A man sat thinking, "Let me see; my songs are too short; I want more
songs; where shall I go to find them?" Hasjelti appeared and, perceiving
his thoughts, said, "I know where you can go to get more songs." "Well, I
much want to get more, and I will follow you." When they reached a certain
point in a box canyon in the Big Colorado River they found four gods (the
Hostjobokon) at work hewing logs of cottonwood. Hasjelti said, "This will
not do; cottonwood becomes water-soaked; you must use pine instead of
cottonwood." The Hostjobokon then began boring the pine with flint, when
Hasjelti said, "That is slow work," and he commanded the whirlwind to
hollow the log. A Jerusalem cross was formed with one solid log and a
hollow one. The song-hunter entered the hollow log and Hasjelti closed the
end with a cloud, that the water of the river might not enter when the
logs were launched upon the great waters. The Hostjobokon, accompanied by
their wives, rode upon the logs, a couple sitting on the end of each cross
arm. These were accompanied by Hasjelti, Hostjoghon, and two Naaskiddi,
who walked on the banks to ward the logs off from the shore. Hasjelti
carried a squirrel skin filled with tobacco from which to supply the gods
on their journey. Hostjoghon carried a staff ornamented with eagle and
turkey plumes and a gaming ring with two humming birds tied to it with
white cotton cord. The two Naaskiddi carried staffs of lightning.(7) After
floating a long distance down the river they came to waters that had a
shore on one side only, and they landed. Here they found people like
themselves. These people, on learning of the song-hunter's wish, gave to
him many songs and they painted pictures on a cotton blanket and said,
"These pictures must go with the songs. If we give this blanket to you you
will lose it. We will give you white earth and black coals which you will
grind together to make black paint, and we will give you white sand,
yellow sand, and red sand, and for the blue paint you will take white sand
and black coals with a very little red and yellow sand. These together
will give you blue.(8)"
The song-hunter remained with these people until the corn was ripe. There
he learned to eat corn and he carried some back with him to the Navajo,
who had not seen corn before, and he taught them how to raise it and how
to eat it.
As the logs would not float upstream the song-hunter was conveyed by four
sunbeams, one attached to each end of the cross-logs, to the box canyon
whence he emerged. Upon his return he separated the logs, placing an end
of the solid log into the hollow end of the other and planted this great
pole in the river, whereto this day it is to be seen by those so
venturesome as to visit this point.
The old song priest who related this myth to me regretted that so few of
his people now visited the sacred spot.
"When I was young," he said, "many went there to pray and make offerings."