retained. When they were done their journey they said to him: "Our pet,
you have served us well; but we are now safe among our friends and
we need your services no more. If you wish you may leave us. There
are others of your kind in Tsúskai (the Chusca Mountains). Go there
and play with them." They turned him loose in Tsúskai, and bears have
been numerous there ever since.
445. Of the people from the west, there was yet one gens--that to which
Estsánatlehi had given the wand of turquoise--which had no name. This
nameless people did not stay long on the banks of the San Juan before
they wandered off far toward the south. One day two men of the party,
while hunting, came to a place called Tsé`nahapil, where there were
high overhanging rocks. Here they saw the fresh prints of unshod human
feet. They followed these tracks but a short distance when they beheld
a man watching them from a rocky pinnacle. As soon as he saw that he
was observed, he crouched and disappeared. They ran quickly behind
the rock on which they had seen him and again observed him, running as
fast as he could. "Why do you fly from us?" they shouted. "We mean no
harm to you." Hearing this he stopped till they came up to him. Then
they found he spoke the same language they did, and they addressed
him in terms of relationship. "Where do you live?" they asked. "In a
canyon high on the mountain," he replied. "What do you live on?" they
queried. "We live mostly on seeds," he answered; "but sometimes we
catch wood-rats, and we raise small crops." "We shall have many things
to tell one another," said the hunters; "but your home is too far for
our people to reach to-day. Tell your people to come to this spot, and
we shall tell ours to come up here and meet them." When the hunters
got home they found their friends cooking rabbits and making mush of
wild seeds. When the meal was finished all climbed the mountain to the
appointed place and found the strangers awaiting them. The two parties
camped together that night and related to one another their histories
and adventures. The strangers said that they had been created at the
place where they were all then camped only seven years previously;
that they were living not far off at a place called Natanbilhátin,
but that they came often to their natal place to pick cactus fruit
and yucca fruit. They said they called themselves Tsé`dine`, or Rock
People; but the nameless ones gave them the name of Tse`nahapi'lni,
Overhanging Rocks People, from the place where they met. With this
name they became a gens of the Navahoes.
446. The Tse`nahapi'lni told their new friends that they had some corn
and pumpkins cached at a distance, and they proposed to open their
stores and get ready for a journey. They knew of some Apaches to the
south, whom they would all visit together. These Apaches, they said,
had some gentes of the same names as those of the Navahoes. Then
they all went to where the provisions were stored, and they made
corn-cakes to use on the journey. When they were ready they went
to the south and found, at a place called Tsóhanaa, the Apaches,
who recognized them as friends, and treated their visitors so well
that the latter concluded to remain for a while.
447. At the end of three years the Tse`nahapi'lni went off to join
the Navahoes on the San Juan. The nameless people stayed four years
longer. About the end of that time they began to talk of leaving,
and their Apache friends tried to persuade them to remain, but without
avail. When they had all their goods packed and were ready to start,
an old woman was observed walking around them. She walked around the
whole band, coming back to the place from which she started; then she
turned towards them and said: "You came among us without a name, and
you have dwelt among us, nameless, for seven years; no one knew what
to call you; but you shall not leave us without a name. I have walked
around you, and I call you Honagá`ni (Walked-around People)."[196]
448. When the Honagá`ni got back to the San Juan they found that the
Tse`nahapi'lni had been long settled there and had become closely
related to Tlastsíni, Destsíni, Kinlitsíni, and Tsinadzi'ni. The
Honagá`ni in time formed close relationships with Tha`nezá`ni,
Dsiltlá`ni, Tó`hani, and Nahopáni. These five gentes are now all the
same as one gens, and no member of one may marry a member of another.
