Title: 36
Author: BROUSSARD

36	Colonial Period to 1700

Changing Woman and the Hero Twins after the Emergence of the People (Navajo)^1

The Navajos now removed to White Standing Rock, where, a few days after they arrived, they found on the ground a small turquoise image of a woman; this they preserved. Of late the monsters had been actively pursuing and devouring the people, and at the time this image was found there were only four persons remaining alive; these were an old man and woman and their two children, a young man and a young woman. Two days after the finding of the image, early in the morning, before they rose, they heard the voice of the Talking God, crying his call of "Wu'hu'hu'hu" so faint and far that they could scarcely hear it. After a while the call was repeated a second time, nearer and louder than at first. Again, after a brief silence, the call was heard for the third time, still nearer and still louder. The fourth call was loud and clear, as if sounded near at hand; as soon as it ceased, the shuffling tread of moc-casined feet was heard, and a moment later Talking God stood before them.
He told the four people to come up to the top of Tsolihi after twelve nights had passed, bringing with them the turquoise image they had found, and at once he de-

 
1.The Navajo Indians of the southwest UnitedStates migrated from northwestern Canada by about a.d. 1200. They came to the Southwest as a hunting and gathering people; they learned agriculture from the pueblo peoples and in the sixteenth century acquired livestock from the Spanish. Their religious customs are thus somewhat similar to the Hopi people

Native American Oral Narrative Changing Woman   

parted. They pondered deeply on his words, and every day they talked among themselves, wondering why Talking God had summoned them to the mountain.
   On the morning of the appointed day they ascended the mountain by a holy trail and on a level spot, near the summit, they met a party that awaited them there. they found there Talking God, Calling God, White Body (who came up from the lower world with the Navajos), the eleven brothers (of Maid Who Becomes a Bear), the Mirage Stone People, the Daylight People standing in the east, the Blue Sky People standing in the south, the Yellow Light People standing in the west, and the Darkness People standing in the north. White Body stood in the east among the Daylight People, bearing in his hand a small image of a woman wrought in white shell, about the same size and shape as the blue image which the Navajos bore.
Talking God laid down a sacred buckskin with its head toward the west. The Mi-rage Stone People laid on the buckskin, heads west, the two little images,—of turquoise and white shell,—a white and a yellow ear of corn, the Pollen Boy, and the Grasshopper Girl. On top of all these Talking God laid another sacred buckskin with its head to the east, and under this they now put Wind.
Then the assembled crowd stood so as to form a circle, leaving in the east an opening through which Talking God and Calling God might pass in and out, and they sang the sacred song of Blessingway. Four times the gods entered and raised the cover. When they raised it for the fourth time, the images and the ears of corn were found changed to living beings in human form: the turquoise image had become the woman Who Changes (or rejuvenates herself); the white shell image had become the white Shell Woman; the white ear of corn had become the White Corn Boy and the Yellow ear of corn, the Yellow Corn Girl. After the ceremony, White Body took Pollen Boy, Grasshopper Girl, White Corn Boy, and Yellow Corn Girl with him into Tsoli'hi; the rest of the assembly departed, and the two divine sisters, Changing Woman and White Shell Woman,^2 were left on the mountain alone.
   The women remained here four nights; on the fourth morning Changing Woman said: "Younger Sister, why should we remain here? Let us go to yonder high point and look around us." They went to the highest point of the mountain, and when they had been there several days Changing Woman said: "It is lonely here; we have no one to speak to but ourselves; we see nothing but that which rolls over our heads (the sun), and that which drops below us (a small dripping waterfall). I wonder if they can be people. I shall stay here and wait for the one in the morning, while you go down among the rocks and seek the other."
In the morning Changing Woman found a bare, flat rock and lay on it with her feet to the east, and the rising sun shone upon her. White Shell Woman went down where the dripping waters descended and allowed them to fall upon her. At noon the women met again on the mountain top and Changing Woman said to her sister: "It is sad to be so lonesome. How can we make people so that we may have others of our kind to talk to?" White Shell Woman answered: "Think, Elder Sister; perhaps after some days you may plan how this is to be done."

Changing Woman represents Nature as cyclical_—the seasons, the parts of a day, the ages of an individual life. White Shell Woman is not a separate individual, but Changing Woman in 

another form. In this version of the story, each conceives a son; yet, Changing Woman alone has conceived twins.

