According to Navaho belief, good and evil beings and conditions are relative. These and the other tests were given to prove the twins' power, not to destroy them. Like the challenges we face every day, they were opportunities to develop knowledge and strength until, assuming full stature, they became more than human, heroic, and then, identified with their spiritual Source. At that point the two assumed responsibility for the protection, welfare, and instruction of their people. Even so small a thing as the pollen used in the sand painting is important.
Colors have particular significance.
The typically Indian, and American, quality of this ceremonial legend is its emphasis on compassion-creativity. Compassion, that starlit quality of the heart, is depicted as a sensitivity to, respect and responsibility, for one's kinfolk, which includes not only human kin but also the strange rock columns of their canyons, the shifting sands, thunder, lightning, spiders, coyotes, white shells, and turquoise. Creativity is that dynamic fusion of an inquiring mind, persistent will, and imagination which in this and other Indian tales enables one to surmount obstacles at every level of endeavor. Changing Woman saved her children from the giant by denying their existence and claiming she had made the tracks around her hogan with her closed fist. Coyote, in earlier legends, stole fire from the gods, as did the Greek hero, Prometheus, to illumine men's minds.