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Show AMONG THE AZTECS. 275 Whylohay ( a female, by the way) made the Navajoes in the San Juan Valley; they were rich, and had abundance of all things. But one night Chinday dammed the San Juan, and drowned them all. Besides the fish, only two creatures escaped; the snake swam ashore and the turkey flew up to a peak in Colorado. The goddess made the turkey into another man, and made a woman from a fish, and from these two are descended all the present Navajoes. However, this may be only an allegorical statement of the general masculine belief that the sex divine are inclined to be slippery and hard to catch. Women after death change to fish for awhile ; after that their des-tiny seems unsettled. Because of this, Navajoes cat neither fish nor turkeys. The snake is the only animal that knows any thing about what took place in the first creation. Hence, Navajoes seldom or never kill one. From other fish Whylohay recreated the animal kingdom. The turkey was made from a fish in a lake covered with foam, which lodged on his tail as he swam ashore-; hence, the white feathers in the turkey's tail. White men after death go up into the air; Navajoes go down through Bat Canon and into the earth. Thence they come out a long way west, on the edge of a great water. The shore is guarded by terrible evil spirits in the form of men, but with great ears reaching from above their heads to the ground. When asleep, they lie on one ear and cover with the other. Whether they ever " walk off on their ear," the old men could not inform me. Only half of them sleep at a time, and the Navajo has to fight his way through them. If he is brave, and has treated his women well, he gets through ; then the goddess takes him across the water. There, like the white man, they stop; from that country no one has ever come back, to say what is there, or tell us about the climate. Their women are often quite handsome; but like barbarian races generally, they sell their daughters in marriage. Common to average can be had for property to the value of $ 25 ; prime to fine for $ 50; while young and extra go at $ 60, the standard price of the Navajo speckled pony. While in Canon de Chelley, I was offered a, beautiful Miss of fifteen for $ 60, or the horse I was riding. Perhaps I should have closed with the offer it is so much cheaper than one can get a wife in the States. Two months vigorous courting will cost more than that particularly in the ice- cream season. The men do the hardest work, in the fields and on the chase; to the women is left the weaving, household" work, tending the herds and grinding. The last is done with the mitata consisting of two flat stones, the lower stationary, the upper rubbed upon it with the |