A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

5§ A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMcome to killhim, but after they had receivedgifts they just left Coyote's son without speakingto him. After they were gone, the boystarted out to find his brothers. He came toa canyon and below the cliff he saw them.The wind said to him, "These are your brothersand sisters." The boy sat down andwatched them for they were having a goodtime.Before the time of this boy, there were noshadows. Shadows came from the winds themselvesas they turned into shadows. The windsaid, "There are things that will happen. Iwill go down there and see what is going on."So the boy sent this shadow out to find whathis brothers and sisters were doing. Theshadow comes from a person's breath or windor air. It is the air that comes out of yourbody. The shadow will follow along by yourside as you walk. The shadow was black andlike any shadow nowadays. The shadow cannotbe divided from the body, but witchescan project their shadows. These people arethose who walk on the wrong side of theroad — those who are witches.When the wind returned in the evening hetold the boy that there was to be a meeting.The boy went to the meeting and went intothe hogan. He sat down on the south sideof the doorway. The boy was the only onethere with a shadow. After a few days thepeople said, "There is someone who sits thereevery evening. Let us find out who he is."The people asked the boy to come to thecenter of the hogan. He found that thewoman sitting there was his mother. He toldthem where he came from and told them allof the experiences he had had. He told themthat he had been born in that first hogan.Nowadays women without fathers for theirchildren might throw them away because ofwhat this woman did to her son.This boy was Coyote's child, but Coyote'sdaughter married again and had children froma second husband. The boy's brothers andsisters did not know him and his mother actedlike she did not recognize him either. Theydid not treat him or act toward him like abrother. After he finished his story, they said,"He is some kind of a person. He is not ourbrother." Still he stayed near the hogan fora while. Finally, one day the brothers saidwhen they were alone and he was not around,"Let us kill him, for if he stays very long hewill cause witch trouble." The wind heardthis and told the boy, "Within four days theywill try to kill you. This is what I want youto do. Make four bows and four quivers fullof arrows. Hide them in the earth. Put themin a row and hide them away from each other.When the shadow hits noontime you are tostart your battle."The boy started to work on these things sohe could finish them within four days. Whenhe had finished, the wind said, "There will begambling in the open. Do not go near wherethey are doing this. Practise shooting anddon't play with them. They will come afteryou. At noon kill one of them with yourbow." There was a stick standing up to tellwhen it was noon. His brothers had to killhim at noon in order to succeed. They didnot like him because before he came amongthem they had no shadows. They hated himbecause he had powers of a witch and causedthem to have shadows.Before it was noon, one of his brothersrushed and chased after him, but the boykilled him. He killed as many of them as hecould and when he ran out of arrows he brokehis bow and dropped it. He ran to where hehad hidden his second bow and quiver ofarrows. After he had used all of these, hedug up his third set of bow and arrows andran around the people killing them until allthese arrows were gone. He ran up to hislast bow and arrows. After he dug up hisfourth set, he ran around the group, flexinghis bow and playing like he was going toshoot. A few minutes to twelve, the boy said,"I wish I could shoot the Sun." He turnedhis bow upward and then down to where hisfat brother was sitting on his heels and shothim through the throat, above the collarbone.The boy ran away, for now he had onlyfour arrows left. He then blew down the Sun.He had the power to do these things becauseof the people he had met and overcome in hisjourney. He received his power from overcomingthese beings, for all of these peoplegave him some of their power. Nearby thecamp of his brothers and sisters, was a cliffwall. The boy shot two of his arrows into acrack in the wall and there appeared a pine