38   •   Colonial Period to 1700
Four days after this conversation White Shell Woman said: "Elder Sister, I feel something strange moving within me; what can it be?" and Changing Woman answered: "It is a child. It was for this that you lay under the waterfall. I feel, too, the motions of a child within me. It was for this that I let the sun shine upon me." Soon after the voice of Talking God was heard four times, as usual, and after the last call he and Water Sprinkler3 appeared. They came to prepare the women for the approaching delivery.
In four days more they felt the commencing throes of labor, and one said to the other: "I think my child is coming." She had scarcely spoken when the voice of the approaching god was heard, and soon Talking God and Water Sprinkler were seen approaching. The former was the accoucheur of Changing Woman, and the latter of White Shell Woman. To one woman a drag-rope of rainbow was given, to the other a drag-rope of sunbeam, and on these they pulled when in pain, as the Navajo woman now pulls on the rope. Changing Woman's child was born first. Talking God took it aside and washed it. He was glad, and laughed and made ironical motions as if he were cutting the baby in slices and throwing the slices away. They made for the children two baby-baskets, both alike; the foot-rests and the back battens were made of sun-beam, the hoods of rainbow, the side-strings of sheet lightning, and the lacing strings of zigzag lightning. One child they covered with the black cloud, and the other with the female rain.^4 They called the children grandchildren, and they left, promising to return at the end of four days.
When the gods returned at the end of four days, the boys had grown to be the size of ordinary boys of twelve years of age. The gods said to them: "Boys, we have come to have a race with you." So a race was arranged that should go all around a neighboring mountain, and the four started,—two boys and two gods. Before the long race was half done the boys, who ran fast, began to flag, and the gods, who were still fresh, got behind them and scourged the lads with twigs of mountain mahogany. Talking God won the race, and the boys came home rubbing their sore backs. When the gods left they promised to return at the end of another period of four days.
As soon as the gods were gone, the Wind whispered to the boys and told them that the old ones were not such fast runners, after all, and that if the boys would practice during the next four days they might win the coming race. So for four days they ran hard, many times daily around the neighboring mountain, and when the gods came back again the youths had grown to the full stature of manhood. In the second contest the gods began to flag and fall behind when half way round the mountain where the others had fallen behind in the first race, and here the boys got behind their elders and scourged the latter to increase their speed. The elder of the boys won this race, and when it was over the gods laughed and clapped their hands, for they were pleased with the spirit and prowess they witnessed.
The night after the race the boys lay down as usual to sleep; but hearing the women whispering together, they lay awake and listened. They strained their atten-

3. A holy being responsible for rain.
4. The fundamental principle of the   Navajo world is complementarity. All
things can be termed male or female
and are associated with colors and

the cardinal directions. Male rain is the dark thunderstorm; female rain is the light shower.

Native American Oral Narrative Changing Woman and the Hero Twins (Navajo)   •   39
tion, but could not hear a word of what was uttered. At length they rose, approached  the women, and said: "Mothers, of what do you speak?" and the women answered: "We speak of nothing." The boys then said: "Grandmothers, of what do you speak?" but the women again replied: "We speak of nothing." The boys then questioned: "Who are our fathers?" "You have no fathers," responded the women; "you are illegitimate." "Who are our fathers?" again demanded the boys, and the women answered: "The round cactus and the sitting cactus are your fathers."^5
Next day the women made rude bows of juniper wood, and arrows, such as children play with, and they said to the boys: "Go and play around with these, but do not go out of sight from our hut, and do not go to the east." Notwithstanding these warnings the boys went to the east the first day, and when they had travelled a good distance they saw an animal with brownish hair and a sharp nose. They drew their arrows and pointed them toward the sharp-nosed stranger; but before they could shoot he jumped down into a canyon and disappeared. When they returned home :hey told the women—addressing them as "Mother" and "Grandmother"—what they had seen. The women said: "That is Coyote which you saw. He is a spy for the monster Teelge^t.", . .^6 Alas, our children! What shall we do to make you hear us? What shall we do to save you? You would not listen to us. Now the spies of the alien gods in all quarters of the world have seen you. They will tell their chiefs, and soon the monsters will come here to devour you, as they have devoured all your kind be-:ore you."
The next morning the women made a corncake and laid it on the ashes to bake. Then White Shell Woman went out of the hogan, and, as she did so, she saw Yeitso,' the tallest and fiercest of the alien gods, approaching. She ran quickly back and gave the warning, and the women hid the boys under bundles and sticks. Yeitso came and sat down at the door, just as the women were taking the cake out of the ashes. "That cake is for me," said Yeitso. "How nice it smells!" "No," said Changing Woman, "it was not meant for your great maw." "I don't care," said Yeitso. "I would rather eat boys. Where are your boys? I have been told you have some here, and I have come to get them." "We have none," said Changing Woman. "All the boys have gone into the paunches of your people long ago." "No boys?" said the giant. "What, then, has made all the tracks around here?" "Oh! these tracks I have made for fun," replied the woman. "I am lonely here, and I make tracks so that I may fancy there are many  people around rne." She showed Yeitso how she could make similar tracks with her fist. He compared the two sets of tracks, seemed to be satisfied, and went away.
When he was gone, the White Shell Woman went up to the top of a neighbor-
ing hill to look around, and she beheld many of the anaye hastening in the direction
of her lodge. She returned speedily, and told her sister what she had seen. Changing

