Chapter II: Part 2

A man was walking in a valley without brush. He was the one who kills people. They sent their fly to look over the body of their enemy, to examine his ears, his eyes, and his mouth. The fly flew to the man and alighted on his ear. When he alighted on his nose the man said, “It is not just you. You smell like a man.”

The fly reported that they could not come up to the man, for while he walked in one direction he could see behind because he had eyes in the back of his head. He had no eyes in front. “He has something long in his hand with which he kills people. When I sat on his nose he told me I smelled like people,” the fly reported. “He is the same sort of a person that you are.” The fly told them to go around to a certain gap in the ridge, where the monster was accustomed to pass, and stand side by side. He promised to let them know when the enemy approached. When the monster walked along, the fly came back where the brothers were standing side by side and said, “He is coming up here very close. If he stops here you must cut his head off. Now, you shoot him,” he said. “If he sees anyone he makes a sweep with his long weapon and kills the person even a long way off.”

The man came close to them and stopped. One of them shot him and the other cut his head off. He stood just as he was before. They shot again and cut his head off again. The head fell but came back on again. One of them shot at him the third time and the other cut his neck off again. Then one of them ran around in front of him and shot him in the heart. This time his flesh flew apart and was scattered over considerable space. The flesh was quivering. That which they killed was called Naiye'. “That is why he named you Naiyenezgani,”[27] their fly said. “Because you and Tobatc'istcini both will kill dangerous beings your father named you that.” “You did this in his presence. He was looking at you and prevented the monster's making any move against you. He gave you the weapons with which you killed him. He did it for the good of mankind. Turn the head over and look at its face,” their fly told them. They turned him over and looked at his face. His face was like anyone's but he also had eyes in the back of his head.[28] No one could attack him from in front, and he had eyes to see behind himself also. His knife was sharp and the handle was good. “Let us take the knife to convince the people. If we do not have the knife, they will not believe us if we claim we have killed the Naiye' which used to kill people,” one of them said.

On their return they landed on the white mountain ridge and returned to the camp. When they had returned, Naiyenezgani directed that all the people, including the children, should come together. He asked his mother, because the people were assembling, to spread down a buckskin and to place on it the arrows, his own weapon, and that of the slain Naiye'. He asked the people to gather around it. He called the two visitors, asking them to come to a designated spot. He told his brother to stand in a certain position and said that he himself would stand in another place. He said that he would address the people and told his brother to do the same. “I am telling you this because you are seeing what you have not seen before. You see today what our father gave us. Now you speak to them,” he said to his brother.

Tobatc'istcini spoke as follows, “My name is Tobatc'istcini. Our father gave us these things lying here. A being called Naiye' was using that weapon over there to kill people. He had killed all the people except the two who are sitting over there. We killed him.” “You, Naiyenezgani, speak to them again,” he said to his brother.

“We started from here and we went up to the top of yonder mountain. We went on to the top of a mountain standing beyond that. A small mountain[29] stands beyond that and we went up to its top. There we saw a man walking in a valley. He[30] went to him for us and returned. 'When he walks he is blind, but he has eyes in the back of his head,' he reported to us. 'He kills the people who are slipping up behind him.' Now he will not kill anyone. We shall live safely.” He took up what used to be his knife and carried it around for the people to see. The man's blood was on it, and it was fearful to look at. “There is no place to take hold of it. I will take hold of it here,” he said. “Do not look at this which used to belong to Naiye'. It is dangerous. Have a meal and then go home. Look after our horses well.”

Their mother asked why the two who had come to them should not accompany them where the horses were. They went with them where the horses were. “Catch the sorrel gelding when you want to. You can tell it by the white spot on its shoulder,” he told one of them. To the other he said, “You may catch this black one with a white spot on its forehead. If we are away anywhere saddle them and ride them around among the horses and through the camp. The horses look as if they were mean, as if they had never had a rope on them, but they will not misbehave, they are not mean and will not shy.” They started back and when they came to the camp again they ate.

Two days after they had killed the Naiye' they said they were going in a certain direction and that it might be late when they returned. They went up to the top of a small sharp-topped mountain. They looked at the Sun and, when it came up, yellow beams streamed out from the Sun's disk. His breath took the shape of a rainbow. The sunbeams fell to the ground over them. “It must be there,” he said. They started and landed on a mountain top. From there they went to another and from that one to a projecting ridge. Beyond that was a plain on which stood a blue mountain. They landed on that. It seems that those who were killing the people lived at a distance from each other and the people were living in the center of the world. The killers of the people were working towards each other.