449. It happened about this time, while some of the Thá`paha were
sojourning at Agála, that they sent two children, one night, to a
spring to get water. The children carried out with them two wicker
bottles, but returned with four. "Where did you get these other
bottles?" the parents inquired. "We took them away from two little
girls whom we met at the spring," answered the children. "Why did you
do this, and who are the girls?" said the elders. "We do not know. They
are strangers," said the little ones. The parents at once set out
for the spring to find the strange children and restore the stolen
bottles to them; but on their way they met the little girls coming
toward the Thá`paha camp, and asked them who they were. The strange
children replied: "We belong to a band of wanderers who are encamped
on yonder mountain. They sent us two together to find water." "Then
we shall give you a name," said the Thá`paha; "we shall call you
To`baznaázi," Two Come Together for Water. The Thá`paha brought the
little girls to their hut and bade them be seated. "Stay with us,"
they said. "You are too weak and little to carry the water so far. We
will send some of our young men to carry it for you." When the young
men found the camp of the strangers they invited the latter to visit
them. The Thá`paha welcomed the new-comers as friends, and told them
they had already a name for them, To`baznaázi. Under this name they
became united to the Navahoes as a new gens, and they are now closely
affiliated with Thá`paha.[197]
450. Shortly after the coming of To`baznaázi, the Navahoes were joined
by a band of Apaches, who were adopted by Thá`paha and not formed
into a new gens. About the same time a band of Pah Utes came and
were likewise adopted by Thá`paha. A little later some more Apaches
arrived and became a part of Thá`paha; but, although no distinct name
is now given them, their descendants are known among the Thá`paha as
a people of different origin from the others.
451. Another party of Apaches, who came afterwards, dwelt a long
time among the To`dokózi; but later they abode with the Thá`paha,
and became closely related to the latter. They are still affiliated
with Thá`paha, but these call them To`dokózi.
452. Some years passed before the next accession was made. This was
another party of Zuñi Indians, and they were admitted into the gens
of the Thá`paha. Soon after them came the Zuñi People, who were at
last formed into a separate gens,--that of Nanaste'zin. This is the
Navaho name for all the Zuñians, and means Black Horizontal Stripe
Aliens.[198] All these people deserted the Zuñi villages on account
of scarcity of food.
453. A new people, with painted faces, came from the west about the
same time as those who formed the gens of Zuñi, or a little later. They
are supposed to have been a part of the tribe now called Mohaves on
the banks of the Colorado. They bore the name of Dildzéhi, and their
descendants now form a gens of that name among the Navahoes. At first
they affiliated with Nanaste'zin; but to-day they are better friends
with Thá`tsini than with Nanaste'zin.
454. A war-party, consisting of members of different gentes, was now
organized among the Navahoes to attack a pueblo called Saíbehogan,
House Made of Sand. At that place they captured two girls and brought
them home as slaves. There was a salt lake near their old home,
and the girls belonged to a gens of Salt People there. So their
numerous descendants now among the Navahoes form the gens of Ásihi,
or Salt. The captives were taken by members of the Tse`dzinki'ni,
hence Ásihi and Tse`dzinki'ni are now affiliated.
455. Then a war party was gotten up to attack the people of Jemez
pueblo. On this raid one of the Tlastsíni captured a Jemez girl,
but sold her to one of the Tse`dzinki'ni. She was the progenitor of
the gens of Maideski'zni, People of Wolf Pass (i.e., Jemez), which
is now affiliated with Tse`dzinki'ni.
456. After the Navahoes attacked Saíbehogan there was a famine
there, and some of the people abandoned their homes and joined the
Navahoes. They said that in their pueblo there was a gens of Thá`paha,
and hearing there was such a gens among the Navahoes they came to
join it. Therefore they sought Thá`paha till they found it and became
a part of it.
457. There came once a party of seven people from a place called
Tse`yanató`ni, Horizontal Water under Cliffs, to pay a short visit
to the Navahoes; but from time to time they delayed their departure,
and at last stayed forever with the Navahoes. They formed the gens
of Tse`yanató`ni, which is now extinct.
458. The people whom Estsánatlehi created from the skin under her
right arm, and to whom she gave the wand of white shell, was called,
after they came among the Navahoes, Kinaá`ni, High Stone House People;
not because they built or dwelt in such a house, but because they
lived near one.[199]
459. When the Bitá`ni were encamped at a place called Tó`tso, or Big
Water, near the Carrizo Mountains, a man and a woman came up out of
the water and joined them. From this pair is descended the gens of
Tó`tsoni, People of the Big Water, which is affiliated with Bitá`ni.
NATI'NESTHANI.