5. The mystery of the boys' paternity is linked to of the monsters they will slay, for they will discover that the Sun is the father of both the slayers and the slain.
6. This edition of the story eliminates three repetitions of this episode in which the Twins, who should be hiding from the monsters who are terrorizing the people, play in the open where they are observed 

 by spies for the monsters. Teelget is a monstrous, horned quadruped.
 7.The name means "the Great Fear." The monsters were conceived unnaturally in the underworld by women who had turned away from men. Each monster or obstacle the Twins overcome can be understood to represent certain kinds of fears.

40   •   Colonial Period to 1700
Woman took four colored hoops, and threw one toward each of the cardinal points,—a white one to the east, a blue one to the south, a yellow one to the west and a black one to the north. At once a great gale arose, blowing so fiercely in all directions from the hogan that none of the enemies could advance against it.
Next morning the boys got up before daybreak and stole away. Soon the women missed them, but could not trace them in the dark. When it was light enough to examine the ground the women went out to look for fresh tracks. They found four footprints of each of the boys, pointing in the direction of the mountain Dsilndotil, but more than four tracks they could not find. They came to the conclusion that the boys had taken a holy trail, so they gave up further search and returned to the lodge.
The boys travelled rapidly in the holy trail, and soon after sunrise, near Dsil -ndotil, they saw smoke arising from the ground. They went to the place where the smoke rose, and they found it came from the smoke-hole of a subterranean chamber. A ladder, black from smoke, projected through the hole. Looking down into the chamber they saw an old woman, the Spider Woman,^8 who glanced up at them and said: "Welcome, children. Enter. Who are you, and whence do you two come to-gether walking?" They made no answer, but descended the ladder. When they reached the floor she again spoke to them, asking: "Whither do you two go walking together?" "Nowhere in particular," they answered; "we came here because we had nowhere else to go." She asked this question four times, and each time she received a similar answer. Then she said: "Perhaps you would seek your father?" "Yes," they answered, "if we only knew the way to his dwelling." "Ah!" said the woman, "it is a long and dangerous way to the house of your father, the Sun. There are many of the monsters dwelling between here and there, and perhaps, when you get there, your father may not be glad to see you, and may punish you for coming. You must pass four places of danger,—the rocks that crush the traveller, the reeds that cut him to pieces, the cane cactuses that tear him to pieces, and the boiling sands that over- whelm him. But I shall give you something to subdue your enemies and preserve your lives." She gave them a charm, the feather of the alien gods, which consisted of a hoop with two life-feathers (feathers plucked from a living eagle) attached, and an- other life-feather to preserve their existence. She taught them also this magic formula, which, if repeated to their enemies, would subdue their anger: "Put your feet  down with pollen. Put your hands down with pollen. Put your head down   with pollen. Then your feet are pollen; your hands are pollen; your body is pollen;     your mind is pollen; your voice is pollen. The trail is beautiful. Be still."^9
Soon after leaving the house of Spider Woman, the boys came to the rocks that  crush.^10 There was here a narrow chasm between two high cliffs. When a traveller approached, the rocks would open wide apart, apparently to give him easy passage and invite him to enter; but as soon as he was within the cleft they would close like hands clapping and crush him to death. These rocks were really people; they thought

^8In southwestern Native literatures, Spider Woman is a grandmotherly figure whose great wisdom is often placed at the service of humanity.
9.This is a prayer for life and peace, symbolized

by pollen, which serves to bless their journey. 
10. '"These mythical places are also identified    with real locales in the Navajo world, so that the story accounts for how the landscape came to assume its present form.