The two brothers stood on the mountain side by side. They were made like their father. You could hardly see their bodies. They were killing out the Naiye'. “Fly over the country and hunt him up. He is living somewhere,” one of them said to the fly. It flew off and went around them in a circle. The next time it went around in a smaller circle. He (the monster) was coming behind them. He had eyes looking both ways, four eyes. He held something crooked. He stopped and looked carefully behind himself. He did not look in front. He could look straight up and could see people down below. The fly looked him all over, at his eyes, his ears, his nose, and his face. “You are a burr,” he said to the fly. The fly thought he said he was going to catch him. He flew between the man's legs and returned where the brothers were sitting. “Did you say Naiye'? You have come to a dangerous place,” the fly said to them. “As he walks along he looks carefully behind himself. When he stops he looks up and he can see the people who are below.[31] He carries a long, crooked object with which he makes a sweep at people he sees in the distance and catches them with his hook.”

The fly was sent again to find out from which point the monster could be attacked with the best chances for success. They saw him walking in the distance and then they saw him standing where he was accustomed to come up the ridge. The fly reported that was a good place for the attack. The brothers addressed each other. “What is the matter with you, Tobatc'istcini?” Naiyenezgani asked. “You are the leader and should speak first,” Tobatc'istcini replied. “Very well, you did not answer me. We will attack him. I will cause large hail with thirty-two points to fall on him. What are you going to do?” Naiyenezgani asked. “I will cause hot rain to fall on him,” was the reply.

They went to him where he was walking. The sky made a noise and it began to rain. The two brothers came toward him behind this rain. He put his hand to the top of his head. It was hot rain which was falling. They could see him, but he could not see them. “Let him walk between you,” the fly directed. He was already exhausted with the hot rain and the hail. Naiyenezgani stood here and Tobatc'istcini there. The monster walked here saying, “It is a bad time. I, too, where I am, it is a bad place.” As he walked one of the brothers raised his bow and brought it down again, shooting. His companion cut off the monster's head. It came back immediately as it was before. They shot and cut his head off again. He fell three ways. They did the same thing to him the fourth time and he spread out like water. “There shall not be those who kill,” Naiyenezgani said. “This is the way I do to Naiye'. Just let him float here in his blood. The people will live happily on the earth. I have done well by them. Get ready, brother, we will go back. We will take the weapon with which he has been killing people.” He rolled this weapon up into a coil and put it in his blanket. “Come, we will go back,” he said.

They came back in the manner they went, landing on the successive mountains until they reached the camp. They danced a war dance near the camp. They danced, holding up the weapon they had taken. “Mother, we are hungry, hurry and cook for us,” they said to her. When they had eaten they asked their mother to assemble the people and to ask the visitors also to come. She told the people to assemble, saying that her sons must have seen something during the day they had been away which they would tell them about. When the people had come together the weapon they had brought back was lying there, not as yet untangled.

“We killed one like the other one. We both did it, but I could have done it by myself, if I had been alone. If he had been alone he too could have done it by himself,” Naiyenezgani said. “We both attacked him because we could do it quickly. We killed him quickly because our father helped us. If it had been one of you, you could have done nothing with this one that we call Naiye'. He would have killed you right away and eaten you up. He had killed all the people who lived with these two men, and just now he was coming for you. Before we had known it, he would have killed us all. There are no people living on the edges of the earth. We are all that are left. He killed people this way. Suppose that person should come on you, he would kill you this way.” He threw the weapon to a distant bush. It went around the tree and it was as if it had been cut off. “He was killing people thus. Now we will live well and no one will bother us. A man is going around the earth in one day and he will tell us about it.”[32] Tobatc'istcini started away and his mother spoke to him. “My son, put on this belt,” she said, offering him the one the Sun's wife had given her. “I am going around from here but today it is late, I will go tomorrow,” he said. They went to bed. “Take good care of things and do not be afraid of anything,” Tobatc'istcini said.

When it was daylight their mother prepared a meal for them and they ate. “Come back safely, my son, as the people said to you,” the mother said. “I am going, but I do not know when I shall come back,” Tobatc'istcini replied. He started, telling them to watch for him on a certain mountain point. “I will be back about noon.”

He started away, traveling with a blue flute which had wings.[33] He went with this from place to place and was back home before long. He went entirely around the border of the world on which people were living. The belt was a blue flute. He thought with it four ways and looked into it four ways. Before noon a light rain fell on the projecting mountain. That cleared off and then he came laughing. “It was not far, only so large,” he said, joining the tips of his forefinger and his thumb. “Have you your property ready?” he asked. “Have you collected everything that is ours? Tomorrow we will give out the horses, one apiece to each of you. We shall not give out horses again. Bring the horses near to the camp.”

