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Title: Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache - Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural - History Vol. XXIV, Part II
Author: Goddard, Pliny Earle
Language: English
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ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS
OF
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
VOL. XXIV, PART II
MYTHS AND TALES FROM THE WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE
BY
PLINY EARLE GODDARD
[Illustration: THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCE EDUCATION]
NEW YORK
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES
1919
MYTHS AND TALES FROM THE WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE.
BY PLINY EARLE GODDARD.
INTRODUCTION.
These myths and tales are the free translations of texts recorded in the
dialect of the White Mountain Apache. The texts themselves with word for
word translations follow as Part IV of the volume. They were recorded,
with one exception, during the winter of 1910 as a part of the studies
made in the Southwest under the yearly grant of Mr. Archer M.
Huntington. The creation myth, secured from Noze, differs in important
incidents from the versions given above from the San Carlos as well as
from versions secured from other White Mountain Apache. It should not be
assumed that these differences are tribal, it is more probable that they
are individual, since forms from the San Carlos and Navajo are closely
similar to each other.
The greater number of the remaining narratives were secured from the
father of Frank Crockett, the interpreter employed. Several of these are
ceremonial and religious in their character and probably would not have
been given except for the son's influence. Two of these were later
secured from San Carlos informants in more extended form but highly
corroborative in their general agreement.
The main purpose in recording these narratives was to secure sufficient
and varied connected texts in the dialect of the White Mountain Apache.
As a collection of mythology and folklore it is probably far from
complete. It is assumed, however, to be fairly representative.
PLINY EARLE GODDARD.
January, 1919.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTION 89
CREATION MYTH 93
NAIYENEZGANI 115
THE PLACING OF THE EARTH 119
THE ADOLESCENCE CEREMONY 123
THE MIGRATION OF THE GANS 124
RELEASING THE DEER 126
DEER WOMAN 127
THE GAMBLER WHO SECURED THE WATER-CEREMONY 128
THE MAN WHO VISITED THE SKY WITH THE EAGLES 132
HE WHO BECAME A SNAKE 135
THE HUNTER WHO SECURED THE BEAR CEREMONY 136
THE CANNIBAL OWL 137
THE DOINGS OF COYOTE 138
BIBLIOGRAPHY 139
CREATION MYTH.[1]
There were many houses there. A maiden went from the settlement to the
top of a high mountain[2] and came where the rays of the rising Sun
first strike. She raised her skirt and the “breath” of the Sun entered
her. She went up the mountain four mornings, and four times the breath
of the Sun penetrated her. This girl who had never been married became
pregnant and the people were making remarks about it.
She went up the mountain on four successive days and four days after
that, eight days altogether, she gave birth to a child. Four days later,
the child stood on its feet. His fingers and toes were webbed and he had
neither eyebrows nor eyelashes and the hairs on his head were scattered,
one in a place. His ears were round with only the openings. Everyone
said he did not look like a man. After four more days he walked well and
played with the other children.
His mother went again to the east and lay down under a place where water
was dripping. The water fell into her as it dripped from the hanging
algæ. She did this four times and became pregnant. After four days they
all saw that her abdomen was enlarged and when she had been in that
condition four days, eight days in all, she gave birth to another
child.[3] When it was four days old it stood up and was able to walk
well. Its appearance was like that of the first child. It had webbed
hands and feet and was without hair. It had round ears with holes only.
The children walked about together, the head of one being higher than
that of the other.
The people were asking, “Whose children are these going about?” They
wanted to know who would make them like human beings. “Who are the kin
of the woman whose children are going about among us?” The mother had a
sister who wondered why the people were saying these things, for the
boys had a father who lived a long way off.
The boys were eight days old and big enough to run about and were
becoming intelligent. They asked their mother where their father was
living. “Why do you ask?” she said. “You cannot go to him.” “Why do you
say that? Why do you hide our father from us?” the boys asked. “Well, do
you really want to go where your father lives?” she asked them. “Why do
you suppose we are asking?” the boys replied. “We will go where our
father lives.” Their mother told them that they were talking foolishly,
that the distance was great, and that they would not be able to go. The
boys insisted but were again discouraged by their mother. They finally
said that it must be they had no father if they could not go to him. The
mother then consented and said they three would go to the top of a great
mountain. She cut a supply of meat and after four days, when it was near
dawn, they started. They came to the top of the mountain when it was day
and stood there facing the Sun. The woman stood between the boys holding
them by the hand. When the sun was rising she said: “Look, your father
is rising. Observe well. His breath streams out from four sides. Go
towards the streaming out of his breath. There are dangerous things
living in the east. What have you to go with?” She had a brown fly and
she gave it to the boys, that it might sit by their ears. The fly was to
show them the way and tell them where the dangerous ones lived.
She told them they were to start at midday. They remained there until
the sun reached the sky hole.[4] They then went four times around the
trees on top of the mountain. The woman started home and the boys set
out on their journey.
The boys went toward the east but the Sun was going in the opposite
direction.[5] The boys sat down and cried. A Raven, spreading out his
wings, alighted nearby and asked the boys why they were crying. The boys
replied that their father lived over there and that they were going to
visit him. The Raven asked if they were carrying anything in the way of
food with them. They replied that they had some meat. The Raven said
they might ride on his back if they would give him some of the meat. The
fly told them it would be all right to ride on the Raven, that the Raven
could see half the way and that there someone was living who knew the
remainder of the way. They were told by the Raven to break up the meat
and put the pieces in his mouth, that two of the parcels would sustain
him until he finished the journey as far as he knew the way. They were
directed to get on the Raven's back. The Raven began by flying near the
ground, then went higher and higher, circling around. A hot rain fell
but the Raven covered them with his wings. They kept putting the meat
into the Raven's mouth. When they had fed the Raven two pieces of the
meat they passed through a cloud where the large Eagle lived. The Raven
told them that that one (the Eagle) would now take them, that he knew
all the places because he saw everything upon the earth; that he himself
would go back.
The Eagle asked them where they were going, saying that he lived in a
dangerous place. The boys indicated the direction they were going,
saying they had been told their father lived there. Eagle said it was
true their father lived at that place and asked if they had heard about
his house. The boys replied that their mother had told them that the Sun
was their father and that he lived over there. Because she had told them
this they were on their way to see him. Eagle asked them by what means
they intended to go, saying even he was in danger from the Sun. The fly
staying by the ear of one of the boys flew away and soon returned with
the statement that the dangerous places did exist and that Eagle, with
whom they were sitting, was the one who knew and was in control of these
dangerous places. Before the house of the Sun was ice, interlocked like
fallen timber. Eagle addressed the boys, asking if they had with them
anything from the earth, meaning meat. They replied that they had and
each of the boys took some from his pocket. Eagle asked for some of it,
which when it was given him he ate.
Eagle then said they would set out, for he knew the trail. He requested
them to put meat in his mouth as he flew with them, indicating the
amount which would be sufficient, for the trail. When they were seated
on the Eagle he started down with them, circling around as he flew. A
storm of hail fell on them, the hailstones being large with thirty-two
points.[6] The eagle protected the boys by covering them with his wings
which were rolled back over them. When they had passed through the storm
Eagle asked that meat be put in his mouth. When he had been fed he flew
away with the boys and went through a hole which was there for him. When
he came to the trail he alighted and pointing out the path told them
that it led to the house of the Sun.[7] He said that he himself would
now turn back home.
The boys went forward until they crossed a shallow valley beyond which
was the house, which had projections running out in four directions.
When they walked with their eyes closed the house went out of sight, but
when they opened their eyes the house settled down again. It did this
four times and then it stood firmly. The two boys walked on and coming
to the house, stood in front of the entrance. An old woman who was the
wife of the Sun sat there.
She advised them to go on wherever they were intending to go, since a
person of mean disposition was soon to arrive. The woman who spoke to
them was really handsome but she sat there in the form of an old woman.
The boys replied that they had been told that their father lived there,
and that they had started to come that morning. The woman replied that
she did not know who their father was. The boys said that the Sun was
their father and they had come to visit him. The woman then asked who
had told them that the Sun was their father. They said their mother had
told them so. The woman told them that their father would soon return
and asked them to be seated on a chair she indicated. When they were
seated, the chair kept whirling around with them. When the chair would
lift up the woman would make it come down again. When the woman saw the
chair come down again she announced herself as nearly convinced they had
spoken the truth.
