Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/165

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Navaho Origin Legend.
135

IV. GROWTH OF THE NAVAHO NATION.

375. Before Estsanatlehi left, she said to Yolkaí Estsán: "Now, younger sister, I must leave you. Think well what you would most like to do after I am gone." The younger sister replied: "I would most like to go back to Depĕ′ntsa, where our people came from." "Alas! you will be lonely there," said the elder sister. "You will want for some one around you to make a noise and keep you company." Still, when Estsanatlehi left, Yolkaí Estsán turned her face toward Depĕ′ntsa. She went with the two brothers as far as To‘yĕ′tli, and, when these stopped there, she set out alone for the mountains.

376. When she got to Depĕ′ntsa (the San Juan Mountains), she went first to a place lying east of Hadsinai (the Place of Emergence), named Dsĭlladĭltéhi; in an old ruined pueblo on its side she rested during the day, and at night she went to the top of the mountain to sleep. On the second day she went to a mountain south of the Place of Emergence, called Dsĭlĭ′ndĭltéhi; rested on the side of the mountain during the day, and on its top at night. She began now to feel lonely, and at night she thought of how men might be made to keep her company. She wandered round in thought during the third day, and on the third night she slept on top of Dsĭltagiĭltéhi, a mountain west of Hadsinaí. On the fourth day she walked around the Place of Emergence, and wandered into the old ruins she found there. On the fourth night she went to the top of Dsĭltínĭltéz, the mountain which lies to the north of the Place of Emergence, and there she rested, but did not sleep; for she thought all the time about her loneliness, and of how people might be made. On the fifth day she came down to the shores of the lake which surrounded the Place of Emergence, and built a shelter of brush. "I may as well stay here," she said to herself; "what does it avail that I wander round?" She sat up late that night thinking of her lonely condition. She felt that she could not stay there longer without companionship. She thought of her sister in the far west, of the Twelve People, of the gods that dwelt in the different mountains, and she thought she might do well to go and live with some of them.

377. The next morning she heard faintly, in the early dawn, the voice of Hastséyalti shouting his usual "Wu‘hu‘hu‘hú," in the far east. Four times the cry was uttered, each time louder and nearer. Immediately after the last call the god appeared. "Where did you save yourself?" he asked the White Shell Woman, meaning, "Where were you, that you escaped the anáye when they ravaged