NAVAHO LEGENDS
COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED
BY
WASHINGTON MATTHEWS
M.D., LL.D.
MAJOR U.S. ARMY, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE
SOCIETY, ETC.
WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, ILLUSTRATIONS, TEXTS
INTERLINEAR TRANSLATIONS, AND MELODIES
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Published for The American Folk-Lore Society by
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
LONDON: DAVID NUTT, 270, 271 STRAND
LEIPZIG: OTTO HARRASSOWITZ, QUERSTRASSE, 14
1897
Five hundred copies printed, of which this is No. 199
Copyright, 1897,
BY THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction 1
LEGENDS.
The Navaho Origin Legend.
I. The Story of the Emergence 63
II. Early Events in the Fifth World 76
III. The War Gods 104
IV. Growth of the Navaho Nation 135
Nati'nesthani 160
The Great Shell of Kintyél 195
Notes 209
Bibliographic Notes 276
Melodies 279
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE PAGE
I. Navaho Gods as represented in the dry-paintings Frontispiece
II. San Francisco Mountain, Arizona 63
III. Distant view of San Mateo Mountain, New Mexico 76
IV. Nayénezgani 104
V. El Cabezon 114
VI. Lava flow in the valley of the San José, New Mexico 118
VII. To`badzistsíni 134
FIGURE
1. Manuelito (portrait) 3
2. Mariano (portrait) 4
3. Jake the Silversmith (portrait) 5
4. Tánapa (portrait) 6
5. Hádapa (portrait) 7
6. Navaho man (portrait) 9
7. Navaho man (portrait) 10
8. Navaho skull, flattened at occiput 11
9. Navaho baby-case or cradle 12
10. Conical lodge with storm-door 13
11. Hut of logs 14
12. Hut built partly of stone 15
13. Summer houses 16
14. Medicine-lodge 16
15. Sudatory 17
16. Sacred basket 18
17. Sacred basket 19
18. Silver ornaments 20
19. Woman spinning 21
20. Ordinary loom 23
21. Loom for weaving diagonal cloth 25
22. The White House 36
23. Talking kethawn 39
24. Circle kethawn 40
25. Kethawns (sacrificial sticks and cigarettes) in basket 43
26. Mask of yucca 46
27. Mask of Hastséyalti 47
28. Mask of yébaad or goddess 48
29. Picture of silnéole, a dry-painting of the night chant 49
30. Alíli or show ("dance") of the nahikáï 52
31. Hatáli Natlói (portrait) 57
32. The shaman Hatáli Nez (Tall Chanter) (portrait) 59
33. Trail of Estsánatlehi (diagram) 148
34. Trail of turkey approaching his master (diagram) 171
35. Trail of man and turkey (diagram) 173
36. Ruin in the Chaco Canyon, probably Kintyél 195
37. Circle of branches of the rite of the mountain chant 206
38. Natural bridge, near Fort Defiance, Arizona 227
39. Yucca baccata 228
40. Drumstick made of yucca leaves 229
41. Diagram of bow-symbol on left leg of the personator of
Nayénezgani 253
42. Diagram of queue-symbol on left leg of the personator
of To`badzistsíni 253
Map of the Navaho country 1
NAVAHO LEGENDS.
INTRODUCTION.
PREFATORY REMARKS.
1. The legends contained in this book are those of the Navaho[1]
Indians, a tribe living in the southwestern portion of the United
States; mostly in the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, but
partly in the States of Colorado and Utah. A definite reservation
of over 12,000 square miles has been set apart for them; but in
every direction, beyond the borders of this reservation, isolated
families and small bands may be found dwelling, either temporarily or
permanently, in localities where there are springs, streams, pools,
or artificial reservoirs of water. Some have taken up homesteads--or
have otherwise acquired a legal title to lands beyond the borders of
the reservation; others are merely squatters. A brief description of
these Indians--their arts, religion, ceremonies, etc.--is included in
this introduction, in the belief that, if the reader possesses some
knowledge of the Navaho before he begins to read the tales, he may
have a better understanding of the latter. But much more information,
of interest to the ethnographer, will be found in notes. Some items
in the introduction could not properly have appeared in the notes,
as there was nothing in the tales to suggest them. Other items might
perhaps as well have been transferred to the notes; the decision to
put them in the introduction was often arbitrary.
2. Title of Book.--In selecting a title for this book, the word
Legends was chosen, rather than Myths, for the reason that the tales
contained herein, though mostly mythical, are not altogether such. In
the Origin Legend, the last chapter, "The Growth of the Navaho Nation,"
is in part traditional or historical, and it is even approximately
correct in many of its dates, as has been shown by Frederick Webb
Hodge in his paper on the "Early Navaho and Apache."[301]
HOME OF THE NAVAHOES.
3. The land which the Navahoes occupy is arid, though not an absolute
desert. The precipitation at an altitude of 7,000 feet amounts on an
average to only 14.10 inches during the year (at lower altitudes it is
less, at higher altitudes greater), and this is generally confined to
two short seasons of moisture separated from one another by months of
absolute drought, which, except in specially favored localities, would
destroy any of our ordinary field-crops. But there are small spots, far
apart, where irrigation can be practised, and there are other places,
apparently deserts, which no white man would think of cultivating,
but where Indians raise meagre crops of corn, squashes, and melons.
