other cut his head off. He stood just as he was before. They shot again
and cut his head off again. The head fell but came back on again. One of
them shot at him the third time and the other cut his neck off again.
Then one of them ran around in front of him and shot him in the heart.
This time his flesh flew apart and was scattered over considerable
space. The flesh was quivering. That which they killed was called
Naiye'. “That is why he named you Naiyenezgani,”[27] their fly said.
“Because you and Tobatc'istcini both will kill dangerous beings your
father named you that.” “You did this in his presence. He was looking at
you and prevented the monster's making any move against you. He gave you
the weapons with which you killed him. He did it for the good of
mankind. Turn the head over and look at its face,” their fly told them.
They turned him over and looked at his face. His face was like anyone's
but he also had eyes in the back of his head.[28] No one could attack
him from in front, and he had eyes to see behind himself also. His knife
was sharp and the handle was good. “Let us take the knife to convince
the people. If we do not have the knife, they will not believe us if we
claim we have killed the Naiye' which used to kill people,” one of them
said.
On their return they landed on the white mountain ridge and returned to
the camp. When they had returned, Naiyenezgani directed that all the
people, including the children, should come together. He asked his
mother, because the people were assembling, to spread down a buckskin
and to place on it the arrows, his own weapon, and that of the slain
Naiye'. He asked the people to gather around it. He called the two
visitors, asking them to come to a designated spot. He told his brother
to stand in a certain position and said that he himself would stand in
another place. He said that he would address the people and told his
brother to do the same. “I am telling you this because you are seeing
what you have not seen before. You see today what our father gave us.
Now you speak to them,” he said to his brother.
Tobatc'istcini spoke as follows, “My name is Tobatc'istcini. Our father
gave us these things lying here. A being called Naiye' was using that
weapon over there to kill people. He had killed all the people except
the two who are sitting over there. We killed him.” “You, Naiyenezgani,
speak to them again,” he said to his brother.
“We started from here and we went up to the top of yonder mountain. We
went on to the top of a mountain standing beyond that. A small
mountain[29] stands beyond that and we went up to its top. There we saw
a man walking in a valley. He[30] went to him for us and returned. 'When
he walks he is blind, but he has eyes in the back of his head,' he
reported to us. 'He kills the people who are slipping up behind him.'
Now he will not kill anyone. We shall live safely.” He took up what used
to be his knife and carried it around for the people to see. The man's
blood was on it, and it was fearful to look at. “There is no place to
take hold of it. I will take hold of it here,” he said. “Do not look at
this which used to belong to Naiye'. It is dangerous. Have a meal and
then go home. Look after our horses well.”
Their mother asked why the two who had come to them should not accompany
them where the horses were. They went with them where the horses were.
“Catch the sorrel gelding when you want to. You can tell it by the white
spot on its shoulder,” he told one of them. To the other he said, “You
may catch this black one with a white spot on its forehead. If we are
away anywhere saddle them and ride them around among the horses and
through the camp. The horses look as if they were mean, as if they had
never had a rope on them, but they will not misbehave, they are not mean
and will not shy.” They started back and when they came to the camp
again they ate.
Two days after they had killed the Naiye' they said they were going in a
certain direction and that it might be late when they returned. They
went up to the top of a small sharp-topped mountain. They looked at the
Sun and, when it came up, yellow beams streamed out from the Sun's disk.
His breath took the shape of a rainbow. The sunbeams fell to the ground
over them. “It must be there,” he said. They started and landed on a
mountain top. From there they went to another and from that one to a
projecting ridge. Beyond that was a plain on which stood a blue
mountain. They landed on that. It seems that those who were killing the
people lived at a distance from each other and the people were living in
the center of the world. The killers of the people were working towards
each other.
The two brothers stood on the mountain side by side. They were made like
their father. You could hardly see their bodies. They were killing out
the Naiye'. “Fly over the country and hunt him up. He is living
somewhere,” one of them said to the fly. It flew off and went around
them in a circle. The next time it went around in a smaller circle. He
(the monster) was coming behind them. He had eyes looking both ways,
four eyes. He held something crooked. He stopped and looked carefully
behind himself. He did not look in front. He could look straight up and
could see people down below. The fly looked him all over, at his eyes,
his ears, his nose, and his face. “You are a burr,” he said to the fly.
