Kotharian Lightning

From Navajo Folklore

“From Tse’pahalkai the Navajo moved to the neighborhood of Kintyel (Broad House), in the Chaco Canyon, where the ruins of the great pueblo still stand. When the wanderers arrived the pueblo was in the process of building, but was not finished. The way it came to be built you shall now hear:

Some time before, there had descended among the Pueblos, from the heavens, a divine gambler, or gambling god, named Nohoilpi, or He Who Wins Men (at play); his talisman was a great piece of turquoise. When he came he challenged the people to all sorts of games and contests, and in all of these he was successful. He won from them, first, their property, then their women and children,and finally some of the men themselves. Then he told them he would give them part of their property back in payment if they would build a great house; so when the Navahoes came, the Pueblos were busy building in order that they might release their enthralled relatives and their property. They were also busy making a race-track, and preparing for all kinds of games of chance and skill.

When all was ready, and four days’ notice had been given, twelve men came from the neighboring pueblo of Kindotliz, Blue House, to compete with the great gambler. They bet their own persons, and after a brief contest they lost themselves to Nohoilpi. Again a notice of four days was given, and again twelve men of Kindotliz – relatives of the former twelve – came to play and these also lost themselves. For the third time an announcement, four days in advance of a game, was give; this time some women were among the twelve contestants, and they, too, lost themselves. All were put to work on the building of Kintyel as soon as they forfeited their liberty. At the end of another four days the children of these men and women came to try to win back their parents, but they succeeded only in adding themselves to the number of the gambler’s slaves. On a fifth trial, after four days’ warning, twelve leading men of Blue House were lost, among them the chief of the pueblo. On a sixth duly announced gambling day, twelve more men, all important persons, staked their liberty and lost it. Up to this time the Navahoes had kept count of the winnings of Nohoilpi, but afterwards people from other pueblos came in such numbers to play and lose that they could keep count no longer. In addition to their own persons the later victims brought in beads, shells, turquoise, and all sorts of valuables, and gambled them away. With the labor of all these slaves it was not long until the great Kintyel was finished.

But all this time the Navahoes had been merely spectators, and had taken no part in the games. One day the voice of the beneficent god, Hastseyalti, was heard faintly in the distance crying his usual call, “Wu’hu’hu’hu.” His voice was heard, as it is always heard, four times, each time nearer and nearer, and immediately after the last call, which was loud and clear, Hastseyalti appeared at the door of a hut where dwelt a young couple who had no children, and with them he communicated by means of signs. He told them that the people of Kindotliz had lost at game with Nohoilpi two great shells,the greatest treasures of the pueblo; that the Sun had coveted these shells and had begged them from the gambler; that the latter had refused the request of the Sun and the Sun was angry. In consequence of all this, as Hastseyalti related, in twelve days from his visit certain divine personages would meet in the mountains, in a place which he designated, to hold a great ceremony. He invited the young man to be present at the ceremony and disappeared.

The Navaho kept count of the passing days; on the twelfth day he repaired to the appointed place, and there he found a great assemblage of the gods. There were Hastseyalti, Hastsehogan and his son Kiltsi (Wind), Tsalyel (Darkness), Tsapani (Bat), Listso (Great Snake), Tsilkali (a little bird), Naizi (gopher), and many others. Besides these there were present a number of pets or domesticated animals belonging to the gambler, who were dissatisfied with their lot, were anxious to be free, and would gladly obtain their share of the spoils in case their master was ruined. Niltsi (Wind) had spoken to them, and they had come to enter into the plot against Nohoilpi. All night the gods danced and sang and performed their mystic rites for the purpose of giving to the son of Hastehogan powers, as a gambler, equal to those of Nohoilpi. When the morning came they washed the young neophyte all over, dried him with meal, dressed him in clothes exactly like those the gambler wore, and in every way made him look as much like the gambler as possible, and then they counselled as to what other means they should take to outwit Nohoilpi.