4. Soil.--He who stands on the brow of the mesa at the Indian pueblo
of Walpi, in Arizona, may unravel one secret of Indian agriculture in
the arid region, and learn why ancient ruins may be found in the most
desolate parts. Six hundred feet below him stretches a sandy plain
which at most seasons of the year seems almost an absolute desert;
yet in summer it is green with rows of dwarf corn. Little rain falls
on it and there is no irrigation; yet the corn grows and furnishes a
return which repays an Indian, at least, for his labor. Through the
plain runs a gully which at certain seasons drains the water from
a high table-land beyond. The water does not all flow off, but in
part settles under the sandy surface, and keeps the subsoil moist
throughout the year. By planting deep, the Indian farmers reach
this moist subsoil, and place their seeds where the long drought
cannot destroy them. On the side of the mesa, peach-trees flourish,
with hidden moisture that comes out between the rocky strata at the
mesa's edge. Localities similar to those described are found in the
Navaho land, and similarly used by the Navaho for farms and peach
orchards. The myths make frequent allusions to such farms or gardens.
5. A few fields have recently been made by white men in the high
meadows of the Zuñi Mountains at altitudes above 8,000 feet, where
potatoes, oats, barley, and garden vegetables are raised without
irrigation; but farming at such altitudes was never tried by the
Navahoes, and they knew nothing of cultivating the crops named
above. Beside their aboriginal crops, they have for a long time raised
a little wheat. Potatoes grow wild in the Navaho country.
6. Mines.--Fortunately for the Navahoes, no mines of precious
metals have yet been discovered on their reservation; although for
years past rumors of such discoveries have from time to time been
circulated, and unwelcome prospectors have frequently invaded their
territory. For many years previous to 1892 the principal attraction
lay in the Carrizo Mountains.[2] A legend of a mine called the Lost
Adam, and of miners murdered in these mountains, had circulated
long through Colorado mining camps. Troubles between intruders and
Indians became so frequent and threatening in this region that General
McCook, then commanding the Department of Arizona, which included
the Navaho reservation, determined to make an expedition and settle,
if possible, the question of the existence of valuable mines in the
Carrizo Mountains. A commission, consisting of Gen. A. McD. McCook,
U.S.A., ex-Gov. John L. Barstow of Vermont, and Prof. J. G. Allyn of
New Mexico, was appointed. The commission entered the mountains with a
mounted escort in May, 1892, and invited prospectors who had previously
visited the region to come and show where the mineral lay. They came,
and then it appeared they had staked off various claims and given them
felicitous names such as the western miners know how to coin,--the
"Lucky Bill," the "Boggy Snoggy," etc. Specimen ores were collected
from every point where they were seen, and submitted to careful expert
examination; but all proved worthless. Some fine gold has been found
in the sands of the San Juan River,[3] within the Navaho reservation;
but it has not been found profitable to work for it.
7. Surface--Forests.--The surface of the country over which the
Navahoes are scattered varies in altitude from 4,000 feet, or less,
in the valley of the Colorado, to over 11,000 feet in the high peaks
of Tsisnadzi'ni,[52] San Mateo,[54] San Francisco,[56] and the San
Juan[58] range, which traditionally border their land. In the central
and more thickly inhabited portion the highest eminence is in the
Tuincha Mountains, 9,575 feet. The average altitude is about 6,000
feet. The country consists mostly of great plains and of plateaux
or mesas. While the lower levels, except in the bottom-lands of
the constantly flowing rivers, are destitute of trees, the mesas,
at altitudes of from 6,000 to 7,000 feet, are well covered with low
forests of piñon (Pinus edulis), red cedar (Juniperus virginianus)
and juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). At altitudes of 7,000 feet
white pine (Pinus ponderosa) is sparingly found; but at altitudes of
8,000 feet or more it grows abundantly and attains a good size. Spruce
(Pseudotsuga taxifolia) is found in shaded valleys, and on northern
hill-slopes above 7,000 feet, but it does not form an important part
of the forest. It is an essential element in certain rites. Cottonwood
(Populus monolifera and P. wislizenii), aspen (Populus tremuloides),
oak (Quercus gambellii), oak-bark juniper (Juniperus pachyphloea),
and other trees grow less abundantly.
8. Pasturage--Flocks and Herds.--While the Navaho Indians cultivate
the soil, it is evident, from what has been said, that they do not
do so to any great extent. Their crops furnish but a small part of
their subsistence. But their sterile country is fairly well adapted to
the raising of sheep and goats. These form their chief food supply,
and the former their principal source of wealth. With the money
received for their wool they purchase flour and other provisions
from the white traders, as well as various articles of luxury and
utility. They possess many ponies and ride a great deal. They raise
a few neat cattle.
9. As domesticated sheep and goats were unknown in America previous to
the discovery by Columbus, and were unknown in New Mexico previous
to the expedition of Coronado in A.D. 1540, it follows that the
Navahoes have not been shepherds for many centuries. It would appear
from their legends that it is not many years since they have become a
prosperous and wealthy people (and such they now are, for savages);
that in old days they were even poor hunters; and that they lived
largely on the seeds of wild plants and on small animals that they
caught in fall-traps. How meagrely they were dressed and equipped
the legends also tell us. (See pars. 382, 384, 391.)
