on top of these one of the sacred buckskins with its head to the
west. He took from the dish of the female Nalkénaaz the two ears of
corn, handing the white ear to Tse`gádinatini Asiké, the Rock Crystal
Boy of the eastern mountain, and the yellow ear to Natáltsoi Atét,
the Yellow Corn Girl of San Francisco Mountain. These divine ones laid
the ears on the buckskin,--the yellow with its tip toward the west,
the white with its tip toward the east. Hastséyalti picked up the
ears, and nearly laid them down on the buckskin with their tips to the
east, but he did not let them touch the buckskin; as he did this he
uttered his own cry of "Wu`hu`hu`hú." Then he nearly laid them down
with their tips to the south, giving as he did so Hastséhogan's cry
of "Ha-wa-u-ú." With similar motions he pointed the ears to the west
and the north. Next he raised them toward the sky, and at length laid
them down on the buckskin, with their tips to the east. He accompanied
each act with a cry of his own or of Hastséhogan, alternating as in
the beginning. So the ears were turned in every direction, and this
is the reason the Navahoes never abide in one home like the Pueblos,
but wander ever from place to place. Over the ears of corn he laid the
other sacred buckskin with its head to the east, and then Ni'ltsi, the
Wind, entered between the skins. Four times, at intervals, Hastséyalti
raised the buckskins a little and peeped in. When he looked the fourth
time, he saw that the white ear of corn was changed to a man, and
the yellow ear to a woman. It was Ni'ltsi who gave them the breath
of life. He entered at the heads and came out at the ends of the
fingers and toes, and to this day we see his trail in the tip of
every human finger. The Rock Crystal Boy furnished them with mind,
and the Grasshopper Girl gave them voices. When Hastséyalti at last
threw off the top buckskin, a dark cloud descended and covered like
a blanket the forms of the new pair. Yolkaí Estsán led them into her
hogán, and the assembled gods dispersed. Before he left, Hastséyalti
promised to return in four days.
380. No songs were sung and no prayers uttered during their rites, and
the work was done in one day. The hogán near which all these things
happened still stands; but since that time it has been transformed
into a little hill. To-day (A.D. 1884) seven times old age has killed
since this pair was made by the holy ones from the ears of corn. The
next very old man who dies will make the eighth time.[166]
381. Early on the fourth morning after his departure Hastséyalti
came again as he had promised, announcing his approach by calling
four times as usual. When White Shell Woman heard the first call,
she aroused the young people and said: "Get up, my children,
and make a fire. Hastséyalti is coming." He brought with him
another couple, Hadáhonige Asiké (Mirage Boy) and Hadáhonestid Atét
(Ground-heat Girl). He gave Yolkaí Estsán two ears of corn, saying,
"Grind only one grain at a time," and departed. Yolkaí Estsán said to
the newly-arrived couple: "This boy and girl of corn cannot marry one
another, for they are brother and sister; neither can you marry one
another, for you are also brother and sister, yet I must do something
for you all." So she married the boy made of corn to the Ground-heat
Girl, and the Mirage Boy to the girl made of corn. After a time each
couple had two children,--a boy and a girl. When these were large
enough to run around, this family all moved away from Hadzinaí, where
they had lived four years, to Tse`lakaíia (White Standing Rock). The
two men were busy every day hunting rabbits, rats, and other such
animals, for on such game they chiefly lived. From these people are
descended the gens of Tse`dzinki'ni,[167] House of the Dark Cliffs;
so named because the gods who created the first pair came from the
cliff houses of Tse`gíhi, and brought from there the ears of corn
from which this first pair was made.
