406. Before this time the Navahoes had been a weak and peaceable tribe; but now they found themselves becoming a numerous people and they began to talk of going to war. Of late years they had heard much of the great pueblos along the Rio Grande, but how their people had saved themselves from the anáye the Navahoes did not know. A man named Napaílĭnta got up a war party and made a raid on a pueblo named Kĭnlĭtsí (Red House), and returned with some captives, among whom was a girl captured by Napaílĭnta. From her is descended the gens of Kĭnlĭtsí, whose members are now close relations to Tsĭnadzĭ′ni (the gens of Napaílĭnta), and cannot intermarry with the latter.
407. The captives from Kĭnlĭtsí were, at first, slaves among the Navahoes;[187] but their descendants became free and increased greatly, and from them came another gens, Tlĭziláni, Many Goats, also closely related to Tsĭnadzĭ′ni.
408. Next in order came a band of Apaches from the south representing two gentes,—Dĕstsíni (Red Streak People), and Tlastsíni (Red Flat Ground People). These were adopted by the Navahoes as two separate gentes and became close relations to the Tsĭnadzĭ′ni.
409. Not long after the arrival of these Apaches some Utes came into the neighborhood of the Navahoes, camping at a place called Tséʻdiʻyikáni (a ridge or promontory projecting into the river), not far from Hyíĕtyĭn. They had good arms of all kinds, and two varieties of shields,—one round and one with a crescentic cut in the top. They lived for a while by themselves, and were at first unruly and impertinent; but in the course of time they merged into the Navahoes, forming the gens of Notá or Notádĭneʻ, Ute People.
410. About the time they were incorporated by the Navahoes, or soon after, a war party of the Utes made a raid on a Mexican settlement, somewhere near where Socorro now is, and captured a Spanish woman. She was their slave; but her descendants became free among the Navahoes and formed the Nakaídĭneʻ (White Stranger People), or Mexican gens, who cannot now intermarry with Notádĭneʻ.
411. Góntso, or Big Knee, chief of the Tháʻpaha, was still alive and was a famous old man; but he had become feeble and had many ailments. There was a great ceremony practised in those days called natsĭ′d, which lasted all winter,[184] from harvest-time to planting-time; but the Navahoes have long ceased to celebrate it. This ceremony was held one winter for the benefit of Big Knee at the sacred place of Toʻyĕ′tli, the home of the War Gods. One night, while the rites were being performed, some strangers joined the Navahoes coming from the direction of the river. Adopted by the Navahoes, they formed the gens of Toʻyĕtlíni, and became closely allied to Notádĭneʻ and Nakaídĭneʻ.
412. On another occasion during the same winter some Apaches came from their country in the south to witness the ceremony of natsĭ′d. Among the women of the Tháʻpaha was one who visited the Apache camp and remained all night there. She became attached to an Apache youth, with whom she secretly absconded when the visitors left. For a long time her people did not know what had become of her; but many years after, learning where she was, some of her relations went to the Apache country to persuade her to return. She came back an old woman, bringing her husband and a family of three girls. The girls were handsome, had light skins and fair hair. Their grandmother, who admired them very much, insisted that a new gens should be made of them. So they were called Háltso, Yellow Bodies,[188] and originated the gens of that name. Their father died an old man among the Navahoes.
413. On another night of the same winter, while the ceremony for Big Knee was going on, two strange men, speaking the Navaho language, entered the camp. They said they were the advanced couriers of a multitude of wanderers who had left the shores of the great waters in the west to join the Navahoes. You shall now hear the story of the people who came from the western ocean:—
414. Surrounding Estsánatlehi’s home were four mountains, located like those at the Place of Emergence—one in the east, one in the south, one in the west, and one in the north. She was in the habit of dancing on these mountains,—on the mountain in the east to bring clouds; on the mountain in the south, to bring all kinds of goods,—jewels, clothing, etc.; on the mountain in the west, to bring plants of all kinds; and on the mountain in the north, to bring corn and animals. On these journeys for dancing she passed from the east mountain to the south, the west, and the north mountain, the way the sun goes; and when she was done dancing on the north mountain she retraced her course (without crossing it) to the east; but she never completed the circle, i.e., she never passed from the north directly to the east. Over the space between the north and the east mountains she never travelled. This is the way her trail lay:—