can you marry one another, for you are also brother and sister, yet I must do something for you all." So she married the boy made of corn to the Ground-heat Girl, and the Mirage Boy to the girl made of corn. After a time each couple had two children,--a boy and a girl. When these were large enough to run around, this family all moved away from Hadzinaí, where they had lived four years, to Tse`lakaíia (White Standing Rock). The two men were busy every day hunting rabbits, rats, and other such animals, for on such game they chiefly lived. From these people are descended the gens of Tse`dzinki'ni,[167] House of the Dark Cliffs; so named because the gods who created the first pair came from the cliff houses of Tse`gíhi, and brought from there the ears of corn from which this first pair was made.

382. After they had lived thirteen years at Tse`lakaíia, during which time they had seen no sign of the existence of any people but themselves, they beheld one night the gleam of a distant fire. They sought for the fire all that night and the next day, but could not find it. The next night they saw it again in the same place, and the next day they searched with greater vigilance, but in vain. On the third night, when the distant gleam shone again through the darkness, they determined to adopt some means, better than they had previously taken, to locate it. They drove a forked stick firmly into the ground; one of the men got down on his hands and knees, spreading them as wide apart as possible, and sighted the fire through the fork of the stick. Next morning he carefully placed his hands and knees in the tracks which they had made the night before, and once more looked through the fork. His sight was thus guided to a little wooded hollow on the side of a far-off mountain. One of the men walked over to the mountain and entered the little hollow, which was small and could be explored in a few moments; but he discovered no fire, no ashes, no human tracks, no evidence of the presence of man. On the fourth night all the adults of the party took sight over the forked stick at the far twinkle, and in the morning when they looked again they found they had all sighted the same little grove on the distant mountain-side. "Strange!" said the man who had hunted there the day before; "the place is small. I went all through it again and again. There was no sign of life there, and not a drop of water that could reflect a ray from a star or from the moon." Then all the males of the family, men and boys, went to explore the little wood. Just as they were about to return, having found nothing, Wind whispered into the ear of one: "You are deceived. That light shines through a crack in the mountain at night. Cross the ridge and you will find the fire."[168] They had not gone far over the ridge when they saw the footprints of men, then the footprints of children, and soon they came to the camp. One party was as much rejoiced as the other to find people like themselves in the wilderness. They embraced one another, and shouted mutual greetings and questions. "Whence do you come?" said the strangers. "From Tse`lakaíia," was the response. "And whence come you?" asked the men of the White Standing Rock. "We tarried last," replied the strangers, "at To`i'ndotsos, a poor country, where we lived on ducks and snakes.[169] We have been here only a few days, and now we live on ground-rats, prairie-dogs, and wild seeds." The new party consisted of twelve persons,--five men, three women, one grown girl, one grown boy, and two small children. The Tse`dzinki'ni people took the strangers home with them, and Yolkaí Estsán welcomed them, saying: "Ahaláni sastsíni!" (Greeting, my children!) The place where the Tse`dzinki'ni found the strangers encamped was called Tsé`tlana (Bend in a Canyon); so they gave them the name of Tse`tláni, or Tse`tlánidine`, and from them is descended the present gens of Tse`tláni in the Navaho nation.