Dine/Navajo Creation Words, Landscape and Dry Paintings
Locust is the
first to come up the "reed of emergence" into this, the Fifth World, the earth
surface world, followed by First Man and First Woman, Pollen Boy, Lightning God
and Talking God, and all the other Yei
‑ Diyin Dinee, the
Holy People.
All around is water and darkness.
There are no peoples, but there are many monsters.
There is much hocho
- disorder and ugliness.
At the Emergence Place, the Holy People decide to build a sweathouse, like a hogan though much larger. First Man brings his medicine bundle with him into the sweat bath, the bundle containing four jewels - turquoise, white shell, abalone and obsidian. In the heat and the steam, the Holy
People whisper to each other and, with the
knowledge of hozho
- beauty and harmony, plan the earth-surface world.
They think of the
biiasti, the
"in-standing ones," the inner forms of all things.
Then the Holy People speak the
words of the world and sing the world into being.
the mountains will be . . . ,
The earth will be,
from ancient times with me there is knowledge
of it.
The mountains will be,
from ancient times with me there is knowledge
of it. . . .
The earth will be,
from the very beginning I have thought it.
The mountains will be,
from the very beginning I have thought it. . .
.
The earth will be,
from the ancient times I speak it.
The mountains will be,
from the ancient times I speak it. . . .
The earth will be,
the mountains will be, . . .
and so it will be.
(from the
Beginning of the World Song)
by means of these I shall live on.
Earth's legs have become my legs
by means of these I shall live on.
Earth's body has become my body
by means of this I shall live on.
Earth's mind has become my mind
by means of this I shall live on.
Earth's voice has become my voice
by means of this I shall live on.
Earth's headplume has become my headplume
by means of this I shall live on.
The cord‑like extension from the top of its head
is cord‑like from the top of my head as by means of this I
shall live on.
There are mountains encircling it and
Hozho
extends up their slopes,
by means of
these it will be hozho as I shall live on.
Saah Naaghaii Bikeh
Hozho I shall be,
Before me it
will be hozho as I live on,
Behind me it
will be hozho as I live on,
Below me it
will be hozho as I live on,
Above me it
will be hozho as I live on.
Hozho
has been restored.
Hozho
has been restored.
Hozho
has been restored.
Hozho
has been restored. (from the
Blessingway Song)
But there
remains much hocho.
Monsters persist:
Sickness, Hunger, Poverty, Lice Man, Laziness.
In the heat and steam, the Holy People think the
world and then speak the world into being.
Mount Hesperus (La Plata Mountain) - Obsidian Girl |
San Francisco Peak - Abalone Boy | click on to enlarge and context | Blanca Peak - Dawn Boy |
Mount Taylor - Turquoise Girl |
Gobernador Knob - Center of the Dine world |
Hogan
The Four Mountains Dry Painting. Among the images are the Pine Mountain, Black Spruce Mountain, Spruce Yellow Mountain, and Blue Mountain, as well as the Yei or Holy People -- Changing Grandchild (top), Monster Slayer (right), Child of the Water (bottom), Reared within the Mountain (left), with Pink Herb, Black Herb, Yellow Herb and Blue Herb, and the Moon and Sun (left)
Billy Yellow
(18 min., this and the following clip,
Beatrice,
are from David Maybury-Lewis' 1992 Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern
World PBS series.
Maybury-Lewis is a recently retired professor of anthropology
from Harvard University. Anth 329)
return to 101 applied, return to 101 schedule, 101 Primal Religion Outline, 101 Story Outline