Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1868-06-18

made it. They appointed their mex
greatest chief to make the moon
and he made it. On the breast O
the great chief that made the sun
they fixed the most beautiful shell
OF the sea. that was so bright with
self. illumination, that no eve could
look upon it, and its brightness was
/ golden in color. From the fashion
of this light the sun was made. and
the sun is the light of the Navajo
who made it. They also fixed on
the breast of the other chief, who
was to make the moon, a large sea
shell, exceedingly white, but not
dazzling in its brightness. OF this
light he made the moon. And the
moon is the Navajo's, for he made
It, Now when the full. bright light
of the sun shone upon the earth, its
rays sparkled through many stones,
and they were made very beautiful
by the brightness of their celers.
Now the women were far more
beautiful than the men, and far more
numerous, and the men gathered all
OF the precious stones, and made
presents of them to the women, to
WOO them and to win their love, and
the women wore them in their gar
ments and braided them in their
black hair, to make their beauty more
perfect and to appear more lovely in
the eyes of their intended mates
The men had assembled in great
council to determine how many we
men could be married to one man,
for the women far exceeded the men
IN numbers, and all desired to mate.
On returning from their great coun-
Gil ground, they found many of the
women gambling away their precious
stones and pearls, that had been Civ
en- them in the face of love; and the
men were all dismayed, and began
here to distrust woman, and to be-
lieve that all were not good. The
women trusted all their gems and
pearls, the gifts of love, laid out in
squares, with the most valued in the
center, to the chances of the throw
of three (3) pointed sticks, painted
on the four square sides, which they
cast into the squares. If taOe black
painted sides of the sticks came up
permost, they lost all the gifts of the
heart, their precious stones and the
choice of the giver in marriage
This was the first sin of woman
The men would not pardon it, as it
was sin of the heart, trust of the
affections to chance. They staked
the talIsman of mans faith in their
love to the fall of a stick, and men
declared women to be tickle in heart
and faithless in love. All that had
gambled were condemned to have
their hair cut square across their
foreheads, and short around their
necks, and to live in houses.
From this stock of women the
Pueblo Indians all sprang, and their
cnrse has been to till the soil, and
"orh lor tne Men, -aha wnnld not
nO"Ch SO In4oE6 IN 1oN
And this sin brought Death into the
world. Woman first died, body and
soul; she was carried away in a great
deluge of rain, and could not be
found upon the earth. A great gath
ering was had of the men to resolve
this mystery of death, and to find
where the body went. After great
search of many days a deep canon
was found, descending deep into the
earth where there was very great
darkness. Here the woman was
found dressing her hair, and invok-
ing the spirit of the woman of light
in the mountain to restore the long
braids of her hair, that she could
ascend to the sun, where her spirit
had gone, and once more live in the
light and presence Of good and pure
The woman OF light up in the
pure snow of the white mountain,
after death fell upon her children,
came down from her place there, and
went to the setting sun, where it
came near the earth. She ascended
to it on ladder of light, and makes
her home in it. Every night the
spirits of the good Navajos that die
90 to her, as the sun gets close to
the earth, and she drops to them lad
1ers of light on which they climb |
up at twilight. This is the spirit
land of the good Navajos, where the
soul goes, and is dressed in clothes
of light by the ''pure woman" and
never again dies. Their bodies at
death descend into the dark cav
ern, deeper and deeper in dark
ness as they have been bad men
or women, and their spirits hover
around them, tease and torment them
until the compassionate ear of the
''pure woman in the sun" hears their
cries and sends their relatives to
Them with pardon. The worst Ma
vajos only ore kept in the darkest
depths of these caverns very many
years. Each lose their eyes and can
never see the light of the sun or
the Goddess of the good Indians, al
though she delivers them out of the
torments of the dark cavern below.
The pleasure of seeing her can never
be enjoyed by any very bad men,
and to be deprived of that joy IS the
Navajos retribution for sin, and MS
sightless eyes his hell forever.
With the perfect woman in the sun
is enc deathless bird, with plumage
of rainbow brightness, and with
throat of ceaseless song. 1t pierced
its wav from the inner world before
woman had slnned and brought on
morality. Its radiant beauty and
matchless song voice caused jealousy
among all other birds, and they con-
spired to take its life. They all feared
the bird, so majestic was its eye, and
80 regal its plumage. 1t is a bird
without sex. All the fowls of the
earth gathered themselves together
in council and sent six of their prin-