Part 3
Maid Who Becomes a Bear Sought the gods and found them, On the summits of the mountains Sought the gods and found them, Truly with my sacrifice Sought the gods and found them. Somebody doubts it, so I have heard.
Holy Young Woman Sought the gods and found them, On the summits of the clouds Sought the gods and found them, Truly with my sacrifice Sought the gods and found them. Somebody doubts it, so I have heard.
Maid Who Becomes a Bear (Tsiké Sas Nátlehi)[90] is an important character in Navaho mythology. The last line in each stanza is an instance of irony.
53. It will be seen from the instances given that they understand the value of repetition in poetry. The refrain is a favorite form of expression; but they know of other means of giving verbal melody to their songs, as may be seen in the following original text of the Bluebird (Sialia arctica) Song:--
Tsihayilkáe dóla aní, Áyas dotli'zi biza holó, Biza hozónigo, biza holó, Biza holónigo hwíhe inlí Dóla aní. Dóla aní.
To appreciate this a translation is not necessary, but it is given, as the reader may wish to know it:--
Just at daylight Sialia calls. The bluebird has a voice, He has a voice, his voice melodious, His voice melodious that flows in gladness. Sialia calls. Sialia calls.
The regular Navaho name for the bluebird "dóli" (changed here to "dóla" for poetic reasons) is translated Sialia, to distinguish it from the descriptive term "áyas dotli'zi" which means literally bluebird.
54. Rhyme.--They are not ignorant of the value of rhyme in poetry, but they more often produce this by the repetition of significant or meaningless syllables than by selecting different words with similar endings. Still we often find this, the more difficult means, resorted to as in the above song of the bluebird.
55. Music.--To the casual listener it may appear that there is much sameness in the music of their songs; but a more careful study will reveal the fact that the variety is great. It is remarkable how, with such rude instruments (an inverted basket for a drum, and a gourd rattle) to accompany them, they succeed, in a series of two hundred or more songs, in producing so many musical changes. In their sacred songs of sequence, where four or more songs of similar import follow one another, as is often the case, the music may be nearly alike (but never quite alike) in all; but when the theme of the poetry changes, the music also takes a decided change.
56. For further information on the subject of music the reader is referred to note 272, which contains remarks by Prof. John Comfort Fillmore, formerly of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but now of Claremont, California. Over two years ago the writer sent a number of phonographic records of Navaho songs to Professor Fillmore, who has diligently studied them and has written many of them in musical notation. Some of the musical scores are appended to the note.
TRIBAL ORGANIZATION.
57. Gentes.--The version of the Origin Legend by Tall Chanter, here given, accounts for only thirty-eight gentes among the Navahoes; but this informant was able to name, in all, forty-three gentes, two of which, he said, were extinct. Lists of the Navaho gentes have been obtained from various sources, and no single authority has been found to give a greater number than this. But no two lists are quite alike; they differ with regard to small or extinct gentes, and one list may supply a name which another has omitted. There would be at least fifty-one gentes extant and extinct in the tribe if each name so far obtained represented a different organization. But we find in the Legend instances of a gens having two names (pars. 386, 405, 428, 445).
58. On the other hand, it is possible that none of the lists may be complete. Gentes derived from women of alien races, added to the tribe since it has grown numerous and widely scattered, may exist in one part of the Navaho country unknown to the best informed persons in another part. Extinct gentes may be forgotten by one informant and remembered by another.