They brought the saddles, the bridles, the halters, the ropes, and the blankets. They two went where the horses were. They caught some of the horses and saddled them, and drove the other horses near the camp where they herded them. They called the people to assemble and when they came caught horses for them. He gave away ten horses in all. “I will give you no more horses,” he said. “Tomorrow we will go different ways.”[34] He drove the horses back where they stayed. “Stake out our horses nearby and leave the saddles on them all night,” he said. “This is all. You may go in any direction you like.” “This way,” pointing to the east; “this way,” south; “this way,” west; or “this way,” north. “We are going over here where the end of the world is,” some of them said. Others said they were going to the end of the world in this direction. In this manner, each party chose a location.

When they had finished, they asked the brothers which way they were going. They replied that they were going to drive their horses to the top of yonder mountain (_bitsanldai_). “Take good care of your horses. Look after them for twelve days and then they will be accustomed to you. Now you may go. We are going also.” He drove his horses away saying, “None of you are going with us. I thought some of you would go with us. You are only giving us back our mother. Go on, mother, let your horse lead.”

His mother inquired which way she should lead them. “Go on, go on, I tell you,” he replied. She rode towards the east. Soon a little light was to be seen under the horse. They went higher and higher until they came to the mountain he spoke of. They rode their horses beside hers. “Wait, mother,” he said and rode back. “Keep on down this mountain. It is good country in this basin. We will live here,” he said. They talked together. “You unsaddle over there, you over there, and you over there. We will watch the horses.”

“You may have my yucca fruit which lies on the face of Turnbull Mountain.”[35]

-----

Footnote 1:

Told by a White Mountain Apache called Noze, at Rice, Arizona, in
January. 1910. Noze was a native of Cedar Creek and came to the San
Carlos Reservation when it was organized. He was for a long time the
chief of a considerable band which in 1910 had greatly dwindled. He
died some time between 1910 and the next visit in 1914.

Footnote 2:

This mountain was said to be called _tsidalanasi_ and to stand by the
ocean at the south. This is a remarkable statement as east would have
been expected and as is so stated in fact in a following paragraph.

Footnote 3:

This makes the boys brothers in our use of the word. They are always
so called in the Navajo account according to which their mothers were
sisters. Matthews, 105.

Footnote 4:

At the center of the sky.

Footnote 5:

And therefore the boys were not seen by the Sun.

Footnote 6:

The sacred numbers are 4, 12, and 32.

Footnote 7:

This method of making the journey has not been encountered before in
this connection, but is an incident in a European story secured from
the San Carlos, p. 82, above. The usual account includes a series of
obstacles some of which resemble the incidents of a European story.
See p. 116 below.

Footnote 8:

Clouds according to the Navajo account, Matthews, 111; and below, p.
117.

Footnote 9:

Thus far the myth seems chiefly to deal with the adolescence ceremony
of the boys. The San Carlos account brings in the Sun's father and
brothers of the Sun's father as performers of this ceremony, while the
Navajo account mentions the daughters of the Sun. See p. 11 above, and
Matthews, 112.

Footnote 10:

Other versions make this the second naming of the elder brother. His
boyhood name was “Whitehead,” p. 31. Still other names are known to
the Navajo. Matthews, 263-264.

Footnote 11:

To know by name things or animals hitherto unknown is often mentioned
as a great feat. P. 24.

Footnote 12:

It is seldom that the Apache conception of animism is so plainly
stated. Songs however abound in the designation of objects as
“living.”

Footnote 13:

When a youth went through an adolescence ceremony he did it with a
definite career in mind. The normal myth of this type put the emphasis
on the weapons secured and feats of warlike prowess in killing the
monsters; that is, the warrior idea is uppermost. This version
stresses the acquisition of horses and probably is a specialized myth
for those who wish to be successful in acquiring and breeding horses.

Footnote 14:

The house of the Sun with the stable and corral, the furniture of the
house, and many other references indicate the home of a European and
such seems to be the conception.

Footnote 15:

The two wives of the Sun are often mentioned. The Navajo account has
Esdzanadlehi go to the west where the sun visits her daily. Here and
there, especially in the songs, the Moon is coupled with the Sun, and
is feminine in sex. That the Moon and the Earth should both be called
the “Woman who renews herself” is interesting. These conceptions are
generally vague and implied rather than expressed.

Footnote 16:

Earth, literally “There on the earth.”

Footnote 17:

The narrator said those mentioned at the beginning of the narrative
were not real people but just like shadows. The other versions have
only the one family existing at this time.

Footnote 18:

The reference may be to moss, especially as rain falling on it is
mentioned below.

Footnote 19:

The narrator said it was true that horses would not pass a blanket so
placed in a narrow canyon.

This order of the colors and their assignment varies from the one more
generally found of black for the east and white for the south. P. 7,
and Matthews, 215.

Footnote 20:

This announcing of names is probably to be explained as ceremonial.
Ordinarily, it is improper, probably because immodest to call one's
own name.