382. After they had lived thirteen years at Tse`lakaíia, during
which time they had seen no sign of the existence of any people but
themselves, they beheld one night the gleam of a distant fire. They
sought for the fire all that night and the next day, but could not
find it. The next night they saw it again in the same place, and the
next day they searched with greater vigilance, but in vain. On the
third night, when the distant gleam shone again through the darkness,
they determined to adopt some means, better than they had previously
taken, to locate it. They drove a forked stick firmly into the
ground; one of the men got down on his hands and knees, spreading
them as wide apart as possible, and sighted the fire through the
fork of the stick. Next morning he carefully placed his hands and
knees in the tracks which they had made the night before, and once
more looked through the fork. His sight was thus guided to a little
wooded hollow on the side of a far-off mountain. One of the men walked
over to the mountain and entered the little hollow, which was small
and could be explored in a few moments; but he discovered no fire,
no ashes, no human tracks, no evidence of the presence of man. On
the fourth night all the adults of the party took sight over the
forked stick at the far twinkle, and in the morning when they looked
again they found they had all sighted the same little grove on the
distant mountain-side. "Strange!" said the man who had hunted there
the day before; "the place is small. I went all through it again and
again. There was no sign of life there, and not a drop of water that
could reflect a ray from a star or from the moon." Then all the males
of the family, men and boys, went to explore the little wood. Just
as they were about to return, having found nothing, Wind whispered
into the ear of one: "You are deceived. That light shines through
a crack in the mountain at night. Cross the ridge and you will find
the fire."[168] They had not gone far over the ridge when they saw
the footprints of men, then the footprints of children, and soon they
came to the camp. One party was as much rejoiced as the other to find
people like themselves in the wilderness. They embraced one another,
and shouted mutual greetings and questions. "Whence do you come?" said
the strangers. "From Tse`lakaíia," was the response. "And whence come
you?" asked the men of the White Standing Rock. "We tarried last,"
replied the strangers, "at To`i'ndotsos, a poor country, where we
lived on ducks and snakes.[169] We have been here only a few days,
and now we live on ground-rats, prairie-dogs, and wild seeds." The new
party consisted of twelve persons,--five men, three women, one grown
girl, one grown boy, and two small children. The Tse`dzinki'ni people
took the strangers home with them, and Yolkaí Estsán welcomed them,
saying: "Ahaláni sastsíni!" (Greeting, my children!) The place where
the Tse`dzinki'ni found the strangers encamped was called Tsé`tlana
(Bend in a Canyon); so they gave them the name of Tse`tláni, or
Tse`tlánidine`, and from them is descended the present gens of
Tse`tláni in the Navaho nation.
383. The next morning after the arrival of the Tse`tláni, Hastséyalti
came once more to the lodge of the White Shell Woman; but he talked
with her apart from the others, and when he was gone she told no one
what he said. In three days he came back again; again they talked
apart, and when Hastséyalti was gone she remained silent. It was her
custom to sleep with one of the little girls, who was her favorite
and companion. In the morning after the second visit of Hastséyalti
she said to this little girl: "I am going to leave you. The gods
of Tse`gíhi have sent for me; but I shall not forget your people,
and shall come often to watch over them and be near them. Tell them
this when they waken." When she had spoken she disappeared from the
sight of the little girl, and when the people woke they searched,
but could find her nowhere. They supposed she had gone to Tse`gíhi
and tarried there a while before she went to Depe'ntsa to dwell
forever in the house of White Shell, which had been prepared for
her there. The fourth night after the departure of Yolkaí Estsán
the little girl had a dream, which she related to her people in
the morning. In the vision she saw Yolkaí Estsán, who said to her:
"My grandchild, I am going to Depe'ntsa to dwell. I would take you
with me, for I love you, were it not that your parents would mourn
for you. But look always for the she-rain when it comes near your
dwelling, for I shall ever be in the she-rain."
384. While at White Standing Rock the men wandered much around the
country in search of food. Some who had been to To`dokónzi (Saline
Water) said the latter was a better place than than that in which
they lived; that there were some porcupines there, an abundance of
rats, prairie-dogs, and seed-bearing plants; and that there were
steep-sided mesa points in the neighborhood where they might surround
large game.[170] After the departure of Yolkaí Estsán the people all
moved to To`dokónzi;[171] but they remained here only a few days,
and then went to Tsa`olgáhasze. Here they planted some grains of corn
from the two ears that Hastséyalti had given them long ago. This was
a very prolific kind of corn; when planted, several stalks sprouted
from each grain, and a single grain, when ground, produced a large
quantity of meal, which lasted them many days.
385. When they had been fourteen years at Tsa`olgáhasze they
were joined by another people, who came from the sacred mountain
of Dsilnáotil, and were therefore called Dsilnaoti'lni, or
Dsilnaoti'ldine`. These were regarded as diné` digíni, or holy
people, because they had no tradition of their recent creation, and
were supposed to have escaped the fury of the alien gods by means of
some miraculous protection. They did not camp at first with the older
settlers, but dwelt a little apart, and sent often to the latter to
borrow pots and metates. After a while all joined together as one
people, and for a long time these three gentes have been as one gens
and have become close relations to one another. The new-comers dug
among old ruins and found pots and stone axes; with the latter they
built themselves huts.
