Myths and Tales from the White Mountain Apache

Tobatc'istcini spoke as follows, “My name is Tobatc'istcini. Our father gave us these things lying here. A being called Naiye' was using that weapon over there to kill people. He had killed all the people except the two who are sitting over there. We killed him.” “You, Naiyenezgani, speak to them again,” he said to his brother.

“We started from here and we went up to the top of yonder mountain. We went on to the top of a mountain standing beyond that. A small mountain29 stands beyond that and we went up to its top. There we saw a man walking in a valley. He30 went to him for us and returned. 'When he walks he is blind, but he has eyes in the back of his head,' he reported to us. 'He kills the people who are slipping up behind him.' Now he will not kill anyone. We shall live safely.” He took up what used to be his knife and carried it around for the people to see. The man's blood was on it, and it was fearful to look at. “There is no place to take hold of it. I will take hold of it here,” he said. “Do not look at this which used to belong to Naiye'. It is dangerous. Have a meal and then go home. Look after our horses well.”

Their mother asked why the two who had come to them should not accompany them where the horses were. They went with them where the horses were. “Catch the sorrel gelding when you want to. You can tell it by the white spot on its shoulder,” he told one of them. To the other he said, “You may catch this black one with a white spot on its forehead. If we are away anywhere saddle them and ride them around among the horses and through the camp. The horses look as if they were mean, as if they had never had a rope on them, but they will not misbehave, they are not mean and will not shy.” They started back and when they came to the camp again they ate.

Two days after they had killed the Naiye' they said they were going in a certain direction and that it might be late when they returned. They went up to the top of a small sharp-topped mountain. They looked at the Sun and, when it came up, yellow beams streamed out from the Sun's disk. His breath took the shape of a rainbow. The sunbeams fell to the ground over them. “It must be there,” he said. They started and landed on a mountain top. From there they went to another and from that one to a projecting ridge. Beyond that was a plain on which stood a blue mountain. They landed on that. It seems that those who were killing the people lived at a distance from each other and the people were living in the center of the world. The killers of the people were working towards each other.

The two brothers stood on the mountain side by side. They were made like their father. You could hardly see their bodies. They were killing out the Naiye'. “Fly over the country and hunt him up. He is living somewhere,” one of them said to the fly. It flew off and went around them in a circle. The next time it went around in a smaller circle. He (the monster) was coming behind them. He had eyes looking both ways, four eyes. He held something crooked. He stopped and looked carefully behind himself. He did not look in front. He could look straight up and could see people down below. The fly looked him all over, at his eyes, his ears, his nose, and his face. “You are a burr,” he said to the fly. The fly thought he said he was going to catch him. He flew between the man's legs and returned where the brothers were sitting. “Did you say Naiye'? You have come to a dangerous place,” the fly said to them. “As he walks along he looks carefully behind himself. When he stops he looks up and he can see the people who are below.31 He carries a long, crooked object with which he makes a sweep at people he sees in the distance and catches them with his hook.”

The fly was sent again to find out from which point the monster could be attacked with the best chances for success. They saw him walking in the distance and then they saw him standing where he was accustomed to come up the ridge. The fly reported that was a good place for the attack. The brothers addressed each other. “What is the matter with you, Tobatc'istcini?” Naiyenezgani asked. “You are the leader and should speak first,” Tobatc'istcini replied. “Very well, you did not answer me. We will attack him. I will cause large hail with thirty-two points to fall on him. What are you going to do?” Naiyenezgani asked. “I will cause hot rain to fall on him,” was the reply.

