102. Version A thus describes the baby basket of the elder brother: The child was wrapped in black cloud. A rainbow was used for the hood of the basket and studded with stars. The back of the frame was a parhelion, with the bright spot at its bottom shining at the lowest point. Zigzag lightning was laid on each side and straight lightning down the middle in front. Nĭltsátlol (sunbeams shining on a distant rainstorm) formed the fringe in front where Indians now put strips of buckskin. The carrying-straps were sunbeams.
103. The mountain mahogany of New Mexico and Arizona is the Cercocarpus parvifolius, Nutt. It is called by the Navahoes Tséʻestagi, which means hard as stone.
104. Round cactus, one or more species of Mammilaria. Sitting cactus, Cereus phœniceus, and perhaps other species of Cereus.
105. Yé-i-tso (from yéi, a god or genius, and tso, great) was the greatest and fiercest of the anáye, or alien gods. ([Par. 80], [note 7].) All descriptions of him are substantially the same. (See [pars. 323], [325], [326].) According to the accounts of Hatáli Nĕz and Torlino, his father was a stone; yet in [par. 320] and in Version B the sun is represented as saying that Yéitso is his child. Perhaps they mean he is the child of the sun in a metaphysical sense.
106. This part of the myth alludes to the trap-door spiders, or tarantulæ of the Southwest, that dwell in carefully prepared nests in the ground.
107. By life-feather or breath-feather (hyĭná bĭltsós) is meant a feather taken from a live bird, especially one taken from a live eagle. Such feathers are supposed to preserve life and possess other magic powers. They are used in all the rites. In order to secure a supply of these feathers, the Pueblo Indians catch eaglets and rear them in captivity (see [pars. 560] et seq.); but the Navahoes, like the wild tribes of the north, catch full-grown eagles in traps, and pluck them while alive. This method of catching eagles has been described by the author in his “Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians.”[305]
108. Pollen being an emblem of peace, this is equivalent to saying, “Put your feet down in peace,” etc.
109. Version A in describing the adventure with Spider Woman adds: There were only four rungs to the ladder. She had many seats in her house. The elder brother sat on a seat of obsidian; the younger, on a seat of turquoise. She offered them food of four kinds to eat; they only accepted one kind. When they had eaten, a small image of obsidian came out from an apartment in the east and stood on a serrated platform, or platform of serrate knives. The elder brother stood on the platform beside the image. Spider Woman blew a strong breath four times on the image in the direction of the youth, and the latter became thus endowed with the hard nature of the obsidian, which was to further preserve him in his future trials. From the south room came a turquoise image, and stood on a serrated platform. The younger brother stood beside this. Spider Woman blew on the turquoise image toward him, and he thus acquired the hard nature of the blue stone. To-day in the rites of hozóni hatál they have a prayer concerning these incidents beginning, “Now I stand on pésdolgas.” (See note [264].)
110. In describing the journey of the War Gods to the house of the Sun, version A adds something. At Tóʻsato or Hot Spring (Ojo Gallina, near San Rafael), the brothers have an adventure with Tiéholtsodi, the water monster, who threatens them and is appeased with prayer. They encounter Old Age People, who treat them kindly, but bid them not follow the trail that leads to the house of Old Age. They come to Hayolkál, Daylight, which rises like a great range of mountains in front of them. (Songs.) They fear they will have to cross this, but Daylight rises from the ground and lets them pass under.… They come to Tsalyél, Darkness. Wind whispers into their ears what songs to sing. They sing these songs and Tsalyél rises and lets them pass under. They come to water, which they walk over. On the other side they meet their sister, the daughter of the Sun, who dwells in the house of the Sun. She speaks not, but turns silently around, and they follow her to the house.
111. According to version A, there were four sentinels of each kind, and they lay in the passageway or entrance to the house. A curtain hung in front of each group of four. In each group the first sentinel was black, the second blue, the third yellow, the fourth white. The brothers sang songs to the guardians and sprinkled pollen on them.