386. Seven years after the arrival of the Dsilnaoti'lni a fourth gens
joined the Navahoes. The new arrivals said they had been seeking for
the Dsilnaoti'lni all over the land for many years. Sometimes they
would come upon the dead bushes of old camps. Sometimes they would
find deserted brush shelters, partly green, or, again, quite green and
fresh. Occasionally they would observe faint footprints, and think
they were just about to meet another people like themselves in the
desolate land; but again all traces of humanity would be lost. They
were rejoiced to meet at last the people they so long had sought. The
new-comers camped close to the Dsilnaoti'lni, and discovered that
they and the latter carried similar red arrow-holders,[172] such
as the other gentes did not have, and this led them to believe that
they were related to the Dsilnaoti'lni. The Navahoes did not then make
large skin quivers such as they have in these days; they carried their
arrows in simpler contrivances. The strangers said that they came from
a place called Haskánhatso (much Yucca baccata), and that they were
the Haskándine`, or Yucca People; but the older gentes called them
Haskánhatso, or Haskanhatsódine`, from the place whence they came.[173]
387. Fourteen years after the accession of the fourth gens, the
Navahoes moved to Kintyél (which was then a ruin), in the Chaco
Canyon. They camped there at night in a scattering fashion, and made
so many fires that they attracted the attention of some strangers
camped on a distant mountain, and these strangers came down next
day to find out who the numerous people were that kindled so many
fires. As the strangers, who were also diné` digíni, or holy people,
said they came from Nahopá (Place of the Brown Horizontal Streak),
the Navahoes called them Nahopáni. They joined the tribe, camping
near the Haskánhatso and Dsilnaoti'lni.
388. It was autumn when the fifth gens was received. Then the whole
tribe moved to the banks of the San Juan River and settled at a place
called Tsintó`betlo[174] (Tree Sweeping Water), where a peculiar white
tree hangs over the stream and sweeps the surface of the water with its
long branches: there is no other tree of its kind near by. Here they
determined to remain some time and raise crops; so they built warm
huts for the winter, and all the fall and winter, when the days were
fair, they worked in the bottom-lands grubbing up roots and getting
the soil ready for gardens to be planted in the spring. The elder
gentes camped farther down the stream than those more newly arrived.
389. In those days the language which the Navahoes spoke was not the
same they speak now. It was a poor language then; it is better in
these days.
390. When the tribe had been living six years on the banks of
the San Juan, a band joined them who came from Tsi'nadzin[175]
(Black Horizontal Forest), and were named as a gens from the place
whence they came. The Navahoes observed that in this band there was
a man who talked a great deal to the people almost every morning and
evening. The Navahoes did not at first understand what this meant;
but after a while they learned he spoke to his people because he was
their chief. His name was Nabiniltáhi.
391. While living at the San Juan the people amused themselves
much with games. They played mostly nánzoz[76] in the daytime and
kesitsé[176] at night. They had as yet no horses, domestic sheep,
or goats. They rarely succeeded in killing deer or Rocky Mountain
sheep. When they secured deer it was sometimes by still-hunting them,
sometimes by surrounding one and making it run till it was exhausted,
and sometimes by driving them over precipices. When a man got two
skins of these larger animals he made a garment of them by tying
the fore-legs together over his shoulders. The woman wore a garment
consisting of two webs of woven cedar bark, one hanging in front
and one behind; all wore sandals of yucca fibre or cedar bark. They
had headdresses made of weasel-skins and rat-skins, with the tails
hanging down behind. These headdresses were often ornamented with
colored artificial horns, made out of wood, or with the horns of
the female mountain sheep shaved thin. Their blankets were made of
cedar bark, of yucca fibre, or of skins sewed together.[177] Each
house had, in front of the door, a long passageway, in which hung
two curtains,--one at the outer, the other at the inner end,--made
usually of woven cedar bark. In winter they brought in plenty of wood
at night, closed both curtains, and made the house warm before they
went to sleep. Their bows were of plain wood then; the Navahoes had
not yet learned to put animal fibre on the backs of the bows.[178]
Their arrows were mostly of reeds tipped with wood; but some made
wooden arrows.[180] The bottom-land which they farmed was surrounded
by high bluffs, and hemmed in up-stream and down-stream by jutting
bluffs which came close to the river. After a time the tribe became
too numerous for all to dwell and farm on this spot, so some went up
in the bluffs to live and built stone storehouses in the cliffs,[179]
while others--the Tsinadzi'ni--went below the lower promontory to
make gardens. Later yet, some moved across the San Juan and raised
crops on the other side of the stream.[180]
392. Eight years after the coming of the Tsinadzi'ni, some fires
were observed at night on a distant eminence north of the river,
and spies were sent out to see who made them. The spies brought
back word that they had found a party of strangers encamped at a
place called Tha`nezá`, Among the Scattered (Hills). Soon after,
this party came in and joined the Navahoes, making a new gens, which
was called Tha`nezá`ni. The strangers said they were descended from
the Hadáhonigedine`, or Mirage People. The remains of their old huts
are still to be seen at Tha`nezá`.
