Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/177

Rh came from their country in the south to witness the ceremony of natsĭ'd. Among the women of the Thá'paha was one who visited the Apache camp and remained all night there. She became attached to an Apache youth, with whom she secretly absconded when the visitors left. For a long time her people did not know what had become of her; but many years after, learning where she was, some of her relations went to the Apache country to persuade her to return. She came back an old woman, bringing her husband and a family of three girls. The girls were handsome, had light skins and fair hair. Their grandmother, who admired them very much, insisted that a new gens should be made of them. So they were called Háltso, Yellow Bodies,188 and originated the gens of that name. Their father died an old man among the Navahoes.

413. On another night of the same winter, while the ceremony for Big Knee was going on, two strange men, speaking the Navaho language, entered the camp. They said they were the advanced couriers of a multitude of wanderers who had left the shores of the great waters in the west to join the Navahoes. You shall now hear the story of the people who came from the western ocean:—

414. Surrounding Estsánatlehi's home were four mountains, located like those at the Place of Emergence—one in the east, one in the south, one in the west, and one in the north. She was in the habit of dancing on these mountains,—on the mountain in the east to bring clouds; on the mountain in the south, to bring all kinds of goods,—jewels, clothing, etc.; on the mountain in the west, to bring plants of all kinds; and on the mountain in the north, to bring corn and animals. On these journeys for dancing she passed from the east mountain to the south, the west, and the north mountain, the way the sun goes; and when she was done dancing on the north mountain she retraced her course (without crossing it) to the east; but she never completed the circle, i.e., she never passed from the north directly to the east. Over the space between the north and the east mountains she never travelled. This is the way her trail lay:—