Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
History
Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
After all enemies had been destroyed
Naiyenesgony and Tobaidischinni said to the Navajo, “Now we will leave
you and return to our home in the Ute Mountains, where the waters are
mated, but before leaving you we will give to you the ten songs and
prayers that will bring health and good fortune to your people.
Tobaidischinni is the parent of all waters.”
THE BROTHERS.
The Tolchini (a Navajo clan) lived at Wind Mountain. One of the brothers
became crazy and he went off a long way, and on his return brought with
him a pine bough; a second time he returned with corn, and from each
trip he brought something new and had a story to tell about it. His
brothers would not believe him, and said, “He is crazy; he does not know
what he is talking about.” The brothers, however, became very jealous of
him, and constantly taunted him with being a crazy liar. The Tolchini
left the Wind Mountain and went to a rocky foothill east of San Mateo
Mountain. They had nothing to eat but a kind of seed grass. The eldest
brother said, “Let us go hunt,” and told the crazy brother not to leave
the camp. But after five days and nights and no word coming from the
brothers he determined to follow them and help them, bring home the
game; he thought they had killed more deer than they could carry. After
a day’s travel he camped near a canyon, selecting a cavelike place in
which to sleep, for he was tired and thirsty. There was much snow, but
no water, so he made a fire and heated a rock and made a hole in the
ground, and placing the rock in the cavity put in some snow, which
melted and furnished him a draft to quench his thirst. Just then he
heard a tumult over his head like people passing and he went out to see
who made the noise, and he discovered many crows crossing back and forth
over the canyon. This was the home of the crow. There were other
feathered people also (the chaparral cock was among them). He saw also
many fires which had been made by the crows on either side of the
canyon. Two other crows arrived and stood near him and he listened hard
to hear all that was being said. These two crows cried out, “Somebody
says, somebody says.” The youth did not know what to make of this. Then,
a crow from the opposite side of the canyon called, “What is the matter;
tell us, tell us; what is wrong?” The two first criers then said, “Two
of us got killed; we met two men who told us. They said the two men, who
were all the time traveling around (referring to the two brothers of the
crazy youth), killed twelve deer and a party of our people went to the
deer after they were killed. Two of us who went after the blood of the
deer were shot.” The crows on the other side of the canyon, called,
“Which men got killed?” The first crier replied, “The chaparral cock,
who sat on the horn of the deer, and the crow, who sat on its backbone.”
The other called out, “We are not surprised that they were killed; that
is what we tell you all the time. If you will go after the dead deer you
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