Note 101 — LEGENDS. (continued 2)

Other versions make Estsánatlehi the mother of both War Gods, and give a less imaginative account of their conception. Version A.—The maiden Estsánatlehi went out to get wood. She collected a bundle, tied it with a rope, and when she knelt down to lift it she felt a foot pressed upon her back; she looked up and saw no one. Three times more kneeling, she felt the pressure of the foot. When she looked up for the fourth time, she saw a man. “Where do you live?” he asked. “Near by,” she replied, pointing to her home. “On yonder mountain,” he said, “you will find four yuccas, each of a different kind, cut on the north side to mark them. Dig the roots of these yuccas and make yourself a bath. Get meal of tohonotĭ′ni corn (note 28), yellow from your mother, white from your father (note 27). Then build yourself a brush shelter away from your hut and sleep there four nights.” She went home and told all this to her foster parents. They followed all the directions of the mysterious visitor, for they knew he was the Sun. During three nights nothing happened in the brush shelter that she knew of. On the morning after the fourth night she was awakened from her sleep by the sound of departing footsteps, and, looking in the direction that she heard them, she saw the sun rising. Four days after this (or twelve days, as some say) Nayénĕzgạni was born. Four days later she went to cleanse herself at a spring, and there she conceived of the water, and in four days more Toʻbadzĭstsíni, the second War God, was born to her. Version B.—The Sun (or bearer of the sun) met her in the woods and designated a trysting place. Here First Man built a corral of branches. Sun visited her, in the form of an ordinary man, in the corral, four nights in succession. Four days after the last visit she gave birth to twins, who were Nayénĕzgạni and Toʻbadzĭstsíni. (See “A Part of the Navajos’ Mythology,”306 pp. 9, 10.)