Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/138

114 nothing; all the land seemed flat; the wooded mountains looked like dark spots on the surface; the lakes gleamed like stars, and the rivers like streaks of lightning. The elder brother said: "I do not recognize the land, I know not where our home is." Now Nĭ′ltsi prompted the younger brother, and showed him which were the sacred mountains and which the great rivers, and the younger exclaimed, pointing downwards: "There is the Male Water (San Juan River), and there is the Female Water (Rio Grande); yonder is the mountain of Tsĭsnadzĭ′ni; below us is Tsótsĭl; there in the west is Dokoslíd; that white spot beyond the Male Water is Depĕ′ntsa; and there between these mountains is Dsĭlnáotĭl, near which our home is." "You are right, my child, it is thus that the land lies," said Tsóhanoai. Then, renewing his promises, he spread a streak of lightning; he made his children stand on it,—one on each end,—and he shot them down to the top of Tsótsĭl (Mt. San Mateo, Mt. Taylor).

323. They descended the mountain on its south side and walked toward the warm spring at Tó‘sato.120 As they were walking along under a high bluff, where there is now a white circle, they heard voices hailing them. "Whither are you going? Come hither a while." They went in the direction in which they heard the voices calling and found four holy people,—Holy Man, Holy Young Man, Holy Boy, and Holy Girl. The brothers remained all night in a cave with these people, and the latter told them all about Yéitso.121 They said that he showed himself every day three times on the mountains before he came down, and when he showed himself for the fourth time he descended from Tsótsĭl to Tó‘sato to drink; that, when he stooped down to drink, one hand rested on Tsótsĭl and the other on the high hills on the opposite side of the valley, while his feet stretched as far away as a man could walk between sunrise and noon.

324. They left the cave at daybreak and went on to Tó‘sato, where in ancient days there was a much larger lake than there is now. There was a high, rocky wall in the narrow part of the valley, and the lake stretched back to where Blue Water is to-day. When they came to the edge of the lake, one brother said to the other: "Let us try one of our father's weapons and see what it can do." They shot one of the lightning arrows at Tsótsĭl; it made a great cleft in the mountain, which remains to this day, and one said to the other: "We cannot suffer in combat while we have such weapons as these."

325. Soon they heard the sound of thunderous footsteps, and they beheld the head of Yéitso peering over a high hill in the east; it was withdrawn in a moment. Soon after, the monster raised his head