Chapter 7

With two long poles and four buffalo horns, which then were straight, the people made a ladder, which, when placed on the mountain top, reached the sky. One of the four Great Whirlwinds, Nichitso, went up to see what this new place was like. He put his head through the opening, and seeing that the world was covered with water, at once descended the ladder. The four Whirlwinds then went up; White Wind rolled the water to the east, but still there was water at the south; Blue Wind rolled it away to the south, but still there was water at the west; so Yellow Wind blew it away to the west, and then there was water only at the north, which All-Color Wind quickly blew away. Then the Winds blew over the earth for four days to dry it; but they left some of the water, which flowed along in streams.

When they returned and told what they had done, the people sent Ka{~COMBINING INVERTED BREVE~}ge, the Crow, who was wise, to view the land. They waited long, but Ka{~COMBINING INVERTED BREVE~}ge did not return. Then they sent Little Whirlwind, who found the Crow perched upon some dead bodies, plucking out their eyes; and because of his wickedness in forgetting the people, his feathers, once white, had turned black. Then Naganschitn, the Badger, was sent to see if the land was good, but just as soon as he had crawled through he sank in the black mud and could go no farther, so Little Whirlwind was despatched to succor him. To this day Badger's legs are black. Next Keldinshe{~COMBINING BREVE~}n, the Skunk, was sent, because he was light in weight; but even he sank in the mud and blackened his legs. Then the people sent Cha, the Beaver, who travelled about for a long time, and finding all the water running away in streams, built dams and thus formed many lakes. He came back and told the people that the land was good to live in, which pleased them greatly. Then they started up the ladder, and when all had passed over, it was found that their weight had bent the buffalo horns, which ever since have been curved. Thus all the people came out upon this earth at a place in the north.(3)

During the first days the Sun did not rise above the horizon, having been held back in the east by a web that Mansche{~COMBINING BREVE~}, the Spider, had woven about him. But the people succeeded in tearing the web away, and from that time the Sun each day has travelled across the whole sky.

On emerging from the underworld the inhabitants began moving in a great circle, travelling from the north to the east, then to the south, then to the west. When any found a spot that pleased them, they settled there, and Chunnaai and Klenaai gave them a language of their own. Four times the land was thus encircled, but each time the circle became smaller, and when the people came the last time to the north, Haisndayin, the Jicarillas, found their home in the mountains near the Rio Chama.

MIRACLE PERFORMERS

During the wanderings of the people a girl, Yolkai Estsan, became separated from the rest. She would lie all day on a hillside in the sunshine, and the Sun saw that no harm came to her. By and by she bore a child, whose father was Chunnaai, the Sun, and the child was Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani. Another girl, Estsan Natleshin, was fond of lying asleep under a rock, and by the trickling water that fell upon her Kobadjischini was begotten.

Lake Lajara - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

The two women and their sons lived together. To amuse the children the mothers made them a wheel, but cautioned them never to roll it toward the north. Whenever he heard the sound of water, Kobadjischini, to seek its source, would leap straight into any torrent, and his mother hoped that the toy would deter him from falling into such danger. One day the two boys became curious to know what was in the north, so they rolled the wheel in that direction. It went straight on for a long time, then came to a ladder leading up the steep side of a rock, up which it rolled. The boys stopped in astonishment. The wheel rolled on down into a cave, where lived Yiye, a monster Owl, who ate human flesh. A young girl, Yiye's slave, was sent up to see who was outside. "Two young, fine-looking boys," she reported. Yiye sent her to tell them to come into the cave, but this they refused to do, even when he urged them himself, saying, "No! Give us our wheel!" But at last the boys yielded to Yiye's persuasions and proceeded up the ladder and down into the cave. Owl built a fire under a huge pot of water, seized the boys, and put them into it. He boiled them a long time, then lifted them out with a stick. They stood up and said, "Why do you not give us our wheel and let us go home?" Then Yiye became angry and thrust them into a great heap of hot ashes and built a fresh fire over them. After a long time he took them out, but they were still unharmed, and only asked, "Why do you not give us our wheel?" At this Owl became very angry and, seizing them, cut them into small pieces, put them into the pot, and boiled them again; but when he took them out they were alive and whole. Owl said not a word, but gave them their wheel and motioned them to go. All this time the mothers of the two boys knew from the Sun where they were, and by a burning stick could tell when their children were in danger; for if they were safe the flame burned high, but if in danger it burned low.

