Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/52

34 Other gods, less potent or less respected, lived before the time of man, and were powerful before the sun was made.

72. Creation.—The Legend begins with an already created world; there is no original creation and no Creator of all. If the Navahoes have a story of the beginning of all things, the author has not learned it. To a god called Békotsĭdi78 is given the credit of having made all animals whose creation is not otherwise accounted for in the myths, especially domestic animals. Some of the Indians who have heard vaguely of our Creator are of the opinion that Békotsĭdi is the God of the Americans.

73. Estsánatlehi.—But it is generally acknowledged by the Navahoes that their most revered deity is Estsánatlehi,96 the Woman Who Changes (or rejuvenates herself). Much is said of her in the legends, but something more is to be obtained by conversation with the shamans. The name Estsánatlehi is derived by syncopation from estsán, woman, and natléhi, to change or transform. She is so called because, it is supposed, she never remains in one condition, but that she grows to be an old woman, and in the course of time becomes a young girl again, and so passes through an endless course of lives, changing but never dying. It is probable that she is an apotheosis of Nature, or of the changing year.

74. The deity of fruitful Nature is properly a female and a beneficent goddess. She is properly, too, as the legends tell us, the wife of the Sun, to whom Nature owes her fertility. Her home is said to be in the west, probably for the reason that in the Navaho country, which lies mostly on the Pacific slope, the rain comes usually from the west, and from that direction, too, come the thawing breezes in the spring.

75. Yolkai Estsán.—A divinity called Yolkaí Estsán,96 or White Shell Woman, created (or found, as some versions say) at the same time as Estsánatlehi, is called the younger sister of the latter. The two goddesses are associated in the myths, but White Shell Woman always acts the subordinate part, and to-day is honored with a less degree of worship than her sister. Estsánatlehi, made of an earthly jewel, turquoise, is related to the land. Yolkaí Estsán, made of white shell from the ocean, is related to the waters.

76. War Gods.—Next in importance to Estsánatlehi, the sacred brethren, Nayénĕzgani (or Nagénezgani) and To‘badzĭstsíni,127 seem to stand. The writer designates these as the War Gods, but the Navahoes do not call them thus. According to the version of the Origin Legend here given, one of these was the child of Estsánatlehi and the Sun; the other the child of Yolkaí Estsán and the Water, and this is the version most consistent in all respects. Other versions make both the brothers children of Estsánatlehi. Some say they