The fly thought he said he was going to catch him. He flew between the
man's legs and returned where the brothers were sitting. “Did you say
Naiye'? You have come to a dangerous place,” the fly said to them. “As
he walks along he looks carefully behind himself. When he stops he looks
up and he can see the people who are below.[31] He carries a long,
crooked object with which he makes a sweep at people he sees in the
distance and catches them with his hook.”
The fly was sent again to find out from which point the monster could be
attacked with the best chances for success. They saw him walking in the
distance and then they saw him standing where he was accustomed to come
up the ridge. The fly reported that was a good place for the attack. The
brothers addressed each other. “What is the matter with you,
Tobatc'istcini?” Naiyenezgani asked. “You are the leader and should
speak first,” Tobatc'istcini replied. “Very well, you did not answer me.
We will attack him. I will cause large hail with thirty-two points to
fall on him. What are you going to do?” Naiyenezgani asked. “I will
cause hot rain to fall on him,” was the reply.
They went to him where he was walking. The sky made a noise and it began
to rain. The two brothers came toward him behind this rain. He put his
hand to the top of his head. It was hot rain which was falling. They
could see him, but he could not see them. “Let him walk between you,”
the fly directed. He was already exhausted with the hot rain and the
hail. Naiyenezgani stood here and Tobatc'istcini there. The monster
walked here saying, “It is a bad time. I, too, where I am, it is a bad
place.” As he walked one of the brothers raised his bow and brought it
down again, shooting. His companion cut off the monster's head. It came
back immediately as it was before. They shot and cut his head off again.
He fell three ways. They did the same thing to him the fourth time and
he spread out like water. “There shall not be those who kill,”
Naiyenezgani said. “This is the way I do to Naiye'. Just let him float
here in his blood. The people will live happily on the earth. I have
done well by them. Get ready, brother, we will go back. We will take the
weapon with which he has been killing people.” He rolled this weapon up
into a coil and put it in his blanket. “Come, we will go back,” he said.
They came back in the manner they went, landing on the successive
mountains until they reached the camp. They danced a war dance near the
camp. They danced, holding up the weapon they had taken. “Mother, we are
hungry, hurry and cook for us,” they said to her. When they had eaten
they asked their mother to assemble the people and to ask the visitors
also to come. She told the people to assemble, saying that her sons must
have seen something during the day they had been away which they would
tell them about. When the people had come together the weapon they had
brought back was lying there, not as yet untangled.
“We killed one like the other one. We both did it, but I could have done
it by myself, if I had been alone. If he had been alone he too could
have done it by himself,” Naiyenezgani said. “We both attacked him
because we could do it quickly. We killed him quickly because our father
helped us. If it had been one of you, you could have done nothing with
this one that we call Naiye'. He would have killed you right away and
eaten you up. He had killed all the people who lived with these two men,
and just now he was coming for you. Before we had known it, he would
have killed us all. There are no people living on the edges of the
earth. We are all that are left. He killed people this way. Suppose that
person should come on you, he would kill you this way.” He threw the
weapon to a distant bush. It went around the tree and it was as if it
had been cut off. “He was killing people thus. Now we will live well and
no one will bother us. A man is going around the earth in one day and he
will tell us about it.”[32] Tobatc'istcini started away and his mother
spoke to him. “My son, put on this belt,” she said, offering him the one
the Sun's wife had given her. “I am going around from here but today it
is late, I will go tomorrow,” he said. They went to bed. “Take good care
of things and do not be afraid of anything,” Tobatc'istcini said.
When it was daylight their mother prepared a meal for them and they ate.
“Come back safely, my son, as the people said to you,” the mother said.
“I am going, but I do not know when I shall come back,” Tobatc'istcini
replied. He started, telling them to watch for him on a certain mountain
point. “I will be back about noon.”
He started away, traveling with a blue flute which had wings.[33] He
went with this from place to place and was back home before long. He
went entirely around the border of the world on which people were
living. The belt was a blue flute. He thought with it four ways and
looked into it four ways. Before noon a light rain fell on the
projecting mountain. That cleared off and then he came laughing. “It was
not far, only so large,” he said, joining the tips of his forefinger and
his thumb. “Have you your property ready?” he asked. “Have you collected
everything that is ours? Tomorrow we will give out the horses, one
apiece to each of you. We shall not give out horses again. Bring the
horses near to the camp.”