460. Nati'nesthani,[201] He Who Teaches Himself, lived, with his
relations, near the mountain of Dsilnáotil. The few people who lived
there used to wander continually around the mountain, hence its name,
Encircled Mountain. Nati'nesthani delighted in gambling, but was not
successful. He lost at game, not only all his own goods, but all the
goods and jewels of his relations, until there was only one article
of value left--a necklace consisting of several strings of white
beads. His parents and brother lived in one lodge; his grandmother and
niece lived in another, a little distance from the first. When the
gambler had parted with everything except the necklace, his brother
took this to the lodge of his grandmother and gave it to her, saying:
"My brother has gambled away everything save this. Should he lose
this at game, it is the last thing he will ever lose, for then I
shall kill him."
461. Nati'nesthani did not spend all his time gambling; sometimes
he hunted for wood-rats and rabbits in the mountains. The day the
necklace was brought, in returning from his hunt, he came to the
house of his grandmother and saw the necklace hanging up there. "Why
is this here?" he asked. "It is put here for safe-keeping," replied
his niece. "Your brother values it and has asked us to take care of
it. If you lose it in gambling, he has threatened to kill you. I have
heard the counsels of the family about you. They are tired of you. If
you lose this necklace at play, it is the last thing you will ever
lose." On hearing this he only said to his niece, "I must think what
I shall do," and he lay down to rest.
462. Next morning he rose early, made his breakfast of wood-rats,
and went out to hunt, travelling toward the east. He stopped at one
place, set fall-traps for wood-rats, and slept there all night. During
the night he pondered on many plans. He thought at first he would
go farther east and leave his people forever; but again he thought,
"Who will hunt wood-rats for my niece when I am gone?" and he went
back to her lodge and gave her all the little animals he had killed.
463. In the morning he breakfasted again on wood-rats, and said to
himself: "I shall go to-day to the south and never return." Such was
his intention as he went on his way. He travelled to the south, and
spent the night out again; but in the morning he changed his mind,
and came back to his niece with wood-rats and rabbits and the seeds
of wild plants that he had gathered. The women cooked some of the
wood-rats for his supper that night. When he lay down he thought of
his brother's threats, and made plans again for running away. He had
not touched the beads, though he longed to take them.
464. Next morning he went to the west, hunted there all day, and
camped out at night as before; but again he could not make up his
mind to leave his people, though he thought much about it; so he
returned to his niece with such food as he had been able to get for
her, and slept in the lodge that night.
465. On the following day he went to the north and hunted. He slept
little at night while camping out, for his mind was filled with sad
thoughts. "My brother disowns me," he said to himself. "My parents
refuse me shelter. My niece, whom I love most, barely looks at me. I
shall never go back again." Yet, for all these words, when morning
came he returned to the lodge.[19]
466. By this time he was very poor, and so were his grandmother and
niece. His sandals, made of grass and yucca-fibre, were worn through,
and the blanket made of yucca-fibre and cedar-bark, which covered his
back, was ragged.[177] But the people in the other lodge were better
off. They gave the grandmother and niece food at times; but always
watched these closely when they came for food, lest they should carry
off something to give the gambler. "Let him live," said his parents,
"on wood-rats and rabbits as well as he can."
467. The night after he returned from his hunt to the north he slept
little, but spent the time mostly in thinking and making plans. What
these plans were you shall soon know, for the next day he began to
carry them out. His thought for his niece was now the only thing that
made him care to stay at home.
468. In the morning after this night of thought he asked his niece to
roast for him four wood-rats; he tied these together and set out for
the San Juan River. When he got to the banks of the river he examined
a number of cottonwood trees until he found one that suited him. He
burned this down and burned it off square at the base. He kept his fire
from burning up the whole trunk by applying mud above the place to be
burned. His plan was to make a hollow vessel by which he could go down
the San Juan River. It was his own plan. He had never heard of such
a thing before. The Navahoes had never anything better than rafts,
and these were good only to cross the river. He lay down beside the
log to see where he should divide it, for he had planned to make the
vessel a little longer than himself, and he burned the log across at
the place selected. All this he did in one day, and then he went home,
collecting rats on the way; but he told his niece nothing about the
log. He slept that night in the lodge.
469. He went back, next morning, to his log on the banks of the
San Juan, and spent the day making the log hollow by means of fire,
beginning at the butt end. He succeeded in doing only a part of this
work in one day. It took him four days to burn the hole through from
one end of the log to the other and to make it wide enough to hold his
body. At the end of each day's work he returned to his grandmother's
lodge, and got wood-rats and rabbits on his way home.