They went to him where he was walking. The sky made a noise and it began to rain. The two brothers came toward him behind this rain. He put his hand to the top of his head. It was hot rain which was falling. They could see him, but he could not see them. “Let him walk between you,” the fly directed. He was already exhausted with the hot rain and the hail. Naiyenezgani stood here and Tobatc'istcini there. The monster walked here saying, “It is a bad time. I, too, where I am, it is a bad place.” As he walked one of the brothers raised his bow and brought it down again, shooting. His companion cut off the monster's head. It came back immediately as it was before. They shot and cut his head off again. He fell three ways. They did the same thing to him the fourth time and he spread out like water. “There shall not be those who kill,” Naiyenezgani said. “This is the way I do to Naiye'. Just let him float here in his blood. The people will live happily on the earth. I have done well by them. Get ready, brother, we will go back. We will take the weapon with which he has been killing people.” He rolled this weapon up into a coil and put it in his blanket. “Come, we will go back,” he said.

They came back in the manner they went, landing on the successive mountains until they reached the camp. They danced a war dance near the camp. They danced, holding up the weapon they had taken. “Mother, we are hungry, hurry and cook for us,” they said to her. When they had eaten they asked their mother to assemble the people and to ask the visitors also to come. She told the people to assemble, saying that her sons must have seen something during the day they had been away which they would tell them about. When the people had come together the weapon they had brought back was lying there, not as yet untangled.

“We killed one like the other one. We both did it, but I could have done it by myself, if I had been alone. If he had been alone he too could have done it by himself,” Naiyenezgani said. “We both attacked him because we could do it quickly. We killed him quickly because our father helped us. If it had been one of you, you could have done nothing with this one that we call Naiye'. He would have killed you right away and eaten you up. He had killed all the people who lived with these two men, and just now he was coming for you. Before we had known it, he would have killed us all. There are no people living on the edges of the earth. We are all that are left. He killed people this way. Suppose that person should come on you, he would kill you this way.” He threw the weapon to a distant bush. It went around the tree and it was as if it had been cut off. “He was killing people thus. Now we will live well and no one will bother us. A man is going around the earth in one day and he will tell us about it.”32 Tobatc'istcini started away and his mother spoke to him. “My son, put on this belt,” she said, offering him the one the Sun's wife had given her. “I am going around from here but today it is late, I will go tomorrow,” he said. They went to bed. “Take good care of things and do not be afraid of anything,” Tobatc'istcini said.

When it was daylight their mother prepared a meal for them and they ate. “Come back safely, my son, as the people said to you,” the mother said. “I am going, but I do not know when I shall come back,” Tobatc'istcini replied. He started, telling them to watch for him on a certain mountain point. “I will be back about noon.”

He started away, traveling with a blue flute which had wings.33 He went with this from place to place and was back home before long. He went entirely around the border of the world on which people were living. The belt was a blue flute. He thought with it four ways and looked into it four ways. Before noon a light rain fell on the projecting mountain. That cleared off and then he came laughing. “It was not far, only so large,” he said, joining the tips of his forefinger and his thumb. “Have you your property ready?” he asked. “Have you collected everything that is ours? Tomorrow we will give out the horses, one apiece to each of you. We shall not give out horses again. Bring the horses near to the camp.”

They brought the saddles, the bridles, the halters, the ropes, and the blankets. They two went where the horses were. They caught some of the horses and saddled them, and drove the other horses near the camp where they herded them. They called the people to assemble and when they came caught horses for them. He gave away ten horses in all. “I will give you no more horses,” he said. “Tomorrow we will go different ways.”34 He drove the horses back where they stayed. “Stake out our horses nearby and leave the saddles on them all night,” he said. “This is all. You may go in any direction you like.” “This way,” pointing to the east; “this way,” south; “this way,” west; or “this way,” north. “We are going over here where the end of the world is,” some of them said. Others said they were going to the end of the world in this direction. In this manner, each party chose a location.

When they had finished, they asked the brothers which way they were going. They replied that they were going to drive their horses to the top of yonder mountain (bitsanldai). “Take good care of your horses. Look after them for twelve days and then they will be accustomed to you. Now you may go. We are going also.” He drove his horses away saying, “None of you are going with us. I thought some of you would go with us. You are only giving us back our mother. Go on, mother, let your horse lead.”

