Part 17

449. It happened about this time, while some of the Thá`paha were sojourning at Agála, that they sent two children, one night, to a spring to get water. The children carried out with them two wicker bottles, but returned with four. "Where did you get these other bottles?" the parents inquired. "We took them away from two little girls whom we met at the spring," answered the children. "Why did you do this, and who are the girls?" said the elders. "We do not know. They are strangers," said the little ones. The parents at once set out for the spring to find the strange children and restore the stolen bottles to them; but on their way they met the little girls coming toward the Thá`paha camp, and asked them who they were. The strange children replied: "We belong to a band of wanderers who are encamped on yonder mountain. They sent us two together to find water." "Then we shall give you a name," said the Thá`paha; "we shall call you To`baznaázi," Two Come Together for Water. The Thá`paha brought the little girls to their hut and bade them be seated. "Stay with us," they said. "You are too weak and little to carry the water so far. We will send some of our young men to carry it for you." When the young men found the camp of the strangers they invited the latter to visit them. The Thá`paha welcomed the new-comers as friends, and told them they had already a name for them, To`baznaázi. Under this name they became united to the Navahoes as a new gens, and they are now closely affiliated with Thá`paha.[197]

450. Shortly after the coming of To`baznaázi, the Navahoes were joined by a band of Apaches, who were adopted by Thá`paha and not formed into a new gens. About the same time a band of Pah Utes came and were likewise adopted by Thá`paha. A little later some more Apaches arrived and became a part of Thá`paha; but, although no distinct name is now given them, their descendants are known among the Thá`paha as a people of different origin from the others.

451. Another party of Apaches, who came afterwards, dwelt a long time among the To`dokózi; but later they abode with the Thá`paha, and became closely related to the latter. They are still affiliated with Thá`paha, but these call them To`dokózi.

452. Some years passed before the next accession was made. This was another party of Zuñi Indians, and they were admitted into the gens of the Thá`paha. Soon after them came the Zuñi People, who were at last formed into a separate gens,--that of Nanaste'zin. This is the Navaho name for all the Zuñians, and means Black Horizontal Stripe Aliens.[198] All these people deserted the Zuñi villages on account of scarcity of food.

453. A new people, with painted faces, came from the west about the same time as those who formed the gens of Zuñi, or a little later. They are supposed to have been a part of the tribe now called Mohaves on the banks of the Colorado. They bore the name of Dildzéhi, and their descendants now form a gens of that name among the Navahoes. At first they affiliated with Nanaste'zin; but to-day they are better friends with Thá`tsini than with Nanaste'zin.

454. A war-party, consisting of members of different gentes, was now organized among the Navahoes to attack a pueblo called Saíbehogan, House Made of Sand. At that place they captured two girls and brought them home as slaves. There was a salt lake near their old home, and the girls belonged to a gens of Salt People there. So their numerous descendants now among the Navahoes form the gens of Ásihi, or Salt. The captives were taken by members of the Tse`dzinki'ni, hence Ásihi and Tse`dzinki'ni are now affiliated.

455. Then a war party was gotten up to attack the people of Jemez pueblo. On this raid one of the Tlastsíni captured a Jemez girl, but sold her to one of the Tse`dzinki'ni. She was the progenitor of the gens of Maideski'zni, People of Wolf Pass (i.e., Jemez), which is now affiliated with Tse`dzinki'ni.

456. After the Navahoes attacked Saíbehogan there was a famine there, and some of the people abandoned their homes and joined the Navahoes. They said that in their pueblo there was a gens of Thá`paha, and hearing there was such a gens among the Navahoes they came to join it. Therefore they sought Thá`paha till they found it and became a part of it.

457. There came once a party of seven people from a place called Tse`yanató`ni, Horizontal Water under Cliffs, to pay a short visit to the Navahoes; but from time to time they delayed their departure, and at last stayed forever with the Navahoes. They formed the gens of Tse`yanató`ni, which is now extinct.

458. The people whom Estsánatlehi created from the skin under her right arm, and to whom she gave the wand of white shell, was called, after they came among the Navahoes, Kinaá`ni, High Stone House People; not because they built or dwelt in such a house, but because they lived near one.[199]

459. When the Bitá`ni were encamped at a place called Tó`tso, or Big Water, near the Carrizo Mountains, a man and a woman came up out of the water and joined them. From this pair is descended the gens of Tó`tsoni, People of the Big Water, which is affiliated with Bitá`ni.

NATI'NESTHANI.