470. The next day, after the hole was finished, was spent in making
and inserting plugs. He moistened a lot of shredded cedar-bark and
pounded it between stones so as to make a soft mass. He shoved a
large piece of this in at the butt end and rammed it down to the tip
end. In burning out the log, he had burned, where the tree branched,
four holes which he did not need, and these he filled with plugs of
the cedar-bark. He prepared another plug to be rammed into the butt
from the inside, after he entered the log, and when this was finished
he went home to his grandmother's house, collecting wood-rats from
his traps as he went.
471. The next morning his niece cooked several wood-rats and ground
for him a good quantity--as much as could be held in two hands--of the
seeds of tlo`tsózi (Sporobolus cryptandrus). This meal she put in a
bag of wood-rat skins sewed together. Thus provided he went back to his
log. He put the provisions into the hole and then proceeded to enter,
in person, to see if the log was sound and the hole big enough. He
entered, head foremost, and crawled inwards until half of his chest
was in the log, when he heard a voice crying, "Wu`hu`hu`hú!"[26]
and he came out to see who called. He looked in every direction and
examined the ground for tracks, but seeing no signs of any intruder he
proceeded again to enter the log. This time he got in as far as his
waist, when again he heard the cry of "Wu`hu`hu`hú," but louder and
nearer than before. Again he came out of the log and looked around
farther and more carefully than he did the first time, going in his
search to the margin of the river; but he saw no one, found no tracks,
and returned to his log. On the next trial he entered as far as his
knees, when for the third time the cry sounded, and he crept out once
more to find whence it came. He searched farther, longer, and more
closely than on either of the previous occasions, but without success,
and he went back to enter the log again. On the fourth trial, when
he had entered as far as his feet, he heard the cry loud and near,
and he felt some one shaking the log. He crept out for the fourth
time and beheld Hastséyalti, the Talking God,[73] standing over him.
472. Hastséyalti did not speak at first, but told the man by
signs that he must not get into the log, that he would surely be
drowned if he did, and that he must go home. Then Hastséyalti walked
off a distance from the log and motioned to the Navaho to come to
him. When Nati'nesthani came near the god, the latter spoke, saying:
"My grandchild, why are you doing all this work? Where do you intend
to go with this log?" The man then told the god all his sad story,
and ended by saying: "I am an outcast. I wish to get far away from
my people. Take pity on me. Stop me not, but let me go in this
log as far as the waters of the Old Age River (San Juan) will bear
me." Hastséyalti replied: "No. You must not attempt to go into that
log. You will surely be drowned if you do. I shall not allow you." Four
times Nati'nesthani pleaded, and four times the god denied him. Then
the god said: "Have you any precious stones?" "Yes," replied the
man. "Have you white shell beads? Have you turquoise?" and thus the god
went on asking him, one by one, if he had all the original eighteen
sacred things[202] that must be offered to the gods to gain their
favor. To each of his questions the man replied "Yes," although he
had none of these things, and owned nothing but the rags that covered
him. "It is well," said the god. "You need not enter that log to make
your journey. Go home and stay there for four nights. At daylight,
after the fourth night, you may expect to see me again. Have yourself
and your house clean and in order for my coming. Have the floor and
all around the house swept carefully. Have the ashes taken out. Wash
your body and your hair with yucca suds the night before I arrive,
and bid your niece to wash herself also with yucca. I shall go off,
now, and tell the other divine ones about you."
473. As soon as he came home, Nati'nesthani told his niece what things
he wanted (except the baskets and the sacred buckskins); but he did
not tell her for what purpose he required them, and he asked her to
steal them from their neighbors. This she did, a few things at a time,
and during many visits. It took her three days to steal them all. On
the evening of the third day, after they had washed themselves with
the yucca suds, he told her about the baskets and the sacred buckskins
which he needed. She went to the neighboring lodge and stole these
articles, wrapping the baskets up in the buckskins. When she returned
with her booty, he wrapped all the stolen goods up in the skins,
put them away in the edge of the lodge, and lay down to rest. He was
a good sleeper, and usually slept all night; but on this occasion he
woke about midnight, and could not go to sleep again.