POPULATION.
10. No exact census of the tribe has ever been taken, and it would not
now be an easy task to take one, because the Navahoes are scattered
so widely and over such a wild and rugged territory. Their low huts,
built in tangled cedar-woods or in regions of scattered rocks, are
often so obscurely hidden that one may ride through a cluster of
a dozen inhabited houses thinking there is not an Indian within ten
miles of him. When the Navahoes were held in captivity at Fort Sumner,
New Mexico, from 1863 to 1867, they depended for subsistence mostly
on rations supplied by the United States, and then these captives,
at least, could be accurately counted. There were in 1867 7,300 in
captivity.[298] Owing to desertions on the one hand, and additional
surrenders on the other, the numbers varied from time to time.
11. But while the majority of the tribe were prisoners of war, it
is well known that all were not captured during General Carson's
invasion in 1863, but that many still roamed at large while their
brethren were prisoners. The count of the prisoners, therefore,
does not show the strength of the tribe.
12. Perhaps the most accurate census ever taken was that of 1869. "In
November of 1869 a count was made of the tribe, in order to distribute
among them 30,000 head of sheep and 2,000 goats. Due notice was given
months before, and the tribe was present. The Indians were all put in
a large corral, and counted as they went in. A few herders, holding
the small herds that they had then bunched on the surrounding hills,
were not in the corral. The result of this count showed that there were
less than 9,000 Navahoes all told, making a fair allowance for all
who had failed to come in. At that time everything favored getting a
full count; rations were issued to them every four days; they had but
little stock, and, in addition to the issue of the sheep and goats,
there were also two years' annuities to be given out. The season of
the year was favorable, the weather fine, and they were all anxious
to get the sheep and goats and annuities."[268]
13. In 1890 a count of these Indians was made as a part of the
Eleventh Census of the United States.[297] Before the count was begun,
the writer was informed by one of the enumerators that the plan to
be employed was this: The Navaho country was to be divided into a
number of districts, and a special enumerator was to be sent to each
district at the same time to visit each hut and take the number of
each family. Whether this method was carried out, the report of the
Eleventh Census does not tell us. But this plan, while probably the
best that could be employed at the time with the means allotted, was
very imperfect and admitted of numerous sources of error, of which
two may be specified. Many huts might easily be passed unnoticed,
for reasons already given, and this would make the enumeration
too low. Many families might easily have been counted in more than
one district, for the Navaho frequently shifts his abode, and this
would make the count too high. The result of this enumeration was
to give the tribe a population of 17,204 for that year. White men,
living in the Navaho country at the time, generally considered the
estimate excessive. If the count of 1869 be approximately correct,
that of 1890 is probably not. It is not reasonable to suppose that by
natural increase alone--and no other source of increment is known--the
tribe should have nearly doubled in twenty-one years. It would require
birth-rates much higher and death-rates much lower than those commonly
found in Indian tribes to double the population in that time. The
Indian mother is not prolific.
14. The Navahoes say that during their captivity they had much sickness
and diminished in numbers; but nothing has been found in official
reports to corroborate such statements. All who have any intimate
knowledge of the Navahoes agree that they have increased rapidly
since they were restored to their ancient homes in 1869. During nearly
fifteen years that the author has had opportunity to observe them, he
has noticed no marked signs of physical degeneration among them. Their
general health and their power of resisting disease appeared about
as good in 1894 as in 1880. Consumption and scrofula, those greatest
enemies of our reservation Indians, have not yet begun to trouble
the Navahoes. The change from the rude hut to the close stone house,
which is rapidly going on among this people, is likely to affect their
health in the future, and probably not for the better. Fortunately for
them they have little fancy for stoves, but prefer open fireplaces such
as the Pueblos and Mexicans use. In the year 1888, while the writer
was absent from New Mexico, they had an epidemic of throat disease,
the precise character of which has not been ascertained. They say
that about 800 people died that winter. During the winter of 1894-95
they suffered from scarcity of food,--an unusual experience for them,
and the government had to assist them. An increased mortality ensued,
which undoubtedly would have been much greater had it not been for
the prompt action of their agent, Maj. Constant Williams, U.S.A.,
in securing supplies for them.
RACIAL AFFINITY--APPEARANCE.
15. The Navahoes are usually regarded by ethnologists as being,
by blood as well as by language, of the Dèné or Athapascan stock,
and such, probably, they are in the main. But their Origin Legend
represents them as a very mixed race, containing elements of Zuñian
and other Pueblo stocks, of Shoshonian and Yuman, and the appearance of
the people seems to corroborate the legend. There is no such thing as
a general or prevailing Navaho type. The people vary much in feature
and stature. Every variety of Indian face and form may be seen among
them,--tall men with aquiline noses and prominent features, such as we
find among the Crows and Dakotas; dwarfish men with subdued features,
such as we see among the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, and every
intermediate variety.
16. The countenances of the Navahoes are, as a rule, intelligent
and expressive; some are stern and angry, some pleasant and smiling,
others calm and thoughtful; but seldom are any seen that are dull and
stupid. These characteristics are to be noted among the women as well
as among the men. The social position of the Navaho women is one of
great independence; much of the wealth of the nation belongs to them;
they are the managers of their own property, the owners of their own
children, and their freedom lends character to their physiognomies.