460. Nati'nesthani,[201] He Who Teaches Himself, lived, with his relations, near the mountain of Dsilnáotil. The few people who lived there used to wander continually around the mountain, hence its name, Encircled Mountain. Nati'nesthani delighted in gambling, but was not successful. He lost at game, not only all his own goods, but all the goods and jewels of his relations, until there was only one article of value left--a necklace consisting of several strings of white beads. His parents and brother lived in one lodge; his grandmother and niece lived in another, a little distance from the first. When the gambler had parted with everything except the necklace, his brother took this to the lodge of his grandmother and gave it to her, saying: "My brother has gambled away everything save this. Should he lose this at game, it is the last thing he will ever lose, for then I shall kill him."

461. Nati'nesthani did not spend all his time gambling; sometimes he hunted for wood-rats and rabbits in the mountains. The day the necklace was brought, in returning from his hunt, he came to the house of his grandmother and saw the necklace hanging up there. "Why is this here?" he asked. "It is put here for safe-keeping," replied his niece. "Your brother values it and has asked us to take care of it. If you lose it in gambling, he has threatened to kill you. I have heard the counsels of the family about you. They are tired of you. If you lose this necklace at play, it is the last thing you will ever lose." On hearing this he only said to his niece, "I must think what I shall do," and he lay down to rest.

462. Next morning he rose early, made his breakfast of wood-rats, and went out to hunt, travelling toward the east. He stopped at one place, set fall-traps for wood-rats, and slept there all night. During the night he pondered on many plans. He thought at first he would go farther east and leave his people forever; but again he thought, "Who will hunt wood-rats for my niece when I am gone?" and he went back to her lodge and gave her all the little animals he had killed.

463. In the morning he breakfasted again on wood-rats, and said to himself: "I shall go to-day to the south and never return." Such was his intention as he went on his way. He travelled to the south, and spent the night out again; but in the morning he changed his mind, and came back to his niece with wood-rats and rabbits and the seeds of wild plants that he had gathered. The women cooked some of the wood-rats for his supper that night. When he lay down he thought of his brother's threats, and made plans again for running away. He had not touched the beads, though he longed to take them.

464. Next morning he went to the west, hunted there all day, and camped out at night as before; but again he could not make up his mind to leave his people, though he thought much about it; so he returned to his niece with such food as he had been able to get for her, and slept in the lodge that night.

465. On the following day he went to the north and hunted. He slept little at night while camping out, for his mind was filled with sad thoughts. "My brother disowns me," he said to himself. "My parents refuse me shelter. My niece, whom I love most, barely looks at me. I shall never go back again." Yet, for all these words, when morning came he returned to the lodge.[19]

466. By this time he was very poor, and so were his grandmother and niece. His sandals, made of grass and yucca-fibre, were worn through, and the blanket made of yucca-fibre and cedar-bark, which covered his back, was ragged.[177] But the people in the other lodge were better off. They gave the grandmother and niece food at times; but always watched these closely when they came for food, lest they should carry off something to give the gambler. "Let him live," said his parents, "on wood-rats and rabbits as well as he can."

467. The night after he returned from his hunt to the north he slept little, but spent the time mostly in thinking and making plans. What these plans were you shall soon know, for the next day he began to carry them out. His thought for his niece was now the only thing that made him care to stay at home.

468. In the morning after this night of thought he asked his niece to roast for him four wood-rats; he tied these together and set out for the San Juan River. When he got to the banks of the river he examined a number of cottonwood trees until he found one that suited him. He burned this down and burned it off square at the base. He kept his fire from burning up the whole trunk by applying mud above the place to be burned. His plan was to make a hollow vessel by which he could go down the San Juan River. It was his own plan. He had never heard of such a thing before. The Navahoes had never anything better than rafts, and these were good only to cross the river. He lay down beside the log to see where he should divide it, for he had planned to make the vessel a little longer than himself, and he burned the log across at the place selected. All this he did in one day, and then he went home, collecting rats on the way; but he told his niece nothing about the log. He slept that night in the lodge.

469. He went back, next morning, to his log on the banks of the San Juan, and spent the day making the log hollow by means of fire, beginning at the butt end. He succeeded in doing only a part of this work in one day. It took him four days to burn the hole through from one end of the log to the other and to make it wide enough to hold his body. At the end of each day's work he returned to his grandmother's lodge, and got wood-rats and rabbits on his way home.

470. The next day, after the hole was finished, was spent in making and inserting plugs. He moistened a lot of shredded cedar-bark and pounded it between stones so as to make a soft mass. He shoved a large piece of this in at the butt end and rammed it down to the tip end. In burning out the log, he had burned, where the tree branched, four holes which he did not need, and these he filled with plugs of the cedar-bark. He prepared another plug to be rammed into the butt from the inside, after he entered the log, and when this was finished he went home to his grandmother's house, collecting wood-rats from his traps as he went.