393. Five years after the Tha`nezá`ni were added, another people joined
the tribe; but what gods sent them none could tell. They came from a
place called Dsiltlá` (Base of Mountain), and were given the name of
Dsiltlá`ni. As they had headdresses, bows, arrows, and arrow-holders
similar to those of the Tha`nezá`ni they concluded they must be
related to the latter. Ever since, these two gentes have been very
close friends,--so close that a member of one cannot marry a member
of the other. The Dsiltlá`ni knew how to make wicker water-bottles,
carrying-baskets, and earthen pots, and they taught their arts to
the rest of the people.
394. Five years later, they were joined on the San Juan by a numerous
band who came originally from a place called Thá`pahahalkaí, White
Valley among the Waters, which is near where the city of Santa Fé
now stands. These people had long viewed in the western distance
the mountains where the Navahoes dwelt, wondering if any one
lived there, and at length decided to go thither. They journeyed
westward twelve days till they reached the mountains, and they
spent eight days travelling among them before they encountered the
Navahoes. Then they settled at To`i'ndotsos and lived there twelve
years, subsisting on ducks and fish,[169] but making no farms. All
this time they were friendly to the Navahoes and exchanged visits;
but, finding no special evidences of relationship with the latter,
they dwelt apart. When at length they came to the San Juan to live,
marriages had taken place between members of the two tribes, and
the people from Among the Waters became a part of the Navaho nation,
forming the gens of Thá`paha. They settled at a place called Hyíetyin
(Trails Leading Upward), close to the Navahoes. Here was a smooth,
sandy plain, which they thought would be good for farming, and the
chief, whose name was Góntso, or Big Knee, had stakes set around the
plain to show that his people claimed it. The people of the new gens
were good hunters, skilled in making weapons and beautiful buckskin
shirts, and they taught their arts to the other gentes.
395. The Thá`paha then spoke a language more like the modern Navaho
than that which the other gentes spoke. The languages were not
alike. The chief of the Tsinadzi'ni and Góntso often visited one
another at night, year after year, for the purpose of uniting the
two languages and picking out the words in each that were best. But
the words of the Thá`paha were usually the best and plainest;[182]
so the new language resembles the Thá`paha more than it resembles
the old Navaho.
396. While the Thá`paha lived at Hyíetyin they had always abundant
crops,--better crops than their neighbors had. Sometimes they could
not harvest all they raised, and let food lie ungathered in the
field. They built stone storehouses, something like pueblo houses,
among the cliffs, and in these stored their corn. The storehouses
stand there yet. The Thá`paha remained at Hyíetyin thirteen years,
during which time many important events occurred, as will be told,
and then they moved to Azdeltsígi.
