of the fourth night, in the morning, as they were rising, something
white appeared in the east. It appeared also in the south, the west,
and the north. It looked like a chain of mountains, without a break,
stretching around them. It was water that surrounded them. Water
impassable, water insurmountable, flowed all around. All at once
they started.
145. They went in circles upward till they reached the sky. It was
smooth. They looked down; but there the water had risen, and there
was nothing else but water there. While they were flying around,
one having a blue head thrust out his head from the sky and called to
them, saying: "In here, to the eastward, there is a hole." They entered
the hole and went through it up to the surface (of the second world).
146. The blue one belonged to the Hastsósidine`, or Swallow People.[21]
The Swallow People lived there. A great many of their houses, rough and
lumpy, lay scattered all around. Each tapered toward the top, and at
that part there was a hole for entrance. A great many people approached
and gathered around[275] the strangers, but they said nothing.
147. The first world was red in color; the second world, into which
the people had now entered, was blue.[22] They sent out two couriers,
a Locust and a White Locust, to the east, to explore the land and
see if there were in it any people like themselves. At the end of two
days the couriers returned, and said that in one day's travel they had
reached the edge of the world--the top of a great cliff that arose from
an abyss whose bottom they could not see; but that they found in all
their journey no people, no animals of any kind, no trees, no grass,
no sage-brush, no mountains, nothing but bare, level ground. The same
couriers were then dispatched in turn to the south, to the west, and
to the north. They were gone on each journey two days, and when they
returned related, as before, that they had reached the edge of the
world, and discovered nothing but an uninhabited waste. Here, then,
the strangers found themselves in the centre of a vast barren plain,
where there was neither food nor a kindred people. When the couriers
had returned from the north, the Swallows visited the camp of the newly
arrived people, and asked them why they had sent out the couriers to
the east. "We sent them out," was the reply, "to see what was in the
land, and to see if there were any people like ourselves here." "And
what did your couriers tell you?" asked the Swallows. "They told us
that they came to the edge of the world, yet found no plant and no
living thing in all the land." (The same questions were asked and
the same answers given for the other points of the compass.) "They
spoke the truth," said the Swallow People. "Had you asked us in the
beginning what the land contained, we would have told you and saved
you all your trouble. Until you came, no one has ever dwelt in all
this land but ourselves." The people then said to the Swallows: "You
understand our language and are much like us. You have legs, feet,
bodies, heads, and wings, as we have: why cannot your people and our
people become friends?" "Let it be as you wish," said the Swallows,
and both parties began at once to treat each other as members of one
tribe; they mingled one among the other, and addressed one another
by the terms of relationship, as, my brother, my sister, my father,
my son, etc.[23]
148. They all lived together pleasantly and happily for twenty-three
days; but on the twenty-fourth night one of the strangers made too
free with the wife of the Swallow chief, and next morning, when
the latter found out what had happened, he said to the strangers:
"We have treated you as friends, and thus you return our kindness. We
doubt not that for such crimes you were driven from the lower world,
and now you must leave this. This is our land and we will have you
here no longer. Besides, this is a bad land. People are dying here
every day, and, even if we spare you, you cannot live here long." The
Locusts took the lead on hearing this; they soared upwards; the others
followed, and all soared and circled till they reached the sky.
149. When they reached the sky they found it, like the sky of the first
world, smooth and hard with no opening; but while they were circling
round under it, they saw a white face peering out at them,--it was
the face of Ni'ltsi, the Wind. He called to them and told them if
they would fly to the south they would find a hole through which they
could pass; so off they flew, as bidden, and soon they discovered a
slit in the sky which slanted upwards toward the south; through this
slit they flew, and soon entered the third world in the south.
150. The color of the third world was yellow.[22] Here they found
nothing but the Grasshopper People. The latter gathered around the
wanderers in great numbers, but said nothing. They lived in holes in
the ground along the banks of a great river which flowed through their
land to the east. The wanderers sent out the same Locust messengers
that they had sent out in the second world to explore the land to the
east, to the south, to the west, to the north, to find out what the
land contained, and to see if there were any kindred people in it;
but the messengers returned from each journey after an absence of
two days, saying they had reached the end of the world, and that they
had found a barren land with no people in it save the Grasshoppers.[24]
151. When the couriers returned from their fourth journey, the two
great chiefs of the Grasshoppers visited the strangers and asked them
why they had sent out the explorers, and the strangers answered that
they had sent them out to see what grew in the land, and to find
if there were any people like themselves in it. "And what did your
couriers find?" said the Grasshopper chiefs. "They found nothing save
the bare land and the river, and no people but yourselves." "There is
nothing else in the land," said the chiefs. "Long we have lived here,
but we have seen no other people but ourselves until you came."