PORTRAITS.
17. Fig. 1 is a picture of Manuelito, who for many years was the
most influential chief among the Navahoes. Latterly he lost much
of his influence in consequence of his intemperate habits, though
he was regarded as a sage counsellor till the time of his death,
which occurred in 1893. When he was gone, an old Indian, announcing
his death to the writer, said: "We are now a people without eyes,
without ears, without a mind." Fig. 2 represents another chief of
much influence named Mariano, who also became addicted to drink in
his old age and died in 1893. Fig. 3 shows a very intelligent and
trustworthy Indian, a silversmith, known as Jake among the whites,
but called by the Navahoes Náltsos Nigéhani, or Paper-carrier, because
in his youth he was employed as a mail-carrier between Forts Wingate
and Defiance. He it was who communicated to the author version B[306]
of the Origin Legend. He practised a short medicine rite, was an
adept in singing sacred songs, and often led in song in the great
rites. His silver-work was in great demand, and he worked hard at his
trade. In 1894 he accompanied a circus through the Eastern States,
with his workshop as a side-show; but the journey proved too much for
him--he died of heart disease on his return to New Mexico. Fig. 4 is
a portrait of a Navaho woman named Tánapa, who took her hair out of
braid preparatory to standing before the camera. Fig. 5 is a woman
named Hádapa, whose smiling face is introduced as a contrast to the
stern brow of Tánapa. Figs. 6 and 7 are Navaho men whose names have not
been recorded. The expressions of their faces are in marked contrast.
CRANIA.
18. As a rule the crania of the Navahoes are brachycephalic,
and very few are dolichocephalic. The shortening seems to be due
to a flattening in the occipital region (fig. 8). The author is of
opinion that this is caused by the use of the baby-case, with a hard,
unyielding wooden back (fig. 9), in which the Navaho women carry
their infants. This flattening of the Navaho occiput has been the
subject of some controversy. It is true that the cradle is padded to
a slight extent; but the padding consists of the bark of the cliff
rose (Cowania mexicana), called by the Navaho awétsal, or baby-bed,
which forms a rather rigid pillow. True, again, when the baby is
carried on the mother's back, its head often hangs forward and does
not come in contact with the back of the cradle or the pillow; but
most of the time the child lies on its back, and its tender occiput
is subjected to deforming pressure.
LANGUAGE.
19. The language of the Navaho undoubtedly belongs in the main to the
Athapascan family. Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his "Native Races of the
Pacific States" (vol. iii. p. 583),[292] tells us that the Athapascans
or "Tinneh" are "a people whose diffusion is only equalled by that
of the Aryan or Semitic nations of the Old World. The dialects of
the Tinneh language are by no means confined within the limits of
the hyperborean division. Stretching from the northern interior of
Alaska down into Sonora and Chihuahua, we have here a linguistic line
of more than four thousand miles in length, extending diagonally over
forty-two degrees of latitude, like a great tree whose trunk is the
Rocky Mountain range, whose roots encompass the deserts of Arizona
and New Mexico, and whose branches touch the borders of Hudson Bay and
of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans." But the Origin Legend declares it
is a mixed language (par. 395), and it is but reasonable to suppose
that such a composite race cannot possess a very pure language. The
various accessions to the tribe from other stocks have probably added
many words of alien origin. What these additions are is not now known,
and will not be known until all the languages of the Southwest have
been thoroughly studied.
HOUSES.
20. The habitations of the Navahoes are usually of a very simple
character. The most common form consists of a conical frame, made
by setting up a number of sticks at an angle of about forty-five
degrees. An opening is left on one side of the cone to answer as a
doorway. The frame is covered with weeds, bark, or grass, and earth,
except at the apex, where the smoke from the fire in the centre of
the floor is allowed to escape. In the doorway an old blanket hangs,
like a curtain, in place of a door. But the opening of the door is not
a simple hiatus, as many descriptions would lead one to suppose. A
cross-piece, forming a lintel, connects the jambs at a convenient
height, and the triangular space between the lintel and the smoke-hole
is filled in as shown in fig. 10. A picture in Schoolcraft's extensive
work[327] (vol. iii. plate 17) is intended to represent a Navaho lodge;
but it appears to have been drawn by Captain Eastman from an imperfect
description. In this picture the doorway is shown as extended up and
continuous with the smoke-hole.
21. Some lodges are made of logs in a polygonal form, as shown in
fig. 11. Again they are occasionally built partly of stone, as shown
in fig. 12. In cold weather a small storm-door or portico is often
erected in front of the door (fig. 10), and an outer and an inner
curtain may be hung to more effectually keep out the wind.
22. Shelters.--Contiguous to the hut, the Navaho usually constructs
a rude shelter of branches. Here, in fair weather, the family often
cook and spend most of the day. Here, too, the women erect their
looms and weave or set out their metates and grind corn, and some
even choose to sleep here. Such a "corral" is shown in fig. 12.