In the first place, they desired to find out how he felt about having refused to his father, the Sun, the two great shells. “I will do this,” said Niltsi (Wind), “for I can penetrate everywhere, and no one can see me;” but the others said: “No; you can go everywhere, but you cannot travel without making a noise and disturbing people. Let Tsalyel (Darkness) go on this errand, for he also goes wherever he wills, yet he makes no noise.” So Tsalyel went to the gambler’s house, entered his room, went all through his body while he slept, and searched well his mind, and he came back saying, “Nohoilpi is sorry for what he has done.” Niltsi, however, did not believe this; so, although his services had been before refused, he repaired to the chamber where the gambler slept, and went all through his body and searched well his mind; but he, too, came back saying Nohoilpi was sorry that he had refused to give the great shells to his father.

One of the games they proposed to play is called taka-thad-sata, or the thirteen chips. (It is played with thirteen thin flat pieces of wood, which are colored red on one side and left white or uncolored on the other side. Success depends on the number of chips which, being thrown upwards, fall with their white sides up.) “Leave the game to me,” said the Bat; “I have made thirteen chips that are white on both sides. I will hide myself in the ceiling, and when our champion throws up his chips I will grasp them and throw down my chips instead.”

Another game they were to play is called nanzoz. (It is played with two long sticks or poles, of peculiar shape and construction, one marked with red and the other with black, and a single hoop. A long, many-tailed string, called the “turkey-claw,” is secured to the end of each pole.) “Leave nanzoz to me,” said Great Snake; “I will hide myself in the hoop and make it fall where I please.”

Another game was one called tsinbetsi, or push-on-the-wood. (In this the contestants push against a tree until it is torn from its roots and falls.) “I will see that this game is won,” said Nasizi, the Gopher; “I will gnaw the roots of the tree, so that he who shoves it may easily make it fall.”

In the game tsol, or ball, the object was to hit the ball so that it would fall beyond a certain line. “I will win this game for you,” said the little bird Tsilkali, “for I will hide within the ball, and fly with it wherever I want to go. Do not hit the ball hard; give it only a light tap, and depend on me to carry it.”

The pets of the gambler begged the Wind to blow hard, so that they might have an excuse to give their master for not keeping due watch when he was in danger, and in the morning the Wind blew for them a strong gale. At dawn the whole party of conspirators left the mountain, and came down to the brow of the canyon to watch until sunrise.

Nohoilpi had two wives, who were the prettiest women in the whole land. Wherever she went, each carried in her hand a stick with something tied on the end of it, as a sign that she was the wife of the great gambler.

It was their custom for one of them to go every morning at sunrise to a neighboring spring to get water. So at sunrise the watchers on the brow of the cliff saw one of the wives coming out of the gambler’s house with a water-jar on her head, whereupon the son of Hastsehogan descended into the canyon and followed her to the spring. She was not aware of his presence until she had filled her water-jar; then she supposed it to be her own husband, whom the youth was dressed and adorned to represent, and she allowed him to approach her. She soon discovered her error, however, but, deeming it prudent to say nothing, she suffered him to follow her into the house. As he entered, he observed that many of the slaves had already assembled; perhaps they were aware that some trouble was in store for their master. The latter looked up with an angry face; he felt jealous when he saw the stranger entering immediately after his wife. He said nothing of this, however, but asked at once the important question, “Have you come to gamble with me?” This he repeated four times, and each time the young Hastsehogan went on challenging him recklessly. “I’ll bet myself against yourself;” “I’ll bet my feet against your feet;” “I’ll bet my legs against your legs;” and so on he offered to bet every and any part of his body against the same part of his adversary, ending by mentioning his hair.

In the mean time the party of divine ones, who had been watching from above, came down, and people from the neighboring pueblos came in, and among these were two boys, who were dressed in costumes similar to those worn by the wives of the gambler. The young Hastsehogan pointed to these and said, “I will bet my wives against your wives.” The great gambler accepted the wager, and the four persons, two women and two mock-women, were placed sitting in a row near the wall. First they played the game of thirteen chips. The Bat assisted, as he had promised the son of Hastsehogan, and the latter soon won the game, and with it the wives of Nohoilpi.