474. At dawn he heard, faintly, the distant "Wu`hu`hu`hú" of
Hastséyalti. At once he woke his grandmother, saying: "I hear a
voice. The digíni (holy ones, divine ones) are coming." "You fool,"
she replied. "Shut your mouth and go to sleep. They would never come
to visit such poor people as we are," and she fell asleep again. In
a little while he heard the voice a second time, louder and nearer,
and again he shook his grandmother and told her he heard the voices of
the gods; but she still would not believe him, and slept again. The
third time that he awoke her, when he heard the voices still more
plainly, she remained awake, beginning to believe him. The fourth
time the call sounded loud and clear, as if cried by one standing at
the door. "Hear," he said to his grandmother. "Is that not truly the
voice of a divine one?" At last she believed him, and said in wonder:
"Why should the digíni come to visit us?"
475. Hastséyalti and Hastséhogan were at the door, standing on the
rainbow on which they had travelled. The former made signs to the
man, over the curtain which hung in the doorway, bidding him pull
the curtain aside and come out. "Grandmother," said the Navaho,
"Hastséyalti calls me to him." "It is well," she answered. "Do as he
bids you." As he went out, bearing his bundle of sacrificial objects,
he said: "I go with the divine ones, but I shall come back again to
see you." The niece had a pet turkey[203] that roosted on a tree near
the lodge, Hastséyalti made signs to the Navaho to take the turkey
along. The Navaho said: "My niece, the gods bid me take your turkey,
and I would gladly do it, for I am going among strange people, where I
shall be lonely. I love the bird; he would be company to me and remind
me of my home. Yet I shall not take him against your will." "Then
you may have my turkey pet," replied the niece. The old woman said to
the god: "I shall be glad to have my grandchild back again. Will you
let him return to us?" Hastséyalti only nodded his head. The gods
turned the rainbow around sunwise, so that its head,[204] which
formerly pointed to the door of the lodge, now pointed in a new
direction. Hastséyalti got on the bow first. He made the Navaho get
on behind him. Hastséhogan got on behind the man. "Shut your eyes,"
commanded Hastséyalti, and the Navaho did as he was bidden.
476. In a moment Hastséyalti cried again: "Open your eyes." The Navaho
obeyed and found himself far away from his home at Tsé`tadi, where the
digíni dwelt. They led him into a house in the rock which was full
of divine people. It was beautiful inside--the walls were covered
with rock crystal, which gave forth a brilliant light. Hastséyalti
ordered food brought for his visitor. The latter was handed a small
earthen cup only so big (a circle made by the thumb and index finger
joined at the tips) filled with mush. "What a poor meal to offer
a stranger!" thought the Navaho, supposing he would finish it in
one mouthful. But he ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, from the cup
and could not empty it. When he had eaten till he was satisfied the
little cup was as full as in the beginning.[205] He handed the cup,
when he was done, back to Hastséyalti, who, with one sweep of his
finger, emptied it, and it remained empty. The little cup was then
filled with water and given to the guest to drink. He drank till his
thirst was satisfied; but the cup was as full when he was done as it
was when he began. He handed it again to Hastséyalti, who put it to
his own lips and emptied it at a single swallow.
477. The gods opened the bundle of the Navaho and examined the contents
to see if he had brought all they required, and they found he had done
so. In the mean time he filled his pipe and lighted it. While he was
smoking, the gods Nayénezgani, Tó`badzistsíni, and Hastséoltoi[206]
arrived from To`ye'tli and entered the house. Nayénezgani said to
the visitor: "I hear that you were found crawling into a hole which
you had made in a log by burning. Why were you doing this?" In reply
the Navaho told his whole story, as he had told it to Hastséyalti,
and ended by saying: "I wished to go to To`ye'tli, where the rivers
meet, or wherever else the waters would bear me. While I was trying
to carry out this plan, my grandfather, Hastséyalti, found me and
bade me not to go. For this reason only I gave my plan up and went
home." "Do you still wish to go to To`ye'tli?" said Nayénezgani. "Yes,"
said the Navaho, "I wish to go to To`ye'tli or as far down the San
Juan as I can get." "Then you shall go," said the god.