Saying that the Sun was now coming close, she took four silk blankets[8]
of different colors which had been sewed together projecting in four
directions and rolled the boys up in them. She put them into an inside
room. They heard the Sun come back and heard him speak. “Old woman,
where are the two men who came here?” he asked. The woman replied: “I
have not seen anyone. No one has been here.” “You say there is no one.
They must have come, for here are their tracks,” the Sun replied. “You
must have been cohabiting with someone else. You say you travel over
this broad earth and that you do not visit anyone. You must have been
deceiving me about it for two men came in from that trail saying they
are your children,” his wife said. The Sun asked that they be brought
in, and the woman opened the door, brought in the roll of blankets, and
threw it down. The Sun shook the blankets and two men stood up. The Sun
spoke: “Hesh, do you consider these to be my children? They do not look
like me.” He stood by them and repeated his question, calling attention
to their webbed hands and feet and their round ears. “Are you really my
children?” he asked them. “Who is called the Sun, I wonder?” the
youngest of the boys said, and water fell from his eyes. “Well, maybe
you are my children. Sit here and wait,” the Sun said. Their fly looked
around and reported that the man was their father. After examining the
room everywhere, the inner corners, the windows, and door, the fly told
them that ordeals were being prepared for them. He said that soon a
blazing sky would be arranged, into which they would be thrown. The fly
looked around for downy feathers which he gave the boys.
When the Sun had finished eating he asked that those who said they were
the Sun's children should be brought in. He threw them into the place of
danger. He pushed them in with lightning which had sharp spines. They
turned into downy feathers and stood in front of him again. “It is
true,” the Sun said. He threw them in four times, pushing them down.
Each time they turned into feathers and came back in front of the Sun as
before. The Sun then said he was convinced that they were his children.
His wife said: “They told you they were your children, but you have
treated them badly.” The Sun replied: “They certainly are my children
but I did not believe it before.” The Sun asked his wife to prepare a
sweatlodge as soon as they had eaten.
She made a sweatlodge covered with a blue blanket on one side, a black
one on another side, a white one on another side, and a yellow one on
another side. His wife had the stones heated red hot, like red hot iron.
They three went right in, but the Sun only came out again. When the bath
had been heated the fourth time the boys were as if they had been
boiled. He pushed back the skin which was between their fingers and
toes. He fixed for them their lower leg muscles, their knees, their
thighs, their biceps, their elbows, and their lower arms. He made the
hair of their heads come to their hips, twisting it off at that length.
He made their ears, their eyelashes, and their eyebrows, their noses,
their mouths, and their faces. He fixed every part of their bodies as it
should be. The Sun went out of the bath with the boys and sat with them
on the seat where his wife usually sat. They were just like men.[9] When
the wife of the Sun came and stood in front of them she looked at them
closely, but could not distinguish one from the other. “Move, husband,”
she said. The one sitting in the middle moved himself. “You told me you
had not been with any woman but you fooled me. These are your children.
You must have a wife. Go home with them,” the woman said.
The Sun spoke to his wife, saying that these were his children but that
if he went away with them to the earth she would be lonesome. Only today
there was a good sunset. “Just now when you said 'no' your eye winked,”
he said to her. “I am jealous of what is far away,” she said. The Sun
said he would not go, but would talk to his children.
“My boys, shall I give you names?” “Yes, it is not well to be without
names,” they replied. Then the Sun said he would name them. He told the
older his name would be Naiyenezgani and that he must behave well.[10]
He told the other one that he would be named Tobatc'istcini. “When you
are upon the earth you will be called so and you will tell them that
your father named you that. You shall say, 'He made my name
Naiyenezgani.' But you, 'Tobatc'istcini he made my name,' you must tell
them.”
The Sun then asked them for what they had come. They told him they had
come for his horse, his saddle, his bridle, his halter, his rope, and
his saddle blanket. The Sun asked who had told them he had such
property. The older one replied that their mother had told them what
property he had and had told them that she would be happy if they
brought it back to the earth. She said that he (the Sun) would also be
happy. The Sun replied that he had no property, no horse, saddle,
bridle, halter, rope, or saddle blanket. The fly had told them that the
Sun had these, but he looked around again and reported that the Sun had
them close by.
“Let us go over there,” one of them proposed. They went to a fenced
enclosure and entered through a gate. The yard was so full of black
bears that the mass of their moving backs occupied the entire space.
“Which of those are my horses?” the Sun asked. “They are fearful
animals,” the boys replied. “These are my horses,” the Sun insisted and
mounted one of them and rode around on it. The fly informed the boys
that they were being deceived. The Sun proposed that they should go in
another direction to another enclosure. Inside this yard were white-tail
deer, mule deer, elk, and mountain-sheep. The Sun announced that these
were his horses and told the boys to choose any one they liked and catch
it. “Which is the largest?” he asked them. “These are not horses,” the
boys replied, “they are named deer. We asked you for horses.” The Sun
insisted they were his horses and that he rode them great distances.
“Well, you have outwitted me. I thought I would succeed in outwitting
you, but you have won.” The younger brother asked the Sun what he was
concealing from them, saying he could find them. The Sun asked them not
to say that and proposed that they look in another place where he had a
few horses confined. They went to the place indicated and found the
place filled with antelope, sheep, goats, and pigs. “Catch any one of
these you want,” the Sun said. “You tend to them here alone,” the boys
replied and walked out leaving the Sun who followed behind.
They went to the house and ate a meal. Their fly told them that the
Sun's horses were in the enclosure that had four doors. When they had
finished eating they went to this enclosure which was a house with a
roof having holes in it. It had spikes like irons, sticking up from it.
It was closed and completely dark. “There are horses in there,” the fly
told them. The Sun said, “I told you it was useless.” One of the boys
asked that they might look in. There was a door there which he opened. A
little beyond it was another door, a little beyond another, and a little
beyond that another, and still beyond that another. They now came to
horses in the enclosure but could not enter. By standing on something
they could see through a hole in the roof. They could not get in between
the horses until they were caused to separate and to open up a passage.
The Sun then told them to catch the horse that they thought was his. The
fly sitting by one of their ears told them they were to catch the horse
with a rope which they should induce the Sun to give them. When the Sun
again urged them to catch the horse without delay, they asked whether
they should lead the horse by the mane or carry him out in their hands.
The Sun, with spotted ropes in his hand, went right through the door
which he opened. He gave one of the ropes to each of the boys, telling
them to catch the horses which were his. The animals were milling around
in the enclosure. In the center was one which was not moving, a sorrel
with a small white spot on its forehead. Its mane reached the ground.
When it raised its head one of the boys started toward it, the horses
separating. He threw the rope and caught the horse which he led back.
The Sun then told the other boy to catch a horse, wanting to know who
had told him which horse to catch. There was a stallion running around
the outside of the herd. Its mane reached the ground; he was acting wild
but the fly told them that although he acted as if he were mean he was
really gentle. He directed them to take both these horses from the Sun.
When the other boy started with his rope toward the stallion he was
running around the outside of the herd and coming toward the boy. When
he came close and saw the boy he stopped and then wheeled back. The boy
lassoed it and immediately the horse trotted up to him, nosing his arm.
He led the stallion up beside the sorrel horse which was a mare. The Sun
said: “There they are, ride them, take them with you to the earth.”
The boys then asked for the horse trappings for which they had also
come. The Sun said he did not know what they meant by horse trappings.
The younger boy said, “Well, if you do not know what horse trappings
are, do not again put them on these horses in the corral.” The Sun asked
who it was who had made them as smart as he was himself. They replied
that he, the Sun, had made them smart and had made them speak wisely.
They then asked by name for bridle, halter, saddle blanket, and
saddle.[11] Turning his back to the boys he walked away and opened a
door, bidding the boys enter. They went in and saw saddles lying there
with bridles hanging on the saddle horns. The blankets were lying
beneath. Before they went in the fly flew in and selected two out of all
the saddles. One was lying at the east and the other at the west. The
first was blue and the other yellow. The fly had returned to one of
their ears by the time the Sun said: “There are those saddles, take the
ones you want.” The fly told the boys that the saddles which looked good
really were not, but that they should choose the blue and yellow ones,
indicating them, and the blankets, halters, bridles, and ropes of
similar colors lying by them. These were the Sun's own particular set of
trappings. When the Sun urged them to hurry up each boy stepped toward
the saddle he had chosen. When they did so the saddles moved of
themselves with the blankets and bridles. There was a sound “gij” of the
moving leather and “tsil” as they came to rest.
