The North American Indian, Vol. 1Curtis, Edward S.
History
The North American Indian, Vol. 1
Curtis, Edward S.
Indians of North America
_Yucca_ fruit eaten by Apache, 19
root in Navaho mythology, 94
root, washing with, 115, 125
used for head-band, 131
whips made of, 120-121
_Yuma_, Jicarilla name for, 135
Navaho name for, 138
_Yuman_ and Apache relations, 5
and Jicarilla ceremony compared, 56
_Zahadolzhá_, Fringe-mouth gods of Navaho, 109, 113, 114, 123
_Zuñi_, Apache name for the, 134
Navaho name for, 138
people among Navaho, 137
THE END OF VOLUME I
The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.
FOOTNOTES
1 The agave or maguey plant, locally called mescal, for which reason
the latter term is here employed.
2 This medicine skin was owned by Háshkĕ Ní̆lntĕ and was considered
one of the most potent belonging to any of the medicine-men. During
the lifetime of Háshkĕ Ní̆lntĕ it was impossible for any white man
even to look upon this wonderful "medicine." After reaching extreme
age he was killed, presumably by his wife, from whom this valuable
and sacred object was procured.
3 Possibly a legendary reminiscence of a home in the far north and the
subsequent migration to the south.
4 The myth and ritual of this ceremony are given on pages 111-116.
5 Versions differ as to the number of worlds through which the
progenitors of the Navaho passed. Some give three before this one,
others but one. The version adopted by the Bahozhonchí, a religious
order or medicine society whose rites and ceremonies are the oldest
and most widely known of any in the tribe, treats of two worlds
only: the one below, from which the Dĭgí̆n, or Holy People, migrated
in the form of insects, birds, and beasts, and to which the dead
return; and the present, into which was born man in his present
image, created of pollen, corn, white shell, turquoise, and rain by
the Dĭgí̆n. These Dĭgí̆n were the animals which never assumed
absolute material form on this earth, and the gods who perfected the
creation. The creation of the world below, together with all food
products, plant life, and animals known to the Navaho, is credited
to First Man and First Woman, Ástsĕ Hástĭn and Ástsĕ Ĕstsán; but the
myth does not go back to that creation, nor, save for the plant and
animal life and a little earth used in making mountains, does it
assume the use of any part of the underworld in the making or
completion of this. So far as the inhabitants now found in the image
of man are concerned, they were made, and first existed, on this
earth, and did not develop from a lower order.
6 The Navaho sometimes vary the assignment of their directional colors
by relating, like the Apache of Arizona, black to the east and white
to the north.
7 These four names still survive among the Navaho, applied to as many
clans.
8 Our months, of course, only approximate the moons of the Indians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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