The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-08

THE NAVAJO GODS.
a Mythology More Poetic Than
That Of the Greeks.
Strange Superstittons of This Savage
Tribe - Tho Great Hole Through
Which the Other World Ii Visible
Tile aAd Sand Paintings
tCoEYRI0HT, 1891

The coat OF arms OF the Indian gods
IS a wr3thina spiral It is drawn with
loose, flying ends 10 represent in its
snaky coil the trail of the wind Its
symbolism as IL grows into the whirl-
wind Is the double helican line. This
symbol with the Navajos and other
tribes is impressed on the palmar as
pect OF tho terminal joint of every
human finger tip. the myth being that
the wind god, when he breathed
into man the breath Of life, went In at
tho mouth and Game out at the tips of
the fingers, leaving Ola them its trail
in those fine, waving lines, whose
wizandny told Ia those tingling tips the
rush Of the current. It is the trail of
tho wind in tho fngertips that pro-
duces that electric glow across the fore
head whsn the ends Of the fingers are
drawn rapidly over 1t, as well aakhe
kindred phenomena CT spirit rapr0g,
table turning, etc. The name of this
coiled serpent among the Navajos is
Niyol BiShin, the trail of the wind 1t
Is, therefore, prime trail of the In
dian to sheep with the wind, and wake
with the wind. knowing that its cur
rent always takes the same course, and
that, like the tides, when the wind goes
out the curreu<o emotion runs low and
the death rate runs high, but that when
the trsA OF the wind comes in it is felt
clean % tho fn9ertips in the electric
excitement Of winwossed ether with
which the Leyden OF every human be-
ing is charged 1t is for the same rea-
fully, that the eyeballs of cat rise and
fab with the coming in and going out
of the tide.
The traditions Of Olympus fade into
immortal insigniicance before the In
dian mythology of the American CONT
nent Its congress of nationalities
grated on an indigenous stock. each
with its own peculiar idiosyncrasies of
language, dialect, custom, habit, trait,
tribal government, belief, etc. far sur
passes in Its polytheistic cult that of
any other country IN its beauty, its va
Tiety. its simplicity, and especially in
Ats teachings. There Is splendid SEN
tentiousness benesxh each myth that is
full of the very finest practical wisdom.
The Indians are natural linguists S.
They speak n nature speaks. They
have grown mp among her voices and
the rushing eagle, tho flowing water,
the trail of the wind, the twilight of a
blush. the leafy sheet of summer, the
absant-minded reverie of the undertone
all, all these natural objects are paint
ed in their words. What wonder. then,
that these words should take the
very music OF the winds and wa
tiers on their onomato poiea. Let
me trouble the fastidious translator of |
Greek, Roman or Morse mythology to |
find in all tho cleaning palimpsest Of !
the oriental past such crystalhzed con-
centrations OF beautiful thought as Turk
in the occidental pantheon of the lndi- /
an gods Concentration Is the core Of /
thought. Ii is In this capital trait that
the occidental savage surpasses the /
oriental savant. 1t eolors all his unwrit-
ten literature. Take the Navajo nation |
spring OF water. Has she anything that
approaches the name of the Navajo for /
a spring lCobinakis), the One Eyed Wa /
ter lori the name for the storm
lCiyeicce, Dsilyi, Neyani, Gailaci?) ,
'' IT'S I, Reared Within the Mountains"
who art thou" or the name Of the /
wind-god. Tsegeinicini behogan; the
House of Rock Crystal Tor Tsenahale), |
the ''breath-feather of the downy |
plume above the fetching of the great !
plumed arrow, swallowed in the dance
of the ''Iatso yiscan" Tor Acadsil), the
the Leaf mountain, in which stands |
under the dewdrops (cnco behogan), |
the House of Dew Tor Kac-so- ka tee
'equ), Lone Juniper standing between
cliffs
The Navajo nation is still race of
wild, blanketed Indians They will
draw ep their beautiful, hand-woveu
blankets over their heads if you look 1t
them, and peek at you archly sideways
US they walk Off Sometimes they will
make awful faces at you and spit at
you- They are superstitious, and will
not, as a general rule, allow you to take
Heir pictures. They think their time