Native American Oral Narrative Changing "Woman and the Hero Twins (Navajo)

41

like men: they were monsters. When the boys got to the rocks they lifted their feet as if about to enter the chasm, and the rocks opened to let them in. Then the boys put down their feet but withdrew them quickly. The rocks closed with a snap to crush them; but the boys remained safe on the outside. Thus four times did they deceive the rocks. When they had closed for the fourth time the rocks said: "Who are ye; whence come ye two together, and whither go ye?" "We are children of the Sun," answered the boys. "We come from Dsilndotil, and we go to seek the house of our father." Then they repeated the words the Spider Woman had taught them, and the rocks said: "Pass on to the house of your father." When next they ventured to step into the chasm the rocks did not close, and they passed safely on.
The boys kept on their way and soon came to a great plain covered with reeds that had great leaves on them as sharp as knives. When the boys came to the edge of the field of reeds, the latter opened, showing a clear passage through to the other side. The boys pretended to enter, but retreated, and as they did so the walls of reeds rushed together to kill them. Thus four times did they deceive the reeds. Then the reeds spoke to them, as the rocks had done; they answered and repeated the sacred words. "Pass on to the house of your father," said the reeds, and the boys passed on in safety.
The next danger they encountered was in the country covered with cane cac-tuses. These cactuses rushed at and tore to pieces whoever attempted to pass through them. When the boys came to the cactuses the latter opened their ranks to let the travellers pass on, as the reeds had done before. But the boys deceived them as they had deceived the reeds, and subdued them as they had subdued the reeds, and passed on in safety.
After they had passed the country of the cactus they came, in time, to the land
of the rising sands. Here was a great desert of sands that rose and whirled and boiled
like water in a pot, and overwhelmed the traveller who ventured among them. As the
boys approached, the sands became still more agitated and the boys did not dare
venture among them. "Who are ye?" said the sands, "and whence come ye?" "We
are children of the Sun, we came from Dsilndotil, and we go to seek the house of our
father." These words were four times said. Then the elder of the boys repeated 
his sacred formula; the sands subsided, saying: " Pass on to the house of your father, " 
and the boys continued on their journey over the desert of sands.
Soon after this adventure they approached the house of the Sun. As they came near the door they found the way guarded by two bears that crouched, one to the right and one to the left, their noses pointing toward one another. As the boys drew near, the bears rose, growled angrily, and acted as if about to attack the intruders; but the elder boy repeated the sacred words the Spider Woman had taught him, and when he came to the last words, "Be still," the bears crouched down again and lay still. The boys walked on. After passing the bears they encountered a pair of sentinel serpents, then a pair of sentinel winds, and, lastly, a pair of sentinel lightnings. As the boys advanced, all these guardians acted as if they would destroy them; but all were appeased with the words of prayer.
The house of the Sun God was built of turquoise; it was square like a pueblo house, and stood on the shore of a great water. When the boys entered they saw, sitting in the west, a woman; in the south, two handsome young men; and in the north, two handsome young women. The women gave a glance at the strangers and then