Because there were so many monsters on the earth that destroyed people, the mothers of Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani and Kobadjischini sent them on a visit to Chunnaai to learn how to kill these evil beings. Chunnaai sent down the rainbow, and up this the two boys climbed and went into the house of the Sun. For Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani the Sun made a complete suit of turquoise--shirt, leggings, and moccasins--and in his hair fastened a long eagle feather. He gave him also huge arrows made of pine trees pointed with flint of white, blue, yellow, and all-colors, and a bow made of a part of the rainbow. To Kobadjischini he gave a suit of flint of many colors and a long whip with which to drive away sickness, and in his hair he tied a downy eagle feather. Then he said to Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani, "Shoot down and see if you can hit that tree." So Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani shot, and the arrow shattered the tree like a bolt of lightning.

Into the Desert - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

After his return from the home of the Sun, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani and his mother, Yolkai Estsan, went over to the pueblo of Taos, where in a lake lived a monster Turtle which had destroyed many people by dragging them beneath the water. Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani went into the village and asked for food, but the people refused him, not knowing who he was. In the night he sent worms into their corn, spoiling it all; and in the morning, when they discovered it, they were filled with fear, and said:

"You must be some great man. In the west is a large lake, and in it a being which has dragged many of our people into the water. Will you go and kill it?"

"I will kill it," replied Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani, "but first you must give me as much turquoise as I now have in my suit."

This they did, and Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani asked Chunnaai how he should kill this creature. His father gave him four wheels--white, blue, yellow, and all-colors. Then from the east he threw the white one into the middle of the lake, and the water receded a little. From the south he threw the blue wheel, from the west the yellow, from the north the wheel of all-colors, and each time the water decreased a little more, until a ladder leading downward was exposed. From the centre in four directions led rows of large stones, upon which Turtle walked in going to his house. Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani went out on one of these stone-trails and down the ladder. At the bottom he found two mountain lions, which he quieted by giving them eagle feathers. He went through a long passage and successively met two fierce bears, two snakes, and two spotted wildcats, but each in turn was pacified with eagle feathers. At the end of the passage was a door, which Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani burst open, coming suddenly upon the great Turtle. The monster tried in vain to seize and kill him, but Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani took out his fire-stick, and said:

"Release the people you have here, or I will destroy you with my fire!"

"I have only one," said Turtle, "and you may take him."

When the one came out Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani asked him if there were any more captives in the house, and the man said there were many more. So again he threatened Turtle, and other prisoners were released; but these were not all, and he compelled Turtle to free still more. On the fourth demand, however, the monster refused to give up any more of his prisoners, whereupon Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani killed him with his fire and smoke. Then going through the rooms he released all the people he found. There were two young Turtles, whom he told not to grow any larger, nor to kill people or animals; and small Turtles yet inhabit the land.

Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani heard that to the east of the mountains of the Haisndayin lived Tzes, the enormous Elk, in the midst of a great high plain, which no one could approach unseen. So he journeyed thither, thinking to ascend the eastern side; but Elk saw him, and he went no closer. Then he tried from the south, the west, and the north, but always Elk saw him. At the northern side of the plain Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani heard someone ask, "What are you doing here?"

It was Mainelin, the Gopher; and when he learned what Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani wished to do, he promised his help. So he burrowed into the ground and came up under the spot where Elk was lying, and just behind the shoulder gnawed away the thick hair that protected the monster's heart. Elk felt the gnawing, and cried out, "Who is doing that?"

Gopher answered, "I need fur to make a nest for my little children."

So Elk became quieted and Gopher went back into the ground, and from the centre dug holes in four directions to the edge of the plain. Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani then entered one from the east, and coming to the centre looked up and saw Elk's heart beating. Drawing his flint-pointed arrow to the head, he shot the monster through the heart, then quickly dropped down into Gopher's burrow beneath four stones which, one below the other, stopped the vertical channel. But first he made with his fire-stick a dense white smoke at the end of the burrow that ran to the east. Elk leaped down into the opening and rushed in the direction of the smoke, seeking his enemy. Then in his rage he went to the centre, but in the meantime Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani had made a cloud of blue smoke at the south, so Elk ran thither. Successively Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani made yellow smoke at the west and all-color smoke at the north, each time at the mouth of the burrow, and each time Elk ran in the direction of the newly made smoke. All the time blood was pouring from the wound in Tzes' heart. At last he espied the hole blocked with four stone doors of white, blue, yellow, and all-colors, which led straight down from the floor of the passage. With his great antlers the monster broke through the first three doors, but at the fourth he fell dead. Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani divided the meat with Gopher, and taking the greater portion on his back, for by this time he was grown large and strong, he started back to his mother, who was overjoyed by his safe arrival and because he had brought such a quantity of meat. Near the village he stopped to rest, and the weight of himself and of Elk's body flattened the top of the hill on which he sat. Where Elk's blood soaked into the ground the soil is still red.

