Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/258

228 apparent means of support, the cry "tóhe" is frequently repeated. (See "The Mountain Chant,"314 p. 437.)

85. The statement that the hair of the gods, both friendly and alien, is yellow, is made in other tales also. The hair of the ceremonial masks is reddish or yellowish. (See plates IV. and VII.) The hair of the gods is represented by red in the dry-pictures. Dull tints of red are often called yellow by the Navahoes. Various conjectures may be made to account for these facts.

86. The bridge of rainbow, as well as the trail of rainbow, is frequently introduced into Navaho tales. The Navaho land abounds in deep chasms and canyons, and the divine ones, in their wanderings, are said to bridge the canyons by producing rainbows. In the myth of "The Mountain Chant," p. 399 (note 314), the god Hastséyalti is represented as making a rainbow bridge for the hero to walk on. The hero steps on the bow, but sinks in it because the bow is soft; then the god blows a breath that hardens the bow, and the man walks on it with ease. A natural bridge near Fort Defiance, Arizona, is thought by the Navahoes to have been originally one of the rainbow bridges of Hastséyalti. (See fig. 38.)



87. The spiders of Arizona are largely of the classes that live in the ground, including trap-door spiders, tarantulas, etc.

88. This legend and nearly all the legends of the Navaho make frequent allusions to yucca. Four kinds are mentioned: ĭst, tsási or haskán. Yucca baccata