42   •   Colonial Period to 1700
looked down. The young men gazed at them more closely, and then, without spaa.-: ing, they rose, wrapped the strangers in four coverings of the sky, and laid them c: a shelf.
The boys had lain there quietly for some time when a rattle that hung over tr. door shook and one of the young women said: "Our father is coming." The ra::. shook four times, and soon after it shook the fourth time, the Sun Bearer entered h: house. He took the sun off his back and hung it up on a peg on the west wall of tr. room, where it shook and clanged for some time, going "da, tla, tla, da," till at las:: hung still.
Then the Sun Bearer turned to the woman and said, in an angry tone: "Who .:: those two who entered here to-day?" The woman made no answer and the you:: people looked at one another, but each feared to speak. Four times he asked th: question, and at length the woman said: "It would be well for you not to say :: much. Two young men came hither to-day, seeking their father. When you go abro.:; you always tell me that you visit nowhere, and that you have met no woman but:::; Whose sons, then, are these?" She pointed to the bundle on the shelf, and the ch_ dren smiled significantly at one another.
He took the bundle from the shelf. He first unrolled the robe of dawn \.:: which they were covered, then the robe of blue sky, next the robe of yellow even::: light, and lastly the robe of darkness. When he unrolled this the boys fell out on -.r. floor. He seized them, and threw them first upon great, sharp spikes of white s~ r that stood in the east; but they bounded back, unhurt, from these spikes, for :r_; held their life-feathers tightly all the while. He then threw them in turn on spikes turquoise in the south, on spikes of haliotis in the west, and spikes of black roc-: i the north; but they came uninjured from all these trials and the Sun Bearer saic: wish it were indeed true that they were my children."
He said then to the elder children—those who lived with him,—"Go out .;r_ prepare the sweat-house and heat for it four of the hardest boulders you can fir.: Heat a white, a blue, a yellow, and a black boulder." When the Winds heard this rr.r said: "He still seeks to kill his children. How shall we avert the danger?" The swe.;: house was built against a bank. Wind dug into the bank a hole behind the sudatcr and concealed the opening with a flat stone. Wind then whispered into the ears : the boys the secret of the hole and said: "Do not hide in the hole until you have :-r swered the questions of your father." The boys went into the sweat-house, the g:c_ hot boulders were put in, and the opening of the lodge was covered with the r>: _ sky-blankets. Then the Sun Bearer called out to the boys: "Are you hot?" and :r_; answered: "Yes, very hot." Then they crept into the hiding-place and lay the:: After a while the Sun Bearer came and poured water through the top ot :.-sweat-house on the stones, making them burst with a loud noise, and a great heat ,:r. steam was raised. But in time the stones cooled and the boys crept out of their hitiir.^ place into the sweat-house. The Sun Bearer came and asked again: "Are you ho:-hoping to get no reply; but the boys still answered: "Yes, very hot." Then he took :_-. coverings off the sweat-house and let the boys come out. He greeted them ir. friendly way and said: "Yes, these are my children," and yet he was thinking of o:~r ways by which he might destroy them if they were not.
The four sky-blankets were spread on the ground one over another, and :_-. four young men were made to sit on them, one behind another, facing the e^r

Native American Oral Narrative Changing Woman and the Hero Twins (Navajo)   •   43
My daughters, make these boys to look like my other sons," said the Sun Bearer. The young women went to the strangers, pulled their hair out long, and moulded their faces and forms so that they looked just like their brethren. Then Sun bade them all rise and enter the house. They rose and all went, in a procession, the two strangers last.
As they were about to enter the door they heard a voice whispering in their ears:
“St! Look at the ground." They looked down and beheld a spiny caterpillar, who, as they looked, spat out two blue spits on the ground. "Take each of you one of these," said Wind, "and put it in your mouth, but do not swallow it. There is one more trial for you,—a trial by smoking." When they entered the house the Sun Bearer took
down a pipe of turquoise that hung on the eastern wall and filled it with tobacco.
“This is the tobacco he kills with," whispered Wind to the boys. The Sun Bearer held the pipe up to the sun that hung on the wall, lit it, and gave it to the boys to smoke. They smoked it, and passed it from one to another till it was finished. They said it tasted sweet, but it did them no harm.
When the pipe was smoked out and the Sun Bearer saw the boys were not killed by it, he was satisfied and said: "Now, my children, what do you want from me? Why do you seek me?" "Oh, father!" they replied, "the land where we dwell is filled with monsters, who devour the people. There are Yeitso and the Horned Monster, the Giant Eagle, Those-Who-Slay-With-Their-Eyes, and many others. They have eaten nearly all of our kind; there are few left; already they have sought our lives, and we have run away to escape them. Give us, we beg, the weapons with which we may slay our enemies. Help us to destroy them."
     "Know," said the Sun Bearer, "that Yeitso who dwells at Tsotsil is also my son,
yet I will help you to kill him. I shall hurl the first bolt at him, and I will give you those
things that will help you in war." He took from pegs where they hung around the
room and gave to each a hat, a shirt, leggings, moccasins, all made of flint,^11 a chain-
lightning arrow, a sheet-lightning arrow, a sunbeam arrow, a rainbow arrow, and a great stone knife or knife club. "These are what we want," said the boys. They put on the clothes of flint, and streaks of lightning shot from every joint.
Next morning the Sun Bearer led the boys out to the edge of the world, where the sky and the earth came close together, and beyond which there was no world. Here sixteen wands or poles leaned from the earth to the sky; four of these were of white shell, four of turquoise, four of haliotis shell, and four of red stone. A deep stream flowed between them and the wands. As they approached the stream, the wind whispered: "This is another trial;" but he blew a great breath and formed a bridge of rainbow, over which the brothers passed in safety. Wind whispered again: "The red wands are for war, the others are for peace;" so when the Sun Bearer asked his 5ons: "On which wands will ye ascend?" they answered: "On the wands of red stone," for they sought war with their enemies. They climbed up to the sky on the wands of red stone, and their father went with them.
They journeyed on till they came to the sky-hole which is in the centre of the 
sky. The hole is edged with four smooth, shining cliffs that slope steeply downwards,—
11. Actually, armor, like arrow points and knife blades, made from flint.

