326. Yéitso stooped four times to the lake to drink, and, each time he drank, the waters perceptibly diminished; when he had done drinking, the lake was nearly drained.[123] The brothers lost their presence of mind at sight of the giant drinking, and did nothing while he was stooping down. As he took his last drink they advanced to the edge of the lake, and Yéitso saw their reflection in the water. He raised his head, and, looking at them, roared: “What a pretty pair have come in sight! Where have I been hunting?” (i.e., that I never saw them before). “Yiniketóko! Yiniketóko!”[124] “Throw (his words) back in his mouth,” said the younger to the elder brother. “What a great thing has come in sight! Where have we been hunting?” shouted the elder brother to the giant. Four times these taunts were repeated by each party. The brothers then heard Nĭ′ltsi whispering quickly, “Akóʻ! Akóʻ! Beware! Beware!” They were standing on a bent rainbow just then; they straightened the rainbow out, descending to the ground, and at the same instant a lightning bolt, hurled by Yéitso, passed thundering over their heads. He hurled four bolts rapidly; as he hurled the second, they bent their rainbow and rose, while the bolt passed under their feet; as he discharged the third they descended, and let the lightning pass over them. When he threw the fourth bolt they bent the rainbow very high, for this time he aimed higher than before; but his weapon still passed under their feet and did them no harm. He drew a fifth bolt to throw at them; but at this moment the lightning descended from the sky on the head of the giant and he reeled beneath it, but did not fall.[125] Then the elder brother sped a chain-lightning arrow; his enemy tottered toward the east, but straightened himself up again. The second arrow caused him to stumble toward the south (he fell lower and lower each time), but again he stood up and prepared himself to renew the conflict. The third lightning arrow made him topple toward the west, and the fourth to the north. Then he fell to his knees, raised himself partly again, fell flat on his face, stretched out his limbs, and moved no more.
327. When the arrows struck him, his armor was shivered in pieces and the scales flew in every direction. The elder brother said: “They may be useful to the people in the future.”[126] The brothers then approached their fallen enemy and the younger scalped him. Heretofore the younger brother bore only the name of Toʻbadzĭstsíni, or Child of the Water; but now his brother gave him also the warrior name of Naídikĭsi (He Who Cuts Around). What the elder brother’s name was before this we do not know; but ever after he was called Nayénĕzgạni (Slayer of the Alien Gods).[127]
328. They cut off his head and threw it away to the other side of Tsótsĭl, where it may be seen to-day on the eastern side of the mountain.[128] The blood from the body now flowed in a great stream down the valley, so great that it broke down the rocky wall that bounded the old lake and flowed on. Nĭ′ltsi whispered to the brothers: “The blood flows toward the dwelling of the Bĭnáye Aháni; if it reaches them, Yéitso will come to life again.” Then Nayénĕzgạni took his peshál, or knife club, and drew with it across the valley a line. Here the blood stopped flowing and piled itself up in a high wall. But when it had piled up here very high it began to flow off in another direction, and Nĭ′ltsi again whispered: “It now flows toward the dwelling of Sasnalkáhi, the Bear that Pursues; if it reaches him, Yéitso will come to life again.” Hearing this, Nayénĕzgạni again drew a line with his knife on the ground, and again the blood piled up and stopped flowing. The blood of Yéitso fills all the valley to-day, and the high cliffs in the black rock that we see there now are the places where Nayénĕzgạni stopped the flow with his peshál.[129]