They brought the saddles, the bridles, the halters, the ropes, and the
blankets. They two went where the horses were. They caught some of the
horses and saddled them, and drove the other horses near the camp where
they herded them. They called the people to assemble and when they came
caught horses for them. He gave away ten horses in all. “I will give you
no more horses,” he said. “Tomorrow we will go different ways.”[34] He
drove the horses back where they stayed. “Stake out our horses nearby
and leave the saddles on them all night,” he said. “This is all. You may
go in any direction you like.” “This way,” pointing to the east; “this
way,” south; “this way,” west; or “this way,” north. “We are going over
here where the end of the world is,” some of them said. Others said they
were going to the end of the world in this direction. In this manner,
each party chose a location.
When they had finished, they asked the brothers which way they were
going. They replied that they were going to drive their horses to the
top of yonder mountain (_bitsanldai_). “Take good care of your horses.
Look after them for twelve days and then they will be accustomed to you.
Now you may go. We are going also.” He drove his horses away saying,
“None of you are going with us. I thought some of you would go with us.
You are only giving us back our mother. Go on, mother, let your horse
lead.”
His mother inquired which way she should lead them. “Go on, go on, I
tell you,” he replied. She rode towards the east. Soon a little light
was to be seen under the horse. They went higher and higher until they
came to the mountain he spoke of. They rode their horses beside hers.
“Wait, mother,” he said and rode back. “Keep on down this mountain. It
is good country in this basin. We will live here,” he said. They talked
together. “You unsaddle over there, you over there, and you over there.
We will watch the horses.”
“You may have my yucca fruit which lies on the face of Turnbull
Mountain.”[35]
-----
Footnote 1:
Told by a White Mountain Apache called Noze, at Rice, Arizona, in
January. 1910. Noze was a native of Cedar Creek and came to the San
Carlos Reservation when it was organized. He was for a long time the
chief of a considerable band which in 1910 had greatly dwindled. He
died some time between 1910 and the next visit in 1914.
Footnote 2:
This mountain was said to be called _tsidalanasi_ and to stand by the
ocean at the south. This is a remarkable statement as east would have
been expected and as is so stated in fact in a following paragraph.
Footnote 3:
This makes the boys brothers in our use of the word. They are always
so called in the Navajo account according to which their mothers were
sisters. Matthews, 105.
Footnote 4:
At the center of the sky.
Footnote 5:
And therefore the boys were not seen by the Sun.
Footnote 6:
The sacred numbers are 4, 12, and 32.
Footnote 7:
This method of making the journey has not been encountered before in
this connection, but is an incident in a European story secured from
the San Carlos, p. 82, above. The usual account includes a series of
obstacles some of which resemble the incidents of a European story.
See p. 116 below.
Footnote 8:
Clouds according to the Navajo account, Matthews, 111; and below, p.
117.
Footnote 9:
Thus far the myth seems chiefly to deal with the adolescence ceremony
of the boys. The San Carlos account brings in the Sun's father and
brothers of the Sun's father as performers of this ceremony, while the
Navajo account mentions the daughters of the Sun. See p. 11 above, and
Matthews, 112.
Footnote 10:
Other versions make this the second naming of the elder brother. His
boyhood name was “Whitehead,” p. 31. Still other names are known to
the Navajo. Matthews, 263-264.
Footnote 11:
To know by name things or animals hitherto unknown is often mentioned
as a great feat. P. 24.
Footnote 12:
It is seldom that the Apache conception of animism is so plainly
stated. Songs however abound in the designation of objects as
“living.”
Footnote 13:
When a youth went through an adolescence ceremony he did it with a
definite career in mind. The normal myth of this type put the emphasis
on the weapons secured and feats of warlike prowess in killing the
monsters; that is, the warrior idea is uppermost. This version
stresses the acquisition of horses and probably is a specialized myth
for those who wish to be successful in acquiring and breeding horses.
Footnote 14:
The house of the Sun with the stable and corral, the furniture of the
house, and many other references indicate the home of a European and
such seems to be the conception.
