168. The rock formations of Arizona and New Mexico are often so fantastic that such a condition as that here described might easily occur.
169. The author has expressed the opinion elsewhere[318] that we need not suppose from this passage that the story-teller wishes to commiserate the Tseʻtláni on the inferiority of their diet; he may merely intend to show that his gens had not the same taboo as the elder gentes. The modern Navahoes do not eat ducks or snakes. Taboo is perhaps again alluded to in [par. 394], where it is said that the Tháʻpaha ate ducks and fish. The Navahoes do not eat fish, and fear fish in many ways. A white woman, for mischief, emptied over a young Navaho man a pan of water in which fish had been soaked. He changed all his clothes and purified himself by bathing. Navahoes have been known to refuse candies that were shaped like fish.
170. A common method of killing deer and antelope in the old days was this: They were driven on to some high, steep-sided, jutting mesa, whose connection with the neighboring plateau was narrow and easily guarded. Here their retreat was cut off, and they were chased until constrained to jump over the precipice.
171. The name Toʻ-do-kón-zi is derived from two words,—toʻ (water) and dokónz (here translated saline). The latter word is used to denote a distinct but not an unpleasant taste. It has synonyms in other Indian languages, but not in English. It is known only from explanation that the water in question had a pleasant saline taste.
172. The arrow-case of those days is a matter of tradition only. The Indians say it looked something like a modern shawl-strap.
173. In the name of this gens we have possibly another evidence of a former existence of totemism among some of the Navaho gentes. Haskánhatso may mean that many people of the Yucca gens lived in the land, and not that many yuccas grew there.
174. From the description given of this tree, which, the Indians say, still stands, it seems to be a big birch-tree.
175. Tsĭn-a-dzĭ′-ni is derived by double syncopation from tsĭn (wood), na (horizontal), dzĭn (dark or black), and the suffix ni. The word for black, dzĭn, in compounds is often pronounced zĭn. There is a place called Tsĭ′nadzĭn somewhere in Arizona, but the author has not located it.
176. Kĕ-sĭ-tsé, or kesitsé, from ke (moccasins), and sitsé (side by side, in a row), is a game played only during the winter months, at night and inside of a lodge. A multitude of songs, and a myth of a contest between animals who hunt by day and those who hunt by night, pertain to the game. Eight moccasins are buried in the ground (except about an inch of their tops), and they are filled with earth or sand. They are placed side by side, a few inches apart, in two rows,—one row on each side of the fire. A chip, marked black on one side (to represent night), is tossed up to see which side should begin first. The people of the lucky side hold up a screen to conceal their operations, and hide a small stone in the sand in one of the moccasins. When the screen is lowered, one of the opponents strikes the moccasins with a stick, and guesses which one contains the stone. If he guesses correctly, his side takes the stone to hide and the losers give him some counters. If he does not guess correctly, the first players retain the stone and receive a certain number of counters. (See note [88].) A better account of this game, with an epitome of the myth and several of the songs, has already been published.[316]
177. There are many allusions in the Navaho tales to the clothing of this people before the introduction of sheep (which came through the Spanish invaders), and before they cultivated the art of weaving, which they probably learned from the Pueblo tribes, although they are now better weavers than the Pueblos. The Navahoes represent themselves as miserably clad in the old days ([par. 466]), and they tell that many of their arts were learned from other tribes. ([Par. 393].)