The Sun turned his face away and took a black silk handkerchief which
had two white stripes around the border from his pocket. With this he
wiped his eyes. “I raised you for just this purpose,” he said. The Sun
started to walk toward the horses. Their fly had told them not to touch
the saddles, that the Sun himself would fix them. “They belong to you,”
the fly said. “Everything is alive; the rope on the horse moves about of
itself. The saddle will jump on of itself.”[12] The fly told them this.
The halter was gone, the bridle and saddle blanket which had been lying
on the saddle were gone. The halter, bridle, and saddle blanket that had
been with the blue saddle were also gone. The Sun called them to come
where he was standing. They both went out again and the doors of the
saddle room and of the stable were shut.
They went to the Sun, who was standing between the two horses so that
their heads projected as he held the bridles. They started away, the
boys walking in front of the Sun as he directed them to do. They passed
through the four doors to a post standing in front of the Sun's house.
He led the horses to the post where they stood without being tied.[13]
There were four chairs standing inside the Sun's house; and one by
itself for the woman.[14] His children sat on the chairs and his wife
sat on the one which was hers. The Sun addressed them as follows:—
“My boys, I will instruct you about the dangerous places you will come
to. The horses know the dangerous places on the way back. My wife is
pleased with you and treats you well. That is why you are to have these
horses, one of which is hers. The other is mine and so is the saddle,
bridle, halter, and saddle blanket. They are all mine. You will go back
to your kindred. When you are near, hurry. I will give you something.”
The Sun got up and reached inside to a shelf from which he took up an
iron knife like a sword. Turning around he took up a bow and arrows
having iron heads. There were two of the arrows. “I give these to you,”
he said. “You are giving us these! Our mother did not know about them.
Why does she not give us something?” the boys said. The Sun's wife said
she would speak a few words to them. “You shall be my nephews. Your
mother shall be my sister. She shall be like me. Because of this I have
treated you well. She shall be the same as I. I become an old woman and
at other times I am as if I were two years old. She shall be the same
way.[15] You shall tell her this before the Sun travels far. I am the
one telling you; he did not tell you. I will name my sister. Your father
will give you names.” The Sun picked something up and was still holding
it. “Wait, I will tell you something and after that he will give you a
name. I name her Nigostsanbikayo.[16] Every one will call her that. She
will come to me. You, too, will come to me. I give a name to your
mother. She will be called Ests'unnadlehi and she will help you. I make
a name for her, Ests'unnadlehi, and with that she will help you. When
she has children again they will be two girls. These girls will belong
to the people for there will be people.[17] She will help them. I, too,
will help them when they come to me. He, too, will help his children.
That is why I am telling you and you must remember it well. I have
finished. Your father will tell you about the objects he is about to
give you.”
The Sun gave the elder boy a weapon saying, “This will be called a 'blue
sword.' You will use it against the monsters on the earth. Because of
that I gave you the name, Naiyenezgani.” He gave the weapon to him
saying, “That is all for you.” Addressing the younger, he said, “Now I
give this to you, Tobatc'istcini. You will use this which I give you
against those who prey upon people. You are to help each other. I shall
be near you watching you. Whatever you do will be known to me. It will
be well if you kill these evil ones. The people will live everywhere.”
He gave him the bow with the injunction that he should draw the bow
three times without releasing the arrow and then he should shoot the
dangerous beings and they would fly apart. Having said this, he proposed
they should eat something. The Sun's wife was still sitting in her
accustomed seat. The men went to the table, well loaded with food
prepared by some unknown agency, and began to eat. The Sun's wife gave
the elder one a spotted belt with a yellow fringe hanging from its
border.
When they had finished the meal, the Sun said he did not know how the
visitors were to return. They went where the horses stood and the Sun
said, “Children, this stallion will go well in the lead. Now mount the
horses.” He held the stirrup and saddle horn and told the boys to get
on. They did so and rode away from the Sun's house where towards the
east a post stands up with white hair[18] which reaches to the ground
and turns up again. The rain falls on it. They rode their horses around
this post four times and came back where they were standing before, as
the Sun directed them to do.
When they had finished, the Sun's wife came up to them and told her
husband to count for his sons the two saddle blankets, two halters, two
bridles, two ropes, and two saddles. The Sun told them to start home;
that he was well acquainted with them. He charged them to take good care
of the saddle blankets and directed that the gray horse should go in the
lead because he knew the trail to the place midway between the earth and
the sky. From that point the sorrel horse was to lead because that one
knew the way from there on. When they returned where their mother lived
he told them to stake the horses out for four nights. The sorrel was to
be staked toward the east and the gray to the west. Having ridden the
horses among the people they were to unsaddle them in some good place. A
white saddle blanket was to be placed toward the east, a black one to
the south, a yellow one to the west, and a blue one to the north.[19]
The bridles, halters, ropes, and saddles were to be brought to the camp.
He charged them to keep in mind what he was telling, for he was telling
them this that they might be good men. He divided his property between
his boys. He told them after the horses had been running loose four days
to go to them early in the morning. This might be in any good place
where canyons meet, making a flat. When they came to them they were to
hold out their hands, palms upward, towards the horses. They were to
catch the horses while they were licking their hands. They were to
consider what he told them and when they should go for the horses after
four days, the four canyons coming together would be full of horses.
When their horses had been caught by holding out their hands, the saddle
blankets, one on the other, were to be put on them and the horses were
to be saddled. They were to ride the horses all day until sunset when
they were to be turned out again. Having turned them out, they were told
they might go the next day to see what was happening. Having finished
his speech he dismissed the boys.
They went with the Sun until they came to the top of the ridge, where
they stopped. The Sun felt the horses all over. He felt of their legs,
their feet, their faces, their ears, their manes, their backs, petting
them. “Goodbye, my horses,” he said, “travel well for my boys down to
the earth. There is food for you on the earth the same as here.” He
addressed the gray horse, telling him to be the leader on the way toward
the earth since he knew the way. He told the boys not to look at the
horses' feet nor to look behind them, but to keep their eyes fixed on
the tips of their ears.
They started; before they knew it the horses had changed places, and the
sorrel was leading. They thought the earth was far off but they soon
found the horses were trotting along on the earth. Now the horses were
running with them toward their camp. They rode up slowly where the
people were walking about. They rode to the camp side by side, and the
people all ran out to look at them. Their mother was standing outside
watching them and they rode up one on each side of her. “Mother,
Ests'unnadlehi, unsaddle our horses,” they said to her.
The people all came up to them. The woman, laughing, ran her hand over
the horses saying, “Your father gave you large horses.” When the people
had all come there, the boys told them to call their mother
Ests'unnadlehi. They all called her by that name. The older boy said
they were to call him Naiyenezgani. The younger one said they were to
call him Tobatc'istcini.[20] They addressed them saying, “When we were
here before you used to laugh at us because we were poor. We used to
walk because we were poor. We have visited our father where he lives.
The Sun's wife named our mother. Call me Naiyenezgani. That one was
given the name, Tobatc'istcini. These will be our names and be careful
to call them correctly. Do not come near these horses. We will stake one
out here and the other one there. They will remain tied out four days.
You may go.”
Before sundown on the fourth day the horses whinnied. They went to their
horses and saddled them. They rode around among the camps until sundown
and then rode them to a flat where four canyons came together. They hung
a white saddle blanket toward the east, a black one to the south, a
yellow one to the west, and a blue one to the north. Their fly told them
to hang the blankets in four places, making an enclosure of them. After
four days they were to come and would find conditions different. He
charged the boys not to miss doing just as their father had told them.
They went back to the camp carrying the saddles, bridles, halters, and
ropes. After two days had passed their fly flew away. He returned,
reporting that there were many horses filling the place where the four
canyons came together. The next day he reported that the horses were so
thick one could walk on their backs. The next day (the fourth), about
sunrise, the two boys went there with their ropes in their hands. When
they came to the eastern canyon it was full of white horses, the
southern one was full of black horses, the western was full of yellow
horses, and the northern canyon with blue (gray) horses.