Footnote 21:

The use of pollen for sacred purposes is a very important feature
among the Athapascan of the Southwest. It is always preferred to the
cornmeal used by the Pueblo peoples.

Footnote 22:

In the division of labor the women are supposed to saddle and unsaddle
the horses.

Footnote 23:

Because he must use a white saddle, the informant explained.

Footnote 24:

The whinneying was heard from the top of the sky.

Footnote 25:

The conception of time passing while the Sun stood still is fairly
difficult for a people without timepieces.

Footnote 26:

This method of traveling implies lightning, rainbow or a similar
supernatural method, in this case said to be sunbeams.

Footnote 27:

The name is Naiye', “a dangerous monster,” and -nezgani, “he who
kills.”

Footnote 28:

It is said above that he had no eyes in front.

Footnote 29:

“Mountain, its child.”

Footnote 30:

He did not mention his fly by name.

Footnote 31:

Probably means he can see people who are on the opposite side of a
hill.

Footnote 32:

These monsters are not those in the usual versions. The bringing of
trophies and the narratives remind one of counting coup in the Plains.
The Navajo versions also mention the bringing back of trophies.

Footnote 33:

One of the recognized methods of rapid locomotion. P. 20 above.

Footnote 34:

The dispersion of the tribes, a common incident in origin myths.

Footnote 35:

The formula for the completion of a narrative.

NAIYENEZGANI.[36]

Long ago the Sun set and, there in the west, he became the son-in-law of Toxastinhn (Water-old-man) whose daughter he married. She, who was to become the wife of the Sun, built a house with its door facing the sunrise. She sat in the doorway facing the rising sun from which the red rays streamed toward her. These rays entered her and since her period was about to occur she became pregnant as a result.

When the child was born, its hands and feet were webbed. There was no hair on its head and it had no nose. When the boy was grown up he asked where his father lived. His mother replied that his father lived where one could not go, for the Sun was his father. The boy asked again where he lived. His mother said he lived at the sunrise, but that one could not go there. The boy then said that he would go there and set out on the journey.

He came where the cliffs come down of themselves. They moved in front of him. The lightning shot across with him. Beyond that place he came to the mountain of cactus which formed a dark barrier in front of him. There a black whirlwind twisted through for him so that he passed by. From there he went on where the mountain of mosquitoes stood like a black ridge in front of him. A female rain fell for him and the wings of the mosquitoes became damp; then he passed over. From there he went on where the mountains moved up and down toward each other. He jumped away from them and then toward them, but in no way could he get through. Black-measuring-worm, whose back is striped with lightning, bent over it with him.[37]

He walked on toward the house of the Sun. As he was going along, near sundown, a spider drew its thread across below the boy's knee and tripped him. He got up and went back, but fell again at the same place. Wondering why he had fallen, he started on again, when he saw the head of Spider-old-woman projecting from her hole so far (three inches) away. “Grandchild, where are you going?” she asked. He replied that he was going to the house of his father, the Sun. She told him to come into her house instead. He replied that the opening was too small. When assured that it was large enough, he went in. She told him one could not go to the Sun. The spider girls were lying there without skirts or shirts. They lay with the head of one toward the feet of the next. Spider-woman asked what was the piece of cloth tied to his shirt. He gave it to her and she worked with it all night; and the next morning each girl had a shirt and a skirt. She made them from the young man's piece of cloth.[38]

When the Sun rose, Spider-old-woman went out-of-doors. “It is not yet time, my grandson,” she said. She held up five fingers horizontally and said it would be time when the Sun shone over them.[39] When the time came to go, they set out toward the house of the Sun. He came to the front of the house where there were twelve doors and all of them were shut. Without anyone opening a door for him, he came to Sun's wife. “What sort of a person are you?” she asked. He replied he had come to see his father. The woman warned him that no one was allowed around there. She rolled him up in a blanket,[40] which she tied with lightning, and hid him by the head of the bed.

When the sun set, he heard the noise of the Sun's arrival. The Sun came inside his house. “I do not see anyone,” he said, “but from the mountain where I go down some man had gone along.” “You tell me you do not have love affairs where you go around. This morning your son came here.” She went to the head of the bed, undid the lightning with which he was tied up and took the boy out. The Sun saw it was his boy. There were twelve pipes in which tobacco was burned. The Sun fixed a smoke for him in one of these. It was not the Sun's proper tobacco, but a kind that killed whoever smoked it. The boy drew on the pipe just once and the tobacco was burned out. The Sun prepared another pipeful, which was gone when the boy had drawn on the pipe twice. He filled a third pipe; this time the boy drew on it three times and the tobacco was consumed. The last time the pipe was filled, the boy drew four times before the tobacco was burned out.