329. They then put the broken arrows of Yéitso and his scalp into his basket and set out for their home near Dsĭlnáotĭl. When they got near the house, they took off their own suits of armor and hid these, with the basket and its contents, in the bushes. The mothers were rejoiced to see them, for they feared their sons were lost, and they said: “Where have you been since you left here yesterday, and what have you done?” Nayénĕzgạni replied: “We have been to the house of our father, the Sun. We have been to Tsótsĭl and we have slain Yéitso.” “Ah, my child,” said Estsánatlehi, “do not speak thus. It is wrong to make fun of such an awful subject.” “Do you not believe us?” said Nayénĕzgạni; “come out, then, and see what we have brought back with us.” He led the women out to where he had hidden the basket and showed them the trophies of Yéitso. Then they were convinced and they rejoiced, and had a dance to celebrate the victory.[130]
330. When their rejoicings were done, Nayénĕzgạni said to his mother: “Where does Téelgĕt[131] dwell?” “Seek not to know,” she answered, “you have done enough. Rest contented. The land of the anáye is a dangerous place. The anáye are hard to kill.” “Yes, and it was hard for you to bear your child,” the son replied (meaning that she triumphed notwithstanding). “He lives at Bikehalzĭ′n,” she said. Then the brothers held a long council to determine what they should do. They made two cigarette kethawns of a plant called azeladĭltéhe,[132] one black and one blue, each three finger-widths long; to these they attached a sunbeam and laid them in a turquoise dish. “I shall go alone to fight Téelgĕt,” said Nayénĕzgạni, “while you, younger brother, remain at home and watch these kethawns. If they take fire from the sunbeam, you may know that I am in great danger; as long as they do not take fire, you may know that I am safe.” This work was finished at sundown.[133]
331. Nayénĕzgạni arose early next morning and set out alone to find Téelgĕt. He came, in time, to the edge of a great plain, and from one of the hills that bordered it he saw the monster lying down a long way off. He paused to think how he could approach nearer to him without attracting his attention, and in the mean time he poised one of his lightning arrows in his hand, thinking how he should throw it. While he stood thus in thought, Nasĭ′zi, the Gopher, came up to him and said: “I greet you, my friend! Why have you come hither?” “Oh, I am just wandering around,” said Nayénĕzgạni. Four times this question was asked and this answer was given. Then Nasĭ′zi said: “I wonder that you come here; no one but I ever ventures in these parts, for all fear Téelgĕt. There he lies on the plain yonder.” “It is him I seek,” said Nayénĕzgạni; “but I know not how to approach him.” “Ah, if that is all you want, I can help you,” said Gopher; “and if you slay him, all I ask is his hide. I often go up to him, and I will go now to show you.” Having said this, Nasĭ′zi disappeared in a hole in the ground.
332. While he was gone Nayénĕzgạni watched Téelgĕt. After a while he saw the great creature rise, walk from the centre in four different directions, as if watching, and lie down again in the spot where he was first seen. He was a great, four-footed beast, with horns like those of a deer. Soon Nasĭ′zi returned and said: “I have dug a tunnel up to Téelgĕt, and at the end I have bored four tunnels for you to hide in, one to the east, one to the south, one to the west, and one to the north. I have made a hole upwards from the tunnel to his heart, and I have gnawed the hair off near his heart. When I was gnawing the hair he spoke to me and said: ‘Why do you take my hair?’ and I answered, ‘I want it to make a bed for my children.’ Then it was that he rose and walked around; but he came back and lay down where he lay before, over the hole that leads up to his heart.”
333. Nayénĕzgạni entered the tunnel and crawled to the end. When he looked up through the ascending shaft of which Nasĭ′zi had told him, he saw the great heart of Téelgĕt beating there. He sped his arrow of chain-lightning and fled into the eastern tunnel. The monster rose, stuck one of his horns into the ground, and ripped the tunnel open. Nayénĕzgạni fled into the south tunnel; Téelgĕt then tore the south tunnel open with his horns, and the hero fled into the west tunnel. When the west tunnel was torn up he fled into the north tunnel. The anáye put his horn into the north tunnel to tear it up, but before he had half uncovered it he fell and lay still. Nayénĕzgạni, not knowing that his enemy was dead, and still fearing him, crept back through the long tunnel to the place where he first met Nasĭ′zi, and there he stood gazing at the distant form of Téelgĕt.
Plate VI. LAVA FLOW IN THE VALLEY OF THE SAN JOSÉ, NEW MEXICO.[129]