152. The strangers then spoke to the Grasshoppers, as they had spoken
to the Swallows in the second world, and begged that they might join
them and become one people with them. The Grasshoppers consented,
and the two peoples at once mingled among one another and embraced one
another, and called one another by the endearing terms of relationship,
as if they were all of the same tribe.
153. As before, all went well for twenty-three days; but on the
twenty-fourth one of the strangers served a chief of the Grasshoppers
as the chief of the Swallows had been served in the lower world. In the
morning, when the wrong was discovered, the chief reviled the strangers
and bade them depart. "For such crimes," he said, "I suppose you were
chased from the world below: you shall drink no more of our water,
you shall breathe no more of our air. Begone!"
154. Up they all flew again, and circled round and round until they
came to the sky above them, and they found it smooth and hard as
before. When they had circled round for some time, looking in vain
for an entrance, they saw a red head stuck out of the sky, and they
heard a voice which told them to fly to the west. It was the head of
Red Wind which they saw, and it was his voice that spoke to them. The
passage which they found in the west was twisted round like the tendril
of a vine; it had thus been made by the wind. They flew up in circles
through it and came out in the fourth world. Four of the Grasshoppers
came with them; one was white, one blue, one yellow, and one black. We
have grasshoppers of these four colors with us to this day.[25]
155. The surface of the fourth world was mixed black and white. The
colors in the sky were the same as in the lower worlds, but they
differed in their duration. In the first world, the white, the blue,
the yellow, and the black all lasted about an equal length of time
every day. In the second world the blue and the black lasted a little
longer than the other two colors. In the third world they lasted
still longer. In the fourth world there was but little of the white
and yellow; the blue and the black lasted most of the time. As yet
there was neither sun, moon, nor star.
156. When they arrived on the surface of the fourth world they saw
no living thing; but they observed four great snow-covered peaks
sticking up at the horizon,--one at the east, one at the south,
one at the west, and one at the north.
157. They sent two couriers to the east. These returned at the end
of two days. They related that they had not been able to reach the
eastern mountain, and that, though they had travelled far, they had
seen no track or trail or sign of life. Two couriers were then sent
to the south. When they returned, at the end of two days, they related
that they had reached a low range of mountains this side of the great
peak; that they had seen no living creature, but had seen two different
kinds of tracks, such as they had never seen before, and they described
such as the deer and the turkey make now. Two couriers were next sent
to the west. In two days these returned, having failed to reach the
great peak in the west, and having seen no living thing and no sign
of life. At last two couriers were sent to the north. When these got
back to their kindred they said they had found a race of strange men,
who cut their hair square in front, who lived in houses in the ground
and cultivated fields. These people, who were engaged in gathering
their harvest, the couriers said, treated them very kindly and gave
them food to eat. It was now evident to the wanderers that the fourth
world was larger than any of the worlds below.
158. The day following the return of the couriers who went to the
north, two of the newly discovered race--Kisáni (Pueblos) they
were called--entered the camp of the exiles and guided the latter
to a stream of water. The water was red, and the Kisáni told the
wanderers they must not walk through the stream, for if they did the
water would injure their feet. The Kisáni showed them a square raft
made of four logs,--a white pine, a blue spruce, and yellow pine,
and a black spruce,--on which they might cross; so they went over
the stream and visited the homes of the Kisáni.
159. The Kisáni gave the wanderers corn and pumpkins to eat, and the
latter lived for some time on the food given to them daily by their
new friends. They held a council among themselves, in which they
resolved to mend their manners for the future and do nothing to make
the Kisáni angry. The land of the Kisáni had neither rain nor snow;
the crops were raised by irrigation.
160. Late in the autumn they heard in the east the distant sound of
a great voice calling. They listened and waited, and soon heard the
voice nearer and louder. They listened still and heard the voice a
third time, nearer and louder than before. Once more they listened,
and soon they heard the voice louder still, and clear like the voice
of one near at hand. A moment later four mysterious beings appeared
to them.[26] These were: Bitsís Lakaí, or White Body, a being like the
god of this world whom the Navahoes call Hastséyalti; Bitsís Dotli'z,
or Blue Body, who was like the present Navaho god Tó`nenili, or Water
Sprinkler; Bitsís Litsói, or Yellow Body; and Bitsís Lizi'n, or Black
Body, who was the same as the present Navaho god of fire, Hastsézini.
161. These beings, without speaking, made many signs to the people,
as if instructing them; but the latter did not understand them. When
the gods had gone, the people long discussed the mysterious visit,
and tried to make out what the gods meant by the signs they had
made. Thus the gods visited four days in succession. On the fourth
day, when the other three had departed, Black Body remained behind
and spoke to the people in their own language. He said: "You do not
seem to understand the signs that these gods make you, so I must
tell you what they mean. They want to make more people, but in form
like themselves. You have bodies like theirs; but you have the teeth,
the feet, and the claws of beasts and insects. The new creatures are
to have hands and feet like ours. But you are uncleanly, you smell
badly. Have yourselves well cleansed when we return; we will come
back in twelve days."