They took down all the saddle blankets and piled them together. With
valleys in four directions full of horses they did not know their former
horses from the others. They considered how they might distinguish them.
The horses were milling around near where a blanket hung. They were all
mingled together with the colors mixed. The men approached the horses
but they stopped before they got to them. They extended their hands with
pollen on the palms and the horses whinneyed. Then two horses trotted up
to them and licked the pollen from the hands of their owners who caught
them while they did it.[21] They led these horses back to the camp where
the saddles, etc., were lying.
When they led these two horses all the others followed. Their fly told
them all about the two horses, what they had done, and that they had
made many horses for them. Four days from now it would come about that
the broad earth would be covered with horses. Their fly flew to the
Sun's camp and the Sun instructed him. “Drive the horses over this way
and put a halter on top of that mountain; put a rope on the top of this
mountain to the south; put a halter on the top of the mountain to the
west; and put a rope on the mountain to the north. Your father says
this,” the fly told them.
The older of the brothers told the people that they should ride the
horses and not think they were wild. “Catch any of them and saddle them.
When you have ridden your horses, then do not go near them for four
days. Keep away from the horses which are inside where the halters and
ropes are lying. Turn the horses loose in the space enclosed by the
ropes and the halter. If they see you they may stampede. These horses
will be of great value to you.”
The brothers rode the two horses and the others all followed. When the
two horses whinneyed, the others all answered. They took off the ropes
and went back to camp. They asked their mother to put up two posts and
to put a smooth pole across their tops. She was asked to put the saddles
on this pole with their horns toward the east.[22] The bridles were to
be hung on the saddle horns and the saddle blankets spread over the
saddles. They asked her to think about the saddles where they were lying
during the night.
She kept her mind on the saddles during the night and in the early
morning she went out to them. There were four saddles on the pole where
there had been only two. She still kept her mind on the saddles and the
next morning there were six lying there. “My child,” she said, “you
spoke the truth. I kept my mind on the saddles and six are now lying
there.” Tobatc'istcini said, “Very well, keep thinking about them all
night and go to them early in the morning.” When she went out, there
were eight saddles on the pole.
Naiyenezgani said he was going yonder and would be back by sunset. He
went to the mountain top where the halter lay. The Sun was standing
there. “It must be my father,” he said. “I did not know you. I am glad
you came down to me.” “Well, my son,” the Sun replied, “let us go around
the horses.” “What time will it be when we get around them?” the son
asked. Leaving the place where the halters were lying they went where
the ropes were. The space was level full of horses. “Fine, my son,” the
Sun said to Naiyenezgani, “with ropes and halters you made a fence so
the horses cannot get out. You have this broad world for a corral.”
They went on and came where the halters were piled up. “These halters
will round up the wild horses for you and you will put them on their
heads.” They went on and came where the rope hung. “These ropes will
drive the horses together for you. They will drive the wild horses close
to camp for you.” They started back and came where Naiyenezgani had met
the Sun. “I have done everything for you,” the Sun said. “Now I am going
back and leave you. You too will go home. Tomorrow it will be finished.
You will give your people two horses apiece. Give each of them one
stallion and one mare. Distribute them from noon until sunset. These
horses are mares and stallions in equal numbers. Tonight two saddles are
to be placed on the pole you put up. You shall keep three saddles and
give away seven. When you give away the horses give away seven saddles.
Now my son, we separate. Shake hands. Others will do as we do.” They
said _njo_ to each other and separated. It was not long before he was
back and stood there as the sun set. He was happy and laughing. “Where
have you been, my son?” his mother asked. “You must have been in a good
place or you would not be laughing.” “What did you say, mother?” he
replied. “I am happy; when I came over there where the halter lay I met
my father. I walked with him all day. As we walked around the horses he
told me about everything. I am happy.”
He said that none of them should go out tomorrow, but that he himself
would go out early. When he went out there in front of the yellow saddle
lay a white saddle. Behind that was a blue one. Between them was a
yellow saddle. The pole was full. There were ten saddles in a row. “I
told you to put up a long pole, and you put up a short one,” he said to
his mother. “You said dig one hole here and another there, my son,” she
replied. “Just these may well be our saddles,” he said. He called
Tobatc'istcini, saying they would go to catch the horses. “You go to the
rope over there. I, too, will go to the other rope. Hurry, we will catch
the horses,” he said to him. He ran where one rope was, and the other
one went where the other rope was. When they came to the two ropes, they
circled around, driving the horses all towards each other. They could
not find their own horses, the Sun's horses. They went into the
enclosure and walked around. Even when they went around that way they
could not find the horses. They looked for them again, going around
among the other horses, but they could not find them. The horses touched
each other, they were so thick.
Then Tobatc'istcini said, “Naiyenezgani, why do you act so? Is your mind
gone? You say you met your father yesterday and that you spent the day
going around the horses. He took them out of the herd, and away from
you.”
Naiyenezgani caught a black stallion and the other brother a sorrel
gelding. When they led them to the camp their mother asked
Tobatc'istcini why he had caught a sorrel and told him to turn him loose
and catch a white gelding. She said the gray and sorrel horses were made
for them and that they were well trained the day before. She told them
to hurry and drive the horses in. Tobatc'istcini rode the sorrel horse
back and unsaddled it. He then caught a white horse and drove the gray
horses back to the camp.[23]
“Let us go,” he said to his brother. They mounted the horses and rode
along. Their mother spoke to them, “My boys, take off that yellow saddle
and put on a white one.” When they came riding back where their mother
was, a horse whinneyed. It sounded like the voice of the gray stallion
that used to be his horse. Another horse whinneyed in this direction and
the voice was like that of the sorrel mare. They knew their horses when
they whinneyed and one said to the other, “Brother, those are our horses
whinneying but we cannot do anything about it.”[24] “Let us hurry,” the
other said. They rode toward the herd of horses but the horses started
to run and the herd broke up. While they were looking they ran where
their horses whinneyed. Their fly told them that the horses had already
run into the enclosure and that the four doors were shut. They heard
them whinneying far away. Their fly said the horses were already in
their stable, but they still whinneyed. They drove the other horses near
the camp. The older brother told the people to form in a line around the
horses. He said they were going to stake out horses for them. The people
replied that they had no ropes, that only the two brothers had them.
They asked the brothers to make ropes for them. They were told to wait
while they returned where the horses used to be. They told them that
they would have ropes the next day. The brothers went in different
directions, calling to each other. They met and sent their fly to the
Sun because the people were without ropes. He told his brother to go
back where he had been staying. He directed him also to take the bridle
off and to leave the rope as it was, tied to the saddle. “When the Sun
is in the middle of the sky we will drive the horses back. Although it
is late the Sun will be in the same place.[25] He (the Sun) may give us
something,” he said.
The fly returned and reported: “Your horse was standing behind him. He
sat watching where the stallions were fighting each other. He kept
looking at them and then he went a little way.”
The Sun's disk was yellow as at sunset. He looked down four times. The
yellow beams struck under his raised knees. From the other side they
also streamed toward him. Nothing happened, and he got up and went to
his horse. When he put his foot in the stirrup and mounted, ropes were
tied in four places to the saddle strings where there had been no ropes
before. Both saddles were that way. They both mounted together and their
horses pawed the ground and snorted. He rode back to the camp, loping,
and the other horses strung out behind him. The other brother was
running his horse on the other side. They stopped near the camp. The
horses were all lined up facing him. He called to the one on horseback,
“Come here.” He rode up to him and he asked how many ropes there were.
The other replied he did not know for he had not counted them, and
inquired of the other how many ropes he had. The first speaker replied
that he did not know. Then the younger brother said the other should
catch the horses for them and lead them out while he remained on his
horse where he was. The other brother then rode among the horses and
caught a mare. He led the horse out and gave the rope to one of the men.
He rode back among the horses and caught a stallion. When he had caught
six horses, the ropes were all gone. He beckoned with his hand and his
brother rode up to him. “Had you only six ropes?” he asked. “Yes, I only
had six and I have caught six horses. Now, take your turn and I will
remain here on horseback.” The second brother caught the horses and
reported that he had chosen the better horses. The horses were all good
but some of them looked to be small.
