cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, and mules. These became the
property of your white people's nation. The Sun's son asked that some
horses be given him. The Sun reminded him he had asked for the other
mountain, and wanted to know why he had not then asked for horses.
From the east, mirage people rounded up some horses for him. The red
dust of the round-up covered the ground. “There are no horses,” the Sun
said. The boy asked again for horses only to be told he should have
asked before when he chose between the two mountains. He asked, that
notwithstanding, he be given some horses. The Sun took up a rope and led
back a chestnut stallion from the east. He tied the horse which stood
pawing the ground and nickering. The boy rode back on it to the place
where I suppose Toxastin and his grandmother lived. He rode back in a
single day and tied his horse. The horse kept nickering and pawing the
earth all the time; he would not graze and the boy was not satisfied. He
rode back to the house of the Sun, took off the rope; and the horse ran
off toward the east kicking up his heels.
The boy told his father, the Sun, that the stallion he had given him was
not satisfactory, and that he had come to ask for a different horse. His
father went away and returned with two horses, a stallion and a mare.
“These are what you want, I suppose,” the Sun said, and gave the boy a
rope, a halter, a saddle blanket, and a saddle.
The boy led the horse back to the place where Toxastin, his grandmother,
and his mother lived. He led the horses back to a place called
Cottonwood-branches-hang-down. To the south, blue cottonwood branches
hung down; to the west, yellow cottonwood branches hung down; to the
north, white cottonwood branches hung down. The place was named the
center of the earth. The saddle was placed at the east; the saddle
blanket at the south; the halter, at the west; and the rope, at the
north.
In the dry stream bed to the east, black burdocks grew; to the south,
blue burdocks grew; to the west, yellow burdocks; and to the north,
white burdocks. He turned out the two horses here to the east. Each time
the Sun's son came back there, he found the two horses playing. After
four days, he drove the horses up the valley a little way four times.
When he went the fourth day to see them he found the tracks of a colt.
That cottonwood tree stood in the center. On the east side of it a black
stallion stood; on the south side, a blue stallion; on the west side, a
yellow stallion; on the north side, a white stallion. Horses were
walking around in the valleys to the east, south, west, and north. Thus
there came to be horses here on the earth.
-----
Footnote 36:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett, February, 1910. Frank's father
was of the Bissaxa clan and was about sixty years old in 1910. He was
still a growing youth when he left the White River country.
Footnote 37:
These in part are the obstacles mentioned in the Navajo account. They
are overcome in a different manner. Matthews, 109-110.
Footnote 38:
Spider-woman is of considerable importance in the mythology of the
Hopi. Voth, 2, 11. The Navajo account (Matthews, 109) omits the
clothing-making episode. Spider-woman is the originator of spinning,
Franciscan Fathers, 222. She is sometimes said to be the mother of the
Sun and therefore Naiyenezgani's paternal grandmother.
Footnote 39:
An Apache method of indicating time when the Sun is near the horizon.
Footnote 40:
The blanket was probably a cloud. The word _caziz_ ought to mean
“sun-sack.”
Footnote 41:
Had Naiyenezgani taken the gun Indians would have been armed as white
men are.
THE PLACING OF THE EARTH.[42]
They did not put this large one (the earth) that lies here in place
before my eyes.
The wind blew from four directions. When there was no way to make the
earth lie still, Gopher, who lives under the earth, put his black ropes
under the earth. Here his black rope lies under it; here his blue rope;
here his yellow rope; and here his white rope.
Over here (east) they made a black whirlwind stand with black metal
inside of it. Here (south) a blue whirlwind and blue metal were placed;
here (west) a yellow whirlwind and yellow metal; and here (north) a
white whirlwind and white metal. With these standing on all sides, the
earth came to its proper place and was stable.
“Now that this is as it should be, what shall we do next?” said one of
them. “To what purpose have we had such a hard time making this earth
lie properly which otherwise would have been unstable?” Then he began to
pat it with his hand. “Let a black cloud move about sprinkling,” he
said.
“There will be life from this; the world will be alive from the
dampness,” he said. “They did well by us, what shall we do? Now thank
you,” they said.