23. Summer Houses.--In summer they often occupy structures more simple
than even the hut described above. Fig. 13 represents a couple of
summer houses in the Zuñi Mountains. A structure of this kind is
built in a few hours. A couple of forked sticks are set upright in
the ground; slanting poles are laid against this in the direction of
the prevailing winds, so as to form a windbreak, half wall and half
roof, and this is covered with grass, weeds, and earth. The ends may
be similarly enclosed, or may be merely covered in with evergreen
branches. One side of the house is completely open. In fig. 13 a
loom is shown set up for work in one of these rude structures, the
aboriginal appearance of which is somewhat marred by having a piece
of old canvas lying on top.
24. Medicine-lodges.--The medicine-lodges, when erected in regions
where long poles may be cut, are usually built in the form of the
ordinary hogáns (huts), though of much greater size (fig. 14). When
these large lodges are constructed at low altitudes, where only
stunted trees grow, they are built on a rude frame with walls and
roof separate, somewhat on the same plan as the lodges formerly used
by the Arickarees, Mandans, and other tribes on the Missouri, and
seeming a connecting link between the Navaho hogán and the Mandan
earth-lodge.[184]
25. Sweat-houses.--The sweat-house or sudatory is a diminutive form
of the ordinary hogán or hut as described in par. 20, except that
it has no smoke-hole (for fire is never kindled in it), neither
has it a storm-door. It is sometimes sunk partly underground and
is always thickly covered with earth. Stones are heated in a fire
outside and carried, with an extemporized tongs of sticks, into the
sudatory. Fig. 15 poorly represents one of these structures. When
ceremonially used, the frame is constructed of different materials
for different ceremonies, and the house is sometimes decorated with
dry-paintings.[82]
26. Modern Houses.--During the past ten years, a few of the more
progressive Navahoes have built themselves rectangular stone houses,
with flat roofs, glazed windows, wooden doors, and regular chimneys,
such as their neighbors, the Mexicans and Pueblo Indians, build. They
have had before them, for centuries, examples of such houses, and
they are an imitative and docile people. The reason they have not
copied at an earlier date is probably a superstitious reason. They
believe a house haunted or accursed in which a human being dies.[91]
They abandon it, never enter it again, and usually destroy it. With
such a superstition prevailing, they hesitate to build permanent
dwellings. Perhaps of late years the superstition is becoming weakened,
or they have found some mystic way of averting the supposed evil.
ARTS.
27. The arts of the Navahoes are not numerous. They make a very rude
and inartistic pottery,--vastly inferior to that of the neighboring
Pueblo tribes,--and they make but little of it. Their bows and arrows
are not equal to those of the northern Indians, and, since they have
both money and opportunity to purchase modern firearms, bows and arrows
are falling into disuse. They do not consider themselves very expert
dressers of deerskin, and purchase their best buckskins from other
tribes. The women do very little embroidery, either with beads or
porcupine-quills, and this little is unskilfully done. The legends
indicate that in former days they stole or purchased embroideries
from the Utes.
28. Basketry.--They make excellent baskets, but very few of them,
and have a very limited range of forms and patterns. In developing
their blanket-making to the highest point of Indian art, the women
of this tribe have neglected other labors. The much ruder but allied
Apaches, who know nothing of weaving woollen fabrics, make more
baskets than the Navahoes, and make them in much greater variety of
form, color, and quality. The Navahoes buy most of their baskets
and wicker water-jars from other tribes. They would possibly lose
the art of basketry altogether if they did not require certain kinds
to be used in the rites, and only women of the tribe understand the
special requirements of the rites. Figs. 16 and 17 show the patterns
of baskets almost exclusively made. These are used in ceremonies,
and are called by the author sacred baskets. A further description
of them is given in a note.[5]
29. Silver-work.--There are a few silversmiths in the tribe, whose
work, considering the rudeness of their tools and processes, is
very artistic. It is much sought after by white people, who admire
its rude beauty. Probably the art of the smith has not existed long
among the Navahoes. In a treatise entitled "Navajo Silversmiths,"[307]
the author described the art as it existed in 1881; but the work has
improved since that time with the introduction of better tools. Then
the smith built his forge on the ground and squatted to do his work;
now he builds it on an elevated frame (fig. 10), and sits on a stool
or chair to work. Fig. 18 represents silver ornaments made by Jake
in 1881.
30. Weaving.--It is in the art of weaving that the Navahoes excel all
other Indians within the borders of the United States. In durability,
fineness of finish, beauty of design, and variety of pattern, the
Navaho blanket has no equal among the works of our aborigines. The
author has written a treatise on "Navajo Weavers,"[309] in which he
describes their art as it existed some thirteen years ago. But since
that treatise was written the art has changed. It has improved in one
respect: an important new invention has been made or introduced,--a
way of weaving blankets with different designs on opposite sides. It
has deteriorated in another respect: fugitive aniline dyes, purchased
from the traders, have taken the place of the permanent native dyes
formerly used. In the finer blankets, yarn obtained from white traders
has supplanted the yarn laboriously twilled on the old distaff. Navaho
blankets are represented in figs. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 12.
31. The Navahoes weave diagonal cloth and diamond-shaped diagonals,
and to do this a change is made in the mechanism of their simple
looms. They weave belts or sashes, garters and saddle-girths, and
these articles, too, require changes in the arrangement of the looms
and in the methods of weaving. Fig. 20 represents an ordinary loom,
with one set of healds. Fig. 21 represents a loom arranged for weaving
diagonal cloth with two sets of healds. Fig. 4 shows a woman wearing
a belt of native manufacture. The women depicted in figs. 5 and 21
wear dresses of Navaho cloth.
