He advances! He advances!
Now Child of the Water advances
Below, among the foothills, he advances,
In danger he advances.
Thus both the gods come to the aid of the supplicant; but while the elder strides proudly on the summits of the mountains, the younger walks humbly among the foothills.
Fig. 22. The White House. One of the houses of the yéi (from photograph by Hillers).
78. Yéi.—There are a number of divinities in the Navaho pantheon known as yéi (in compound words often pronounced ye or ge), which is translated “god” or “genius.” What distinction exists between the yéi and other gods is not easy to determine definitely. The Zuñians have a class of gods called by the same name, or, more correctly, “yéyi,” as Mr. Cushing pronounces it. Certain chiefs or important personages among these gods are called by names which begin with the syllables hastsé—as Hastséyalti[73] (Talking God), Hastséhogan[74] (House God). It is believed that this, if spelled etymologically, would appear as hastyé, but it is not so pronounced, Hast is a prefix denoting age, especially venerable age. We have it in the word hastín, which means a worthy or respected old man. Hastyé would mean a venerable yéi or god. The yéi seem to be deities of minor importance to those previously mentioned and to be more numerous. Thus, while there is but one Estsánatlehi, but one Nayénĕzgạni, and but one Toʻbadzĭstsíni there are several Hastséhogan and several Hastséyalti, who are chiefs of the yéi. The yéi are supposed to abide in certain localities, and in prayers in their honor the home is mentioned of the yéi to whom appeal is specially made. A place called Tséʻnatsi, or Red Horizontal Rock, somewhere north of the San Juan River, Tseʻgíhi, another place north of the San Juan, and the White House ([fig. 22]), in the Chelly Canyon, are important homes of the yéi.[265] Each of the sacred mountains has its group of yéi. In the myths of klédzi hatál, more than a score of places are named where yéi dwell. There are some reasons for believing that the cult of the yéi is derived from the Cliff-dwellers, or from the Pueblos; but there are arguments, too, against this theory. The subject will not be further considered here. The yéi are supposed to be married and have families. The males are called yébaka; the females, yébaad.[200] Hastsézĭni,[212] the god of fire, and Hastséoltoi,[206] the divine huntress, or goddess of the chase, belong, as their names indicate, to the yéi; while Gánaskĭdi,[207] the harvest god, and Tóʻnenĭli[98] Water Sprinkler, are associated with them in the legends.
79. Dĭgíni.—Dĭgĭ′n means sacred, divine, mysterious, or holy. It is not quite synonymous with the Dakota wakán or the Hidatsa hopá. It is not applied to the treatment of disease; it is not applied in a general way to religious ceremonial; it has not been heard applied to the anáye, or other things of evil: for this reason it is often translated “holy.” Dĭgíni, derived from dĭgĭ′n, means holy people, gods, divinities. It is a name applied to the highest and lowest divinities, including the yéi (see notes [92] and [93]).
80. Alien Gods.—Such are the gods that are friendly to the human race; but man has his enemies, too, among the mysterious powers. Chief among the latter are the anáye,[7] the alien gods or inimical genii. These, being analogous to the giants and ogres of European folk-lore, are sometimes called giants in this work. They are usually represented as creatures of great size. Many of them are described in the Origin Legend. The worst have been slain, as the story relates; but others, being not unmixed evils, still remain to torment man. The legend, in accounting for their continued existence, shows the philosophic endeavor of our race to reconcile itself to the unwelcome inevitable.