Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/125

Rh under the weeds that covered them. He drew forth his chain-lightning arrow, shot it into the weeds, and saw a bright stream of blood spurting up. At the same instant the bear-woman fell with the blood streaming from her side.

282. "See!" whispered Nĭ′ltsi, the Wind, "the stream of blood from her body and the stream from her vitals flow fast and approach one another. If they meet she will revive, and then your danger will be greater than ever. Draw, with your stone knife, a mark on the ground between the approaching streams." The young man did as he was bidden, when instantly the blood coagulated and ceased to flow.

283. Then the young man said: "You shall live again, but no longer as the mischievous Tsiké Sas Nátlehi.90 You shall live in other forms, where you may be of service to your kind and not a thing of evil." He cut off the head and said to it: "Let us see if in another life you will do better. When you come to life again, act well, or again I will slay you." He threw the head at the foot of a piñon-tree and it changed into a bear, which started at once to walk off. But presently it stopped, shaded its eyes with one paw, and looked back at the man, saying: "You have bidden me to act well; but what shall I do if others attack me?" "Then you may defend yourself," said the young man; "but begin no quarrel, and be ever a friend to your people, the Dĭné‘. Go yonder to Black Mountain (Dsĭllĭzĭn) and dwell there." There are now in Black Mountain many bears which are descended from this bear.

284. The hero cut off the nipples and said to them: "Had you belonged to a good woman and not to a foolish witch, it might have been your luck to suckle men. You were of no use to your kind; but now I shall make you of use in another form." He threw the nipples up into a piñon-tree, heretofore fruitless, and they became edible pine nuts.

285. Next he sought the homes of his friends, the holy ones, Níyol and Pésasike. They led him to the east, to the south, to the west, and to the north, where the corpses of his brothers lay, and where the brothers had dwelt before and built a new house; but they did not return to the old home, for that was now a tsĭ′ndi hogan and accursed.91

286. The holy ones then gave to the young hero the name of Léyaneyani, or Reared Under the Ground, because they had hidden him in the earth when his brethren fled from the wrath of his sister. They bade him go and dwell at a place called Atáhyĭtsoi (Big Point on the Edge), which is in the shape of a hogán, or Navaho hut, and here we think he still dwells.