59. The following is a list of the forty-three gentes named by Tall Chanter:--
1. Tse`dzinki'ni, House of the Black Cliffs (pars. 378-381). 2. Tse`tláni, Bend in a Cañon (par. 382). 3. Dsi'lnaoti'lni, Encircled Mountain (par. 385). 4. Haskánhatso (Haskanhatsódine`), Much Yucca (par. 386). 5. Nahopáni, Brown Streak; Horizontal on the Ground (par. 387). 6. Tsinadzi'ni, Black Horizontal Forest (par. 390). 7. Tha`nezá` (Tha`nezá`ni), Among the Scattered (Hills) (par. 392). 8. Dsiltlá`ni, Base of the Mountain (par. 393). 9. Thá`paha (Thá`pahadine`), Among the Waters (par. 394 et seq.). 10. Tsa`yiski'dni, Sage-brush Hill (par. 399). 11. Tse`zindiaí, Trap Dyke (par. 401). 12. Klógi (Klógidine`), (Name of an old pueblo) (par. 403). 13. Tó`hani, Beside the Water (par. 404). 14. Thá`tsini, Among the Red (Waters or Banks) (par. 405). 15. Kai (Káidine`), Willows (par. 405). 16. Kinlitsí (Kinlitsídine`), Red House (of Stone) (par. 406). 17. Destsíni, Red Streak (par. 408). 18. Tlastsíni, Red Flat (par. 408). 19. Notá (Notádine`), Ute (par. 409). 20. Nakaí (Nakaídine`), White Stranger (Mexican) (par. 410). 21. To`yetlíni, Junction of the Rivers (par. 411). 22. Háltso (Háltsodine`), Yellow Bodies (par. 412). 23. To`ditsíni, Bitter Water (par. 427). 24. Maitó` (Maitó`dine`), Coyote Spring (par. 428). 25. Hasli'zni (Hasli'zdine`), Mud (par. 429). 26. To`dokónzi, Saline Water (par. 430, note 171). 27. Bitá`ni, Folded Arms (par. 431). 28. Tsinsakádni, Lone Tree (par. 441). 29. Pinbitó` (Pinbitó`dine`), Deer Spring (par. 442). 30. Tse`nahapi'lni, Overhanging Rocks (par. 445). 31. Honagá`ni, Place of Walking (pars. 447, 448). 32. Kinaá`ni, High Standing House (par. 458). 33. To`baznaáz (To`baznaázi), Two Come for Water (par. 449). 34. Nanaste'zin, Black Horizontal Stripe Aliens (Zuñi) (par. 452). 35. Dildzéhi, (Not translated) (par. 453). 36. Ásihi (Ásihidine`), Salt (par. 454). 37. Maideski'z (Maideski'zni), Coyote Pass (Jemez) (par. 455). 38. Tse`yanató`ni (extinct), Horizontal Water under Cliffs (par. 457). 39. Tó`tsoni, Great Water (par. 459). 40. Bitáni or Dsiltáni, Brow of Mountain. 41. Tse`yikéhe (Tse`yikéhedine`), Rocks Standing near One Another. 42. Tliziláni, Many Goats (par. 407). 43. To`tsalsitáya (extinct), Water under the Sitting Frog.
60. The following are eight names obtained from other sources, and not mentioned by Tall Chanter:--
44. Aatsósni, Narrow Gorge. 45. Naa`í (Naa`ídine`), Monocline. 46. Yóo, Beads. 47. Ka`náni, Living Arrows. 48. Tse`tháni, Among the Rocks. 49. Lóka (Lókadine`) Reeds (Phragmites). 50. Tse`deski'zni, Rocky Pass. 51. Hoganláni, Many Huts.
61. More than one translation of a gentile name has often been noted; but in the above lists only one translation is given,--that which the author regards with the most favor. Often, too, different narrators account differently for the origin of the gentile names. Some of the translations are very liberal, and others, again, very brief; but in the paragraphs and notes to which the reader is referred he will find fuller explanations. The Navahoes sometimes, but not invariably, add (as shown in the above lists) a suffix (diné`, ni, or i), signifying people; but in the above translations, to simplify the study, the word "people" is omitted.
62. There are reasons, which the author has set forth in a previous essay[318] and will not now repeat, for believing that most of the Navaho gentes were originally local exogamous groups, and not true gentes according to Morgan's definition.[325] There is little doubt that, in the majority of cases if not in all, the names of Navaho gentes, which are not the names of tribes, are simply designations of localities, even where the Legend states to the contrary; as, for instance, when it tells us that certain gentes of the Western immigrants were named from words that women uttered when they first tasted of the magic fountains (pars. 427, 429, 430).