His mother inquired which way she should lead them. “Go on, go on, I tell you,” he replied. She rode towards the east. Soon a little light was to be seen under the horse. They went higher and higher until they came to the mountain he spoke of. They rode their horses beside hers. “Wait, mother,” he said and rode back. “Keep on down this mountain. It is good country in this basin. We will live here,” he said. They talked together. “You unsaddle over there, you over there, and you over there. We will watch the horses.”

“You may have my yucca fruit which lies on the face of Turnbull Mountain.”35

Naiyenezgani. 36

Long ago the Sun set and, there in the west, he became the son-in-law of Toxastinhn (Water-old-man) whose daughter he married. She, who was to become the wife of the Sun, built a house with its door facing the sunrise. She sat in the doorway facing the rising sun from which the red rays streamed toward her. These rays entered her and since her period was about to occur she became pregnant as a result.

When the child was born, its hands and feet were webbed. There was no hair on its head and it had no nose. When the boy was grown up he asked where his father lived. His mother replied that his father lived where one could not go, for the Sun was his father. The boy asked again where he lived. His mother said he lived at the sunrise, but that one could not go there. The boy then said that he would go there and set out on the journey.

He came where the cliffs come down of themselves. They moved in front of him. The lightning shot across with him. Beyond that place he came to the mountain of cactus which formed a dark barrier in front of him. There a black whirlwind twisted through for him so that he passed by. From there he went on where the mountain of mosquitoes stood like a black ridge in front of him. A female rain fell for him and the wings of the mosquitoes became damp; then he passed over. From there he went on where the mountains moved up and down toward each other. He jumped away from them and then toward them, but in no way could he get through. Black-measuring-worm, whose back is striped with lightning, bent over it with him.37

He walked on toward the house of the Sun. As he was going along, near sundown, a spider drew its thread across below the boy's knee and tripped him. He got up and went back, but fell again at the same place. Wondering why he had fallen, he started on again, when he saw the head of Spider-old-woman projecting from her hole so far (three inches) away. “Grandchild, where are you going?” she asked. He replied that he was going to the house of his father, the Sun. She told him to come into her house instead. He replied that the opening was too small. When assured that it was large enough, he went in. She told him one could not go to the Sun. The spider girls were lying there without skirts or shirts. They lay with the head of one toward the feet of the next. Spider-woman asked what was the piece of cloth tied to his shirt. He gave it to her and she worked with it all night; and the next morning each girl had a shirt and a skirt. She made them from the young man's piece of cloth.38

When the Sun rose, Spider-old-woman went out-of-doors. “It is not yet time, my grandson,” she said. She held up five fingers horizontally and said it would be time when the Sun shone over them.39 When the time came to go, they set out toward the house of the Sun. He came to the front of the house where there were twelve doors and all of them were shut. Without anyone opening a door for him, he came to Sun's wife. “What sort of a person are you?” she asked. He replied he had come to see his father. The woman warned him that no one was allowed around there. She rolled him up in a blanket,40 which she tied with lightning, and hid him by the head of the bed.

When the sun set, he heard the noise of the Sun's arrival. The Sun came inside his house. “I do not see anyone,” he said, “but from the mountain where I go down some man had gone along.” “You tell me you do not have love affairs where you go around. This morning your son came here.” She went to the head of the bed, undid the lightning with which he was tied up and took the boy out. The Sun saw it was his boy. There were twelve pipes in which tobacco was burned. The Sun fixed a smoke for him in one of these. It was not the Sun's proper tobacco, but a kind that killed whoever smoked it. The boy drew on the pipe just once and the tobacco was burned out. The Sun prepared another pipeful, which was gone when the boy had drawn on the pipe twice. He filled a third pipe; this time the boy drew on it three times and the tobacco was consumed. The last time the pipe was filled, the boy drew four times before the tobacco was burned out.