162. On the morning of the twelfth day the people washed themselves
well. The women dried themselves with yellow corn-meal; the men with
white corn-meal.[27] Soon after the ablutions were completed they heard
the distant call of the approaching gods. It was shouted, as before,
four times,--nearer and louder at each repetition,--and, after the
fourth call, the gods appeared. Blue Body and Black Body each carried
a sacred buckskin. White Body carried two ears of corn, one yellow,
one white, each covered at the end completely with grains.[28]
163. The gods laid one buckskin on the ground with the head to the
west; on this they placed the two ears of corn, with their tips to the
east, and over the corn they spread the other buckskin with its head to
the east; under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle,
under the yellow ear the feather of a yellow eagle. Then they told
the people to stand at a distance and allow the wind to enter. The
white wind blew from the east, and the yellow wind blew from the west,
between the skins. While the wind was blowing, eight of the Mirage
People came and walked around the objects on the ground four times,
and as they walked the eagle feathers, whose tips protruded from
between the buckskins, were seen to move. When the Mirage People had
finished their walk the upper buckskin was lifted,--the ears of corn
had disappeared; a man and a woman lay there in their stead.
164. The white ear of corn had been changed into a man, the yellow
ear into a woman. It was the wind that gave them life. It is the
wind that comes out of our mouths now that gives us life. When this
ceases to blow we die. In the skin at the tips of our fingers we
see the trail of the wind; it shows us where the wind blew when our
ancestors were created.
165. The pair thus created were First Man and First Woman (Atsé Hastín
and Atsé Estsán). The gods directed the people to build an enclosure
of brushwood for the pair. When the enclosure was finished, First Man
and First Woman entered it, and the gods said to them: "Live together
now as husband and wife." At the end of four days hermaphrodite[29]
twins were born, and at the end of four days more a boy and a girl were
born, who in four days grew to maturity and lived with one another
as husband and wife. The primal pair had in all five pairs of twins,
the first of which only was barren, being hermaphrodites.
166. In four days after the last pair of twins was born, the gods came
again and took First Man and First Woman away to the eastern mountain
where the gods dwelt, and kept them there for four days. When they
returned all their children were taken to the eastern mountain and
kept there for four days. Soon after they all returned it was observed
that they occasionally wore masks, such as Hastséyalti and Hastséhogan
wear now, and that when they wore these masks they prayed for all
good things,--for abundant rain and abundant crops. It is thought,
too, that during their visit to the eastern mountain they learned the
awful secrets of witchcraft, for the antíhi (witches, wizards) always
keep such masks with them and marry those too nearly related to them.
167. When they returned from the eastern mountain the brothers and
sisters separated; and, keeping the fact of their former unlawful
marriages secret, the brothers married women of the Mirage People and
the sisters married men of the Mirage People. They kept secret, too,
all the mysteries they had learned in the eastern mountain. The women
thus married bore children every four days, and the children grew to
maturity in four days, were married, and in their turn had children
every four days. This numerous offspring married among the Kisáni,
and among those who had come from the lower world, and soon there
was a multitude of people in the land.
168. These descendants of First Man and First Woman made a great
farm. They built a dam and dug a wide irrigating ditch. But they
feared the Kisáni might injure their dam or their crops; so they put
one of the hermaphrodites to watch the dam and the other to watch
the lower end of the field. The hermaphrodite who watched at the
dam invented pottery. He made first a plate, a bowl, and a dipper,
which were greatly admired by the people. The hermaphrodite who lived
at the lower end of the farm invented the wicker water-bottle.[30]
Others made, from thin split boards of cottonwood, implements which
they shoved before them to clear the weeds out of the land. They made
also hoes from shoulder-blades of deer and axes of stone. They got
their seeds from the Kisáni.
169. Once they killed a little deer, and some one among them thought
that perhaps they might make, from the skin of the head, a mask,
by means of which they could approach other deer and kill them. They
tried to make such a mask but failed; they could not make it fit. They
debated over the invention and considered it for four days, but did not
succeed. On the morning of the fifth day they heard the gods shouting
in the distance. As on a previous occasion, they shouted four times,
and after the fourth call they made their appearance. They brought
with them heads of deer and of antelope. They showed the people how the
masks were made and fitted, how the eye-holes were cut, how the motions
of the deer were to be imitated, and explained to them all the other
mysteries of the deer-hunt.[31] Next day hunters went out and several
deer were killed; from these more masks were made, and with these masks
more men went out to hunt; after that time the camp had abundance of
meat. The people dressed the deerskins and made garments out of them.