63. On the other hand, there are passages in the Legend which indicate that a few of the Navaho gentes were once totemic, although no evidence of clan totems is known to exist among the Navahoes at the present time, and it is not improbable that a few of the gentile names may be of totemic origin, although they are now accounted for in other ways in the Origin Legend. The passage (par. 419) which tells us that Estsánatlehi gave certain pets to the wanderers from the West, and that these pets accompanied the people on their journey, refers in all probability to the former use of totemic clan symbols, and possibly to a custom of keeping live totemic animals in captivity,--a custom prevalent among the ancient Mexicans and the modern Pueblos, though not among the modern Navahoes. Other indications of a former totemism may be found in the story of the Deer Spring People (par. 442, note 195; see, also, note 173).
64. In reading the fourth chapter of the Origin Legend--"Growth of the Navaho Nation"--one is impressed with the different degrees of willingness, on both sides, with which new gentes are adopted into the nation. In some instances two parties, meeting for the first time, embrace one another and become friends at once (par. 382). The clans from the Pacific coast--the Western immigrants, as they are here called--learn of the existence of kindred tribes far to the east, take a long and dangerous journey to join them, and, when their march is done, they are received by the Navahoes at once as brethren. On the other hand, the legend tells us of bands that camp long in the neighborhood of the Navahoes before they become incorporated with the latter (par. 394); of other clans descended from captives (pars. 406, 454, 455); and of others that seek refuge among the Navahoes only to escape starvation or persecution at home (pars. 403, 452). On the basis of their mode of adoption, the clans may be divided into the ready and the reluctant. The cause of this is probably one of language. Bands which we know to have been allied in language to the Navahoes--such as those derived from the Apaches--will be found among the ready; while bands which we know to have spoken languages very different to the Navaho--such as those derived from the Utes, from Zuñi, and Jemez--will be found among the reluctant. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the same rule applies to clans of whose original language we know nothing.
65. Phratries.--The gentes of the Navahoes are divided into a number of groups, each of which may be called a phratry. Authorities in the tribe differ as to the number of the phratries, and as to the gentes that compose them. Some make but eight phratries. Captain Bourke[294] has obtained a list of eleven, with three independent gentes. Some of the Navahoes say there are twelve phratries, and suggest that they have some relation to the twelve tribes who dwelt in the first world. But the Navaho phratry seems not to be a homogeneous organization. A case is mentioned in the Legend where a gens has changed its phratral affinities (par. 451). Inquiry, too, has revealed that there are sub-groups. There may be closer bonds of alliance among some gentes in a group than there are among others in the same group. Authorities, then, may differ without invalidating each other's testimony.
66. These groups are indicated in the Legend when it says that one gens has become closely related or affiliated with another (pars. 385, 399, 403 et al.), or when it says that two gentes cannot intermarry (pars. 393, 401, 406). If the Navahoes have a term equivalent to "phratry," it has not been discovered. They have no special names for the different phratries; they often, but not always, speak of a phratry by the name of the most important gens in it.
67. If the Legend is to be taken as evidence, phratries have developed among the Navahoes both by segmentation of gentes and by the addition of new gentes from without; not by either method exclusively. But legendary evidence is not needed to show that gentes which bear to-day the names of alien tribes have been additions to the phratry.
68. Forbidden Degrees of Kindred.--A Navaho belongs to the gens of his mother and takes the name of that gens. Cases have been noted where a Navaho has been known by his gentile name and not by any other. No man may marry one of his own gens; neither may he marry one of his own phratry, though some exceptions seem to be made in the latter case where the limits of the phratry are not well defined. Where this descent in the female line exists among other tribes, it is held by some ethnographers that the man does not regard his father or his father's people as his relations, and may contract a marriage with a woman of his father's gens. Such is certainly not the case among the Navahoes. The gens and the phratry of the father are as much forbidden kindred as those of the mother.
RELIGION.