Toward the east, there was a blazing fire of black _yabeckon_ into which the Sun threw the boy. He turned into a downy feather and landed in front of his father who expressed his surprise. There was a fire of blue _yabeckon_ toward the south into which the boy was next thrown. He again turned into a feather and landed in front of his father. The fire toward the west was of yellow _yabeckon_ from which the boy escaped in the same manner. Finally, the boy was thrown into a white fire of _yabeckon_ which blazed up in the north. He escaped in the same manner as before. Each time when the boy was thrown in, the fire had been poked with lightning of the corresponding color.

When the boy had successfully withstood this last test, the Sun directed his wife to prepare a sweatbath. She did this by spreading four blankets of cloud: black, blue, yellow, and white. She put on the four blankets from the four sides in proper rotation. The Sun went in with all his boys. While they were in the bath, the skin between the boy's fingers and toes was pulled back and joints made in his fingers. He was also provided with hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, and ears. Hair was placed on his body and nails supplied for his fingers and toes. Counting this boy, the Sun had twelve sons with whom he formed a line. He then asked his wife to find him in the line, but this she was unable to do because they all looked alike, she said.

The Sun then placed a gun and a panther-skin quiver on a shelf and asked his son to choose which he would have. After sighting the gun, he concluded he did not like it. He put the quiver over his shoulder and took out two arrows. When he tried these, he hit the target in the center. He chose the panther-skin quiver saying he liked it.[41] All the other sons of the Sun had guns. The Sun had them shoot at each other in fun. Those who had guns beat the boy who had arrows and drove him off.

On one side, horses were being made and on the other deer. The one who was in charge of making these is named Iltca'nailt'ohn.

They put, for him, a light brown mountain, inside of which, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, and donkeys were living. All these are the food of white people. In this mountain also were guns, blankets, and all kinds of metals.

On the other side he put, for him, a mountain on which century plants were growing with their yellow flower stalks standing all around the edges. On this mountain, too, were sunflowers, yellow with blossoms, cactus, yucca, piñon, oaks, junipers, the fruit of all of which was perpetually ripe. All the other wild vegetable foods of the Indians grew there also. The mountain was always yellow with flowers.

The Sun asked the boy which of these two mountains he would choose. He decided to take the one which was yellow with flowers where fruit was always ripe. He did not care for the light brown mountain which stood toward the east. He announced that the yellow mountain would be his and would belong in the future to the Indians.

They then opened a door in the side of the brown mountain and drove out cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, and mules. These became the property of your white people's nation. The Sun's son asked that some horses be given him. The Sun reminded him he had asked for the other mountain, and wanted to know why he had not then asked for horses.

From the east, mirage people rounded up some horses for him. The red dust of the round-up covered the ground. “There are no horses,” the Sun said. The boy asked again for horses only to be told he should have asked before when he chose between the two mountains. He asked, that notwithstanding, he be given some horses. The Sun took up a rope and led back a chestnut stallion from the east. He tied the horse which stood pawing the ground and nickering. The boy rode back on it to the place where I suppose Toxastin and his grandmother lived. He rode back in a single day and tied his horse. The horse kept nickering and pawing the earth all the time; he would not graze and the boy was not satisfied. He rode back to the house of the Sun, took off the rope; and the horse ran off toward the east kicking up his heels.

The boy told his father, the Sun, that the stallion he had given him was not satisfactory, and that he had come to ask for a different horse. His father went away and returned with two horses, a stallion and a mare. “These are what you want, I suppose,” the Sun said, and gave the boy a rope, a halter, a saddle blanket, and a saddle.

The boy led the horse back to the place where Toxastin, his grandmother, and his mother lived. He led the horses back to a place called Cottonwood-branches-hang-down. To the south, blue cottonwood branches hung down; to the west, yellow cottonwood branches hung down; to the north, white cottonwood branches hung down. The place was named the center of the earth. The saddle was placed at the east; the saddle blanket at the south; the halter, at the west; and the rope, at the north.

In the dry stream bed to the east, black burdocks grew; to the south, blue burdocks grew; to the west, yellow burdocks; and to the north, white burdocks. He turned out the two horses here to the east. Each time the Sun's son came back there, he found the two horses playing. After four days, he drove the horses up the valley a little way four times. When he went the fourth day to see them he found the tracks of a colt.

That cottonwood tree stood in the center. On the east side of it a black stallion stood; on the south side, a blue stallion; on the west side, a yellow stallion; on the north side, a white stallion. Horses were walking around in the valleys to the east, south, west, and north. Thus there came to be horses here on the earth.

-----

Footnote 36:

Told by the father of Frank Crockett, February, 1910. Frank's father
was of the Bissaxa clan and was about sixty years old in 1910. He was
still a growing youth when he left the White River country.