44   •   Colonial Period to 1/00
cliffs of the same materials as the wands by which they had climbed from the earth to the sky. They sat down on the smooth declivities,—the Sun Bearer on the west side of the hole, the brothers on the east side. The latter would have slipped down had not the Wind blown up and helped them to hold on. The Sun Bearer pointed down and said: "Where do you belong in the world below? Show me your home." The brothers looked down and scanned the land; but they could distinguish nothing; all the land seemed flat; the wooded mountains looked like dark spots on the surface: the lakes gleamed like stars, and the rivers like streaks of lightning. The elder brother said: "I do not recognize the land, I know not where our home is." Now Wind prompted the younger brother, and showed him which were the sacred mountains and which the great rivers, and the younger exclaimed, pointing downwards: "There is the Male Water (San Juan River), and there is the Female Water (Rio Grande); yonder is the mountain of Tsisnadzini; below us is Tsotsil; there in the west is Dokoslid: that white spot beyond the Male Water is Depentsa; and there between these mountains is Dsilndotil, near which our home is."^12 "You are right, my child, it is thus that the land lies," said the Sun Bearer. Then, renewing his promises, he spread a streak of lightning; he made his children stand on it,—one on each end,—and he shot them down to the top of Tsotsil (Mt. Taylor).
They descended the mountain on its south side and walked toward the warm spring at Tosato. As they were walking along under a high bluff, where there is now a white circle, they heard voices hailing them. "Whither are you going? Come hither a while." They went in the direction in which they heard the voices calling and found four holy people,—Holy Man, Holy Young Man, Holy Boy, and Holy Girl. The brothers remained all night in a cave with these people, and the latter told them all about Yeitso. They said that he showed himself every day three times on the mountains before he came down, and when he showed himself for the fourth time he descended from Tsotsil to Tosato to drink; that, when he stooped down to drink, one hand rested on Tsotsil and the other on the high hills on the opposite side of the valley, while his feet stretched as far away as a man could walk between sunrise and noon.
They left the cave at daybreak and went on to Tosato, where in ancient days there was a much larger lake than there is now. There was a high, rocky wall in the narrow part of the valley, and the lake stretched back to where Blue Water is to-day. When they came to the edge of the lake, one brother said to the other: "Let us try one of our father's weapons and see what it can do." They shot one of the lightning arrows at Tsotsil; it made a great cleft in the mountain, which remains to this day, and one said to the other: "We cannot suffer in combat while we have such weapons as these."
Soon they heard the sound of thunderous footsteps, and they beheld the head of Yeitso peering over a high hill in the east; it was withdrawn in a moment. Soon after, the monster raised his head and chest over a hill in the south, and remained a little longer in sight than when he was in the east. Later he displayed his body to the waist over a hill in the west; and lastlv he showed himself, down to the knees, over

^12These rivers and the sacred boundary mountains (Depentsa, Hesperus Peak, in the north; Tsisnadzini, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the east; Tsotsil, Mt. Tavlor, in the south;

and Dokoslid. the San Francisco Peaks, in the east) mark Navajo land, of which Dsilnaoti. or Gobernador Knob, is the Center.

Native American Oral Narrative Changing Woman and the Hero Twins (Navajo)