69. Sources of Information.--That the Navahoes have a religion--an elaborate pagan cult--has already been intimated. There is little to be gained by asking a Navaho direct questions about this. Learned controversialists and theologians, capable of analyzing and discussing their faith, have not arisen among them, or, if they have, they cannot easily communicate their philosophy to us. But the civilized scholar has abundant material from which to study their religion, and he must do the analyzing himself. In the great dry-paintings shown on the floors of the medicine-lodges, during their long ceremonies, may be seen pictures of many of the gods, with their hieratic belongings. In the ceremonies, or so-called dances, men are masked to represent gods. In the myths the acts and deeds of the divine ones are described, and we learn their thoughts and feelings,--kind, like Indians, to their kindred; usually cruel, yet often merciful and magnanimous, to their foes. In the countless songs of the rites may be found the poetic side of the divine characters, and in the long prayers we may learn their potency, and discover how man hopes to commune with them and gain their favor.
70. No Supreme God.--The religion of this people reflects their social condition. Their government is democratic. There is no highest chief of the tribe, and all their chiefs are men of temporary and ill-defined authority, whose power depends largely on their personal influence, their oratory, and their reputation for wisdom. It is difficult for such a people to conceive of a Supreme God. Their gods, like their men, stand much on a level of equality.
71. Sun God.--In the version of the Origin Legend here given, the Sun God would seem to have some precedence over the others, but in the beginning he was only one of the people; he never figures conspicuously as a Creator, and is far from omnipotent. Other gods, less potent or less respected, lived before the time of man, and were powerful before the sun was made.
72. Creation.--The Legend begins with an already created world; there is no original creation and no Creator of all. If the Navahoes have a story of the beginning of all things, the author has not learned it. To a god called Békotsidi[78] is given the credit of having made all animals whose creation is not otherwise accounted for in the myths, especially domestic animals. Some of the Indians who have heard vaguely of our Creator are of the opinion that Békotsidi is the God of the Americans.
73. Estsánatlehi.--But it is generally acknowledged by the Navahoes that their most revered deity is Estsánatlehi,[95] the Woman Who Changes (or rejuvenates herself). Much is said of her in the legends, but something more is to be obtained by conversation with the shamans. The name Estsánatlehi is derived by syncopation from estsán, woman, and natéhi, to change or transform. She is so called because, it is supposed, she never remains in one condition, but that she grows to be an old woman, and in the course of time becomes a young girl again, and so passes through an endless course of lives, changing but never dying. It is probable that she is an apotheosis of Nature, or of the changing year.
74. The deity of fruitful Nature is properly a female and a beneficent goddess. She is properly, too, as the legends tell us, the wife of the Sun, to whom Nature owes her fertility. Her home is said to be in the west, probably for the reason that in the Navaho country, which lies mostly on the Pacific slope, the rain comes usually from the west, and from that direction, too, come the thawing breezes in the spring.
75. Yolkaí Estsán.--A divinity called Yolkaí Estsán,[96] or White Shell Woman, created (or found, as some versions say) at the same time as Estsánatlehi, is called the younger sister of the latter. The two goddesses are associated in the myths, but White Shell Woman always acts the subordinate part, and to-day is honored with a less degree of worship than her sister. Estsánatlehi, made of an earthly jewel, turquoise, is related to the land. Yolkaí Estsán, made of white shell from the ocean, is related to the waters.
76. War Gods.--Next in importance to Estsánatlehi, the sacred brethren, Nayénezgani (or Nagénezgani) and To`badzistsíni,[127] seem to stand. The writer designates these as the War Gods, but the Navahoes do not call them thus. According to the version of the Origin Legend here given, one of these was the child of Estsánatlehi and the Sun; the other the child of Yolkaí Estsán and the Water, and this is the version most consistent in all respects. Other versions make both the brothers children of Estsánatlehi. Some say they were born twins. Accepting any of these versions, they would properly be called brothers, according to the Indian system of relationship, and such they are called in the legends. Their chief mission was to destroy the alien gods; but they still help the warriors in battle, and aid the sick who suffer from witchcraft. The longest chapter in the Origin Legend is devoted to recounting their genesis and history. In reading the chapter, it will be apparent to the comparative mythologist that these characters have their counterparts, which need not now be mentioned, in the myths of many races in both hemispheres. From their mythic associations it would appear that Nayénezgani is a god of light, with its associated heat, while To`badzistsíni is a god of darkness, with its associated moisture; yet, apparently in contradiction to this, the representative of the former is painted black and wears a black mask in the ceremonies (plate IV.), while the representative of the latter is painted red and wears a red mask (plate VII.).