They told the people there were only seven saddles and that so many of
the men might have saddles, but that the others must ride around
bareback for the present. He told them that some time they might have
saddles because the Sun knew of their need and he himself knew it. He
instructed them to tie out their horses close by. He said if they heard
the horses nickering they would know that the stallions were covering
the mares. They would also know the colts when they were foaled. If they
turned their horses loose they might not know them. The ropes he said
would guard their horses for them. They would now drive back the other
horses while those who had received horses staked theirs out.
He drove the horses away and hung his bridle up. The other one he laid
in another direction. He took the saddle and everything else back to the
camp. They came back to the camp in the middle of the night but they did
not know it was night because the Sun had not moved.
When two days had passed two men came. There were many horses where they
had passed. They reported that something was running around the other
side of this large mountain. They did not know what it was, nor to whom
it belonged. They wondered what was meant and sent their fly to find
out. He flew away and came back almost immediately. He said it was true.
On the ridge beyond the mountain he saw horse tracks and a trail with
dust as fine as flour.
One of the brothers asked his mother to cook for the men quickly. It was
while they were eating that the fly reported. “Fly back there,” he
directed him. He told the visitors to remain, for they were no doubt
tired. They went back where the bridle was lying. They took off the rope
and hung it toward the east. They spoke to the bridle asking that the
horses, wherever they went, should come back together during the night.
The visitors were as the two brothers had been. They had no eyelashes or
eyebrows. Their ears were round and their heads were smooth. There were
webs between their fingers and toes. When they were asked whence they
came they replied that they had assumed there were people living
somewhere. Their own people had been killed off by something until only
the two were left. They saved themselves at night by digging a trench
and covering it with a large rock. When they started away, one of the
brothers asked where they were going. They replied that they did not
know where they were going but preferred not to stay where they were.
They said they did not like to be with many peoples. They preferred
staying there with their present hosts. Naiyenezgani asked them to tell
their story during the night.
When night came, he called four men to come and listen to what the
visitors were about to tell. He asked each of the four men to question
the guests. “What is the country called where you live and what kind of
thing is killing your people?” he asked. “Tell us about it.”
“The place where we live is called _danagogai_, plain. Something has
been killing our kinsfolk. It has been killing people everywhere on the
earth. We do not know what to do,” one of them replied. Naiyenezgani
told another of the men to question them. He asked if it were really
true that they had been living in that place, saying he did not believe
what the other had said. One of the guests replied that it was true. He
said they did not know how to tell untruths and that it was not right to
do so. “While we are here in camp it will kill someone.” He added, “I
have finished.” The second questioner said, “Why did you tell us this?
We are uneasy about it.” They replied that they were afraid of it and
therefore came there where they intended to live with them.
Naiyenezgani called upon a third man to question them. “Why did you
leave a trail for them?” he inquired. “When your kinsfolk were all
killed, why did you come to us leaving a trail?” The same man spoke
again. He directed that the next day a sweatbath should be prepared that
they should take a bath with the two visitors.
“You said the horses had gone far away. I presume they have already come
together again,” he said. “These some-kind-of-things you said were going
away we call horses. That is all I have to say.” “These two will speak
to you,” one of the company said.
“I cannot promise that I will kill that thing which has been killing
your people. Hurry to build the sweatlodge he mentioned,” Tobatc'istcini
said. “Make the sweatbath: we are going for the horses,” he added.
During the night the horses had come together. One bridle was lying at
the east and the other at the west. They told the horses they must all
stay there together. When the brothers returned the sweatlodge was built
and the stones were on the fire. Tobatc'istcini directed that the men
should stand in line while four of them should go into the bath four
times. He said that when they had come out the fourth time the visitors
would be like themselves. “You built this sweatbath, but it belongs to
the Sun,” he told them. When he (Naiyenezgani) went in with them the
fourth time he asked them where the thing was living which was killing
them. The visitors replied that he lived down this way, pointing toward
the west. “The one that has killed all of our people has something long
for a weapon,” he added. Naiyenezgani said, “Well, he has been killing
you.” When they came out the fourth time they all looked alike. They ate
and after the meal the brothers told them all to remain there while they
went to yonder white mountain ridge to look beyond. He looked at the
Sun.
They landed far away on the mountain ridge.[26] Beyond that mountain
they went to another. There was a plain on which a mountain was
standing. They landed next on that mountain. Tobatc'istcini said,
“Brother, is the dangerous thing feared by you? If you are afraid, I am
afraid. If you are not afraid neither am I afraid. You are the elder, I
am the younger.”
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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
The Black Gan then went to the sick man and made his eyes good again.
Brown Gan went to him and fixed his arms. The Gan whose face is half
covered fixed his back. On this side (north) Red Gan restored his legs.
The man was well again, and danced among the others. They danced four
nights and the morning after, the Gans and men stood with their little
fingers interlocked; first a man and then a Gan; a man and then a Gan; a
man and then a Gan. Thus they formed a circle, standing in a line
alternating, with their little fingers interlocked. They danced until it
grew light and then the dance began to move away toward the sunrise. Old
men and old women were lying down nearby. The dancing people kept moving
away toward the east. The old women and old men ran after them. They
were dancing on the ground and then began to move up higher and higher
in the air. The Indians ran after them but the Indians who were dancing
went up with the dance. They could hear the sound of the dancing up
there and the songs. They moved away to the Sun. He sent them where they
do not die. They are still living there, I suppose. They are the people
who do not die.
-----
Footnote 48:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett, February, 1910.
RELEASING THE DEER.[49]
Ganisk'ide[50] was the only one who owned deer. He was the only one who
brought them home and who ate their flesh. He gave none of the meat to
the people who lived near him.
Ravens, who were then people, proposed that they make a puppy and desert
it. They did this; they moved away and left a puppy lying there. When
the children of Ganisk'ide went where the people had moved away, they
found the puppy. They took it up and carried it home.
Ganisk'ide told the children to throw the puppy away, but when they
objected, he told them to try the dog's eyes by holding fire in front of
them. When they brought the fire near the dog's eyes it cried, “gai gai
gai.” “It is a real dog,” Ganisk'ide said. “You may take him behind the
stone door where the deer are enclosed and let him eat the entrails.”
When the children had taken the dog behind this door he became a man
again. He moved the stone to one side and the deer that were inside ran
out. Ganisk'ide called to his wife from the doorway to touch the
nostrils of the deer with her odorous secretions. She touched each of
the deer on the nose as they ran by her and they received the sense of
smell. They ran away from her.
“You said it was a dog,” he said to his children with whom he was angry,
“but he turned them out for us.” The deer scattered all over the earth.
-----
Footnote 49:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett.
This is a very widely distributed tale. The owner of the animals is
usually Raven or Crow. See this series, vol. 8, 212-4; Russell, 259;
Wissler and Duvall, 50-53; Kroeber, 65; this series, vol. 10, 250-251.
Footnote 50:
Ganisk'ide is a deity known to the Navajo, Matthews, 37, 244.
DEER WOMAN.[51]
After he married, they went on a hunting trip. When they had established
camp where they were to get the deer meat, the man went out to hunt, but
the woman stayed at the camp. As the husband left, he said, if anyone
came from the north, that would be himself, but if someone came from the
east it would be someone else.
Then Ganłjine came there carrying a deer mask in his hand which he put
on the brush of which the camp was made, and sat down by the fire. The
deer mask was eating as if it were alive and it made a noise like a
deer. Ganłjine told the woman to put on the thing which was lying there.
She replied that a deer mask was something to be afraid of. “Put it on
and let me look at it,” he insisted. “Will it be all right?” she asked
him. He told her to put it on anyway, and stand at one side so he could
look at it. She put it on and stood at the place designated in the
posture of a deer.
He threw a turquoise ring on her, and she became like a deer as far as
her neck. Then he threw a ring of _bacinϵ_ on her and an additional
portion of her body changed to a deer. Next he threw a ring of
_tcϵłtcϵϵ_, and last, one of _yołgai_. She was then completely like a
deer and walked away, wiggling her tail.
Toward the east there are mountains called Iłijgo. There are four
mountains standing in a line, one back of the other. She who used to be
a woman and Ganłjine went there together. They were mating as they went
along, as could be told from the tracks. Deer tracks were in one place
and nearby, other deer tracks, but on one side a man's tracks. They went
toward the east.