471. The next morning his niece cooked several wood-rats and ground for him a good quantity--as much as could be held in two hands--of the seeds of tlo`tsózi (Sporobolus cryptandrus). This meal she put in a bag of wood-rat skins sewed together. Thus provided he went back to his log. He put the provisions into the hole and then proceeded to enter, in person, to see if the log was sound and the hole big enough. He entered, head foremost, and crawled inwards until half of his chest was in the log, when he heard a voice crying, "Wu`hu`hu`hú!"[26] and he came out to see who called. He looked in every direction and examined the ground for tracks, but seeing no signs of any intruder he proceeded again to enter the log. This time he got in as far as his waist, when again he heard the cry of "Wu`hu`hu`hú," but louder and nearer than before. Again he came out of the log and looked around farther and more carefully than he did the first time, going in his search to the margin of the river; but he saw no one, found no tracks, and returned to his log. On the next trial he entered as far as his knees, when for the third time the cry sounded, and he crept out once more to find whence it came. He searched farther, longer, and more closely than on either of the previous occasions, but without success, and he went back to enter the log again. On the fourth trial, when he had entered as far as his feet, he heard the cry loud and near, and he felt some one shaking the log. He crept out for the fourth time and beheld Hastséyalti, the Talking God,[73] standing over him.

472. Hastséyalti did not speak at first, but told the man by signs that he must not get into the log, that he would surely be drowned if he did, and that he must go home. Then Hastséyalti walked off a distance from the log and motioned to the Navaho to come to him. When Nati'nesthani came near the god, the latter spoke, saying: "My grandchild, why are you doing all this work? Where do you intend to go with this log?" The man then told the god all his sad story, and ended by saying: "I am an outcast. I wish to get far away from my people. Take pity on me. Stop me not, but let me go in this log as far as the waters of the Old Age River (San Juan) will bear me." Hastséyalti replied: "No. You must not attempt to go into that log. You will surely be drowned if you do. I shall not allow you." Four times Nati'nesthani pleaded, and four times the god denied him. Then the god said: "Have you any precious stones?" "Yes," replied the man. "Have you white shell beads? Have you turquoise?" and thus the god went on asking him, one by one, if he had all the original eighteen sacred things[202] that must be offered to the gods to gain their favor. To each of his questions the man replied "Yes," although he had none of these things, and owned nothing but the rags that covered him. "It is well," said the god. "You need not enter that log to make your journey. Go home and stay there for four nights. At daylight, after the fourth night, you may expect to see me again. Have yourself and your house clean and in order for my coming. Have the floor and all around the house swept carefully. Have the ashes taken out. Wash your body and your hair with yucca suds the night before I arrive, and bid your niece to wash herself also with yucca. I shall go off, now, and tell the other divine ones about you."

473. As soon as he came home, Nati'nesthani told his niece what things he wanted (except the baskets and the sacred buckskins); but he did not tell her for what purpose he required them, and he asked her to steal them from their neighbors. This she did, a few things at a time, and during many visits. It took her three days to steal them all. On the evening of the third day, after they had washed themselves with the yucca suds, he told her about the baskets and the sacred buckskins which he needed. She went to the neighboring lodge and stole these articles, wrapping the baskets up in the buckskins. When she returned with her booty, he wrapped all the stolen goods up in the skins, put them away in the edge of the lodge, and lay down to rest. He was a good sleeper, and usually slept all night; but on this occasion he woke about midnight, and could not go to sleep again.

474. At dawn he heard, faintly, the distant "Wu`hu`hu`hú" of Hastséyalti. At once he woke his grandmother, saying: "I hear a voice. The digíni (holy ones, divine ones) are coming." "You fool," she replied. "Shut your mouth and go to sleep. They would never come to visit such poor people as we are," and she fell asleep again. In a little while he heard the voice a second time, louder and nearer, and again he shook his grandmother and told her he heard the voices of the gods; but she still would not believe him, and slept again. The third time that he awoke her, when he heard the voices still more plainly, she remained awake, beginning to believe him. The fourth time the call sounded loud and clear, as if cried by one standing at the door. "Hear," he said to his grandmother. "Is that not truly the voice of a divine one?" At last she believed him, and said in wonder: "Why should the digíni come to visit us?"