The people had nothing. The one who was in charge (the Sun); that one
only was walking around. “It will turn out well with him walking about,”
they said. They looked well at the one they meant. “That one is the
Sun,” they said. “We did it in the presence of that one walking about.”
Then Ests'unnadli said she would do something unseemly. Thinking she
would do it where the Sun first shone in the morning, she seated herself
there. She was doing this only that people might live. There were no
people and she thought there should be many and she did it for that
reason.
She became pregnant. She and the one walking around were the only ones
who understood about generation. She gave birth to a child there where
she sat. She went back to the child early each morning for four mornings
and on the fourth, the child walked back with her. He was entirely
dressed as he walked back with her.
“It is not good that there should be only this one,” she said. “It will
be well for me to do an improper thing again.” She sat repeatedly where
the water was dripping and became pregnant again. She gave birth a
second time to a child. “I will do as I did before,” she said. She went
to her child early each morning for four mornings. The fourth morning
after he was born, the child returned with her. He was dressed in
buckskin, shoes and all.
She had given birth to two children. The latter one she named
Tobate'isteini and the first one Bilnajnollije.[43] They were the
children of this one (the Sun).
A black water vessel by the door of the sun's house was flecked with
sunshine. He caused dark lightning to dart under it from four
directions. He caused it to thunder out of it in four directions. He
caused it to thunder in four directions. He caused male rain to fall in
four directions. He caused fruits to stand on the earth in lines
pointing in four directions. “Thanks,” they said, “he has treated us
well.”
A yellow water vessel by Ests'unnadlehi's door was flecked with light.
She caused yellow lightning to pass under it from four directions. She
caused it to thunder from it toward four directions. She caused female
rain to fall four times in four directions. She caused fruits to stand
in lines converging from four directions. “Thanks, she has treated us
well,” they said. “Because of her, things are well with us.” “She caused
the wind to agitate the grass from four directions for us,” they said.
“With no trouble for us it comes to its place. The earth will remain
well for us,” they said. “It is still the same way for us that it was
long ago. We are thankful yet.”
“Mother, where does our father live?” the boys asked. “Do not ask, for
he lives in a dangerous place,” Ests'unnadlehi replied. “Do not say he
lives in a dangerous place but show us where it is, for we are going
there,” they replied. “If you go you must travel only by night. During
the day one must sit still,” she told them. She said this, for she meant
for them to make the journey without being seen by the Sun.
They wondered why she told them to go only at night and resolved to
travel by day. They came near where the ground was black with mosquitoes
that had teeth of _becdiłxił_, and there was no way to pass through
them. They caused a rain, yellow with sunshine, to fall on them and wet
their wings so that they stuck to the trees. By this means, they passed
beyond them. “This is why she said it is dangerous,” they said to each
other. They came where the earth was crossed with a stripe of cactus
which had spines of _becdiłxił_. A black whirlwind with a core of
_becdiłxił_ passed, twisting through the cactus; the boys got by it.
“This was surely the bad place of which our mother told us,” they said.
As they were going on toward their father's house, they came to sand
which, if one stepped on it, rolled back with him. There was no way to
get through it. A big black measuring worm having his back striped with
a rainbow, bent himself over the sand for them and they crossed over.
They were now approaching their destination when they found the house
surrounded by thirty-two lakes which could not be avoided.
A turquoise bird sat in the ear of one of them and directed them on
their way. The Sun's wife saw the two men pass through, avoiding the
four bodies of water that surrounded the house. She concealed them under
the bed which stood in the house. When the Sun returned, he saw the
tracks of two men and asked where they had gone. The Sun's wife replied
that they were not there. “You are always saying you have made no visits
and yet your two sons come here,” she said. The Sun directed that they
should come to him. They sat facing him. He had tobacco hanging in sacks
in four places. It was black tobacco which grew on stalks of
_becdiłxił_. He had a turquoise pipe with thirty-two[44] holes for the
tobacco to burn in. With this tobacco, he killed those who were not
really his children. They heard him draw on the pipe once and then he
tapped it on something and the ashes rolled out. “Fix me a smoke, that
is why I came,” one of the boys said.
