Chapter I: Front Matter

NAVAHO LEGENDS

COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED

BY

WASHINGTON MATTHEWS
M.D., LL.D.

MAJOR U.S. ARMY, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE
SOCIETY, ETC.

WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, ILLUSTRATIONS, TEXTS
INTERLINEAR TRANSLATIONS, AND MELODIES

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Published for The American Folk-Lore Society by
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
LONDON: DAVID NUTT, 270, 271 STRAND
LEIPZIG: OTTO HARRASSOWITZ, QUERSTRASSE, 14
1897

Five hundred copies printed, of which this is No. 199

Copyright, 1897,
BY THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction 1

LEGENDS.

The Navaho Origin Legend.

I. The Story of the Emergence 63
II. Early Events in the Fifth World 76
III. The War Gods 104
IV. Growth of the Navaho Nation 135

Nati'nesthani 160

The Great Shell of Kintyél 195

Notes 209

Bibliographic Notes 276

Melodies 279

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE PAGE

I. Navaho Gods as represented in the dry-paintings Frontispiece II. San Francisco Mountain, Arizona 63 III. Distant view of San Mateo Mountain, New Mexico 76 IV. Nayénezgani 104 V. El Cabezon 114 VI. Lava flow in the valley of the San José, New Mexico 118 VII. To`badzistsíni 134

FIGURE

1. Manuelito (portrait) 3 2. Mariano (portrait) 4 3. Jake the Silversmith (portrait) 5 4. Tánapa (portrait) 6 5. Hádapa (portrait) 7 6. Navaho man (portrait) 9 7. Navaho man (portrait) 10 8. Navaho skull, flattened at occiput 11 9. Navaho baby-case or cradle 12 10. Conical lodge with storm-door 13 11. Hut of logs 14 12. Hut built partly of stone 15 13. Summer houses 16 14. Medicine-lodge 16 15. Sudatory 17 16. Sacred basket 18 17. Sacred basket 19 18. Silver ornaments 20 19. Woman spinning 21 20. Ordinary loom 23 21. Loom for weaving diagonal cloth 25 22. The White House 36 23. Talking kethawn 39 24. Circle kethawn 40 25. Kethawns (sacrificial sticks and cigarettes) in basket 43 26. Mask of yucca 46 27. Mask of Hastséyalti 47 28. Mask of yébaad or goddess 48 29. Picture of silnéole, a dry-painting of the night chant 49 30. Alíli or show ("dance") of the nahikáï 52 31. Hatáli Natlói (portrait) 57 32. The shaman Hatáli Nez (Tall Chanter) (portrait) 59 33. Trail of Estsánatlehi (diagram) 148 34. Trail of turkey approaching his master (diagram) 171 35. Trail of man and turkey (diagram) 173 36. Ruin in the Chaco Canyon, probably Kintyél 195 37. Circle of branches of the rite of the mountain chant 206 38. Natural bridge, near Fort Defiance, Arizona 227 39. Yucca baccata 228 40. Drumstick made of yucca leaves 229 41. Diagram of bow-symbol on left leg of the personator of Nayénezgani 253 42. Diagram of queue-symbol on left leg of the personator of To`badzistsíni 253

Map of the Navaho country 1

NAVAHO LEGENDS.