Nature's Mirror - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

From his father, Chunnaai, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani had knowledge of another evil thing and how to destroy it. Cutting off a piece of Elk's intestine, he filled it with blood and fastened it about his waist. Then he told his mother to strip off the hide and while it was still soft sew it into a suit that would cover him completely. When the suit was finished he put it on, hid Elk's antlers under it, and departed westward in search of Itsa, the Eagle, who every day killed a man. When Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani approached the home of Eagle the latter swooped down from his high rock and four times tried to seize him, but could not fasten his talons in the hardened hide. At the fourth attempt Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani allowed Eagle to take hold of his suit in the front, whereupon the bird carried him up and up, and from a tremendous height dropped him upon the sharp rocks. Though unhurt, to deceive Eagle he tore open the piece of intestine, allowing the blood to gush out upon the rock. Itsa told his two children to go and eat, but when they drew near Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani made a sound, "Sh!" and they stopped in fright. Again they came near and again heard the sound "Sh!" So the Eaglets went to their father, perched high on the point of the rock, and said:

"That body is not dead, it makes a noise 'Sh!'"

"Never mind that; go and eat!" commanded the parent Eagle, who then flew away for his day's hunting.

When Itsa was gone, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani arose, took off the elk-skin suit, and addressed the frightened Eagle children:

"In what weather does your father come home?"

"In a great storm of thunder and lightning," they answered.

"And in what weather does your mother come home?"

"When all the sky is clouded and a slow rain falls."

Presently a great storm arose, and the Eaglets exclaimed, "Our father is coming!" Soon the Eagle came rushing through the air, and from afar Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani heard wailing, for Eagle had a man in his talons. From far aloft, as was his wont, he dropped the man upon the rocks. Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani took up one of Elk's antlers and just as the great bird was alighting on his perch hurled it at him, striking him on the head. Listening, he heard the body drop upon the rocks far below. Then a slow rain began to fall, and the Eaglets cried, "Our mother is coming!" Soon the mother Eagle came. She too had a man in her talons, and with the other horn Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani killed her. Then he warned the Eagle children that they must not grow any larger, or ever attempt to carry away people; and they promised to be content with hunting animals.

But Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani found that there was no way to get down from the rock, for it was steep and very high, so high that it made him dizzy to look over the edge. Chunnaai told him to wait there, for he would send someone to bring him down safely. At last Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani saw somebody below, who proved to be Bat.

"Come, help me down!" he called.

Canon _Hogan_ - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_

Bat came up, flying round and round the rock. On his back was a basket, supported from his shoulders by two cords that looked like Spider's thread.

"That will not hold me!" exclaimed Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani.

"But it will," answered Bat; "it will hold the biggest of mountain sheep!" And to prove the truth of his assertion he filled the basket with stones and jumped up and down, and the threads held. Then Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani was satisfied and got in, and Bat began the descent. "Don't open your eyes!" he commanded. After a long time, feeling that they must be near the bottom, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani opened his eyes, but the sight made him dizzy, and he almost fell out of the basket. Bat became angry at this, for the lurch almost threw him from the rock. At last, however, they reached the ground in safety.

There they dragged the bodies of the two great Eagles together, plucked them, and filled Bat's basket with the feathers, which Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani wished to take home. "Don't go in the low places," he advised Bat, as the latter started on ahead. But Bat forgot, and because the walking was easier went across the low places, where the birds stole all the feathers for their nests; so he had to return and fill the basket again. These he carried safely to Yolkai Estsan, who gave many of them to the people of the village.

From Chunnaai, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani learned of one more monster on the earth, a huge Rolling Stone, which lived in the south near the pueblo of Picuris; so he and his mother went southward. They stopped in a canon through which Rolling Stone often passed on its way to and from the village, and by and by it came crashing along, destroying everything in its path. Just as it passed, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani shot with one of his great flint-pointed arrows and shattered it, as he had shattered the tree when Chunnaai first gave him his weapons; and the ground in that spot is still red from the blood that flowed from Rolling Stone's heart.

