After long deliberation it was said:
"Where is K‘yanäs´tïpe, the Water-skate? Lo! legs has he of great extension, six in number. Mayhap he can feel forth with them to the uttermost of all the six regions, thereby pointing out the very Middle." And K‘yanäs´tïpe, being summoned, appeared in semblance, growing greater; for lo! it was the Sun-father himself (K‘yanäs´tïpe through ‘hlímna being). And he answered their questions ere he was bespoken, saying, "Yea, that can I do." And he lifted himself to the zenith, and extended his finger-feet six to all of the six regions, so that they touched to the north, the great waters; and to the west, and the south, and the east, the great waters; and to the northeast, the waters above; and to the southwest, the waters below.
But to the north, his finger-foot grew cold, so he drew it in; and to the west, the waters being nearer, touched his finger-foot thither extended, so he drew that in also. But to the south and east far reached his other finger-feet. Then gradually he settled downward and called out, "Where my heart and navel rest, beneath them mark ye the spot and there build ye a town of the midmost, for there shall be the midmost place of the earth-mother, even the navel; albeit not the center, because of the nearness of cold in the north and the nearness of waters in the west." And when he descended (squatting), his belly rested over the middle of the plain and valley of Zuñi; and when he drew in his finger-legs, lo! there were the trail-roads leading out and in like stays of a spider's net, into and forth from the place he had covered.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FATHERS AND THEIR TABERNACLE AT HÁLONAWAN OR THE ERRING-PLACE OF THE MIDDLE.
Then the fathers of the people built in that spot, and rested thereat their tabernacle of sacred treasures. But K‘yanäs´tïpe had swerved in lowering, and their town was reared a little south of the very midmost place. Nevertheless, no longer in after time sounded the warnings. Hence, because of their great good fortune (hálowilin) in thus finding the stable middle of the world, the priest-fathers of the people called this midmost town the Abiding place of Happy Fortune (Hálonawan).
THE FLOODING OF THE TOWNS, AND THE BUILDING OF THE CITY OF SEED ON THE MOUNTAIN.
Yet, because they had erred even so little, and because the first priest of after times did evil, lo! the river to the southward ran full, and breaking from its pathway cut in twain the great town, burying houses and men in the mud of its impetuosity. Whence, those who perished not and those of the flooded towns rounded about fled to the top of the Mountain of Thunder, they with all their Seed people and things, whence the villages they built there were named Tâaiyá‘hltona ‘Hlúelawa, or the "Towns-all-above of-the-seed-all."
THE STAYING OF THE FLOOD BY SACRIFICE OF THE YOUTH AND MAIDEN, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HÁLONA ÍTIWANA ON THE TRUE MIDDLE.
But when by the sacrifice of the youth priest and maiden priestess (as told in other speech) the waters had been made to abate and the land became good to walk upon, all the people descended, calling that high mountain place, which ever after hath echoed thunder, Tâaiyálane, or the Mountain of Thunder. When all the towns were rebuilded, then on the northern side of the river they builded anew the Town of the Middle, calling it Hálona Ítiwana (Halona the Midmost); but the desolated part they called Hálonawan, because they had erred there (hálowak‘ya), though even so little.