The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-28
The Magic Of
the South
A Navaioe Indian Story of
Strange Adventure.

have legend which tells of a youth
named Reared Within the Noun
tains," or, in their language, Dsilyi
Neyani
The boy lived far away to the
southwest, and the name Of his home
was Beautiful Among the Mountains.
When Neyani grew big enough he
went out to hunt with his brothers,
and soon became expert at killing
game. But his father always caution
| ed him, when you go ito hunt go to
| the east, the west or the north, but go
not to the SOUTH and for long time
| the boy obeyed. Finally one day,
when he had become a big boy-a.
young man in fact-he was hunting
alone, and finding game scarce, de-
| termined to go to the south in spite OF
| his fathers commands.
For several days he journeyed till he
reached a new and strange country,
| and all at once he saw large war
party of Utes, deadly enemies of his
| tribe, rushing toward him on their
ponies.
All" said he, this is what get for
| disobeying my father!"
| The Utes took him prisoner to one
of their villages and decided that they
would beat him to death with clubs
| the next morning.
AS they sat in council, in at the
smoke hole of the wigwam, on
streak of lightning, came the Yaybi-
chy, a fairy king whose special bust
ness it was to look after the Navajos
| in distress.
The Utes did not see the lightning,
nor did they hear the Yaybichy when
| he spoke and said to the young man:
| you must get out of this. What is
| the matter with you? You make no
| effort to help yourself, and you got
into this scrape by disobeying your
father. But as you are sorry 1 will
| help YOU
| Then he vanished. Soon after a
| great black bird flew into the wig
wan and circled three times above the
heads of the Utes. whereupon they all
went to sleep and the youth, loosening
his bonds, slipped out and made off as
| fast as he could.
He ran until he came to a bluff
| which looked down into a deep canon
and there he paused in despair, for he
saw no way of descending, and be-
hind him he heard the voices of the
Utes, who had awakened from their
magic sleep and were after him.
Then the Yaybichy appeared to him
again and said:
''See that spruce tree growing down
in the canon? Reach out and grab
hold of it's top
Neyani tried to do so, but could not
reach it, whereupon the Yaybichy
threw a lasso of lightning over it, and
drew it near, so that the youth caught
hold of it and scrambled down into
| the canon. When they reached the
other side of the canon the Yaybichy
pointed to a small hole in the cliff and
| said:
This is the door of my lodge. En-
ter"
Reared Within-the- Mountains tried
to do So but the hole was too small
and the Yaybichy roared with laugh
ter. Finally he blew hard upon the
| hole and it expanded into a fair-sized
doorway, through which they entered
the house.
After resting and refreshing himself
with food the young man started again
on his homeward journey with the
/ Yaybichy as his guide. When they
reached a canon, the Yaybichy would
threw a rainbow bridge across it, and
they would pass over with ease, for
| by breathing on the rainbow the Yay-
bichy could make it as hard as ice.
The second day Reared Within-the-
Mountains came upon a little old man
| sitting by the wayside cleaning cac-
tus fruit. He had small eyes and a
|
! ing on each side of it. The young
man Immediately recognized him as
Mr.. Bush-Rat.
To the Bush-Rat he told his story
and the little old man said GO to my
house and rest, for your pursuers are
after you and will catch you if you do
not hide"
| So he went to the home of the Bush
Rat, which he entered through the side
1f he h. OF
small hole to enlarge it just as the Yay-
bichy had done.
Inside he found an old woman. two
young men and two girls-all the Bush
Rats family. In the lodge was a long
row of wicker jars with white jar
at one end and black jar at the other
When the Rat woman asked him if
he would like something to eat, New
ami answered that he would take some
thing out of the white jar. and out of
| it she gave him fruits and nuts.
| He was Just about to eat them when
the Yaybichy said. Save that until
you get outside, for if you eat the food
of the rats in the home of the rats you
will turn to a rat yourself"
J The next day, as he journeyed, Ney-
/ ami was suddenly scared by seeing a
great body of Utes riding toward him.
ct am LOST" cried he to the Yaybi-
chy, but that resourceful person said,
Run to the top of that little hill there,
and as you step upon it's summit close
your eyes"
He did so, and when he opened his
eyes again, instead of standing on a
| little hill he was on the top of a great
high mountain with his pursuers far
below him on the plains.
| All day the youth remained upon
the mountain top and at night re-
sumed his journey. AS he walked
along he suddenly saw by his side
Mitch, the ruler of the winds, and at
the same time heard again the noise
of his enemies as they galloped on his
| trail.
| Then Mitch brought up great
whirlwind, which buried its point in
| the earth and dug cave. where the