ORIGIN OF FIRE

Black Man, Haschi{~COMBINING BREVE~}n Di{~COMBINING BREVE~}lhili, was created by Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani to be his helper in the task of making the earth a good dwelling-place for the people. Haschi{~COMBINING BREVE~}n made the animals, mountains, trees, and rivers, gave the people weapons and implements, and showed how they were to be used. When all were supplied with houses to live in and weapons with which to protect themselves and to kill game, he called Coyote, Tsilite{~COMBINING BREVE~}n, the Mimic.

"Go to the Land of the Fireflies," he commanded, "and bring back their fire, for the people have no fire with which to cook their food."

Coyote started, and found the Land of the Fireflies. These beings lived at the bottom of a deep, deep hole--an enormous cave in the solid rock. Its sides were smooth and straight, and how to get down Coyote did not know. He went to the edge of the pit, and there found growing Little Tree.

"Help me down to the Land of the Fireflies," he said. So Little Tree sent its roots down, down, down, until they extended quite to the bottom, and Coyote descended. There he played with the little Firefly boys, romping about, running back and forth, pretending to be thinking of nothing but their amusement, for the Fireflies guarded their fire carefully and would let no one touch it.

On the tip of his tail Coyote had tied a tuft of cedar bark. Suddenly he dashed through the great fire which always burned in the centre of the village, and was off before the Firefly people knew what he had done. When they discovered that he had stolen some of their fire, they set out in pursuit; but Coyote was very swift of foot, and reached the wall of the pit far ahead of them.

"Little Tree, help me out!" he called.

Little Tree drew its roots up, up, up, while Coyote held on and was drawn safely out of the hole. Then he ran quickly about among the people, lighting the piles of wood they had prepared, until every family was supplied with fire.

THE NAVAHO

A Drink in the Desert - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

HOME LIFE, ARTS, AND BELIEFS

Under the Cottonwoods - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

The Navaho are a pastoral, semi-nomadic people whose activities centre in their flocks and small farms. Their reservation of more than fourteen thousand square miles is the desert plateau region of northern Arizona and New Mexico. Its mesas and low mountains are sparsely covered with pinon and cedar, and on the higher levels are small but beautiful forests of pine. Back and forth in all parts of this vast region the Navaho drive their flocks. At the season when the slight rainfall produces even scant pasturage on the desert plains the flocks are pastured there; but as the grass becomes seared by the summer sun and exhausted from pasturing, the flocks are taken into the mountains, where the shade of the pines lends grateful coolness. Again, as the deep snows of winter come, the sheep and goats are driven down to the wooded mesas, where there is little snow and an abundance of fuel, of which there is none on the plains. And so, year in, year out, the flocks slowly drift back and forth from plain to mesa and from mesa to mountain.

While the Navaho leads a wandering life, the zone of his movements is surprisingly limited; indeed the average Navaho's personal knowledge of his country is confined to a radius of not more than fifty miles. The family usually has three homes, the situation of which is determined by the necessities of life. Near their summer home they cultivate small crops of corn and vegetables in narrow, sandy washes, where by deep planting sufficient moisture is insured to mature the crop. In a few sections small farming is conducted by means of irrigation. In Canon de Chelly, which may be termed the garden spot of the reservation, there are diminutive farms and splendid peach orchards irrigated with freshet water. The canon drains an extensive region, and even a light rain causes the stream which flows at the base of its lofty walls to become swollen. This water the natives divert to their miniature cornfields and orchards, one or two freshets assuring good crops.

Cornfields in Canon Del Muerto - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_

Owing to its lowness and its earth covering, the Navaho house, or _hogan_, is the most inconspicuous of habitations. One might ride from morning till night across the reservation and not observe either a hogan or an Indian, although he has no doubt passed within a stone's throw of many of these houses and been peered at by many more dark eyes from brush concealments. At the end of a long day in the saddle the traveller may wonder where the many thousands of Navaho reside; but his inquiry may be answered if he will but climb to the summit of one of the many low mountains and view the panorama as the long shadows of evening are creeping on. Here and there in every direction the thin blue smoke of the campfire may be seen curling upward as these desert people prepare their evening meal. In this clear, rare atmosphere the far distant horizon is the only limit to his vision. Just below, a mile or so away, may perhaps be seen the smoke from a group of half a dozen hogans. Miles beyond is another group, and still beyond another, and so throughout the sweep of vision. These people and their life are delightfully Indian, but slightly influenced by the white man's ways. As the chief human touch of the great southwestern desert the Navaho are the artist's joy, and as a subject for the ethnologist their ceremonial life furnishes limitless material for study.