77. Nayénezgani, whose name signifies Slayer of the Alien Gods,[127] is spoken of as the elder brother in the legends and always plays the more important part. To`badzistsíni, or Child of the Water,[127] is called the younger brother and always appears as a subordinate character. In the ceremonies, the masquerader who personates Nayénezgani always walks in front, while he who personates To`badzistsíni comes behind. The two gods are always associated in prayer and sacrifice, but here, again, Nayénezgani takes precedence. In all the sacred songs where they are mentioned, the superiority of Nayénezgani is indicated. Antithesis, as has been said, is a favorite figure with the Navaho poets, and they often employ it when speaking of these gods. The "Song of the Approach" of the War Gods in the ceremony of klédzi hatál will serve, as well as many other compositions, to show how they treat this subject. It may be freely translated thus:--
He advances! He advances! Now Slayer of the Alien Gods advances, Above, among the mountain peaks, he advances, In danger he advances.
He advances! He advances! Now Child of the Water advances Below, among the foothills, he advances, In danger he advances.
Thus both the gods come to the aid of the supplicant; but while the elder strides proudly on the summits of the mountains, the younger walks humbly among the foothills.
78. Yéi.--There are a number of divinities in the Navaho pantheon known as yéi (in compound words often pronounced ye or ge), which is translated "god" or "genius." What distinction exists between the yéi and other gods is not easy to determine definitely. The Zuñians have a class of gods called by the same name, or, more correctly, "yéyi," as Mr. Cushing pronounces it. Certain chiefs or important personages among these gods are called by names which begin with the syllables hastsé--as Hastséyalti[73] (Talking God), Hastséhogan[74] (House God). It is believed that this, if spelled etymologically, would appear as hastyé, but it is not so pronounced, Hast is a prefix denoting age, especially venerable age. We have it in the word hastín, which means a worthy or respected old man. Hastyé would mean a venerable yéi or god. The yéi seem to be deities of minor importance to those previously mentioned and to be more numerous. Thus, while there is but one Estsánatlehi, but one Nayénezgani, and but one To`badzistsíni there are several Hastséhogan and several Hastséyalti, who are chiefs of the yéi. The yéi are supposed to abide in certain localities, and in prayers in their honor the home is mentioned of the yéi to whom appeal is specially made. A place called Tsé`natsi, or Red Horizontal Rock, somewhere north of the San Juan River, Tse`gíhi, another place north of the San Juan, and the White House (fig. 22), in the Chelly Canyon, are important homes of the yéi.[265] Each of the sacred mountains has its group of yéi. In the myths of klédzi hatál, more than a score of places are named where yéi dwell. There are some reasons for believing that the cult of the yéi is derived from the Cliff-dwellers, or from the Pueblos; but there are arguments, too, against this theory. The subject will not be further considered here. The yéi are supposed to be married and have families. The males are called yébaka; the females, yébaad.[200] Hastsézini,[212] the god of fire, and Hastséoltoi,[206] the divine huntress, or goddess of the chase, belong, as their names indicate, to the yéi; while Gánaskidi,[207] the harvest god, and Tó`nenili[98] Water Sprinkler, are associated with them in the legends.
79. Digíni.--Digi'n means sacred, divine, mysterious, or holy. It is not quite synonymous with the Dakota wakán or the Hidatsa hopá. It is not applied to the treatment of disease; it is not applied in a general way to religious ceremonial; it has not been heard applied to the anáye, or other things of evil: for this reason it is often translated "holy." Digíni, derived from digi'n, means holy people, gods, divinities. It is a name applied to the highest and lowest divinities, including the yéi (see notes 92 and 93).