Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/162

134 her and helped her to drive the animals, which were already numerous. They passed over the Tuĭntsa range at Péslĭsi (Red Knife or Red Metal), and there they tramped the mountain down so that they formed a pass. They halted in Tsĭnlí valley to have a ceremony161 and a foot-race, and here the animals had become vastly more numerous. When they crossed Dsĭllĭzĭ'n (Black Mountain),162 the herd was so great that it tramped a deep pass whose bottom is almost on a level with the surrounding plain; at Black Mountain all the buffaloes broke from the herd and ran to the east; they never returned to Estsánatlehi and are in the east still. At Hostódito' the elks went to the east and they never returned. From time to time a few, but not all, of the antelope, deer, and other animals left the herd and wandered east. Four days after leaving Tsĭnlí valley they arrived at Dokoslíd (San Francisco Mountain), and here they stopped to perform another ceremony. What happened on the way from this mountain to the great water in the west, we do not know, but after a while Estsánatlehi arrived at the great water and went to dwell in her floating house beyond the shore. Here she still lives, and here the Sun visits her, when his journey is done, every day that he crosses the sky. But he does not go every day; on dark, stormy days he stays at home in the east and sends in his stead the serpents of lightning, who do mischief. 373. As he journeys toward the west, this is the song he sings:—

In my thoughts I approach,

The Sun God approaches,

Earth's end he approaches,

Estsánatlehi's hearth approaches,

In old age walking

The beautiful trail.

In my thoughts I approach,

The Moon God approaches,

Earth's end he approaches,

Yolkái Estsán's hearth approaches,

In old age walking

The beautiful trail.282

374. When Estsánatlehi had departed, Nayénĕzgani and To'badzĭstsíni went, as their father had bidden them, to To'yĕ'tli,163 where two rivers join, in the valley of the San Juan; there they made their dwelling, there they are to this day, and there we sometimes still see their forms in the San Juan River.164 The Navahoes still go there to pray, but not for rain, or good crops, or increase of stock; only for success in war, and only the warriors go.