Footnote 37:

These in part are the obstacles mentioned in the Navajo account. They
are overcome in a different manner. Matthews, 109-110.

Footnote 38:

Spider-woman is of considerable importance in the mythology of the
Hopi. Voth, 2, 11. The Navajo account (Matthews, 109) omits the
clothing-making episode. Spider-woman is the originator of spinning,
Franciscan Fathers, 222. She is sometimes said to be the mother of the
Sun and therefore Naiyenezgani's paternal grandmother.

Footnote 39:

An Apache method of indicating time when the Sun is near the horizon.

Footnote 40:

The blanket was probably a cloud. The word _caziz_ ought to mean
“sun-sack.”

Footnote 41:

Had Naiyenezgani taken the gun Indians would have been armed as white
men are.

THE PLACING OF THE EARTH.[42]

They did not put this large one (the earth) that lies here in place before my eyes.

The wind blew from four directions. When there was no way to make the earth lie still, Gopher, who lives under the earth, put his black ropes under the earth. Here his black rope lies under it; here his blue rope; here his yellow rope; and here his white rope.

Over here (east) they made a black whirlwind stand with black metal inside of it. Here (south) a blue whirlwind and blue metal were placed; here (west) a yellow whirlwind and yellow metal; and here (north) a white whirlwind and white metal. With these standing on all sides, the earth came to its proper place and was stable.

“Now that this is as it should be, what shall we do next?” said one of them. “To what purpose have we had such a hard time making this earth lie properly which otherwise would have been unstable?” Then he began to pat it with his hand. “Let a black cloud move about sprinkling,” he said.

“There will be life from this; the world will be alive from the dampness,” he said. “They did well by us, what shall we do? Now thank you,” they said.

The people had nothing. The one who was in charge (the Sun); that one only was walking around. “It will turn out well with him walking about,” they said. They looked well at the one they meant. “That one is the Sun,” they said. “We did it in the presence of that one walking about.”

Then Ests'unnadli said she would do something unseemly. Thinking she would do it where the Sun first shone in the morning, she seated herself there. She was doing this only that people might live. There were no people and she thought there should be many and she did it for that reason.

She became pregnant. She and the one walking around were the only ones who understood about generation. She gave birth to a child there where she sat. She went back to the child early each morning for four mornings and on the fourth, the child walked back with her. He was entirely dressed as he walked back with her.

“It is not good that there should be only this one,” she said. “It will be well for me to do an improper thing again.” She sat repeatedly where the water was dripping and became pregnant again. She gave birth a second time to a child. “I will do as I did before,” she said. She went to her child early each morning for four mornings. The fourth morning after he was born, the child returned with her. He was dressed in buckskin, shoes and all.

She had given birth to two children. The latter one she named Tobate'isteini and the first one Bilnajnollije.[43] They were the children of this one (the Sun).

A black water vessel by the door of the sun's house was flecked with sunshine. He caused dark lightning to dart under it from four directions. He caused it to thunder out of it in four directions. He caused it to thunder in four directions. He caused male rain to fall in four directions. He caused fruits to stand on the earth in lines pointing in four directions. “Thanks,” they said, “he has treated us well.”

A yellow water vessel by Ests'unnadlehi's door was flecked with light. She caused yellow lightning to pass under it from four directions. She caused it to thunder from it toward four directions. She caused female rain to fall four times in four directions. She caused fruits to stand in lines converging from four directions. “Thanks, she has treated us well,” they said. “Because of her, things are well with us.” “She caused the wind to agitate the grass from four directions for us,” they said. “With no trouble for us it comes to its place. The earth will remain well for us,” they said. “It is still the same way for us that it was long ago. We are thankful yet.”

“Mother, where does our father live?” the boys asked. “Do not ask, for he lives in a dangerous place,” Ests'unnadlehi replied. “Do not say he lives in a dangerous place but show us where it is, for we are going there,” they replied. “If you go you must travel only by night. During the day one must sit still,” she told them. She said this, for she meant for them to make the journey without being seen by the Sun.

They wondered why she told them to go only at night and resolved to travel by day. They came near where the ground was black with mosquitoes that had teeth of _becdiłxił_, and there was no way to pass through them. They caused a rain, yellow with sunshine, to fall on them and wet their wings so that they stuck to the trees. By this means, they passed beyond them. “This is why she said it is dangerous,” they said to each other. They came where the earth was crossed with a stripe of cactus which had spines of _becdiłxił_. A black whirlwind with a core of _becdiłxił_ passed, twisting through the cactus; the boys got by it. “This was surely the bad place of which our mother told us,” they said. As they were going on toward their father's house, they came to sand which, if one stepped on it, rolled back with him. There was no way to get through it. A big black measuring worm having his back striped with a rainbow, bent himself over the sand for them and they crossed over. They were now approaching their destination when they found the house surrounded by thirty-two lakes which could not be avoided.