When the husband came back he saw by the tracks that a man had visited
the camp and had gone away with his wife. He went back to the settlement
and told them that the woman with whom he had gone to hunt had gone off,
leaving human tracks on one side and on the other side like a deer.
The people went in a company to the place where the man had camped and
commenced following the tracks that were human on one side and deer-like
on the other. While being trailed they ran from those who were following
them, who ran after them, chasing them around until the one who had been
a woman was worn out. They overtook her and threw on her a ring of
turquoise, followed by one of _bacinϵ_ and then one of _tcϵłtcϵϵ_, and
finally one of _yołgai_. As these rings fell on her she became
progressively human in shape. When she had become a human being again,
they took her back to the settlement. When it was time for deer to run
again, she became a deer once more, and then became a person again.
When thunder was heard, they made a camp and went to hunt little fawns
which they were bringing into the camp. This woman who had turned into a
deer had little fawns which she had borne for a deer. She went around
among the houses where the fawns were being brought in and found her own
lying there dead. An Indian had killed them both and had brought them
in. When she learned a man had brought in pretty fawns, with yellow
around their eyes, she ran there and commenced to cry.
She spoke, saying that the deer they should see along the trail where
she went with her children would be herself and that they should pray to
her.
-----
Footnote 51:
Told by Frank Crockett's father following the preceding story so
closely as to make its separation a matter of doubt. A fuller version
was obtained from a San Carlos, p. 49, above.
THE GAMBLER WHO SECURED THE WATER-CEREMONY.[52]
A boy started playing _najonc_ and lost his arrows, his moccasins, his
breechcloth, his shirt, his headband, his hair, his eyebrows, and his
eyelashes. When he returned home so divested, his mother told him to go
away somewhere that she might not see him again.
He started away, utterly naked as he was, and traveled until he came to
the edge of the ocean. He jumped into the water but was thrown back.[53]
He did this three times with the same result and then jumped in under
the water. When he looked back through the water it was white. He began
to eat all kinds of “worms” as he went along. He ate, also, some of the
green growth floating on the water. They came with him to the house made
of water. The fly that sat inside his ear gave him information and
advice. All the water people and the fog people went with him;
Water-old-man was among them and Water-youth with a downy feather on the
crown of his head. He was sent down that way with a message.[54] They
sent him where the black blanket of water is spread down.
“Over there he is running along,” someone said. “Now to you they are
starting, Water-youths, to you they are starting. Yonder we are coming,
Water-youths are coming,” he said. “They are coming right up the stream.
“Fog-youths are coming, right in front of the fog they are coming.
“Where the water stands straight up, next to him, the water people are
coming to us. With water-downy-feathers as their feathers they are
coming to us; holding the lightning in their hands they are coming to
us.
“Where the fog stands straight up, standing next to me, they come to
us,” he said. “Fog-youths come to us,” he said. “At the end of the
water, they come to us. Having downy feathers of fog they come to us;
holding the lightning in their hands they come to us.”[55]
The one who became water came by the house made of fog and water. “Where
is the place called 'House-of-water'?” he asked. “This place is called
'House-of-water'” the water people replied. His monitor, fly, told him
they were not telling him the truth. He came to the house made of water.
“Where is the place called 'House-of-water'?” he asked. It was Water
Chief to whom he came. “It is called 'Water-house' right here,” he
replied. His fly told him that was correct; that 'Water-house' was
there.
Two vessels filled with water which was boiling, were by the fire.
“Drink all there is in one of the vessels,” he was told by Water Chief.
He drank the contents of one vessel and then vomited. He was saying,
“wa, wa,” as he vomited. He threw up all of the underwater “worms.”
They bathed him with the contents of the other vessel. They commenced to
dance and danced for twelve nights without sleeping. When they had
danced twelve nights without his falling asleep they told him he might
go home.
Then Naiyenezgani danced there among them. His hat was white on top. He
held his hand outspread over him as he stood by him. Water-old-man, too,
danced among them. Water-house was on this side.
“Water-youths all came here where they were dancing. With their downy
feathers of water they came there. They came to the dance ground holding
lightning in their hands.
“From 'House-made-of-fog,' Fog-girls came where they danced having their
downy feathers of fog. They held lightning in their hands.
“Water-youths were behind them, pretty, they were behind them; having
their downy feathers of water, they were behind them. Holding lightning
in their hands, they were all behind them.
“The Fog-girls came from the house made of fog. Having downy feathers of
fog, they danced with fog. All holding lightning in their hands, the
dance being made of fog they started to dance with him.
“They danced with the boy who became water.”
Naiyenezgani danced among them. When they were looking somewhere else
Naiyenezgani became a baby again, and was tied in a basket cradle. The
attention of the people was attracted elsewhere and when they saw
Naiyenezgani again he was standing among the Water-maidens to whom he
did various things.
Tobatc'istcini, too, was tied as a baby, then the two men did various
things to them. The twelve nights had passed without anyone sleeping. He
stood between the Water-maidens. The men from a distance made a circle
and danced. The Water-people danced with him. The Fog-people danced with
him.
The Sun was present there. From so great a height[56] he looked down on
them. They danced in his presence. They danced, too, in the presence of
the Moon. When twelve nights had passed and it was the twelfth morning
he went to sleep. Far off, a Water-maiden stood. He, who became water,
stood here and there stood a Fog-maiden. When twelve nights had passed
he fell asleep. He loved this one. They shouted to him saying, “You are
falling asleep.” The one standing behind him stepped by his foot and he
fell against him.
Bił'olisn was there where they were dancing.
“He took her away, where the land is beautiful with corn.
“Fog-maiden; where the land is beautiful with pumpkins.
“Bił'olisn; where the land is beautiful with large corn, they two
went.
“Fog-maiden; where the land is beautiful with large pumpkins, they
two went.
“Bił'olisn; where the land is beautiful with large corn, they two
sat down.
“Fog-maiden; where the land is beautiful with large pumpkins, they
two sat down.
“Bił'olisn; where the land is beautiful with large corn, they two
lay down.
“Fog-maiden; where the land is beautiful with pumpkins, they two lay
down.
“At the east where the black water lies, stands the large corn, with
staying roots, its large stalk, its red silk, its long leaves, its
tassel dark and spreading, on which there is dew.
“At the sunset, where the yellow water lies, stands the large pumpkin
with its tendrils, its long stem, its wide leaves, its yellow top on
which there is pollen.”[57]
This all happened where the man turned to water. He came back here where
people were living. His mother had her hair cut off and was weeping for
him. He came back at the end of a year. His younger brother was walking
outdoors and saw him. When he saw him coming back he said, “Mother, over
there my brother is returning.” “Evil one,[58] why do you say that?” she
replied. “I am telling the truth, my brother is coming. Come here and
look,” the boy said. She came out and found it was true. She called him
her son, and told him she had been having a hard time and had cried on
his account.
He went and hunted deer in company with his brother. He asked his
brother to hunt in a certain direction and circle around to him again.
There were thunder showers. The young man was sitting by himself. In one
direction it was raining, it was black with the falling rain.
“I wish I might drink water again on top where black rain stands up. I
wish I might drink water again on top where the water stands up.” His
brother returned and surprised him while he was still singing.
They went back again to the house and the boy told them that his brother
had been singing. He was told there were no songs and that he was not
speaking the truth. He reaffirmed his statement. He asked that a
sweathouse be built. When it was ready the boys went in and were singing
inside. The young man who had been turned into water started to sing the
water songs. Inside he wove lightning together again. There had been no
water songs and now they existed. Thus, there came to be medicinemen for
water.
-----
Footnote 52:
Told by Frank Crockett's father who practised the ceremony. It is for
the recovery of those who have been made ill by the floods due to
thunderstorms.
Footnote 53:
A gambler made desperate by his losses is the hero of a Navajo
(Matthews, 160) and a Jicarilla story (This series, vol. 8, 214).
Footnote 54:
A messenger wears a downy feather tied at the crown of his head and is
protected by it on his journey. It serves as a safe conduct.
Footnote 55:
These four paragraphs appear to contain the words of songs.
Footnote 56:
As high as a man's head.
Footnote 57:
Clearly a song.
