The bluebird had joined the Air-Spirit People and was the first to reach the Third or Yellow World. After him came the First Four and all the others.
The great Female River crossed this land from north to south. The great Male River crossed the land from east to west. The rivers flowed through one another in the middle, and the name of this place is Tó Ałnáosdlį́į́, Crossing of the Waters.
In the Yellow World were six mountains. In the East was Sisnaajiní, Dawn, or White Shell Mountain. In the South was Tsoodził, Blue Bead, or Turquoise Mountain. To the West was Dookʼoʼoosłííd, Abalone Shell Mountain. In the North was Dibé Nitsaa, Big Sheep Mountain. Near the Center of the Yellow World was Dził Náʼoodiłii, Soft Goods or Banded Rock Mountain. And near it, East of center, there was Chʼóolʼį́ʼí, Precious Stones, or Great Spruce Mountain.
Holy People lived on the mountains. They were immortal, and could travel by following the path of the rainbow and the rays of the sun. One was Haashchʼééłtiʼí, Talking God. His body was white. One was Tó Neinilí, Water Sprinkler. He was blue. One was Haashchʼééʼooghaan, House God. His body was yellow. One was Haashchʼééshzhiní, Black God, the god of fire. Beyond them to the east lived Turquoise Boy, who was a Nádleehi, neither male nor female, who guarded the great male reed. And far to the West, on Abalone Shell Mountain, lived Yoołgaii Asdzą́ą́ White Shell Girl, also a Nádleeh. With her was the big female reed, which grew at the water's edge with no tassel.
In the autumn, the four Holy People called to First Man and First Woman, and visited them, but they did not speak. Four days in a row they visited. On the fourth day, Black God said, "You must cleanse yourselves and we will return in twelve days."
First Man and First Woman bathed carefully and dried themselves with corn meal. They listened and waited. On the twelfth day the four Holy People returned. Water Sprinkler and Black God carried a sacred buckskin. Talking God carried two perfect ears of corn, with their points completely covered with kernels. One ear of corn was white, the male corn belonging to First Man. The other ear was yellow, the female corn belonging to First Woman. The gods placed one buckskin on the ground facing west, and on it they placed the two ears of corn with their tips pointing east. Under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle. Under the yellow ear they put the feather of a yellow eagle. They told the people to stand at a distance so that the wind could enter.
The White Wind, Níłchʼi Łigai blew between the buckskins, and while the wind blew, each of the Holy People walked four times around them, and the feathers were seen to move. In this way, they transformed First Man and First Woman from spirit people into human beings, with great powers. "Now," the Holy People said, "live here as husband and wife."
At the end of four days, First Woman gave birth to twins. They were neither male nor female, but Nádleeh. Four days later a second set of twins was born, one male and one female. After twenty days a total of five pairs of twins had been born, half of them male and half of them female. Almost at once they were full grown. The Holy People took each set of twins to their home on the East Mountain and taught them how to wear masks and pray, and then returned them to their parents. Eight winters passed, and during that time the twins found mates with the Mirage People. Many people came into being.
Na'ashje'ii Aszdaan, Na'ashje'ii Hastiin
Near Tó Ałnáosdlį́į́, Crossing of the Waters, lived Spider Man and Spider Woman. They knew how to weave the fibers of cotton and hemp and other plants. First Woman asked Spider Man and Spider Woman to teach people how to weave the fibers of plants so they would not have to depend on animal skins for clothing. Cotton seeds were planted, and the cotton was gathered. Spider Man taught the people to shape a little wheel, 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and put a slender stick through it to spin the cotton. First Woman said, "You must spin towards your person, not away, as you wish to have the beautiful goods come to you. If you spin away from you, the goods will depart from you." Spider Man named the spindle "yódí yił yaʼhote," meaning "turning around with the beautiful goods." Spider Woman said, "No, it shall be called nto is yił yaʼhote, turning around with the mixed chips."
After they had spun the thread they rolled it into good-sized balls, and brought straight poles and tied them to make a rectangular frame. Spider Man wound the thread on two of the poles from east to west, over and under the poles. Then Spider Man said that the ball of thread should be called "yódí yił nasmas aghaaʼ," meaning "rolling with the beautiful goods." Spider Woman said, "No, it shall be called ntsilí yił nasmas aghaaʼ, rolling with the mixed chips."
After the loom was finished the cross poles were erected and other poles placed on the ground to hold the loom frame solidly, and the loom was stretched into place. Spider Man said, "It shall be called yótí ilth na daiʼdi, raising with the beautiful goods." Spider Woman said, "No, it shall be called niltłʼiz na daiʼdi, raising with the mixed chips."