Toward the east, there was a blazing fire of black yabeckon into which the Sun threw the boy. He turned into a downy feather and landed in front of his father who expressed his surprise. There was a fire of blue yabeckon toward the south into which the boy was next thrown. He again turned into a feather and landed in front of his father. The fire toward the west was of yellow yabeckon from which the boy escaped in the same manner. Finally, the boy was thrown into a white fire of yabeckon which blazed up in the north. He escaped in the same manner as before. Each time when the boy was thrown in, the fire had been poked with lightning of the corresponding color.

When the boy had successfully withstood this last test, the Sun directed his wife to prepare a sweatbath. She did this by spreading four blankets of cloud: black, blue, yellow, and white. She put on the four blankets from the four sides in proper rotation. The Sun went in with all his boys. While they were in the bath, the skin between the boy's fingers and toes was pulled back and joints made in his fingers. He was also provided with hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, and ears. Hair was placed on his body and nails supplied for his fingers and toes. Counting this boy, the Sun had twelve sons with whom he formed a line. He then asked his wife to find him in the line, but this she was unable to do because they all looked alike, she said.

The Sun then placed a gun and a panther-skin quiver on a shelf and asked his son to choose which he would have. After sighting the gun, he concluded he did not like it. He put the quiver over his shoulder and took out two arrows. When he tried these, he hit the target in the center. He chose the panther-skin quiver saying he liked it.41 All the other sons of the Sun had guns. The Sun had them shoot at each other in fun. Those who had guns beat the boy who had arrows and drove him off.

On one side, horses were being made and on the other deer. The one who was in charge of making these is named Iltca'nailt'ohn.

They put, for him, a light brown mountain, inside of which, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, and donkeys were living. All these are the food of white people. In this mountain also were guns, blankets, and all kinds of metals.

On the other side he put, for him, a mountain on which century plants were growing with their yellow flower stalks standing all around the edges. On this mountain, too, were sunflowers, yellow with blossoms, cactus, yucca, piñon, oaks, junipers, the fruit of all of which was perpetually ripe. All the other wild vegetable foods of the Indians grew there also. The mountain was always yellow with flowers.

The Sun asked the boy which of these two mountains he would choose. He decided to take the one which was yellow with flowers where fruit was always ripe. He did not care for the light brown mountain which stood toward the east. He announced that the yellow mountain would be his and would belong in the future to the Indians.

They then opened a door in the side of the brown mountain and drove out cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, and mules. These became the property of your white people's nation. The Sun's son asked that some horses be given him. The Sun reminded him he had asked for the other mountain, and wanted to know why he had not then asked for horses.

From the east, mirage people rounded up some horses for him. The red dust of the round-up covered the ground. “There are no horses,” the Sun said. The boy asked again for horses only to be told he should have asked before when he chose between the two mountains. He asked, that notwithstanding, he be given some horses. The Sun took up a rope and led back a chestnut stallion from the east. He tied the horse which stood pawing the ground and nickering. The boy rode back on it to the place where I suppose Toxastin and his grandmother lived. He rode back in a single day and tied his horse. The horse kept nickering and pawing the earth all the time; he would not graze and the boy was not satisfied. He rode back to the house of the Sun, took off the rope; and the horse ran off toward the east kicking up his heels.

The boy told his father, the Sun, that the stallion he had given him was not satisfactory, and that he had come to ask for a different horse. His father went away and returned with two horses, a stallion and a mare. “These are what you want, I suppose,” the Sun said, and gave the boy a rope, a halter, a saddle blanket, and a saddle.

The boy led the horse back to the place where Toxastin, his grandmother, and his mother lived. He led the horses back to a place called Cottonwood-branches-hang-down. To the south, blue cottonwood branches hung down; to the west, yellow cottonwood branches hung down; to the north, white cottonwood branches hung down. The place was named the center of the earth. The saddle was placed at the east; the saddle blanket at the south; the halter, at the west; and the rope, at the north.

