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
In the lower world four gods were created by Etseastin and Etseasun.
These gods were so annoyed by ants that they said, “Let us go to the
four points of the world.” A spring was found at each of the cardinal
points, and each god took possession of a spring, which he jealously
guarded.
Etseastin and Etseasun were jealous because they had no water and they
needed some to produce nourishment. The old man finally obtained a
little water from each of the gods and planted it, and from it he raised
a spring such as the gods had. From this spring came corn and other
vegetation. Etseastin and Etseasun sat on opposite sides of the spring
facing each other, and sang and prayed and talked to somebody about
themselves, and thus they originated worship. One day the old man saw
some kind of fruit in the middle of the spring. He tried to reach it but
he could not, and asked the spider woman (a member of his family) to get
it for him. She spun a web across the water and by its use procured the
fruit, which proved to be a large white shell, quite as large as a
Tusayan basket. The following day Etseastin discovered another kind of
fruit in the spring which the spider woman also brought him; this fruit
was the turquoise. The third day still another kind of fruit was
discovered by him and obtained by the spider woman; this was the abalone
shell. The fourth day produced the black stone bead, which was also
procured.
After ascending into the upper world Etseastin visited the four corners
to see what he could find. (They had brought a bit of everything from
the lower world with them). From the east he brought eagle feathers;
from the south feathers from the bluejay; in the west he found hawk
feathers, and in the north speckled night bird (whippoorwill) feathers.
Etseastin and Etseasun carried these to a spring, placing them toward
the cardinal points. The eagle plumes were laid to the east and near by
them white corn and white shell; the blue feathers were laid to the
south with blue corn and turquoise; the hawk feathers were laid to the
west with yellow corn and abalone shell; and to the north were laid the
whippoorwill feathers with black beads and corn of all the several
colors. The old man and woman sang and prayed as they had done at the
spring in the lower world. They prayed to the east, and the white wolf
was created; to the south, and the otter appeared; to the west, and the
mountain lion came; and to the north, the beaver. Etseastin made these
animals rulers over the several points from which they came.
When the white of daylight met the yellow of sunset in mid-heavens they
embraced, and white gave birth to the coyote; yellow to the yellow fox.
Blue of the south and black of the north similarly met, giving birth,
blue to blue fox and north to badger.
Blue and yellow foxes were given to the Pueblos; coyote and badger
remain with the Navajo; but Great Wolf is ruler over them all. Great
Wolf was the chief who counseled separation of the sexes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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