This was the only game played inside the house; then all went out of doors, and games of various kinds were played. First they tried nanzoz. The track already prepared lay east and west, but, prompted by the Wind God, the stranger insisted on having a track made from north to south, and again, at the bidding of Wind, he chose the red stick. The son of Hastsehogan threw the wheel; at first it seemed about to fall on the gambler’s pole, in the “turkey-claw” of which it was entangled; but to the great surprise of the gambler it extricated itself, rolled farther on, and fell on the pole of his opponent. The latter ran to pick up the ring, lest Nohoilpi in doing so might hurt the snake inside; but the gambler was so angry that he threw his stick away and gave up the game, hoping to do better in the next contest, which was that of pushing down trees.

For this the great gambler pointed out two small trees, but his opponent insisted that larger trees must be found. After some search they agreed upon two of good size, which grew close together, and of these the Wind told the youth which one he must select. The gambler strained with all his might at his tree, but could not move it, while his opponent, when his turn came, shoved the other tree prostrate with little effort, for its roots had all been severed by Gopher.

Then followed a variety of games, on which Nohoilpi staked his wealth in shells and precious stones, his houses, and many of his slaves, and lost all.

The last game was that of the ball. On the line over which the ball was to be knocked all the people were assembled; on one side were those who still remained slaves; on the other side were the freedmen and those who had come to wager themselves, hoping to rescue their kinsmen. Nohoilpi bet on this game the last of his slaves and his own person. The gambler struck his ball a heavy blow, but it did not reach the line; the stranger gave his but a light tap, and the bird within it flew with it far beyond the line, whereat the released captives jumped over the line and joined their people.

The victor ordered all the shells, beads, and precious stones, and the great shells to be brought forth. He gave the beads and shells to Hastseyalti, that they might be distributed among the gods; the two great shells were given to the Sun.

In the mean time Nohoilpi sat to one side saying bitter things, bemoaning his fate, and cursing and threatening his enemies. “I will kill you all with the lightning. I will send war and disease among you. May the cold freeze you! May the fire burn you! May the waters drown you!” he cried. “He has cursed enough,” whispered Niltsi to the son of Hastsehogan. “Put an end to his angry words.” So the young victor called Nohoilpi to him and said: “You have bet yourself and have lost; you are now my slave and must do my bidding. You are not a god; for my power has prevailed against yours.” The victor had a bow of magic power named Efin Dilyil, or the Bow of Darkness; he bent this upwards, and placing the string on the ground he bade his slave stand on the string; then he shot Nohoilpi up into the sky as if he had been an arrow. Up and up he went, growing smaller and smaller to the sight till he faded to a mere speck and finally disappeared altogether. As he flew upwards he was heard to mutter in the angry tones of abuse and imprecation, until he was too far away to be heard; but no one could distinguish anything he said as he ascended.

He flew up in the sky until he came to the home of Bekotsidi, the god who carries the moon, and who is supposed by the Navahoes to be identical with the God of the Americans. He is very old, and dwells in a long row of stone houses. When Nohoilpi arrived at the house of Bekotsidi he related to the latter all his misadventures in the lower world and said, “Now I am poor, and this is why I have come to see you.” “You need be poor no longer,” said Bekotsidi; “I will provide for you.” So he made for the gambler pets or domestic animals of new kinds, different to those which he had in the Chaco valley; he made for him sheep, asses, horses, swine, goats, and fowls. He also gave him bayeta, and other cloths of bright colors, more beautiful than those woven by his slaves at Kintyel. He made, too, a new people, the Mexicans, for the gambler to rule over, and then he sent him back to this world again, but he descended far to the south of his former abode, and reached the earth in old Mexico.”

Source:

Navaho Legends, Washington Matthews, 1897