There was a notched stick running across, with a notch holding every other thread. Spider Man said, "It will be called yódí bił nesłon, looping with the beautiful goods." Spider Woman said, "No, it shall be called niltłʼliz bił nesłon, looping with the mixed chips." Then they used a narrow stick about two and a half feet long, and wound the yarn or thread over it, and where there is no design they ran it along. That was given the same name as the ball of thread. They used the wide flat stick for tapping down the thread. Spider Man said, "It shall be called yódí naʼygolte;" but Spider Woman said, "It shall be called niltłʼiz naʼygolte."
Spider Man then said, "Now you know all that I have named for you. It is yours to work with and to use following your own wishes. But from now on when a baby girl is born to your tribe you shall go and find a spider web woven at the mouth of some hole; you must take it and rub it on the baby's hand and arm. Thus, when she grows up she will weave, and her fingers and arms will not tire from the weaving."
Separation of the sexes
One day First Man brought home a fine deer that he had killed. First Woman said, "I thank my vagina for this deer." First Man demanded to know what she meant. "I mean that you bring me food because you wish to have sex with me," she said. "But we women could live happily without men. We are the ones who gather the food and till the fields. We have no need of men." First Man grew angry and called all the men together. "The women think they can live without us," he told them. "Let us see if that is true."
The men and the two hermaphrodite twins crossed the river to the north bank carrying the grinding stones and bowls and baskets that the hermaphrodite twins had made, and the axes and hoes that the men had invented. The women bared themselves along the bank of the river and called out to the men, saying "See what you are missing?" There were occasionally men and women who so longed after the other that some jumped into the river that separated them in a vain attempt to reunite with their loved ones. Unfortunately the currents of the river were too strong and the swimmers were washed down the river, never to be seen again.
For four years the men and the women lived apart. During this time the food that the women harvested became less, because they had no tools, while the men grew more and more food. But each group longed for the other. The women sought to satisfy themselves with bones and feathers and long stones. The men tried to relieve their longing with the fresh meat of animals. One man, Kʼíídeesdizí, tried to satisfy himself using the liver of a deer. Owl called out to him to stop. "This is wrong," Owl said. "No good can come of this separation. You must bring the men and the women together again." As it turns out Owl was right. From the women who had sought to satisfy themselves with foreign objects, monsters were born out of this. The monsters would go on the terrorize the people wherever they roamed.
Kʼíídeesdizí spoke to the other men. Finally they all spoke to First Man. First Man called across the river to First Woman, and asked, "Do you still think you can live alone?" "I no longer believe I can," she responded. "I am sorry I let the things you said make me angry," First Man said. And then the men sent a raft to the women's side of the river to bring the women across. The men and women bathed and dried their bodies with corn meal, and remained apart until nightfall. Then they would resume their lives together.
Tééhoołtsódii dóó Ma'ii.
But a mother and her two daughters had been in the fields and had not seen the raft. Now it was dark, and they saw that all of the women had crossed the river to the men's side. They began to swim across. But Tééhoołtsódii, Big Water Creature, grabbed the two daughters and dragged them to her home under the water. For three days and three nights, the people searched the river for the girls, but they could not find them.
On the morning of the fourth day, Talking God and Water Sprinkler appeared with a large bowl of white shell and a large bowl of blue shell. The people gathered around them. They placed the bowls at the water's edge, and started to spin them. The spinning bowls created an opening in the water which led downward to a large house with four rooms. First Man and First Woman traveled down the passage and into the house, and behind them crept the Coyote named First Angry. In the north room of the house, they found Big Water Creature asleep in a chair. Her own two children were there, and also the two missing daughters. First Man and First Woman took the hands of the girls and led them back through the passage and on to the bank. Behind them, Coyote carried the two children of Big Water Creature, wrapped in his big skin coat with white fur lining. There was great celebrating because the lost girls were returned.
The next morning, animals began running past the village from the east. Deer ran by, and turkeys, and antelopes, and squirrels. For three days, animals ran past, fleeing from something. On the morning of the fourth day, the people sent locusts flying to the east to find out what was happening. The locusts returned and told that a great wall of water was coming from the east, and a tide of water from the north and from the south. The people ran to the top of the mountain Sisnaajiní. First Man ran to each of the other Sacred Mountains, took dirt from each, and summoned the Holy People, and returned to Sisnaajiní. Turquoise Boy came bearing the great Male Reed, and First Man planted it in the top of the mountain. All the people began to blow on the reed, and it began to grow and grow until it reached the canopy of the sky. Woodpecker hollowed out a passage inside the reed, and the people and Turquoise Boy and the four Holy People all began to climb up until they came out in the Fourth World.