159. This refers to large fossil bones found in many parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
160. Ha-dá-ho-ni-ge-dĭ-neʻ (Mirage People), Ha-dá-ho-nes-tid-dĭ-neʻ (Ground-heat People). Hadáhonestid is translated ground-heat, for want of a more convenient term. It refers to the waving appearance given to objects in hot weather, observed so frequently in the arid region, and due to varying refraction near the surface of the ground.
161. The ceremony at Tsĭnlí (Chinlee Valley) was to celebrate the nubility of Estsánatlehi. Although already a mother, she was such miraculously, and not until this time did she show signs of nubility. Such a ceremony is performed for every Navaho maiden now. The ceremony at San Francisco Mountain occurred four days after that at Tsĭnlí. It is now the custom among the Navahoes to hold a second ceremony over a maiden four days after the first. On the second ceremony with Estsánatlehi they laid her on top of the mountain with her head to the west, because she was to go to the west to dwell there. They manipulated her body and stretched out her limbs. Thus she bade the people do, in future, to all Navaho maidens, and thus the Navahoes do now, in the ceremony of the fourth day, when they try to mould the body of the maiden to look like the perfect form of Estsánatlehi. Version A makes the nubile ceremony occur before the child was born.
162. Dsĭl-lĭ-zĭ′n, or Dsĭllĭzĭ′ni (Black Mountain), is an extensive mesa in Apache County, Arizona. The pass to which the myth refers is believed to be that named, by the United States Geological Survey, Marsh Pass, which is about 60 miles north of the Moki villages. The name of the mesa is spelled “Zilh-le-jĭni” on the accompanying map.
163. Toʻ-yĕ′t-li (Meeting Waters) is the junction of two important rivers somewhere in the valley of the San Juan River, in Colorado or Utah. The precise location has not been determined. It is a locality often mentioned in the Navaho myths. (See [par. 477].)
164. The following appeared in the “American Naturalist” for February, 1887:—
“In the interesting account entitled ‘Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos,’ by Dr. W. Matthews, in the October issue of the “Naturalist” ([note 306]), he mentions the fact that the warriors offered their sacrifices at the sacred shrine of Thoyetli, in the San Juan Valley. He says that the Navajos have a tradition that the gods of war, or sacred brothers, still dwell at Thoyetli, and their reflection is sometimes seen on the San Juan River. Dr. Matthews is certain the last part is due to some natural phenomenon. The following account seems to furnish a complete explanation of this part of the myth. Several years ago a clergyman, while travelling in the San Juan Valley, noticed a curious phenomenon while gazing down upon the San Juan River as it flowed through a deep canyon. Mists began to arise, and soon he saw the shadows of himself and companions reflected near the surface of the river, and surrounded by a circular rainbow, the ‘Circle of Ulloa.’ They jumped, moved away, and performed a number of exercises, to be certain that the figures were their reflections, and the figures responded. There was but slight color in the rainbow. Similar reflections have no doubt caused the superstitious Indians to consider these reflections as those of their deities.”—G. A. Brennan, Roseland, Cook County, Illinois, January 12, 1887.
165. Tseʻ-gí-hi is the name of some canyon, abounding in cliff-dwellings, north of the San Juan River, in Colorado or Utah. The author knows of it only from description. It is probably the McElmo or the Mancos Canyon. It is supposed by the Navahoes to have been a favorite home of the yéi or gods, and the ruined cliff-houses are supposed to have been inhabited by the divine ones. The cliff ruins in the Chelly Canyon, Arizona, are also supposed to have been homes of the gods; in fact, the gods are still thought to dwell there unseen. Chelly is but a Spanish orthography of the Navaho name Tséʻgi, Tséyi or Tséyi. When a Navaho would say “in the Chelly Canyon,” he says Tséyigi. The resemblance of this expression to Tseʻgíhi (g and y being interchangeable) led the author at first to confound the two places. Careful inquiry showed that different localities were meant. Both names have much the same meaning (Among the Cliffs, or Among the Rocks).
166. The expression used by the story-teller was, “seven times old age has killed.” This would be freely translated by most Navaho-speaking whites as “seven ages of old men.” The length of the age of an old man as a period of time is variously estimated by the Navahoes. Some say it is a definite cycle of 102 years,—the same number as the counters used in the game of kesitsé ([note 176]); others say it is “threescore years and ten;” while others, again, declare it to be an indefinite period marked by the death of some very old man in the tribe. This Indian estimate would give, for the existence of the nuclear gens of the Navaho nation, a period of from five hundred to seven hundred years. In his excellent paper on the “Early Navajo and Apache,”[301] Mr. F. W. Hodge arrives at a much later date for the creation or first mention of the Tseʻdzĭnkĭ′ni by computing the dates given in this legend, and collating the same with the known dates of Spanish-American history. He shows that many of the dates given in this story are approximately correct. While the Tseʻdzĭnkĭ′ni is, legendarily, the nuclear gens of the Navahoes, it does not follow, even from the legend, that it is the oldest gens; for the dĭnéʻ dĭgíni, or holy people (see note [92]), are supposed to have existed before it was created.
167. Tseʻ-dzĭn-kĭ′n-i is derived from tseʻ (rock), dzĭn (black, dark), and kin (a straight-walled house, a stone or adobe house, not a Navaho hut or hogán). Tseʻ is here rendered “cliffs,” because the house or houses in question are described as situated in dark cliffs. Like nearly all other Navaho gentile names, it seems to be of local origin.