32. It is not only for gain that the Navaho woman weaves her
blanket. Having worn it for a time, until it has lost its novelty,
she may sell it for a price that scarcely pays her for the yarn. One
who possesses large herds, and is wealthy for an Indian, will weave
as assiduously as her poorest neighbor. At best, the labor brings low
wages. The work is done, to no small extent, for artistic recreation,
just as the females of our own race embroider and do "fancy work"
for mere pastime.
33. Knitting.--They knit stockings with four needles, but these
stockings are devoid of heels and toes. As the needles now used are
of wire and obtained from the whites, it might be thought that the
art of knitting was learned from our people; but knitted leggings,
made of human hair, and wooden knitting-needles, have been found in
the Navaho land, in cliff-dwellings which, there is reason to believe,
were abandoned before the arrival of the Spaniards.
INDUSTRY.
34. It cannot be said of the Navaho men, as it is often said of the
men of other Indian tribes, that they are either too proud or too lazy
to perform manual labor. They are, and apparently always have been,
willing to do any remunerative work. When the Atlantic and Pacific
Railroad was constructed near their reservation, in 1881, much of
the grading was done by Navaho laborers. The white men who worked
with them, and who had the strongest antipathy to Chinese laborers,
said that they liked the Indians because they were good comrades on the
work and kept up prices. A stalwart man is not ashamed to wash and iron
clothes for wages, which he may want only to spend in gambling. They
have been employed at Fort Wingate to dig cellars and make adobes,
and at the latter work proved themselves more expert than the more
experienced men of Zuñi.
35. Begging, which among other tribes is so often annoying to the
white man, is little practised by the Navahoes. The few who have ever
begged from the author persuaded themselves that they had some claim
on him. On the whole, they are a self-supporting people, and add to
the wealth of the community at large. But little government aid has
been given them since they were released from captivity and supplied
with stock in return for that slaughtered by our troops when their
land was invaded.
POETRY AND MUSIC.
36. For many years the most trusted account of the Navaho Indians
of New Mexico and Arizona was to be found in a letter written by
Dr. Jonathan Letherman,[303] of the army, and published in the
Smithsonian report for 1855. Dr. Letherman had lived three years
at Fort Defiance, in the heart of the Navaho country, when he wrote
this letter, and he acknowledges his indebtedness, for assistance in
preparing it, to Major Kendrick, who long commanded Fort Defiance. Both
the doctor and the major were men of unusual ability. The former
(having changed the spelling of his name to Letterman) afterwards
distinguished himself as medical director of the Army of the Potomac,
and the latter was, for many years, professor of chemistry at the
National Military Academy.
37. From this letter the following statement concerning the Navahoes
is extracted: "Of their religion little or nothing is known, as,
indeed, all inquiries tend to show that they have none." "The lack
of tradition is a source of surprise. They have no knowledge of their
origin or of the history of the tribe." "They have frequent gatherings
for dancing." "Their singing is but a succession of grunts, and is
anything but agreeable."
38. The evidence of these gentlemen, one would think, might be taken
as conclusive. Yet, fifteen years ago, when the author first found
himself among the Navahoes, he was not influenced in the least by
the authority of this letter. Previous experience with the Indians
had taught him of how little value such negative evidence might be,
and he began at once to investigate the religion, traditions, and
poetic literature, of which, he was assured, the Navahoes were devoid.
39. He had not been many weeks in New Mexico when he discovered that
the dances to which Dr. Letherman refers were religious ceremonials,
and later he found that these ceremonials might vie in allegory,
symbolism, and intricacy of ritual with the ceremonies of any people,
ancient or modern. He found, erelong, that these heathens, pronounced
godless and legendless, possessed lengthy myths and traditions--so
numerous that one can never hope to collect them all, a pantheon as
well stocked with gods and heroes as that of the ancient Greeks, and
prayers which, for length and vain repetition, might put a Pharisee
to the blush.
40. But what did the study of appalling "succession of grunts"
reveal? It revealed that besides improvised songs, in which the
Navahoes are adepts, they have knowledge of thousands of significant
songs--or poems, as they might be called--which have been composed with
care and handed down, for centuries perhaps, from teacher to pupil,
from father to son, as a precious heritage, throughout the wide Navaho
nation. They have songs of travelling, appropriate to every stage
of the journey, from the time the wanderer leaves his home until he
returns. They have farming songs, which refer to every stage of their
simple agriculture, from the first view of the planting ground in
the spring to the "harvest home." They have building songs,[6] which
celebrate every act in the structure of the hut, from "thinking about
it" to moving into it and lighting the first fire. They have songs for
hunting, for war, for gambling, in short for every important occasion
in life, from birth to death, not to speak of prenatal and post-mortem
songs. And these songs are composed according to established (often
rigid) rules, and abound in poetic figures of speech.
41. Sacred Songs.--Perhaps the most interesting of their metrical
compositions are those connected with their sacred rites,--their
religious songs. These rites are very numerous, many of them of nine
days' duration, and with each is associated a number of appropriate
songs. Sometimes, pertaining to a single rite, there are two hundred
songs or more which may not be sung at other rites.