Footnote 15:
The two wives of the Sun are often mentioned. The Navajo account has
Esdzanadlehi go to the west where the sun visits her daily. Here and
there, especially in the songs, the Moon is coupled with the Sun, and
is feminine in sex. That the Moon and the Earth should both be called
the “Woman who renews herself” is interesting. These conceptions are
generally vague and implied rather than expressed.
Footnote 16:
Earth, literally “There on the earth.”
Footnote 17:
The narrator said those mentioned at the beginning of the narrative
were not real people but just like shadows. The other versions have
only the one family existing at this time.
Footnote 18:
The reference may be to moss, especially as rain falling on it is
mentioned below.
Footnote 19:
The narrator said it was true that horses would not pass a blanket so
placed in a narrow canyon.
This order of the colors and their assignment varies from the one more
generally found of black for the east and white for the south. P. 7,
and Matthews, 215.
Footnote 20:
This announcing of names is probably to be explained as ceremonial.
Ordinarily, it is improper, probably because immodest to call one's
own name.
Footnote 21:
The use of pollen for sacred purposes is a very important feature
among the Athapascan of the Southwest. It is always preferred to the
cornmeal used by the Pueblo peoples.
Footnote 22:
In the division of labor the women are supposed to saddle and unsaddle
the horses.
Footnote 23:
Because he must use a white saddle, the informant explained.
Footnote 24:
The whinneying was heard from the top of the sky.
Footnote 25:
The conception of time passing while the Sun stood still is fairly
difficult for a people without timepieces.
Footnote 26:
This method of traveling implies lightning, rainbow or a similar
supernatural method, in this case said to be sunbeams.
Footnote 27:
The name is Naiye', “a dangerous monster,” and -nezgani, “he who
kills.”
Footnote 28:
It is said above that he had no eyes in front.
Footnote 29:
“Mountain, its child.”
Footnote 30:
He did not mention his fly by name.
Footnote 31:
Probably means he can see people who are on the opposite side of a
hill.
Footnote 32:
These monsters are not those in the usual versions. The bringing of
trophies and the narratives remind one of counting coup in the Plains.
The Navajo versions also mention the bringing back of trophies.
Footnote 33:
One of the recognized methods of rapid locomotion. P. 20 above.
Footnote 34:
The dispersion of the tribes, a common incident in origin myths.
Footnote 35:
The formula for the completion of a narrative.
NAIYENEZGANI.[36]
Long ago the Sun set and, there in the west, he became the son-in-law of
Toxastinhn (Water-old-man) whose daughter he married. She, who was to
become the wife of the Sun, built a house with its door facing the
sunrise. She sat in the doorway facing the rising sun from which the red
rays streamed toward her. These rays entered her and since her period
was about to occur she became pregnant as a result.
When the child was born, its hands and feet were webbed. There was no
hair on its head and it had no nose. When the boy was grown up he asked
where his father lived. His mother replied that his father lived where
one could not go, for the Sun was his father. The boy asked again where
he lived. His mother said he lived at the sunrise, but that one could
not go there. The boy then said that he would go there and set out on
the journey.
He came where the cliffs come down of themselves. They moved in front of
him. The lightning shot across with him. Beyond that place he came to
the mountain of cactus which formed a dark barrier in front of him.
There a black whirlwind twisted through for him so that he passed by.
From there he went on where the mountain of mosquitoes stood like a
black ridge in front of him. A female rain fell for him and the wings of
the mosquitoes became damp; then he passed over. From there he went on
where the mountains moved up and down toward each other. He jumped away
from them and then toward them, but in no way could he get through.
Black-measuring-worm, whose back is striped with lightning, bent over it
with him.[37]
He walked on toward the house of the Sun. As he was going along, near
sundown, a spider drew its thread across below the boy's knee and
tripped him. He got up and went back, but fell again at the same place.
Wondering why he had fallen, he started on again, when he saw the head
of Spider-old-woman projecting from her hole so far (three inches) away.
“Grandchild, where are you going?” she asked. He replied that he was
going to the house of his father, the Sun. She told him to come into her
house instead. He replied that the opening was too small. When assured
that it was large enough, he went in. She told him one could not go to
the Sun. The spider girls were lying there without skirts or shirts.