45

Tsotsil in the north. Then he descended the mountain, came to the edge of the lake, and laid down a basket which he was accustomed to carry.
Yeitso stooped four times to the lake to drink, and, each time he drank, the wa-ter perceptibly diminished; when he had done drinking, the lake was nearly drained. Thee brothers lost their presence of mind at sight of the giant drinking, and did noth-ing while he was stooping down. As he took his last drink they advanced to the edge  of the lake, and Yeitso saw their reflection in the water. He raised his head, and, look-  ing at them, roared: "What a pretty pair have come in sight! Where have I been hunt—ing?” ('i.e., that I never saw them before). "Throw (his words) back in his mouth said the younger to the elder brother. "What a great thing has come in sight! Where  have we been hunting?" shouted the elder brother to the giant. Four times these taunts were repeated by each party. The brothers then heard Wind whispering quickly, "Ako'! Ako'! Beware! Beware!" They were standing on a bent rainbow just then; they straightened the rainbow out, descending to the ground, and at the same instant a lightning bolt, hurled by Yeitso, passed thundering over their heads. He hurled four bolts rapidly; as he hurled the second, they bent their rainbow and rose, while the bolt passed under their feet; as he discharged the third they descended, and let the lightning pass over them. When he threw the fourth bolt they bent the rainbow very high, for this time he aimed higher than before; but his weapon still passed under their feet and did them no harm. He drew a fifth bolt to throw at them; but at this moment the lightning descended from the sky on the head of the giant and he reeled beneath it, but did not fall. Then the elder brother sped a chain-lightning arrow; his enemy tottered toward the east, but straightened himself up again. The second arrow caused him to stumble toward the south (he fell lower and lower each time), but again he stood up and prepared himself to renew the conflict. The third lightning arrow made him topple toward the west, and the fourth to the north. Then he fell to his knees, raised himself partly again, fell flat on his face, stretched out his limbs, and moved no more.
When the arrows struck him, his armor was shivered in pieces and the scales flew in every direction. The elder brother said: "They may be useful to the people in the future."^13 The brothers then approached their fallen enemy and the younger scalped him. Heretofore the younger brother bore only the name, Child of the Water; but now his brother gave him also the warrior name of He Who Cuts Around. What the elder brother's name was before this we do not know; but ever after he was called Monster Slayer.
They cut off his head and threw it away to the other side of Tsotsil, where it may be seen to-day on the eastern side of the mountain.^14 The blood from the body now flowed in a great stream down the valley, so great that it broke down the rocky wall that bounded the old lake and flowed on. Wind whispered to the brothers: "The blood flows toward the dwelling of Those-Who-Slay-With-Their-Eyes; if it reaches them, Yeitso will come to life again." Then Monster Slayer took his flint club, and drew with it across the valley a line. Here the blood stopped flowing and piled itself

'By providing the Navajo with flint for blades and arrow points. -'Fortv miles northeast of Mt. Tavlor is Cabezon

("The Head") Peak. Yeitso's blood coagulated into The Malpais, an extensive lava flow south of Mt. Tavlor.

46   •   Colonial Period to 1700
up in a high wall. But when it had piled up here very high it began to flow off in another direction, and Wind again whispered: "It now flows toward the dwelling of the Bear that Pursues; if it reaches him, Yeitso will come to life again." Hearing this. Monster Slayer again drew a line with his knife on the ground, and again the blood piled up and stopped flowing. The blood of Yeitso fills all the valley to-day, and the high cliffs in the black rock that we see there now are the places where Monster Slayer stopped the flow with his flint club.
They then put the broken arrows of Yeitso and his scalp into his basket and set out for their home near Dsilndotil. When they got near the house, they took off their own suits of armor and hid these, with the basket and its contents, in the bushes. The mothers were rejoiced to see them, for they feared their sons were lost, and they said: "Where have you been since you left here yesterday, and what have you done?" Monster Slayer replied: "We have been to the house of our father, the Sun. We have been to Tsotsil and we have slain Yeitso." "Ah, my child," said Changing Woman, "do not speak thus. It is wrong to make fun of such an awful subject." "Do you not believe us?" said Monster Slayer; "come out, then, and see what we have brought back with us." He led the women out to where he had hidden the basket and showed them the trophies of Yeitso. Then they were convinced and they rejoiced, and had a dance to celebrate the victory. . . .^15
"Surely all the monsters are now killed," said Changing Woman. "This storm must have destroyed them." But Wind whispered into Monster Slayer's ear. "Old Age still lives." The hero said then to his mother: "Where used Old Age tc dwell?" His mother would not answer him, though he repeated his question four times. At last Wind again whispered in his ear and said: "She lives in the mountain? of Depentsa."
Next morning he set out for the north, and when, after a long journey, he reached Depentsa, he saw an old woman who came slowly toward him leaning on a staff. Her back was bent, her hair was white, and her face was deeply wrinkled. He knew this must be Old Age. When they met he said: "Grandmother, I have come or. a cruel errand. I have come to slay you." "Why would you slay me?" she said in a feeble voice, "I have never harmed any one. I hear that you have done great deeds in order that men might increase on the earth, but if you kill me there will be no increase of men; the boys will not grow up to become fathers; the worthless old men will no: die; the people will stand still. It is well that people should grow old and pass awa and give their places to the young. Let me live, and I shall help you to increase the people." "Grandmother, if you keep this promise I shall spare your life," said Monster Slayer, and he returned to his mother without a trophy.
When he got home Wind whispered to him: "Cold Woman still lives." Monster Slayer said to Changing Woman: "Mother, grandmother, where does Cold Woman

