Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/16

8 and have the power to help, getting neither prayer nor praise nor thanks for their good offices. Of the many beneficent gods of the Navahoes, the chief war god, Nayenezgani is the most conspicuous. He appears throughout his career as a disinterested philanthropist. As a warrior he destroys the enemies of mankind, and as a transformer he changes things which in the past were evil to others which "in the days to come will be useful to man." Wind and the Little Wind People are beneficent divinities who are always ready to whisper into the ear of man—to give him good advice when he is in danger or perplexity.

But the legends speak not only of beneficent gods: they tell us of benevolent actions of men. Here is an instance of pity and prompt restitution, taken from a portion of the Navaho Origin Legend which is almost historic. While some members of the gens of Tha‘paha were sojourning at Agala, they sent two children one night to a spring to get water. The children carried out with them two wicker bottles, but returned with four. "Where did you get these other bottles?" the parents inquired. "We took them away from two little girls whom we met at the spring," answered the children. "Why did you do this, and who are the girls?" said the elders. "We do not know. They are strangers," said the little ones. The parents at once set out for the spring to find the strange children and restore the stolen bottles to them; but on their way they met the little girls coming toward the Tha‘paha camp, and asked them who they were. The strange children replied: "We belong to a band of wanderers who are encamped on yonder mountain. They sent us two together to find water." "Then we shall give you a name," said the Tha‘paha; "we shall call you To‘basnasai,—Two Come Together for Water." The Tha‘paha brought the little girls to their hut and bade them be seated. "Stay with us," they said, "you are too weak and little to carry the water so far. We will send some of our young men to carry it for you."

But ethics is a wide subject and embraces the whole range of human obligations. It includes not only the more important duties which come under the head of morals, but those minor ones which we designate as manners and etiquette. I might fill a volume with a discourse on savage etiquette, but I must limit myself now to a few illustrations. The gentleman already quoted who thought the barbarous tribe had no manners simply found a people who did not have his code of manners, and whom he probably impressed with the belief that he had none,—a people whose code of manners he violated at every turn. The savage is often incumbered with rules of behavior as he is with observances of religion. Travelers in America from the days of Columbus to the present day have com-