The Story of the Emergence (Navajo)
The Story of the Emergence, from Navajo Legends
from Navajo Legends (1897) by Washington Matthews
THE STORY OF THE EMERGENCE.
- At Toʻbĭlhaskĭ′di (in the middle of the first world), white arose in the east, and they17 regarded it as day there, they say; blue rose in the south, and still it was day to them, and they moved around; yellow rose in the west and showed that evening had come; then dark arose in the north, and they lay down and slept.18
- At Toʻbĭlhaskĭ′di water flowed out (from a central source) in different directions; one stream flowed to the east, another to the south, and another to the west. There were dwelling-places on the border of the stream that flowed to the east, on that which flowed to the south, and on that which flowed to the west also.
- To the east there was a place called Tan (Corn), to the south a place called Nahodoóla, and to the west a place called Lókatsosakád (Standing Reed). Again, to the east there was a place called Essalái (One Pot), to the south a place called Toʻhádzĭtĭl (They Come Often for Water), and to the west a place called Dsĭllĭtsíbehogán (House Made of the Red Mountain). Then, again, to the east there was a place called Léyahogán (Under-ground House), to the south a place called Tsĭltsĭ′ntha (Among Aromatic Sumac), and to the west a place called Tseʻlĭsíbehogán (House Made of Red Rock).
- Holatsí Dĭlyĭ′le (dark ants) lived there. Holatsí Lĭtsí (red ants) lived there. Tanĭlaí (dragon flies) lived there. Tsaltsá (yellow beetles) lived there. Woĭntlĭ′zi (hard beetles) lived there. Tseʻyoáli (stone-carrier beetles) lived there. Kĭnlĭ′zĭn (black beetles) lived there. Maitsán (coyote-dung beetles) lived there. Tsápani (bats) lived there. Totsóʻ (white-faced beetles) lived there. Wonĭstsídi (locusts) lived there. Wonistsídikai (white locusts) lived there. These twelve people started in life there.19
- To the east extended an ocean, to the south an ocean, to the west an ocean, and to the north an ocean. In the ocean to the east lay Tiéholtsodi; he was chief of the people there. In the ocean to the south lived Thaltláhale (Blue Heron), who was chief of the people there. In the ocean to the west lay Tsal (Frog), who was chief of the people there. In the ocean to the north was Idniʻdsĭlkaí (White Mountain Thunder), and he was chief of the people there.20
- The people quarrelled among themselves, and this is the way it happened. They committed adultery, one people with another. Many of the women were guilty. They tried to stop it, but they could not. Tiéholtsodi, the chief in the east, said: “What shall we do with them? They like not the land they dwell in.” In the south Blue Heron spoke to them, and in the west Frog said: “No longer shall you dwell here, I say. I am chief here.” To the north White Mountain Lightning said: “Go elsewhere at once. Depart from here!”
- When again they sinned and again they quarrelled, Tiéholtsodi, in the east, would not speak to them; Blue Hero