42. The songs must be known to the priest of the rite and his
assistants in a most exact manner, for an error made in singing a song
may be fatal to the efficacy of a ceremony. In no case is an important
mistake tolerated, and in some cases the error of a single syllable
works an irreparable injury. A noteworthy instance of this rule is
a song sung at the beginning of work on the last night of the great
ceremony of the night chant. The rite is one which may cost the patron
from two hundred to three hundred dollars. It has lasted eight days
and nights, when four singers, after long and careful instruction
by the priest, come forth painted, adorned, and masked as gods to
sing this song of the atsá`lei. Several hundred people--many from
the farthest confines of the Navaho land--have come to sit up all
night and witness the public ceremonies. The song is long, and is
mostly made up of meaningless or obsolete expressions which convey
no idea to the mind of the singer, yet not a single vocable may be
omitted, mispronounced, or misplaced. A score or more of critics
who know the song by heart are listening with strained attention. If
the slightest error is made it is at once proclaimed, the fruitless
ceremony terminates abruptly, and the disappointed multitude disperses.
43. The songs all contain significant words; but these, for poetic
requirements, are often greatly distorted, and the distortions must be
kept in mind. In speaking thus, scant justice is done to the Navaho
poets. Similar distortions found in an Aryan tongue with a written
literature are spoken of as figures of orthography and etymology, and,
although there is yet no standard of spelling for the Navaho language,
we would perhaps do well to apply the same terms in speaking of the
Navaho compositions. The distortions are not always left to the whim of
the composer. They are made systematically, as a rule. If the language
were reduced to a standard spelling, we should find that the Navaho
poets have as many figures of these classes as the English poets have,
and perhaps more.
44. Some of the words, too, are archaic,--they mean nothing in modern
Navaho; but the priests assign traditional meanings to them, and this
adds to the task of memorizing. But, in addition to the significant
words, there are (as instanced above) numerous meaningless vocables
in all songs, and these must be recited with a care at least equal to
that bestowed on the rest of the composition. These meaningless sounds
are commonly introduced in the preludes and refrains of the stanzas
and in the verse endings, but they may occur anywhere in the song.
45. The preludes and refrains here referred to are found, with
rare exceptions, in every stanza and in every song. Although they
are all either totally meaningless or only partly significant,
they are the most characteristic parts of the poems, and the singer
cons the preludes over when he wishes to call to mind any particular
composition, just as we often remember a poem or song by means of the
first line. They are rarely or never quite alike in any two songs,
and great ingenuity is often displayed in giving them variety.
46. There is yet another burden laid on the memory of the singer
of sacred songs, and this is the order of their arrangement. The
songs of each ceremony are divided into groups which must follow
one another in an established order, and each song has, in the group
to which it belongs, a place that must not be changed under penalty
of divine displeasure. To sing, during the progress of a rite, the
sixth Song of the Whirling Sticks before the fifth song is sung,
would be a sacrilege as great as to chant the syllables óhohohó,
in place of éhehehé. To remember this exact order of sequence in a
set of two hundred or three hundred songs is no easy task.[322]
47. But it may be said: "Perhaps things were different with the
Navahoes in Dr. Letherman's day. May they not have learned from other
tribes, or have themselves invented all this ceremony and song since
he knew them?" The reply to this is, that it is absurd to suppose that
such an elaborate system of rites and songs could have grown up among
an illiterate people in the twenty-five years that elapsed between
Dr. Letherman's departure from the Navaho country and the author's
arrival there. Besides, the latter obtained his information from men of
advanced age--from sixty to eighty years old--who practised these rites
and sang these songs in their youth, and who in turn learned them from
men of a departed generation. The shamans who conduct these ceremonies,
tell these tales, and sing these songs are scattered widely over the
Navaho country. Men who are scarcely acquainted with one another, and
who learned from different preceptors, will sing the same sacred songs
and to exactly the same tune. All the lore of the Navaho priesthood
was undoubtedly extant in Dr. Letherman's time and for ages before.
48. Songless Women.--It is remarkable that, while the Navaho men are
such fruitful composers of song and such ardent singers, the women,
as a rule, do not sing. Among the wild hunting tribes of the North, as
the author knew them thirty years ago, the women not only had songs of
their own, but they took part in the ceremonial songs of the men. The
Pueblo Indian women of New Mexico, neighbors of the Navahoes, have
many fine songs, the song of the corn-grinders, often heard in Zuñi,
being especially wild and musical. But usually the Navaho woman is
songless. The writer tried a long time to find a woman who could sing,
and offered good pecuniary inducements before he got one. She came from
a distance of thirty miles. She knew no songs peculiar to her sex,
but her father was a medicine-man, who frequently repeated his songs
at home in order to familiarize himself with them, and she gradually
picked up several of them. She sang in a musical soprano with much
spirit, and was one of the most pleasing singers heard in the tribe.
