Searching for Cate (27 page)

Navajo legends have been around for as long as the people themselves. No one knows just when the first legend came about, but they are part of the proud people's heritage. Stories handed down from their grandparents are what link the Navajo to their ancestors and what connects them to the generations they know are to come. They represent tradition, roots, pride, all told in the simple story form that appeals to the child in all of us.—MF

Spider Rock

Before the counting of the days, in a place that was home to the Dine, known to the White Eyes as “The Navajo,” Spider Rock was formed. Some say it stands 800 feet, some say more. It touches the sky and is the home of Spider Woman, the goddess who to this day watches over the Dine. It was she who sent Monster-Slayer and Child-Born of Water to seek out their father, Sun-God, so that he could show them how to slay the monsters who roamed the earth, and were a threat to the Dine. The Dine were
very grateful and called Spider Woman their goddess before all others, as it should be.

Pleased by their worship, Spider Woman asked her husband, Spider Man, to construct a loom so that the Dine women could weave cloth and clothe themselves and their children. This was done and it was good. Throughout the generations, the Dine women work their looms, remembering the goodness of Spider Woman.

Spider Woman was a stern goddess. The Dine elders warned their children that if they did not behave, Spider Woman would cast down her web ladder, ensnare the bad children in it and carry them up to the top of Spider Rock, where she would eat them. Legend had it that the top of Spider Rock was white with the sun-bleached bones of children who had misbehaved. So great was their fear of being carried off that the Dine children always behaved and listened to their elders.

One day, a Dine boy strayed from his home within the cliffs, where the flood waters and his enemies could not reach him. Instead, he walked the land and came across an enemy who wished to do him harm. The enemy chased him right to the base of Spider Rock. The boy had nowhere to run and he thought he would surely die. Suddenly, a silken cord came from the very top of Spider Rock. Having no choice, the boy grabbed the cord and found himself magically pulled up to the very top of the Rock, leaving his enemy far below. When he reached the top, the boy found no bleached bones,
no one waiting to eat him. Instead, there was food and drink waiting for him.

When he had eaten his fill, he rested. Upon waking, he discovered that his mysterious benefactor was none other than Spider Woman. She had seen his dilemma and fashioned the magic cord to rescue him. He was very, very grateful for her kindness and remained with her until the danger at the base of the rock was no more. Once his enemy was gone, he used the magic cord to lower himself to the ground again, then raced back to his people in the cliffs. He told all who would listen that Spider Woman had saved his life and praised her to the end of his days.

The Journey to Rainbow's End

A long, long time ago, so long that no one remembers just when, First Woman the Goddess was created—she was fully grown in four days. She was so beautiful that all the Dine (Navajo) braves were in love with her. But she did not love any of them, only the handsomest of them all, Sun-God. However, she did not think that he even noticed her.

But he did. One day, when she was alone, he came up behind her and tickled her neck with a large, feathery plume. Immediately, she felt as if she was surrounded with warm sunshine. In this magical way, she became Sun-God's wife. He was the father of her first child, a son.

Soon afterward, First Woman was sleeping beneath an overhanging cliff, and a few droplets of
water fell on her. They were from Water-God. This was the way he fathered her second child, also a son. Because the boys were born so close together, everyone called them the Twins of the Goddess. All three lived in a beautiful canyon together.

It was a time when giants roamed the earth and one such giant was Great Giant, who was very evil. He ate every human who came across his path. When he saw First Woman, his heart was so taken with her that he did not eat her, but loved her. But she would have nothing to do with him.

Great Giant was very jealous of her. She knew he would eat the Twins if he saw them, so one day, when he was coming, she quickly dug a hole in the middle of her hogan and hid her sons. She covered the opening by putting a flat sandstone rock on it, then spread dirt over it. That day, the Great Giant did not find her children.

Another day, Great Giant came and saw small footprints around the hogan. He demanded to know where the children who made them were and if they were hers.

Brave First Woman told him she had no children. When he wanted to know who had made the prints, she said she had. She told him that she was lonely for children, so she made the prints herself with the heels of her hand and the tips of her fingers and pretended they belonged to her children. Great Giant believed her and went away.

As the Twins grew bigger, First Woman knew she could not hide them much longer. She prayed for
help, and the Spirit who had made First Woman appeared with a bow made of cedar wood for Sun-God's child. She told her son that it was time for him to learn how to hunt.

First Woman told Sun-Child that he had to make another bow and arrows for his brother. Sun-Child said this was good and that he and his brother wanted to hunt for his father. He asked First Woman who his father was because all this time, he did not know. It was time for him to know and she told him that his father was Sun-God and that he lived far away in the East.

A bow and many arrows were made for Water-Child, as First Woman had asked. The Twins began their long journey to find Sun-God, but they could not find him and returned to their mother.

“If he is not in the East, he must be in the South,” she told her sons, and they went on another long journey to find him. But again, they did not find him and had to come home. First Woman told her sons to look to the West and if Sun-God was not there, then they must try to find him in the North. She did this to keep them safe because if they were on their journey, Great Giant would not find them here with her.

But finally, the Twins returned very unhappy because they could not find Sun-God in any of the places that First Woman had sent them. They thought their mother was lying to them. When she saw how upset they were, she told them the truth. She said that their fathers, Sun-God and Water-God,
live far away in the middle of the great Western Water. The journey there was dangerous. The trail went through great canyons where the walls of the cliffs clapped together and could crush them as they passed.

And even if they made it through the great canyons, they would not be able to cross the Grand Canyon and certainly never be able to cross the water to reach their father's house in the middle of the Western Ocean.

But the Twins insisted, so she taught them a song of protection. The words of the song were “We are traveling in an Invisible Way to seek our fathers, the Sun-God and the Water-God.” This she told them to sing four times, because four was the magic number.