A turquoise bird sat in the ear of one of them and directed them on their way. The Sun's wife saw the two men pass through, avoiding the four bodies of water that surrounded the house. She concealed them under the bed which stood in the house. When the Sun returned, he saw the tracks of two men and asked where they had gone. The Sun's wife replied that they were not there. “You are always saying you have made no visits and yet your two sons come here,” she said. The Sun directed that they should come to him. They sat facing him. He had tobacco hanging in sacks in four places. It was black tobacco which grew on stalks of _becdiłxił_. He had a turquoise pipe with thirty-two[44] holes for the tobacco to burn in. With this tobacco, he killed those who were not really his children. They heard him draw on the pipe once and then he tapped it on something and the ashes rolled out. “Fix me a smoke, that is why I came,” one of the boys said.

They two went to the sack which was hanging on this side. It was filled with large blue tobacco which grew on stalks of _becdoł'ije_. He filled a pipe with thirty-two bowls and lighted it again. Having drawn on the pipe, he passed it to them. He heard them draw on the pipe once and then the ashes fell out.

“Prepare a smoke for me, for I came for that purpose,” one of the boys said again. When the other kinds, yellow, and white had been tried from the remaining world-quarters, one of the boys produced some tobacco and a pipe made of clay with a hole through it. “This is my pipe and my tobacco,” the boy announced. “Why did you not tell me before that you had tobacco?” the Sun said. He had chairs placed and took a seat between the two boys. The three looked just alike. “Come, Djingona'ai,[45] move yourself,” the Sun's wife said, so that she might distinguish him from the others. “They are surely my children,” the Sun declared. “What do you desire?” he asked them. The boys said they had come to hear him ask that. The Sun urged them to ask for what they wished without delay as he had many things.

The Sun had domesticated animals in four corrals on four sides of his house. He had four kinds which were bad. They were bear, coyote, panther, and wolf, of which one is afraid. He led a bear from the eastern corral, remarking that this was probably the sort they meant, that it was his pet. The boys refused it, saying they had come for his horse. In turn he led animals from corrals at the south and west which were refused each time on the advice of the monitor that sat in the ear of one of the boys. The Sun pretended he had no other horse, that he was poor. The monitor urged them to persist in their request, saying that the Sun could not refuse. He finally led to them one of the horses which was walking around unconfined. He was just skin and bones. The rope also was poor. “Did you ask for this one?” the Sun said. “That is the one,” they replied. The Sun told them the horse could not travel far, but the boys said that was the animal they wanted.

He gave them the horse with the admonition that they must not let Ests'unnadlehi see it or she would send them away with it, it looked so bad. The boys assured him it would be all right. He replied that she would be surprised at least. He requested them to tell Ests'unnadlehi that he, the Sun, always told the truth. He charged the two boys that they should not lie to each other. “This is a good day for you both,” he told them. “Thank you, Ests'unnadlehi, my mother, thanks.” “Thank you, Djingona'ai, my father. It is true that it is fortunate for us. It was for that reason you raised us,” they said.[46]

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Footnote 42:

Told in 1910 by a very dignified man, C. G. 2, of about sixty years.
He is a leader of the Naiyenezgani songs used for adolescent girls.

Footnote 43:

The lightning strikes with him, evidently a poetic name.

Footnote 44:

It was explained that four was the real number, thirty-two being
presumably a ceremonial or poetic exaggeration.

Footnote 45:

“Goes by day,” the Sun.

Footnote 46:

This fragment of the culture-hero story having been told, the narrator
refused to proceed, perhaps because he knew it had already been
several times recorded.

THE ADOLESCENCE CEREMONY.[47]

The Sun was the one who arranged the ceremony for unclean women. She (Ests'unnadlehi) sat thus on her knees and the red light from the sun shone into her. She was living alone.

When she becomes a woman they straighten her. The people stand in a line and sing while the drum is beaten. They dance four nights. They paint her with white clay that she may live a long time, and that her hair may get white on one side of her head. They put up a cane with a curved top for her around which she is to run. At one side a basket stands in which there is tobacco and on the other side a basket containing corn.

When she has run around the cane in its first position, it is put up again farther away, where she runs around it again and returns to the line of singers. Again, the cane and basket of corn are moved out and the girl runs around them. When she returns to the singers she dances, having a downy feather tied at the crown of her head. The cane is put up again and the basket of corn moved once more. The girl runs around them returning to the singers. This cane is said to be the sun's cane and the chief's cane.

The corn is poured from the basket over the crown of the girl's head. The people all try to get a handful of the corn. After that, she throws the blankets in every direction and the people pick them up, saying, “May her blankets be many.” They plant the corn and all say they raise large crops in consequence.