397. Góntso had twelve wives; four of these were from the gens of
Tsinadzi'ni, four from the gens of Dsiltlá`ni, and four from the
gens of Tha`nezá`ni. He used to give much grain from his abundant
harvests to the gentes to which his wives belonged; but, in spite
of his generosity, his wives were unfaithful to him. He complained
to their relations and to their chiefs; these remonstrated with the
wives, but failed to improve their ways. At last they lost patience
with the women and said to Góntso: "Do with them as you will. We
shall not interfere." So the next wife whom he detected in crime he
mutilated in a shameful way, and she died in consequence. He cut off
the ears of the next transgressor, and she, too, died. He amputated
the breasts of the third wife who offended him, and she died also. He
cut off the nose of the fourth; she did not die. He determined then
that cutting the nose should, in future, be the greatest punishment
imposed on the faithless wife,--something that would disfigure but
not kill,--and the rest of the people agreed with him.[183] But this
had no effect on the remaining wives; they continued to lapse from
virtue till all were noseless. Then they got together and began to
plot mischief against their husband, Big Knee. They spoke so openly
of their evil intentions that he feared to let any of them stay in
his lodge at night and he slept alone.
398. About this time the people determined to have a great ceremony
for the benefit of Big Knee; so they made great preparations and held
a rite of nine days' duration.[184] During its progress the mutilated
women remained in a hut by themselves, and talked about the unkindness
of their people and the vengeance due to their husband. They said
one to another: "We should leave our people and go elsewhere." On the
last night of the ceremony there was a series of public exhibitions
in a corral, or circle of branches, such as the Navahoes have now on
the last night of the ceremony of the mountain chant,[185] and among
the different alíli, or entertainments of the night, was a dance by
the mutilated women. When their time came they entered the circle,
each bearing a knife in her hand, and danced around the central fire,
peering among the spectators as if searching for their husband; but
he was hidden in the wall of branches that formed the circle. As they
danced they sang a song the burden of which was "Pésla asilá." (It was
the knife that did it to me.) When they had finished their dance they
left the corral, and, in the darkness without, screamed maledictions
at their people, saying: "May the waters drown ye! May the winters
freeze ye! May the fires burn ye! May the lightnings strike ye!" and
much more. Having cursed till they were tired, they departed for the
far north, where they still dwell, and now, whenever they turn their
faces to the south, we have cold winds and storms and lightning.
399. Not long after this memorable ceremony a number of Utes visited
the Navahoes. They came when the corn-ears were small, and remained
till the corn was harvested. They worked for the Navahoes, and when
their stomachs were filled all left except one family, which consisted
of an old couple, two girls, and a boy. These at first intended to
stay but a short time after their friends had gone; but they tarried
longer and longer, and postponed their going from time to time,
till they ended by staying with the Navahoes till they died. They
made particular friends with the Thá`paha, and got into the way of
speaking to the latter people as they would to relations. One of the
girls, whose name was Tsá`yiskid (Sage-Brush Hill), lived to be an
old woman and the mother of many children. From her is descended the
gens of Tsa`yiski'dni, which is so closely allied to the Thá`paha that
a member of one of these gentes may not marry a member of the other.
400. Soon after the departure of the Utes the Navahoes were joined
by a group of people who, when they came to tell their story, were
found to have come from Thá`paha-halkaí, and to have made wanderings
similar to those of the people who first came from that place. The
new people spoke, also, the same language as the Thá`paha. For these
reasons they were not formed into a new gens, but were joined to the
gens of Thá`paha.
401. Some years later a large band came from the south to the
settlement on the San Juan. It consisted of Apaches, who told the
Navahoes that they had left their old tribe forever and desired
to become Navahoes. They had not come to visit, they said, but to
stay. They all belonged to one gens among the Apaches,--the gens of
Tse`zindiaí (Trap-dyke),[186] and they were admitted into the tribe
as a new gens with their old name. From the beginning they showed a
desire to associate with Thá`paha, and now they are closely related
to the latter and must not marry with them. Another band of Apaches,
which came a little later, was added to the same gens.
402. About this time there was a great famine in Zuñi, and some people
from this pueblo came to the San Juan to dwell with the Navahoes. They
came first to the Thá`paha, and, although they had women in the party,
they were not formed into a new gens, but added to Thá`paha. The gens
of Zuñi was formed later.
403. The famine prevailed also at other pueblos, and some starving
people came to the Navahoes from an old pueblo named Klógi, which was
near where the pueblo of Jemez now stands. These formed the gens of
Klógi, and made special friends of the Thá`paha.
404. The next accession was a family of seven adults, who came from
a place called Tó`hani (Near the Water). They first visited the
Dsiltlá`ni and remained, forming the gens of Tó`hani, affiliated now
with Dsiltlá`ni.