Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/126

104

287. The Dĭné‘ now removed to Tse‘lakaíia (White Standing Rock), where, a few days after they arrived, they found on the ground a small turquoise image of a woman; this they preserved. Of late the monsters (anáye, alien gods) had been actively pursuing and devouring the people, and at the time this image was found there only four persons remaining alive;92 these were an old man and woman and their two children, a young man and a young woman. Two days after the finding of the image, early in the morning, before they rose, they heard the voice of Hastséyalti, the Talking God, crying his call of "Wu‘hu‘hu‘hú" so faint and far that they could scarcely hear it. After a while the call was repeated a second time, nearer and louder than at first. Again, after a brief silence, the call was heard for the third time, still nearer and still louder. The fourth call was loud and clear, as if sounded near at hand;26 as soon as it ceased, the shuffling tread of moccasined feet was heard, and a moment later the god Hastséyalti stood before them.

288. He told the four people to come up to the top of Tsolíhi after twelve nights had passed, bringing with them the turquoise image they had found, and at once he departed. They pondered deeply on his words, and every day they talked among themselves, wondering why Hastséyalti had summoned them to the mountain.

289. On the morning of the appointed day they ascended the mountain by a holy trail,98 and on a level spot, near the summit, they met a party that awaited them there. They found there Hastséyalti, Hastséhogan (the Home God), White Body (who came up from the lower world with the Diné‘), the eleven brothers (of Maid Who Becomes a Bear), the Mirage Stone People, the Daylight People standing in the east, the Blue Sky People standing in the south, the Yellow Light People standing in the west, and the Darkness People standing in the north. White Body stood in the east among the Daylight People, bearing in his hand a small image of a woman wrought in white shell, about the same size and shape as the blue image which the Navahoes bore.

290. Hastséyalti laid down a sacred buckskin with its head toward the west. The Mirage Stone People laid on the buckskin, heads west, the two little images,—of turquoise and white shell,—a white and a yellow ear of corn, the Pollen Boy, and the Grasshopper Girl. On top of all these Hastséyalti laid another sacred buckskin with its head to the east, and under this they now put Nĭ′ltsi (Wind).

291. Then the assembled crowd stood so as to form a circle, leaving in the east an opening through which Hastséyalti and Hastséhogan