They prepare Gans and dance four nights. They do not allow anyone to sleep during the dancing.

The girl, Ests'unnadlehi, has a skirt and a shirt of dressed skin. The shirt is spoken of as fringed shirt and the skirt, a fringed skirt.

When the Gans dance, the girl dances behind them. She does not sleep during the four nights.

On the morning after the fourth night all the people gather around to insure good luck in the future. The sun's songs, the chief's songs, are sung and with them they dance. After the four nights they paint the girl white with gypsum mixed with water which is in a shallow basket. The girl stands here and a woman whose husband is rich in horses and other property stirs the gypsum and water with a hairbrush. She applies this white mixture to the girl's head, and brushes her downward until she is whitened all over. The girl then sprinkles the men, women, and children who stand around in a large circle. This is done that they may be fortunate in the future. If some of the white mixture falls on the hair, that person will have gray hair at that spot.

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Footnote 47:

Told by Frank Crockett's father in part, and extended by Frank who was
interpreting.

THE MIGRATION OF THE GANS.[48]

They say they moved about from place to place under the cliffs. “We will move to a place where we will not die,” they said. They went to a place halfway between the earth and sky, and lighted on a mirage. They were dying there too. They came back to this world. Wind and rain ceased.

Mocking bird said he wanted to be chief. Gopher said he wanted to be chief. When someone remarked that the chief's eyes were small, Gopher was angry and went under the ground, taking with him the wind and rain.

Humming bird started over the earth, hunting in vain for the wind and rain. He came where Gopher had gone underground and went in there and came where the Gans were living. They had much corn and ripe crops. It rained there all the time. Humming bird came back and reported that he had been where there were many ripe crops and where rain fell all the time. He also said those who live there do not die. The Gans started to move down there and on their way came to a place called “Two-mountains-go-around-each-other-in-opposite-directions.” Rocks, white and all colors, lie there, one above the other. The Indians went there and came where the Gans were living.

A small mountain stood at the east and on it Black Gan stood every dawn and talked as a chief. When he had spoken as chief four mornings, they asked why Black Gan was talking that way. All the Gans came together and he talked to them. “May one of your children remain here?” he asked. All the Gans said, “No. Our children are all going with us.” Then Black Gan decided that one of his should stay. He left the youngest little girl, putting a turquoise water jar by her pillow. He covered this with earth. They started away where people do not die. His little girl returned to the place where her water jar had been put. While she was gone for it the others moved away and left her.

Some Indians found the baby, who was running about crying, and took her to raise. When she was grown, she married, and gave birth to a boy. Then Black Gan had a son-in-law and many people came to see him because he was Black Gan's son-in-law. They crowded into the house and kept saying, “Move over a little, Donaildihi.” He, Eats-a-long-time-without-being-satisfied, moved over; and they kept coming in until the house was stretched over to one side.

Black Gan's son-in-law lay down with one leg over the other, and called for the baby. When its grandmother brought it, he tossed it up and down on his chest and sang to it. When he was done playing with it, he called to them to take it again.

After a time another boy was born. When they were both grown they were hunting birds and came where the Gans were living. When they returned, food was offered them in vain. They had eaten where the Gans lived while away, and would not eat on their return.

A man fell sick. His eyes and mouth were crooked, as were also his arms and legs. The people were asking what they should do about it. The man told the mother of the boys to prepare a deerskin which had no holes in it with a piece of turquoise fastened at the forehead. To the turquoise he asked that downy feathers be tied. She directed that _bacinϵ_ with downy feathers be tied between the eyes. In addition _tsϵltcϵϵ_ and _yołgai_ each with downy feathers were to be tied to the skin. She asked that the skin prepared thus be placed on the top of the feet of the children (Gan's grandchildren).

When they put it on the foot of one of these boys, he kicked it to the other boy, who kicked it back. When this had been done four times one of them directed that wood be brought in, and they consented to give a dance for the sick man. They directed that all the people should come together and that the sick man should be brought to the dancing place. Preparations were also made there for the fire. “All of you come here where we are going to sing,” they announced.

When they had come together they began to sing, the two grandsons of Black Gan acting as leaders. When they started to dance one of them stood up and made a speech. He told them they must not go away during the dance or something bad would happen to them.

When they had sung four songs, the sound of a bull roarer was heard underground to the east, south, west, and north. The Gans ran there and formed in line around him (the sick man). The Gans came to the dance ground, and Black Gan shook himself by the side of the sick man. He took the sick man up and threw him over there. Then Brown Gan shook his body by the sick man and swayed from side to side. Then the Gan who has one side of his face covered, shook himself by the sick man and threw him over there. Next Red Gan swayed himself and took up the sick man and threw him over there.