_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
Soon another council of the same dictators was called, this time to
discuss how more people might be created. First Man sent Wind messengers
to bring Black Fog Boy and Black Cloud Girl, Precious Stone Boy and
Precious Stone Girl, White Corn Boy and Yellow Corn Girl, Blue Corn Boy
and All-Color Corn Girl, Pollen Boy and Cricket Girl, and Rain Boy and
Rain Girl. These twelve were laid side by side on four sacred deerskins
and covered with four others. The Spirit Winds of the west came and blew
between the skins; the Spirit Winds of the east came and blew also; then
came Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti from the east, with rainbows in his hand, calling
"Wu-hu-hu-hu-u"; and Haschogan from the south, with sunbeams in his hand.
They walked up and gently tapped the skins with their bows and beams.
Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti of the west and Haschogan of the north came next and gently
tapped the skins. Then the skins lifted, revealing twelve beautiful young
people perfectly formed. Astse Hastin bade them arise and stand, and then
with Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti in the lead and Haschogan behind, they four times
encircled the sacred mountains Choili and Tzilhnuhodihli, halting close to
the hole whence the Holy People emerged. There Astse Hastin made them an
extended speech, telling them that they had been brought forth from the
elements to people the earth; that they must rear children and care for
them as kind fathers and mothers, teaching them to be good to one another;
and that it would be necessary for them to plant corn and other seeds at
once. The Digi{~COMBINING BREVE~}n, First Man continued, were about to leave, to go into the
rivers, the oceans, the cliffs, the mountains, off to the horizon, and to
the sky, but they would ever keep watch over their people and would help
those who showed them respect and reverence in prayer and song. To Yolkai
Estsan was entrusted future guardianship of the people. It would be her
duty to furnish the he-rain and the she-rain, to fructify all crops, and
bring forth abundant grass and seeds.
Then the Digi{~COMBINING BREVE~}n took their departure, vanishing the people knew not
whither. Yolkai Estsan turned westward to her whiteshell home on the
horizon, far out across the wide waters. Arriving there she determined to
make a few more people. Cuticle rubbed from her body, with bits of white
shell, turquoise, abalone, and jet, she placed between two sacred
deerskins, male and female, and called for the Spirit Winds of the east,
the Spirit Winds of the west, Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and Haschogan, who came and
breathed upon and tapped the deerskins as once before, and lo! there arose
four pairs of people.
Each pair was given a walking-stick--one of white shell to one, staffs of
turquoise, abalone, and jet respectively to the others. Black Fog and
Black Cloud came and spread out over the water. Upon these the new people
took up their journey eastward to join others like themselves. For four
days they travelled on Fog and Cloud, reaching the earth at the end of the
fourth day, where, on the following day, they were welcomed by Chehonaai,
the Sun. There, too, the Bear, the Wolf, the Great Snake, the Mountain
Lion, the Weasel, and the Porcupine met them at the direction of Yolkai
Estsan, to guard them on their long land journey. The Lightning also she
made, to protect them from above.
They journeyed eastward, stopping to camp and rest at the end of the first
day. For water they had but to prod the earth with their walking-sticks
and a spring gushed forth. The first of the four, the man of White Shell,
stuck his staff into the ground and water came up at once. "The water is
close," he remarked, from which speech he took his name, for the others
henceforth called him To Ahani, Water Is Close. The following night the
Turquoise Woman brought water, but it was bitter, so she said, from which
fact she took her name of To Dichini, Bitter Water. The man who tried for
water on the third night found only a muddy flow, so the others called him
Hashkli{~COMBINING BREVE~}shni, Mud. The fourth night they camped in sight of the Dine{~COMBINING BREVE~}
(Navaho) whom they had come to join. The woman of the fourth pair called
attention to the houses in the caves, after which they called her Ki{~COMBINING BREVE~}nya
Ani, Houses in the Cliffs.(7)
The following day they were welcomed by the twelve who had been created
and given dominion over the land but a short time before, and from these
twenty have the pure-blood Navaho descended.