386. Seven years after the arrival of the Dsĭlnaotĭ′lni a fourth gens joined the Navahoes. The new arrivals said they had been seeking for the Dsĭlnaotĭ′lni all over the land for many years. Sometimes they would come upon the dead bushes of old camps. Sometimes they would find deserted brush shelters, partly green, or, again, quite green and fresh. Occasionally they would observe faint footprints, and think they were just about to meet another people like themselves in the desolate land; but again all traces of humanity would be lost. They were rejoiced to meet at last the people they so long had sought. The new-comers camped close to the Dsĭlnaotĭ′lni, and discovered that they and the latter carried similar red arrow-holders,[172] such as the other gentes did not have, and this led them to believe that they were related to the Dsĭlnaotĭ′lni. The Navahoes did not then make large skin quivers such as they have in these days; they carried their arrows in simpler contrivances. The strangers said that they came from a place called Haskánhatso (much Yucca baccata), and that they were the Haskándĭneʻ, or Yucca People; but the older gentes called them Haskánhatso, or Haskanhatsódĭneʻ, from the place whence they came.[173]
387. Fourteen years after the accession of the fourth gens, the Navahoes moved to Kĭntyél (which was then a ruin), in the Chaco Canyon. They camped there at night in a scattering fashion, and made so many fires that they attracted the attention of some strangers camped on a distant mountain, and these strangers came down next day to find out who the numerous people were that kindled so many fires. As the strangers, who were also dĭnéʻ dĭgíni, or holy people, said they came from Nahopá (Place of the Brown Horizontal Streak), the Navahoes called them Nahopáni. They joined the tribe, camping near the Haskánhatso and Dsĭlnaotĭ′lni.
388. It was autumn when the fifth gens was received. Then the whole tribe moved to the banks of the San Juan River and settled at a place called Tsĭntóʻbetlo[174] (Tree Sweeping Water), where a peculiar white tree hangs over the stream and sweeps the surface of the water with its long branches: there is no other tree of its kind near by. Here they determined to remain some time and raise crops; so they built warm huts for the winter, and all the fall and winter, when the days were fair, they worked in the bottom-lands grubbing up roots and getting the soil ready for gardens to be planted in the spring. The elder gentes camped farther down the stream than those more newly arrived.
389. In those days the language which the Navahoes spoke was not the same they speak now. It was a poor language then; it is better in these days.
390. When the tribe had been living six years on the banks of the San Juan, a band joined them who came from Tsĭ′nadzĭn[175] (Black Horizontal Forest), and were named as a gens from the place whence they came. The Navahoes observed that in this band there was a man who talked a great deal to the people almost every morning and evening. The Navahoes did not at first understand what this meant; but after a while they learned he spoke to his people because he was their chief. His name was Nabĭnĭltáhi.
391. While living at the San Juan the people amused themselves much with games. They played mostly nánzoz[76] in the daytime and kĕsĭtsé[176] at night. They had as yet no horses, domestic sheep, or goats. They rarely succeeded in killing deer or Rocky Mountain sheep. When they secured deer it was sometimes by still-hunting them, sometimes by surrounding one and making it run till it was exhausted, and sometimes by driving them over precipices. When a man got two skins of these larger animals he made a garment of them by tying the fore-legs together over his shoulders. The woman wore a garment consisting of two webs of woven cedar bark, one hanging in front and one behind; all wore sandals of yucca fibre or cedar bark. They had headdresses made of weasel-skins and rat-skins, with the tails hanging down behind. These headdresses were often ornamented with colored artificial horns, made out of wood, or with the horns of the female mountain sheep shaved thin. Their blankets were made of cedar bark, of yucca fibre, or of skins sewed together.[177] Each house had, in front of the door, a long passageway, in which hung two curtains,—one at the outer, the other at the inner end,—made usually of woven cedar bark. In winter they brought in plenty of wood at night, closed both curtains, and made the house warm before they went to sleep. Their bows were of plain wood then; the Navahoes had not yet learned to put animal fibre on the backs of the bows.[178] Their arrows were mostly of reeds tipped with wood; but some made wooden arrows.[180] The bottom-land which they farmed was surrounded by high bluffs, and hemmed in up-stream and down-stream by jutting bluffs which came close to the river. After a time the tribe became too numerous for all to dwell and farm on this spot, so some went up in the bluffs to live and built stone storehouses in the cliffs,[179] while others—the Tsĭnadzĭ′ni—went below the lower promontory to make gardens. Later yet, some moved across the San Juan and raised crops on the other side of the stream.[180]
392. Eight years after the coming of the Tsĭnadzĭ′ni, some fires were observed at night on a distant eminence north of the river, and spies were sent out to see who made them. The spies brought back word that they had found a party of strangers encamped at a place called Thaʻnĕzáʻ, Among the Scattered (Hills). Soon after, this party came in and joined the Navahoes, making a new gens, which was called Thaʻnĕzáʻni. The strangers said they were descended from the Hadáhonigedĭneʻ, or Mirage People. The remains of their old huts are still to be seen at Thaʻnĕzáʻ.
393. Five years after the Thaʻnĕzáʻni were added, another people joined the tribe; but what gods sent them none could tell. They came from a place called Dsĭltláʻ (Base of Mountain), and were given the name of Dsĭltláʻni. As they had headdresses, bows, arrows, and arrow-holders similar to those of the Thaʻnĕzáʻni they concluded they must be related to the latter. Ever since, these two gentes have been very close friends,—so close that a member of one cannot marry a member of the other. The Dsĭltláʻni knew how to make wicker water-bottles, carrying-baskets, and earthen pots, and they taught their arts to the rest of the people.
394. Five years later, they were joined on the San Juan by a numerous band who came originally from a place called Tháʻpahahalkaí, White Valley among the Waters, which is near where the city of Santa Fé now stands. These people had long viewed in the western distance the mountains where the Navahoes dwelt, wondering if any one lived there, and at length decided to go thither. They journeyed westward twelve days till they reached the mountains, and they spent eight days travelling among them before they encountered the Navahoes. Then they settled at Toʻĭ′ndotsos and lived there twelve years, subsisting on ducks and fish,[169] but making no farms. All this time they were friendly to the Navahoes and exchanged visits; but, finding no special evidences of relationship with the latter, they dwelt apart. When at length they came to the San Juan to live, marriages had taken place between members of the two tribes, and the people from Among the Waters became a part of the Navaho nation, forming the gens of Tháʻpaha. They settled at a place called Hyíĕtyĭn (Trails Leading Upward), close to the Navahoes. Here was a smooth, sandy plain, which they thought would be good for farming, and the chief, whose name was Góntso, or Big Knee, had stakes set around the plain to show that his people claimed it. The people of the new gens were good hunters, skilled in making weapons and beautiful buckskin shirts, and they taught their arts to the other gentes.
395. The Tháʻpaha then spoke a language more like the modern Navaho than that which the other gentes spoke. The languages were not alike. The chief of the Tsĭnadzĭ′ni and Góntso often visited one another at night, year after year, for the purpose of uniting the two languages and picking out the words in each that were best. But the words of the Tháʻpaha were usually the best and plainest;[182] so the new language resembles the Tháʻpaha more than it resembles the old Navaho.