49. Figures of Speech.--It is probable that all rhetorical figures of
speech known to our poets may be found in these simple compositions
of the Navahoes. But in many cases the allusions are to such recondite
matters of symbolism, or incidents in their myths, that they could be
made plain, if at all, only by a tedious recital. Thus it would not be
easy to make clear in a few words why, when the goddess Estsánatlehi,
in one of the songs to her honor, is spoken of as climbing a wand of
turquoise, we know the poet means to say she is ascending San Mateo
Mountain, in New Mexico, or why, when he speaks of her as climbing
a wand of haliotis shell, he is endeavoring to tell us that she is
ascending the peak of San Francisco in Arizona. Yet we may gain some
idea of the meaning by referring to the myth (par. 193).
50. But some of the metaphors and similes are not so hard to
understand. Here is a translation of the Dove Song, one of the gambling
songs sung in the game of kesitsé:--
Wos Wos picks them up (seeds),
Wos Wos picks them up,
Glossy Locks picks them up,
Red Moccasin picks them up,
Wos Wos picks them up.[273] [316]
Here Wos Wos (Wosh Wosh) is an onomatope for the dove, equivalent
to our "coo coo"; but it is used as a noun. Glossy Locks and
Red Moccasin are figurative expressions for the dove, of obvious
significance. Metaphor and synecdoche are here combined.
51. Antithesis is not an uncommon figure with the Navaho poet. Here
is an instance of it in a song belonging to the mountain chant,
one of the great nine-day ceremonies of the shamans:--
The voice that beautifies the land!
The voice above,
The voice of the thunder,
Among the dark clouds
Again and again it sounds,
The voice that beautifies the land.
The voice that beautifies the land!
The voice below,
The voice of the grasshopper,
Among the flowers and grasses
Again and again it sounds,
The voice that beautifies the land.
Here the great voice of the thunder above is contrasted with the
feeble voice of the grasshopper below, yet both are voices that make
the world beautiful.
52. Many instances of climax have been noted. One here presented is
from the mountain chant. It has but two steps to the ladder:--
Maid Who Becomes a Bear
Sought the gods and found them,
On the summits of the mountains
Sought the gods and found them,
Truly with my sacrifice
Sought the gods and found them.
Somebody doubts it, so I have heard.
Holy Young Woman
Sought the gods and found them,
On the summits of the clouds
Sought the gods and found them,
Truly with my sacrifice
Sought the gods and found them.
Somebody doubts it, so I have heard.
Maid Who Becomes a Bear (Tsiké Sas Nátlehi)[90] is an important
character in Navaho mythology. The last line in each stanza is an
instance of irony.
53. It will be seen from the instances given that they understand
the value of repetition in poetry. The refrain is a favorite form
of expression; but they know of other means of giving verbal melody
to their songs, as may be seen in the following original text of the
Bluebird (Sialia arctica) Song:--
Tsihayilkáe dóla aní,
Áyas dotli'zi biza holó,
Biza hozónigo, biza holó,
Biza holónigo hwíhe inlí
Dóla aní. Dóla aní.
To appreciate this a translation is not necessary, but it is given,
as the reader may wish to know it:--
Just at daylight Sialia calls.
The bluebird has a voice,
He has a voice, his voice melodious,
His voice melodious that flows in gladness.
Sialia calls. Sialia calls.
The regular Navaho name for the bluebird "dóli" (changed here to "dóla"
for poetic reasons) is translated Sialia, to distinguish it from the
descriptive term "áyas dotli'zi" which means literally bluebird.
54. Rhyme.--They are not ignorant of the value of rhyme in poetry,
but they more often produce this by the repetition of significant or
meaningless syllables than by selecting different words with similar
endings. Still we often find this, the more difficult means, resorted
to as in the above song of the bluebird.
55. Music.--To the casual listener it may appear that there is much
sameness in the music of their songs; but a more careful study will
reveal the fact that the variety is great. It is remarkable how, with
such rude instruments (an inverted basket for a drum, and a gourd
rattle) to accompany them, they succeed, in a series of two hundred
or more songs, in producing so many musical changes. In their sacred
songs of sequence, where four or more songs of similar import follow
one another, as is often the case, the music may be nearly alike (but
never quite alike) in all; but when the theme of the poetry changes,
the music also takes a decided change.
56. For further information on the subject of music the reader is
referred to note 272, which contains remarks by Prof. John Comfort
Fillmore, formerly of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but now of Claremont,
California. Over two years ago the writer sent a number of phonographic
records of Navaho songs to Professor Fillmore, who has diligently
studied them and has written many of them in musical notation. Some
of the musical scores are appended to the note.
TRIBAL ORGANIZATION.
57. Gentes.--The version of the Origin Legend by Tall Chanter, here
given, accounts for only thirty-eight gentes among the Navahoes;
but this informant was able to name, in all, forty-three gentes,
two of which, he said, were extinct. Lists of the Navaho gentes have
been obtained from various sources, and no single authority has been
found to give a greater number than this. But no two lists are quite
alike; they differ with regard to small or extinct gentes, and one
list may supply a name which another has omitted. There would be at
least fifty-one gentes extant and extinct in the tribe if each name so
far obtained represented a different organization. But we find in the
Legend instances of a gens having two names (pars. 386, 405, 428, 445).
58. On the other hand, it is possible that none of the lists may
be complete. Gentes derived from women of alien races, added to the
tribe since it has grown numerous and widely scattered, may exist in
one part of the Navaho country unknown to the best informed persons
in another part. Extinct gentes may be forgotten by one informant
and remembered by another.