They two went to the sack which was hanging on this side. It was filled
with large blue tobacco which grew on stalks of _becdoł'ije_. He filled
a pipe with thirty-two bowls and lighted it again. Having drawn on the
pipe, he passed it to them. He heard them draw on the pipe once and then
the ashes fell out.
“Prepare a smoke for me, for I came for that purpose,” one of the boys
said again. When the other kinds, yellow, and white had been tried from
the remaining world-quarters, one of the boys produced some tobacco and
a pipe made of clay with a hole through it. “This is my pipe and my
tobacco,” the boy announced. “Why did you not tell me before that you
had tobacco?” the Sun said. He had chairs placed and took a seat between
the two boys. The three looked just alike. “Come, Djingona'ai,[45] move
yourself,” the Sun's wife said, so that she might distinguish him from
the others. “They are surely my children,” the Sun declared. “What do
you desire?” he asked them. The boys said they had come to hear him ask
that. The Sun urged them to ask for what they wished without delay as he
had many things.
The Sun had domesticated animals in four corrals on four sides of his
house. He had four kinds which were bad. They were bear, coyote,
panther, and wolf, of which one is afraid. He led a bear from the
eastern corral, remarking that this was probably the sort they meant,
that it was his pet. The boys refused it, saying they had come for his
horse. In turn he led animals from corrals at the south and west which
were refused each time on the advice of the monitor that sat in the ear
of one of the boys. The Sun pretended he had no other horse, that he was
poor. The monitor urged them to persist in their request, saying that
the Sun could not refuse. He finally led to them one of the horses which
was walking around unconfined. He was just skin and bones. The rope also
was poor. “Did you ask for this one?” the Sun said. “That is the one,”
they replied. The Sun told them the horse could not travel far, but the
boys said that was the animal they wanted.
He gave them the horse with the admonition that they must not let
Ests'unnadlehi see it or she would send them away with it, it looked so
bad. The boys assured him it would be all right. He replied that she
would be surprised at least. He requested them to tell Ests'unnadlehi
that he, the Sun, always told the truth. He charged the two boys that
they should not lie to each other. “This is a good day for you both,” he
told them. “Thank you, Ests'unnadlehi, my mother, thanks.” “Thank you,
Djingona'ai, my father. It is true that it is fortunate for us. It was
for that reason you raised us,” they said.[46]
-----
Footnote 42:
Told in 1910 by a very dignified man, C. G. 2, of about sixty years.
He is a leader of the Naiyenezgani songs used for adolescent girls.
Footnote 43:
The lightning strikes with him, evidently a poetic name.
Footnote 44:
It was explained that four was the real number, thirty-two being
presumably a ceremonial or poetic exaggeration.
Footnote 45:
“Goes by day,” the Sun.
Footnote 46:
This fragment of the culture-hero story having been told, the narrator
refused to proceed, perhaps because he knew it had already been
several times recorded.
THE ADOLESCENCE CEREMONY.[47]
The Sun was the one who arranged the ceremony for unclean women. She
(Ests'unnadlehi) sat thus on her knees and the red light from the sun
shone into her. She was living alone.
When she becomes a woman they straighten her. The people stand in a line
and sing while the drum is beaten. They dance four nights. They paint
her with white clay that she may live a long time, and that her hair may
get white on one side of her head. They put up a cane with a curved top
for her around which she is to run. At one side a basket stands in which
there is tobacco and on the other side a basket containing corn.
When she has run around the cane in its first position, it is put up
again farther away, where she runs around it again and returns to the
line of singers. Again, the cane and basket of corn are moved out and
the girl runs around them. When she returns to the singers she dances,
having a downy feather tied at the crown of her head. The cane is put up
again and the basket of corn moved once more. The girl runs around them
returning to the singers. This cane is said to be the sun's cane and the
chief's cane.
The corn is poured from the basket over the crown of the girl's head.
The people all try to get a handful of the corn. After that, she throws
the blankets in every direction and the people pick them up, saying,
“May her blankets be many.” They plant the corn and all say they raise
large crops in consequence.
They prepare Gans and dance four nights. They do not allow anyone to
sleep during the dancing.
The girl, Ests'unnadlehi, has a skirt and a shirt of dressed skin. The
shirt is spoken of as fringed shirt and the skirt, a fringed skirt.