170. The people from the third world had been in the fourth world eight
years when the following incident occurred: One day they saw the sky
stooping down and the earth rising up to meet it. For a moment they
came in contact, and then there sprang out of the earth, at the point
of contact, the Coyote and the Badger. We think now that the Coyote
and the Badger are children of the sky. The Coyote rose first, and for
this reason we think he is the elder brother of the Badger. At once
the Coyote came over to the camp and skulked round among the people,
while the Badger went down into the hole that led to the lower world.
171. First Man told the people the names of the four mountains which
rose in the distance. They were named the same as the four mountains
that now bound the Navaho land. There was Tsisnadzi'ni in the east,
Tsótsil in the south, Dokoslíd in the west, and Depe'ntsa in the
north, and he told them that a different race of people lived in
each mountain.
172. First Man was the chief of all these people in the fourth world,
except the Kisáni. He was a great hunter, and his wife, First Woman,
was very corpulent. One day he brought home from the hunt a fine fat
deer. The woman boiled some of it and they had a hearty meal. When
they were done the woman wiped her greasy hands on her dress, and made
a remark which greatly enraged her husband; they had a quarrel about
this, which First Man ended by jumping across the fire and remaining
by himself in silence for the rest of the night.[32]
173. Next morning First Man went out early and called aloud to the
people: "Come hither, all ye men," he said; "I wish to speak to you,
but let all the women stay behind; I do not wish to see them." Soon
all the males gathered, and he told them what his wife had said the
night before. "They believe," he said, "that they can live without
us. Let us see if they can hunt game and till the fields without our
help. Let us see what sort of a living they can make by themselves. Let
us leave them and persuade the Kisáni to come with us. We will cross
the stream, and when we are gone over we will keep the raft on the
other side." He sent for the hermaphrodites. They came, covered
with meal, for they had been grinding corn. "What have you that you
have made yourselves?" he asked. "We have each two mealing-stones,
and we have cups and bowls and baskets and many other things," they
answered. "Then take these all along with you," he ordered, "and join
us to cross the stream." Then all the men and the hermaphrodites
assembled at the river and crossed to the north side on the raft,
and they took over with them their stone axes and farm implements
and everything they had made. When they had all crossed they sent the
raft down to the Kisáni for them to cross. The latter came over,--six
gentes of them,--but they took their women with them. While some of
the young men were crossing the stream they cried at parting with
their wives; still they went at the bidding of their chief. The men
left the women everything the latter had helped to make or raise.
174. As soon as they had crossed the river some of the men went out
hunting, for the young boys needed food, and some set to work to
chop down willows and build huts. They had themselves all sheltered
in four days.
175. That winter the women had abundance of food, and they feasted,
sang, and had a merry time. They often came down to the bank of the
river and called across to the men and taunted and reviled them. Next
year the men prepared a few small fields and raised a little corn;
but they did not have much corn to eat, and lived a good deal by
hunting. The women planted all of the old farm, but they did not work
it very well; so in the winter they had a small crop, and they did not
sing and make merry as in the previous winter. In the second spring
the women planted less, while the men planted more, cleared more land,
and increased the size of their farm. Each year the fields and crops
of the men increased, while those of the women diminished and they
began to suffer for want of food. Some went out and gathered the seeds
of wild plants to eat. In the autumn of the third year of separation
many women jumped into the river and tried to swim over; but they were
carried under the surface of the water and were never seen again. In
the fourth year the men had more food than they could eat; corn and
pumpkins lay untouched in the fields, while the women were starving.
176. First Man at length began to think what the effect of his course
might be. He saw that if he continued to keep the men and the women
apart the race might die out, so he called the men and spoke his
thoughts to them. Some said, "Surely our race will perish," and
others said, "What good is our abundance to us? We think so much of
our poor women starving in our sight that we cannot eat." Then he
sent a man to the shore to call across the stream to find if First
Woman were still there, and to bid her come down to the bank if she
were. She came to the bank, and First Man called to her and asked if
she still thought she could live alone. "No," she replied, "we cannot
live without our husbands." The men and the women were then told to
assemble at the shores of the stream; the raft was sent over and the
women were ferried across. They were made to bathe their bodies and
dry them with meal. They were put in a corral and kept there until
night, when they were let out to join the men in their feasts.[33]
177. When they were let out of the corral it was found that three were
missing. After dark, voices were heard calling from the other side
of the river; they were the voices of the missing ones,--a mother
and her two daughters. They begged to be ferried over, but the men
told them it was too dark, that they must wait until morning. Hearing
this, they jumped into the stream and tried to swim over. The mother
succeeded in reaching the opposite bank and finding her husband. The
daughters were seized by Tiéholtsodi, the water monster, and dragged
down under the water.