475. Hastséyalti and Hastséhogan were at the door, standing on the rainbow on which they had travelled. The former made signs to the man, over the curtain which hung in the doorway, bidding him pull the curtain aside and come out. "Grandmother," said the Navaho, "Hastséyalti calls me to him." "It is well," she answered. "Do as he bids you." As he went out, bearing his bundle of sacrificial objects, he said: "I go with the divine ones, but I shall come back again to see you." The niece had a pet turkey[203] that roosted on a tree near the lodge, Hastséyalti made signs to the Navaho to take the turkey along. The Navaho said: "My niece, the gods bid me take your turkey, and I would gladly do it, for I am going among strange people, where I shall be lonely. I love the bird; he would be company to me and remind me of my home. Yet I shall not take him against your will." "Then you may have my turkey pet," replied the niece. The old woman said to the god: "I shall be glad to have my grandchild back again. Will you let him return to us?" Hastséyalti only nodded his head. The gods turned the rainbow around sunwise, so that its head,[204] which formerly pointed to the door of the lodge, now pointed in a new direction. Hastséyalti got on the bow first. He made the Navaho get on behind him. Hastséhogan got on behind the man. "Shut your eyes," commanded Hastséyalti, and the Navaho did as he was bidden.

476. In a moment Hastséyalti cried again: "Open your eyes." The Navaho obeyed and found himself far away from his home at Tsé`tadi, where the digíni dwelt. They led him into a house in the rock which was full of divine people. It was beautiful inside--the walls were covered with rock crystal, which gave forth a brilliant light. Hastséyalti ordered food brought for his visitor. The latter was handed a small earthen cup only so big (a circle made by the thumb and index finger joined at the tips) filled with mush. "What a poor meal to offer a stranger!" thought the Navaho, supposing he would finish it in one mouthful. But he ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, from the cup and could not empty it. When he had eaten till he was satisfied the little cup was as full as in the beginning.[205] He handed the cup, when he was done, back to Hastséyalti, who, with one sweep of his finger, emptied it, and it remained empty. The little cup was then filled with water and given to the guest to drink. He drank till his thirst was satisfied; but the cup was as full when he was done as it was when he began. He handed it again to Hastséyalti, who put it to his own lips and emptied it at a single swallow.

477. The gods opened the bundle of the Navaho and examined the contents to see if he had brought all they required, and they found he had done so. In the mean time he filled his pipe and lighted it. While he was smoking, the gods Nayénezgani, Tó`badzistsíni, and Hastséoltoi[206] arrived from To`ye'tli and entered the house. Nayénezgani said to the visitor: "I hear that you were found crawling into a hole which you had made in a log by burning. Why were you doing this?" In reply the Navaho told his whole story, as he had told it to Hastséyalti, and ended by saying: "I wished to go to To`ye'tli, where the rivers meet, or wherever else the waters would bear me. While I was trying to carry out this plan, my grandfather, Hastséyalti, found me and bade me not to go. For this reason only I gave my plan up and went home." "Do you still wish to go to To`ye'tli?" said Nayénezgani. "Yes," said the Navaho, "I wish to go to To`ye'tli or as far down the San Juan as I can get." "Then you shall go," said the god.

478. Nayénezgani went forth from the house and the other gods followed him. They went to a grove of spruce, and there picked out a tree of unusual size. They tied rainbow ropes to it, so that it might not fall with too great force and break in falling. Nayénezgani and To`badzistsíni cut it near the root with their great stone knives, and it fell to the north. Crooked Lightning struck the fallen tree and went through it from butt to tip. Straight Lightning struck it and went through it from tip to butt. Thus the hole was bored in the log, and this was done before the branches were cut away. The hole that Crooked Lightning bored was too crooked. Straight Lightning made it straight, but still it was too small. Black Wind was sent into the hole, and he made it larger, but not large enough. Blue Wind, Yellow Wind, and White Wind entered the hole, each in turn, and each, as he went through, made it a little larger. It was not until White Wind had done his work that the hole was big enough to contain the body of a man. Hastséyalti supplied a bowl of food, a vessel of water, and a white cloud for bedding. They wrapped the Navaho up in the cloud and put him into the log. They plugged the ends with clouds,--a black cloud in the butt and a blue cloud in the tip,--and charged him not to touch either of these cloudy plugs. When they got him into the log some one said: "How will he get light? How will he know when it is night and when it is day?" They bored two holes in the log, one on each side of his head, and they put in each hole, to make a window, a piece of rock crystal, which they pushed in so tightly that water could not leak in around it.

479. While some of the gods were preparing the log, others were getting the pet turkey ready for his journey, but they did this unknown to the Navaho. They put about his body black cloud, he-rain, black mist, and she-rain. They put under his wings white corn, yellow corn, blue corn, corn of mixed colors, squash seed, watermelon seed, muskmelon seed, gourd seed, and beans of all colors. These were the six gods who prepared the turkey: four of the Gánaskidi[207] from a place called Depéhahatil, one Hastséhogan from Tse`gíhi,[165] and the Hastséhogan from Tsé`tadi,--the one who found the Navaho entering his cottonwood log and took him home to the house in the rocks.