Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/250

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Notes.

of sacrifices and peace offerings in keeping with the Indian custom. Version A.—They got a haliotis shell of enormous size, so large that a man's encircling arm could barely surround it. Into this they put other shells and many precious stones. They sprinkled pollen on the young and took some of it off again, for it had been rendered more holy by contact, with the bodies of the young sea monsters. Then they put these also into the shell and laid all on the horns of Tiéholtsodi; at once he disappeared under the earth and the waters went down after him. The pollen taken from the young was distributed among the people, and brought them rain and game and much good fortune. Version B.—"At once they threw them (the young) down to their father, and with them a sacrifice of the treasures of the sea,—their shell ornaments. In an instant the waters began to rush down through the hole and away from the lower worlds."

50. Some give the name of the hermaphrodite who died as Natliyilhátse, and say that. "she" is now the chief of devils in the lower world,—perhaps the same as the Woman Chief referred to in the "Prayer of a Navaho Shaman."315 Version B says that the first to die was the wife of a great chief. (See note 68.)

51. Version A describes the making of the sacred mountains thus: Soon after the arrival of the people in the fifth world (after the first sudatory had been built and the first corn planted), some one said: "It would be well if we had in this world such mountains as we had in the world below." "I have brought them with me," said First Man. He did not mean to say he had brought the whole of the mountains with him, but only a little earth from each, with which to start new mountains here. The people laid down four sacred buckskins12 and two sacred baskets5 for him to make his mountains on, for there were six sacred mountains in the lower world, just as there are six in this, and they were named the same there as they now are here. The mountain in the east, Tsĭsnadzĭ'ni, he made of clay from the mountain of the east below, mixed with white shell. The mountain of the south, Tsótsĭl, he made of earth from below mixed with turquoise. The mountain of the west he made of earth mixed with haliotis or abalone shell. The mountain of the north he made of earth mixed with cannel coal.158 Dsĭlnáotĭl he made of earth from the similar mountain in the lower world, mixed with goods of all kinds (yúd althasaí). Tsolíhi he made of earth from below, mixed with shells and precious stones of all kinds (ĭnklĭ'z althasaí). While they were still on the buckskins and baskets, ten songs were sung which now belong to the rites of hozóni hatál. The burdens of these songs are as follows :—

1st. Long ago he thought of it.
2d. Long ago he spoke of it.
3d. A chief among mountains he brought up with him.
4th. A chief among mountains he has made.
5th. A chief among mountains is rising.
6th. A chief among mountains is beginning to stand.
7th. A chief among mountains stands up.
8th. A cigarette for a chief among mountains we make.
9th. A chief among mountains smokes.
10th. A chief among mountains is satisfied.

When the people came up from the lower world they were under twelve chiefs, but only six of them joined in the singing these songs, and to-day six men sing them. When the mountains were made, the god of each of the four quarters of the world carried one away and placed it where it now stands. The other two were left in the middle of the world and are there still. A pair of gods were then put to live in each mountain, as follows: East, Dawn Boy and Dawn Girl, called also White Shell Boy and White Shell Girl; south, Turquoise Boy and Turquoise Girl; west, Twilight Boy and Haliotis Girl; north, Darkness (or Cannel Coal)