When the Gans dance, the girl dances behind them. She does not sleep
during the four nights.
On the morning after the fourth night all the people gather around to
insure good luck in the future. The sun's songs, the chief's songs, are
sung and with them they dance. After the four nights they paint the girl
white with gypsum mixed with water which is in a shallow basket. The
girl stands here and a woman whose husband is rich in horses and other
property stirs the gypsum and water with a hairbrush. She applies this
white mixture to the girl's head, and brushes her downward until she is
whitened all over. The girl then sprinkles the men, women, and children
who stand around in a large circle. This is done that they may be
fortunate in the future. If some of the white mixture falls on the hair,
that person will have gray hair at that spot.
-----
Footnote 47:
Told by Frank Crockett's father in part, and extended by Frank who was
interpreting.
THE MIGRATION OF THE GANS.[48]
They say they moved about from place to place under the cliffs. “We will
move to a place where we will not die,” they said. They went to a place
halfway between the earth and sky, and lighted on a mirage. They were
dying there too. They came back to this world. Wind and rain ceased.
Mocking bird said he wanted to be chief. Gopher said he wanted to be
chief. When someone remarked that the chief's eyes were small, Gopher
was angry and went under the ground, taking with him the wind and rain.
Humming bird started over the earth, hunting in vain for the wind and
rain. He came where Gopher had gone underground and went in there and
came where the Gans were living. They had much corn and ripe crops. It
rained there all the time. Humming bird came back and reported that he
had been where there were many ripe crops and where rain fell all the
time. He also said those who live there do not die. The Gans started to
move down there and on their way came to a place called
“Two-mountains-go-around-each-other-in-opposite-directions.” Rocks,
white and all colors, lie there, one above the other. The Indians went
there and came where the Gans were living.
A small mountain stood at the east and on it Black Gan stood every dawn
and talked as a chief. When he had spoken as chief four mornings, they
asked why Black Gan was talking that way. All the Gans came together and
he talked to them. “May one of your children remain here?” he asked. All
the Gans said, “No. Our children are all going with us.” Then Black Gan
decided that one of his should stay. He left the youngest little girl,
putting a turquoise water jar by her pillow. He covered this with earth.
They started away where people do not die. His little girl returned to
the place where her water jar had been put. While she was gone for it
the others moved away and left her.
Some Indians found the baby, who was running about crying, and
took her to raise. When she was grown, she married, and gave birth
to a boy. Then Black Gan had a son-in-law and many people came to
see him because he was Black Gan's son-in-law. They crowded into
the house and kept saying, “Move over a little, Donaildihi.” He,
Eats-a-long-time-without-being-satisfied, moved over; and they
kept coming in until the house was stretched over to one side.
Black Gan's son-in-law lay down with one leg over the other, and called
for the baby. When its grandmother brought it, he tossed it up and down
on his chest and sang to it. When he was done playing with it, he called
to them to take it again.
After a time another boy was born. When they were both grown they were
hunting birds and came where the Gans were living. When they returned,
food was offered them in vain. They had eaten where the Gans lived while
away, and would not eat on their return.
A man fell sick. His eyes and mouth were crooked, as were also his arms
and legs. The people were asking what they should do about it. The man
told the mother of the boys to prepare a deerskin which had no holes in
it with a piece of turquoise fastened at the forehead. To the turquoise
he asked that downy feathers be tied. She directed that _bacinϵ_ with
downy feathers be tied between the eyes. In addition _tsϵltcϵϵ_ and
_yołgai_ each with downy feathers were to be tied to the skin. She asked
that the skin prepared thus be placed on the top of the feet of the
children (Gan's grandchildren).
When they put it on the foot of one of these boys, he kicked it to the
other boy, who kicked it back. When this had been done four times one of
them directed that wood be brought in, and they consented to give a
dance for the sick man. They directed that all the people should come
together and that the sick man should be brought to the dancing place.
Preparations were also made there for the fire. “All of you come here
where we are going to sing,” they announced.
When they had come together they began to sing, the two grandsons of
Black Gan acting as leaders. When they started to dance one of them
stood up and made a speech. He told them they must not go away during
the dance or something bad would happen to them.