The Twins sang the song each day as they traveled. One day, as they were walking, they saw a small hole in the ground and heard someone say “Ssh!” four times. When they looked into the hole, they saw that Spider Woman was there, beneath the earth. She told the Twins not to be afraid of her. She was their grandmother and welcomed them into her home, but the hole was very small and the Twins said they could not fit through it. Spider Woman told them to blow once toward the East, once toward the West, once toward the South and then once toward the North. They did as she told them and the hole became just big enough to let them pass into her home.

Inside Spider Woman's home they saw bones bundled up on the walls just the way spiders wrap flies in their webs. Spider Woman told them not to be afraid. The bones belonged to evil men that she had killed.

They sat and talked for a long time. Spider Woman told the Twins of the dangers they would encounter on their journey and taught them songs for their protection. She also gave each twin a magic Feather-Plume. She told them to hold it before them as they walked. They must hold it straight up or sideways and it would allow them to walk forward in safety.

Before she walked them from her lodge, she told them to be on the lookout for a little man with a red head and a striped back. He would look like a sand scorpion, only bigger. He would help them on their journey.

They walked again and after many days, the Twins heard a voice coming from the ground. It was the little man Spider Woman warned them about.

He said that he could help them, and said the Twins should put their hands down on the ground and spit into them four times. Then they must close their fists to save the spit until they came to the Great Water, where they had to wash off the spit.

The Twins spit into their hands as the little man told them. They closed their hands, then said goodbye. Soon, they came to the canyon walls that smashed themselves together. They repeated the prayers that Spider Woman had taught them,
holding the Feather-Plumes sideways. The clapping walls stopped just long enough for the Twins to walk through.

They walked many days, then came upon a jungle of sharp reeds. The reeds were so thick, they could not pass through. The Twins sang the song Spider Woman taught them, touching the very tips of the reeds with their magical Feather-Plumes. The reeds turned into cattails and were so happy to be cattails that they parted and made a path for the Twins to walk.

The most curious part of their journey was when they came to the giant cliff. They walked around its rim, only to come back to where they had started. They could not go forward. So again they sang the songs their mother and their grandmother had taught them. They closed their eyes and prayed. When they opened them again, a magnificent rainbow had appeared. They walked across the rainbow, which brought them to the other side of the Grand Canyon.

The Twins continued walking West for a long time. Finally, they came to the Great Water. It was so big, they thought they would never reach Sun-God's Turquoise House in the middle of the Great Water.

They walked down to the beach to the edge of the water and did as the little man with the red head had told them—they washed the spit off their hands, singing and praying as they did so. The rainbow appeared again. A great big Rainbow Bridge
stretched before them from the beach to the Turquoise House.

The twins raced onto the Rainbow Bridge. Their fathers, Sun-God and Water-God, were waiting for them. Together they all went into the Turquoise House, which was at the end of the Rainbow Bridge.

How The Wood Tick Became Flat

Many moons ago, before your great-grandmother's great-grandmother was even born, giants roamed the earth and animals spoke to the Dine, known to the white man as the Navajo.

On one such day, Coyote was out for a walk when he met Old Woman. She asked where he was going and he told her nowhere in particular, he was just roaming around. She warned him that there was a giant in the area. A very big, mean giant who was closer than he thought. Coyote wasn't afraid because he had killed many giants and said he would kill this one, too.

He thanked Old Woman for the warning and went on his way. A little while later, he found a broken branch that looked like a club. He picked it up, in case he met the giant and needed a weapon. Feeling very happy, he whistled as he walked. Soon he came to a cave and decided to explore it, so he walked in.

A few feet into the cave, he found a woman crawling around on the ground. When he asked her what was wrong, she told him that she was starving
and could no longer walk. Seeing his stick, she asked him what it was for. “To kill the giant,” he told her. Even though she was very weak, she began to laugh. “Silly Coyote, you are already in the giant's belly.”

“No, I am in a cave and so are you,” Coyote protested.

“No,” the woman said, “I am in the giant's belly and so are you. That was no cave you walked into. That was his mouth. Do not feel bad, many have walked in. But no one has ever walked out. He is very, very big.”

Upset, Coyote threw his stick down, left the woman and continued walking. Soon he came upon more people, lying near death on the ground. “Help us,” they cried when they saw him. “We are starving to death.”

The Coyote looked around and then he laughed. “Silly people, if we are all in the giant's stomach, then these walls are made of meat and fat. We can cut pieces from the walls and eat them.”

The people were surprised at the solution. They had never thought of that. Coyote laughed and said that men were not as smart as animals, and he was the smartest animal of them all.

He took out his hunting knife and began to cut chunks of meat and fat from the walls. He fed the starving people, then went back to the first woman he had met to feed her. Soon the people felt much stronger. But they were still sad because they were trapped.

“Do not worry,” Coyote told them. “I will kill the giant. I will stab him in the heart and then we will all be free.”

He looked for the heart and came upon what looked like a volcano, all puffy and beating hard. Certain he had found the heart, Coyote began to stab and cut at the volcano.

“Coyote, please do not stab my heart,” the giant cried. “If you stop, I will open my mouth and you can go free.” But the Coyote would not leave his new friends and continued to stab and cut until he had made a deep hole in the giant's heart. Lava began to flow from the hole. The ground beneath the people's feet began to move. It felt like an earthquake.

“Run!” Coyote cried when the giant opened his mouth. They all ran to the opening before it closed again forever. The last to run was the wood tick. The giant's teeth began to close again, almost on top of the wood tick. Coyote reached in just in time and pulled the wood tick through the tiny space at the very last second.