Footnote 58:
Because one supposedly dead was being mentioned to a near relative.
THE MAN WHO VISITED THE SKY WITH THE EAGLES.[59]
Long ago, there was a man who had a wife and two children, both boys. He
went with Coyote on a hunting trip and camped near where they expected
to secure game. He went out to hunt in the morning; and Coyote also went
by himself and, as he was walking along, he came where there was an
eagle's nest on a point of rock jutting out in the middle of a high
cliff. There were young eagles in the nest.
Coyote returned to the camp and reported to the hunter that he had seen
young eagles in a nest. Saying he wished some good feathers for
feathering arrows, he asked the other man to lower him from the top of
the cliff to the nest. When they had come to the place, Coyote asked the
other man to allow himself to be lowered and to throw the feathers down
for him. Coyote lowered him, asking if he had come to the young eagles.
The reply was, “Not yet.” A little later, the same question was repeated
and the answer this time was, “Yes.” Coyote then let the rope fall on
the man saying, “Cousin, she who was your wife will be mine.”
The man then sat with the young eagles. He asked what sort of weather
prevailed when their father returned. They replied that a “male” rain
fell.[60] Soon a “male” rain fell and the father of the young eagles
flew back in the rain. When he came where the man was sitting with the
young eagles, he asked who was there. The man replied that Coyote had
lowered him and that he was hovering his children for him. The male bird
told him he might remain there and flew off.
The man then asked the young birds in what sort of weather their mother
came back. They said she returned when a “female” rain was falling. Soon
a “female” rain fell and the eagle's wife returned. She asked the man
who he was; he told her that Coyote had lowered him down there and that
he was staying with her children. Now she told him he might remain there
and departed.
The male bird came back accompanied by a “male” rain. He brought with
him a water vessel made of turquoise and bade the man drink. He drank
and the water was not exhausted although the vessel of turquoise was
very small.[61]
Accompanied by a “female” rain the female bird returned and perched
nearby. She put down a horn vessel of boiled corn and invited the man to
eat it. It was a small vessel, but it was not empty when he had finished
his meal.
She flew away again and after four days the eagle people all assembled.
They gave him an eagle shirt and instructed him to do as they did. He
put on the shirt and flew a little way with it. He put on one shirt
after another and flew farther and farther each time, four times. He was
a man but he became an eagle.
“Where am I going?” he asked.
“Where the black mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go
up.
In the shadow of his dark wings, I come.
“Where the blue mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go up.
In the shadow of his blue wings, I come.
“Where the yellow mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go
up.
In the shadow of the yellow wings, I come.
“Where the white mirage is located at the center of the sky, I go
up.
In the shadow of the white wings, I come,” he sang.
“Between the two who sit on the white sky, I go up. Where the white
weeds tower up, white on the sky at its center, I go up,” he
sang.
“Where the dark houses of the eagles project, I come,” he sang.
“Where the blue houses of eagles project, I go up.
“Where the red houses of the eagles project, I go up.
“Where the white houses of the eagles project, I go up,” he sang.
He lay down where there were no habitations. They asked him in vain to
come inside the building, for soon the person with a skull that kills
would come.
Saying he would remain there, he refused, and lay down. In the night, he
heard the one with a skull that kills coming. He took up a stone and hit
him with it as he walked by and killed him. He also killed the bees that
had caused the eagles to die out by stinging them. He took the bees from
their nests and killed them all. He killed, too, the wasps that lived in
rocks, and all the yellow jackets. The tumble weeds, also, were killing
the eagles by rolling on them. He beat these weeds with a stick and
destroyed them.
He inquired of an old eagle woman where others were living. She told him
of wood-rats which have many houses and bring back much material when
they go abroad. He went where cactus was standing and when night came,
lay down to sleep. He heard the sound of people shouting toward the
east. They were saying, “Down here.” They were chasing an insect called
_agetdlic_. He killed it.
The stars were people and were coming to get arrows. Those who were
running after _agetdlic_ jumped over his body one by one as they reached
it. The last one who was running succeeded in jumping over the body but
fell back on it.
They removed the skin, cut up meat, tied it up, and put it on the man's
back for him to carry. They warned him against looking back. He started
away with it and carried it until he came to the top of a hill.
Wondering why he had been told not to look back, he did so and fell over
backward. He went to the camp of the eagles and told them his load was
on the hill. They went to get the load and brought it to the camp. There
was a big pile of the meat which they brought back. “This was what he
meant,” they said. It was sunset by the time they brought the meat back.
“The man is a good helper,” they said. “He has killed for us all those
who used to kill us.” The man then said he was going home, and the eagle
people told him he might do so. They told him, though, that if he was
afraid four times to fly down, that he could not go down. He was afraid
the fourth time and came back saying that he would start home again on
the fourth day.
They went with him to the place where the trail came up. He was afraid
three times, but when it was to be the fourth time he flew down.
“Where the white mirage is located in the center of the sky he rested;
where the yellow house stands, resting in its shadow he sat down.
“The blue house, standing at the center of the sky; resting in the shade
he sat down again.
“The black house, standing at the center of the sky; resting in its
shade he sat down again.”
From there he flew down and lit on the earth. He alighted on a tree near
which sat the Coyote who had lowered him. He was saying he would shoot
the eagle there and get feathers to fix his arrow's. When Coyote tried
to steal up close under him the eagle flew away to his house and became
a man again. Those, who used to be his children had been renamed, “They
grew up by eating the neck.” Coyote had punched their eyes out. “He did
it with an awl,” they told their father.
When he came back from hunting, his two children had been all right. He
heard him bring his load as he came back. He was saying,
“Raised-with-neck-meat, come and meet me.” “Do not go there,” he told
his sons. Coyote kept shouting as he came. He brought the load there and
threw it down. He called out. “Good, Cousin. You have come back? I took
good care of your children.”
The man who had been with the eagles then told his wife to put four
stones on the fire. She put them on the fire to heat. She put one here
and one here. “Put two of the stones in your mouth and put your feet on
these two,” he told Coyote. Coyote did as he was told to, but ran only a
little way before his tail fell out. His wife had an ill odor from being
with Coyote. He beat among Coyote's children with a stick.
He did not like living on the earth. He placed eagle plumes in a row
which multiplied fourfold. With the aid of these the man became an
eagle. The people living here came to have medicinemen with power from
eagles. He was a man but became an eagle and is now in the sky above.
-----
Footnote 59:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett in February, 1910. For the
distribution of this story see p. 67 above. It was said to be the myth
of a ceremony used to cure one who gets ill from eagle feathers when
he uses them to put on his arrows.
Footnote 60:
This method of knowing when the parents are to return is found in
another myth, p. 17 above.
Footnote 61:
A similar supplying of his wants is in the Navajo account, Matthews,
199.
HE WHO BECAME A SNAKE.[62]
A man (Naiyenezgani) was living alone. He brought wood there and built a
fire. He danced on rawhide against white men and then went to war. He
came where the white people were and killed a white woman. He raised up
her skirt with a stick and Gila monster was there. “Let that be your
name,” he said and Gila Monster was called _łenellai_. The two of them
started back and came to a mountain called Bitcilł'ehe. From there they
went back and came to a place called Tsitena'a. A porcupine was there
and one of the men said, “My cousin, a porcupine lies here.” They killed
it and buried it in the ashes of the fire. At midnight he uncovered it,
but Naiyenezgani did not eat of it, only his partner. “My cousin, it
tastes like red peppers, taste it,” he said. They lay down again and
went to sleep. The next morning there were traces where the one who had
eaten had crawled into the water as a snake. Naiyenezgani went back from
there and in the yellow light of evening came back to Tatakawa,[63]
saying, “Since early this morning I came from Tsitena'a.” When all the
people had come together they asked, “What place is called that?”
“Big-hawk-old-man says he has been all over earth and seen
everything.[64] Send for him,” they said. When he was summoned, he came
walking with his cane and sat down. “You are accustomed to say you have
seen every place on earth. A man says he has come from Tsitena'a since
early this morning,” they told him. “Well, it is not near. I flew from
there in ten days and when I came here the yellow light of sunset was
over the earth.”
Naiyenezgani then said, “He stayed with me last night and he ate
something. It seems he turned into a snake and crawled in the river.”