They lay with the head of one toward the feet of the next. Spider-woman
asked what was the piece of cloth tied to his shirt. He gave it to her
and she worked with it all night; and the next morning each girl had a
shirt and a skirt. She made them from the young man's piece of
cloth.[38]
When the Sun rose, Spider-old-woman went out-of-doors. “It is not yet
time, my grandson,” she said. She held up five fingers horizontally and
said it would be time when the Sun shone over them.[39] When the time
came to go, they set out toward the house of the Sun. He came to the
front of the house where there were twelve doors and all of them were
shut. Without anyone opening a door for him, he came to Sun's wife.
“What sort of a person are you?” she asked. He replied he had come to
see his father. The woman warned him that no one was allowed around
there. She rolled him up in a blanket,[40] which she tied with
lightning, and hid him by the head of the bed.
When the sun set, he heard the noise of the Sun's arrival. The Sun came
inside his house. “I do not see anyone,” he said, “but from the mountain
where I go down some man had gone along.” “You tell me you do not have
love affairs where you go around. This morning your son came here.” She
went to the head of the bed, undid the lightning with which he was tied
up and took the boy out. The Sun saw it was his boy. There were twelve
pipes in which tobacco was burned. The Sun fixed a smoke for him in one
of these. It was not the Sun's proper tobacco, but a kind that killed
whoever smoked it. The boy drew on the pipe just once and the tobacco
was burned out. The Sun prepared another pipeful, which was gone when
the boy had drawn on the pipe twice. He filled a third pipe; this time
the boy drew on it three times and the tobacco was consumed. The last
time the pipe was filled, the boy drew four times before the tobacco was
burned out.
Toward the east, there was a blazing fire of black _yabeckon_ into which
the Sun threw the boy. He turned into a downy feather and landed in
front of his father who expressed his surprise. There was a fire of blue
_yabeckon_ toward the south into which the boy was next thrown. He again
turned into a feather and landed in front of his father. The fire toward
the west was of yellow _yabeckon_ from which the boy escaped in the same
manner. Finally, the boy was thrown into a white fire of _yabeckon_
which blazed up in the north. He escaped in the same manner as before.
Each time when the boy was thrown in, the fire had been poked with
lightning of the corresponding color.
When the boy had successfully withstood this last test, the Sun directed
his wife to prepare a sweatbath. She did this by spreading four blankets
of cloud: black, blue, yellow, and white. She put on the four blankets
from the four sides in proper rotation. The Sun went in with all his
boys. While they were in the bath, the skin between the boy's fingers
and toes was pulled back and joints made in his fingers. He was also
provided with hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, and ears. Hair was placed
on his body and nails supplied for his fingers and toes. Counting this
boy, the Sun had twelve sons with whom he formed a line. He then asked
his wife to find him in the line, but this she was unable to do because
they all looked alike, she said.
The Sun then placed a gun and a panther-skin quiver on a shelf and asked
his son to choose which he would have. After sighting the gun, he
concluded he did not like it. He put the quiver over his shoulder and
took out two arrows. When he tried these, he hit the target in the
center. He chose the panther-skin quiver saying he liked it.[41] All the
other sons of the Sun had guns. The Sun had them shoot at each other in
fun. Those who had guns beat the boy who had arrows and drove him off.
On one side, horses were being made and on the other deer. The one who
was in charge of making these is named Iltca'nailt'ohn.
They put, for him, a light brown mountain, inside of which, cattle,
goats, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, and donkeys were living. All these
are the food of white people. In this mountain also were guns, blankets,
and all kinds of metals.
On the other side he put, for him, a mountain on which century plants
were growing with their yellow flower stalks standing all around the
edges. On this mountain, too, were sunflowers, yellow with blossoms,
cactus, yucca, piñon, oaks, junipers, the fruit of all of which was
perpetually ripe. All the other wild vegetable foods of the Indians grew
there also. The mountain was always yellow with flowers.
The Sun asked the boy which of these two mountains he would choose. He
decided to take the one which was yellow with flowers where fruit was
always ripe. He did not care for the light brown mountain which stood
toward the east. He announced that the yellow mountain would be his and
would belong in the future to the Indians.