In the dry stream bed to the east, black burdocks grew; to the south, blue burdocks grew; to the west, yellow burdocks; and to the north, white burdocks. He turned out the two horses here to the east. Each time the Sun's son came back there, he found the two horses playing. After four days, he drove the horses up the valley a little way four times. When he went the fourth day to see them he found the tracks of a colt.

That cottonwood tree stood in the center. On the east side of it a black stallion stood; on the south side, a blue stallion; on the west side, a yellow stallion; on the north side, a white stallion. Horses were walking around in the valleys to the east, south, west, and north. Thus there came to be horses here on the earth.

The Placing of the Earth. 42

They did not put this large one (the earth) that lies here in place before my eyes.

The wind blew from four directions. When there was no way to make the earth lie still, Gopher, who lives under the earth, put his black ropes under the earth. Here his black rope lies under it; here his blue rope; here his yellow rope; and here his white rope.

Over here (east) they made a black whirlwind stand with black metal inside of it. Here (south) a blue whirlwind and blue metal were placed; here (west) a yellow whirlwind and yellow metal; and here (north) a white whirlwind and white metal. With these standing on all sides, the earth came to its proper place and was stable.

“Now that this is as it should be, what shall we do next?” said one of them. “To what purpose have we had such a hard time making this earth lie properly which otherwise would have been unstable?” Then he began to pat it with his hand. “Let a black cloud move about sprinkling,” he said.

“There will be life from this; the world will be alive from the dampness,” he said. “They did well by us, what shall we do? Now thank you,” they said.

The people had nothing. The one who was in charge (the Sun); that one only was walking around. “It will turn out well with him walking about,” they said. They looked well at the one they meant. “That one is the Sun,” they said. “We did it in the presence of that one walking about.”

Then Ests'unnadli said she would do something unseemly. Thinking she would do it where the Sun first shone in the morning, she seated herself there. She was doing this only that people might live. There were no people and she thought there should be many and she did it for that reason.

She became pregnant. She and the one walking around were the only ones who understood about generation. She gave birth to a child there where she sat. She went back to the child early each morning for four mornings and on the fourth, the child walked back with her. He was entirely dressed as he walked back with her.

“It is not good that there should be only this one,” she said. “It will be well for me to do an improper thing again.” She sat repeatedly where the water was dripping and became pregnant again. She gave birth a second time to a child. “I will do as I did before,” she said. She went to her child early each morning for four mornings. The fourth morning after he was born, the child returned with her. He was dressed in buckskin, shoes and all.

She had given birth to two children. The latter one she named Tobate'isteini and the first one Bilnajnollije.43 They were the children of this one (the Sun).

A black water vessel by the door of the sun's house was flecked with sunshine. He caused dark lightning to dart under it from four directions. He caused it to thunder out of it in four directions. He caused it to thunder in four directions. He caused male rain to fall in four directions. He caused fruits to stand on the earth in lines pointing in four directions. “Thanks,” they said, “he has treated us well.”

A yellow water vessel by Ests'unnadlehi's door was flecked with light. She caused yellow lightning to pass under it from four directions. She caused it to thunder from it toward four directions. She caused female rain to fall four times in four directions. She caused fruits to stand in lines converging from four directions. “Thanks, she has treated us well,” they said. “Because of her, things are well with us.” “She caused the wind to agitate the grass from four directions for us,” they said. “With no trouble for us it comes to its place. The earth will remain well for us,” they said. “It is still the same way for us that it was long ago. We are thankful yet.”

“Mother, where does our father live?” the boys asked. “Do not ask, for he lives in a dangerous place,” Ests'unnadlehi replied. “Do not say he lives in a dangerous place but show us where it is, for we are going there,” they replied. “If you go you must travel only by night. During the day one must sit still,” she told them. She said this, for she meant for them to make the journey without being seen by the Sun.