All the Eagle people, Black Whirlwind, the Sun, the Moon, and the Gan
people all started toward Tsitena'a. When they came there, in the
presence of the Sun and Moon, Black Gan rolled a turquoise hoop into the
water. The water of the river rose up so much. Then Ganłbaiye rolled a
hoop of _bacinϵ_ into the water. Next Gan with his face half covered
rolled a hoop of _tsϵłtcϵϵ_ in the water and the river was lifted up so
much (about a yard). Finally, Ganłtci' rolled a hoop of _yołgai_ and the
water was high enough above the river bed that a man could walk under
it.[65]
They all entered the bed of the river and followed the man who had
turned into a snake. They finally overtook him. There was a snake on
the other side which they concluded was the one who had been a man. A
turquoise hoop was rolled toward him and it jumped over his neck. From
the neck up he took on the appearance of a man. A hoop of _bacinϵ_ was
next rolled and it fell to the waist. Next a loop of _tcϵłtcϵϵ_ was
rolled which jumped on the man and fell to the hips, above which he
took the form of a man. Finally a hoop of _yołgai_ was rolled, and his
entire body became human. Then they took him by the hand and led him
back. They danced for him twelve nights and he was restored as a man.
During the twelve nights, no one was allowed to sleep, but someone did
fall asleep. The one who had turned into a snake began to sing, “I am
going up. I am going up where the sky comes together,” he said as he
sang. He was no longer seen where he had been standing. The man had a
sister who began to sing. “Truly, I am going where it is called,
mesquites-come-together.” She was no longer where she had been
standing.
She is the one who crawls around here in the summertime. The female
lives below; the male lives above.[66]
It was here the Indians secured the supernatural power. Naiyenezgani
alone had the _najonc_ poles. He alone played with them. There were two
of the poles.
My yucca fruits lie this way.
-----
Footnote 62:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett in February, 1910. This is the
myth upon which the ceremony for curing one bitten by a snake rests.
For the San Carlos version see p. 64 above.
Footnote 63:
A valley on Cedar Creek in the White Mountain country.
Footnote 64:
This knowledge of geography by a bird-old-man is found in a San Carlos
story, p. 21.
Footnote 65:
The deities and materials have definite associations with the
world-quarters. There are certain variations in this association.
Footnote 66:
This refers to rattlesnakes under the mesquite bushes where they are
said to be frequently encountered. The male above is probably the
lightning which from this narrative appears connected with the
porcupine.
THE HUNTER WHO SECURED THE BEAR CEREMONY.[67]
A man was out hunting when there was snow on the ground. As he walked
along a hillside he slipped and fell off. Below was a bear's den and he
fell right into it. When the female bear discovered him she jumped
around and said, “Wau, wau, wau, wau.” “Please do not act like that,
grandmother,” he said. “It seems I fell in here.” He remained there four
days without anything to eat. “Are you not hungry?” the bear asked. “I
am hungry,” he replied, “but what is there I can eat?” She shook herself
and cactus fruit rained down from her. After a second period of fasting,
the same question was asked and the same reply given. When the bear
shook herself, juniper berries fell. The third time it was white oak
acorns, and the fourth time, manzanita berries.
After that she said there were two persons living across the valley and
that they would go there to visit. She also said the visit would be
dangerous, for she had in mind bears and a bear's camp. The bear told
the man to remain between her hind legs during the period of danger.
When they entered the bear's house and the hosts became aware of the
man's presence, they became aroused and growled, “Wau, wau, wau.” The
man remained between the hind legs of his companion who reached around
with her front legs and defended him. “He has been with me a long time
and he is our friend,” she said to the others.
Next they all went to a camp where there were three bears and there
again the same things happened and the same expressions were used. From
there they went with him to a camp where there were four bears. He was
protected at that camp as on the former occasions and was introduced as
a friend.
Accompanied by the bears, he went back to the camp at which he had first
arrived. He had been gone a year. He came back to his own people. From
this man there came to be bear songs and medicinemen with bear power.
-----
Footnote 67:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett in February, 1910.
THE CANNIBAL OWL.[68]
Owl was a person. He lived by eating people, carrying off the small
children in a large burden basket. He had a wife to whom he brought
them, saying to her, “Boil them.” When they were cooked he ate them.
There were some people who were living in a large house made of white
cactus. Owl poked a pole in after them. The people inside held on to the
pole. Owl pulled on it and the people held to it. They let go suddenly
and Owl fell over backwards. He took two children on his back and
carried them away toward the camp. He put the basket down with the
children in it and went some distance away to urinate. While he was
gone, the children put a large stone in the basket and defiled it. Owl
started away again with his load, but when he passed under the limb of a
tree the children caught hold of it. They turned into downy feathers and
were blown away by the wind. “Boys, downy feathers are being blown about
over there,” he said. They had been persons, but now they were downy
feathers. Owl brought his load to the house for his wife. She took a
knife and tried to cut across the stone with it. “It is a stone,” she
said. He took it to his son-in-law. “It is a stone with manure on it,”
he said. “That is its gall,” he replied. Owl went back to his wife. (The
story was interrupted at this point.)
-----
Footnote 68:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett, February, 1910.
THE DOINGS OF COYOTE.[69]
Long ago, Coyote was told that the people were dying. He tied together a
hairbrush, a wooden skin-dresser, and a stone pestle, and threw them in
the water. “If these float let them come back to life,” he said. They
sank and, therefore, the dead did not come back.[70]
Snow fell. It rained down in the form of flour. This same Coyote said,
“I chewed ice,” and it became ice.
Also the horns of deer were tallow. Coyote again said, “I chew bones.”
Coyote became ill. He had a handsome daughter. When he became ill, he
told his wife to throw him away. He said their daughter was to be given
to a man with a panther-skin quiver on his back who would come to play
_najonc_. This man, he said, would also have a prairie-dog in his hand.
When Coyote was dead his wife gave the daughter to the man described by
Coyote and he married her. It was Coyote himself, who married his own
daughter. He had her hunt his lice. On the back of his head was a large
wart. He told her that the lice always stay on this side, indicating a
portion of his head remote from the wart. While she was looking for his
lice, her husband fell asleep. Wondering why he always spoke as he did,
she looked on the back of his head. There was a wart there. She slipped
his head off her lap while he was asleep and going to her mother told
her that the man was her father; that he had a wart on the back of his
head. She picked up a large stone and was about to strike him on the
crown of his head when he saw her shadow. He jumped, ran out, and
trotted off toward the east. Whenever he came where there were camps
people reviled him as the man who had his own daughter for his wife.
They heard him saying “ci, ci, ci.” They referred to him as the scabby
one and hit him. He cried “wai” and turned from human form into a
coyote.
Coyote was driving some mules. He smothered five of the mules. He
wondered what smothered them. “Hurry,” he said, “skin their throats.
This place will be called Coyote Springs,” he said.
When coyotes were people they all drank whiskey and ran about everywhere
shouting. When they became coyotes, they barked.
-----
Footnote 69:
Told by the father of Frank Crockett.
Footnote 70:
This incident is generally known over western North America. Professor
Boas has discussed its distribution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
FRANCISCAN FATHERS, THE. An
Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho
Language. St. Michaels, Arizona,
1910.
GODDARD, PLINY EARLE, (a)
Jicarilla Apache Texts
(Anthropological Papers, American
Museum of Natural History, vol.
VIII. New York, 1911.)
(b)
The Beaver Indians (Anthropological
Papers, American Museum of Natural
History, vol. X, part IV. New York,
1916.)
KROEBER, A. L. Gros
Ventre Myths and Tales
(Anthropological Papers, American
Museum of Natural History, vol. I,
part III. New York, 1907.)
MATTHEWS, WASHINGTON. Navaho
Legends (Memoirs, American Folk-Lore
Society, vol. V. New York, 1897.)
RUSSELL, FRANK. Myths
of the Jicarilla Apache (Journal of
American Folk-Lore, vol. XI, 1898.)
VOTH, H. R. The
Traditions of the Hopi (Publication
96, Anthropological Series, Field
Columbian Museum, vol. VIII.
Chicago, 1905.)
WISSLER, CLARK, AND DUVALL, D. C. Blackfoot
Mythology (Anthropological Papers,
American Museum of Natural History,
vol. II, part I. New York, 1908.)
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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