^l5This is the first Scalp Dance, which celebrates victory over the enemy while it cleanses the warrior from the effects of contact with enemy dead. After this initial victory, the Twins slay many other monsters and return home after a storm, presuming to have

made the world safe and habitable for hu- mankind. In the remarkable encounters which follow, people learn that, although they might have power over some things, the use of power might not always be wise.

Native American Oral Narrative Changing Woman and the Hero Twins (Navajo)   •   47
Dwell?” His mother would not answer him; but Wind again whispered, saying: "Cold woman lives high on the summits of Depentsa, where the snow never melts."                                                                                                         Next day he went again to the north and climbed high among the peaks of Depensa, where no trees grow and where the snow lies white through all the summer, e round a lean old woman, sitting on the bare snow, without clothing, food, shelter. She shivered from head to foot, her teeth chattered, and her eyes streamed water. Among the drifting snows which whirled around her, a multitude of snow-buntings were playing; these were the couriers she sent out to announce the coming of a storm. "Grandmother," he said, "a cruel man I shall be. I am going to kill you so that men may no more suffer and die by your hand," and he raised his knife-club to smite her. "You may kill me or let me live, as you will. I care not," she said to the hero;
"but if you kill me it will always be hot, the land will dry up, the springs
will cease to flow, the people will perish. You will do well to let me live. It will
be better for your people." He paused and thought upon her words. He lowered the hand he had raised to strike her, saying: "You speak wisely, grandmother; I shall let you live.   He turned around and went home.
   When Monster Slayer got home from this journey, bearing no trophy, Wind whispered in his ear and said: "Poverty still lives." He asked his mother where Poverty used to live, but she would not answer him. It was Wind who again informed him. “There are two, and they dwell at Dsildasdzini."
     He went to Dsildasdzini the next day and found there an old man and an old woman, who were filthy, clad in tattered garments, and had no goods in their house. “Grandmother, grandfather," he said, "a cruel man I shall be. I have come to kill you.” “Do not kill us, my grandchild," said the old man: "it would not be well for the people in days to come, if we were dead; then they would always wear the same clothes and never get anything new. If we live, the clothing will wear out and the people will make new  and beautiful garments; they will gather goods and look handsome. Let us
live and we will pull their old clothes to pieces for them." So he spared them and went home without a trophy.
         The next journey was to seek Hunger, who lived, as Wind told him, at White Spot of Grass. At this place he found twelve of the Hunger People. Their chief was a big, fat man, although he had no food to eat but the little brown cactus. "I am going to be cruel," said Monster Slayer, "so that men may suffer no more the pangs of hunger and die no more of hunger." "Do not kill us," said the chief, "if you wish your people to increase and be happy in the days to come. We are your friends. If we die, the people will not care for food; they will never know the pleasure of cooking and eating nice things, and they will never care for the pleasures of the chase." So he spared also
Hunger, and went home without a trophy.
          When Monster Slayer came back from the home of Hunger, Wind spoke to him no more of enemies that lived. The Monster Slayer said to his mother: "I think all the monsters must be dead, for every one I meet now speaks to me as a relation; they say to me, ‘my grandson,' 'my son,' 'my brother.'" Then he took off his armor—his knife, moccasins, leggings, shirt, and cap—and laid them in a pile; he put with them the weapons which the Sun had given him, and he sang this song:—
Now Monster Slayer arrives
Here from the house made of the dark stone knives.

48   •   Colonial Period to 1700
From where the dark stone knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.
The Child of the Water now arrives,
Here from the house made of the serrate knives.
From where the serrate knives dangle on high. You have the treasures, holy one, not I.
He who was reared beneath the Earth arrives, Here from the house made of all kinds of knives. From where all kinds of knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.
The hero, Changing Grandchild, now arrives, Here from the house made of the yellow knives. From where the yellow knives dangle on high, You have the treasures, holy one, not I.^16
1897

^10ln this song, the Twins bring the story full circle by acknowledging that Changing Woman is really the most powerful being,

the one for whom the Sun's weapons have been used, the one whose treasures benefit everyone.