Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/186

156 to him. Then they found he spoke the same language they did, and they addressed him in terms of relationship. "Where do you live?" they asked. "In a canyon high on the mountain," he replied. "What do you live on?" they queried. "We live mostly on seeds," he answered; "but sometimes we catch wood-rats, and we raise small crops." "We shall have many things to tell one another," said the hunters; "but your home is too far for our people to reach to-day. Tell your people to come to this spot, and we shall tell ours to come up here and meet them." When the hunters got home they found their friends cooking rabbits and making mush of wild seeds. When the meal was finished all climbed the mountain to the appointed place and found the strangers awaiting them. The two parties camped together that night and related to one another their histories and adventures. The strangers said that they had been created at the place where they were all then camped only seven years previously; that they were living not far off at a place called Natanbĭlhátĭn, but that they came often to their natal place to pick cactus fruit and yucca fruit. They said they called themselves Tsé'dĭne', or Rock People; but the nameless ones gave them the name of Tsé'nahapĭlni, Overhanging Rocks People, from the place where they met. With this name they became a gens of the Navahoes.

446. The Tsé'nahapĭlni told their new friends that they had some corn and pumpkins cached at a distance, and they proposed to open their stores and get ready for a journey. They knew of some Apaches to the south, whom they would all visit together. These Apaches, they said, had some gentes of the same names as those of the Navahoes. Then they all went to where the provisions were stored, and they made corn-cakes to use on the journey. When they were ready they went to the south and found, at a place called Tsóhanaa, the Apaches, who recognized them as friends, and treated their visitors so well that the latter concluded to remain for a while.

447. At the end of three years the Tsé'nahapĭlni went off to join the Navahoes on the San Juan. The nameless people stayed four years longer. About the end of that time they began to talk of leaving, and their Apache friends tried to persuade them to remain, but without avail. When they had all their goods packed and were ready to start, an old woman was observed walking around them. She walked around the whole band, coming back to the place from which she started; then she turned towards them and said: "You came among us without a name, and you have dwelt among us, nameless, for seven years; no one knew what to call you; but you shall not leave us without a name. I have walked around you, and I call you Honagá'ni (Walked-around People)."196