When they had sung four songs, the sound of a bull roarer was heard
underground to the east, south, west, and north. The Gans ran there and
formed in line around him (the sick man). The Gans came to the dance
ground, and Black Gan shook himself by the side of the sick man. He took
the sick man up and threw him over there. Then Brown Gan shook his body
by the sick man and swayed from side to side. Then the Gan who has one
side of his face covered, shook himself by the sick man and threw him
over there. Next Red Gan swayed himself and took up the sick man and
threw him over there.
The Black Gan then went to the sick man and made his eyes good again.
Brown Gan went to him and fixed his arms. The Gan whose face is half
covered fixed his back. On this side (north) Red Gan restored his legs.
The man was well again, and danced among the others. They danced four
nights and the morning after, the Gans and men stood with their little
fingers interlocked; first a man and then a Gan; a man and then a Gan; a
man and then a Gan. Thus they formed a circle, standing in a line
alternating, with their little fingers interlocked. They danced until it
grew light and then the dance began to move away toward the sunrise. Old
men and old women were lying down nearby. The dancing people kept moving
away toward the east. The old women and old men ran after them. They
were dancing on the ground and then began to move up higher and higher
in the air. The Indians ran after them but the Indians who were dancing
went up with the dance. They could hear the sound of the dancing up
there and the songs. They moved away to the Sun. He sent them where they
do not die. They are still living there, I suppose. They are the people
who do not die.
-----
Footnote 48:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett, February, 1910.
RELEASING THE DEER.[49]
Ganisk'ide[50] was the only one who owned deer. He was the only one who
brought them home and who ate their flesh. He gave none of the meat to
the people who lived near him.
Ravens, who were then people, proposed that they make a puppy and desert
it. They did this; they moved away and left a puppy lying there. When
the children of Ganisk'ide went where the people had moved away, they
found the puppy. They took it up and carried it home.
Ganisk'ide told the children to throw the puppy away, but when they
objected, he told them to try the dog's eyes by holding fire in front of
them. When they brought the fire near the dog's eyes it cried, “gai gai
gai.” “It is a real dog,” Ganisk'ide said. “You may take him behind the
stone door where the deer are enclosed and let him eat the entrails.”
When the children had taken the dog behind this door he became a man
again. He moved the stone to one side and the deer that were inside ran
out. Ganisk'ide called to his wife from the doorway to touch the
nostrils of the deer with her odorous secretions. She touched each of
the deer on the nose as they ran by her and they received the sense of
smell. They ran away from her.
“You said it was a dog,” he said to his children with whom he was angry,
“but he turned them out for us.” The deer scattered all over the earth.
-----
Footnote 49:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett.
This is a very widely distributed tale. The owner of the animals is
usually Raven or Crow. See this series, vol. 8, 212-4; Russell, 259;
Wissler and Duvall, 50-53; Kroeber, 65; this series, vol. 10, 250-251.
Footnote 50:
Ganisk'ide is a deity known to the Navajo, Matthews, 37, 244.
DEER WOMAN.[51]
After he married, they went on a hunting trip. When they had established
camp where they were to get the deer meat, the man went out to hunt, but
the woman stayed at the camp. As the husband left, he said, if anyone
came from the north, that would be himself, but if someone came from the
east it would be someone else.
Then Ganłjine came there carrying a deer mask in his hand which he put
on the brush of which the camp was made, and sat down by the fire. The
deer mask was eating as if it were alive and it made a noise like a
deer. Ganłjine told the woman to put on the thing which was lying there.
She replied that a deer mask was something to be afraid of. “Put it on
and let me look at it,” he insisted. “Will it be all right?” she asked
him. He told her to put it on anyway, and stand at one side so he could
look at it. She put it on and stood at the place designated in the
posture of a deer.
He threw a turquoise ring on her, and she became like a deer as far as
her neck. Then he threw a ring of _bacinϵ_ on her and an additional
portion of her body changed to a deer. Next he threw a ring of
_tcϵłtcϵϵ_, and last, one of _yołgai_. She was then completely like a
deer and walked away, wiggling her tail.