March, 1905. The Traditions op the Hon — Voth. 261 



shot into the enemy through the spaces between the warriors in 

 front of them. The Hopi succeeded in driving the NaTaho slowly 

 backward to a place a few miles north-east of Oraibi where they drove 

 them off the mesa. One of the Navaho had lived in Oraibi a while, 

 and in fact had been initiated into the Wtiwuchim society. He could 

 speak the Hopi language and called out to one of the Hopi warriors 

 by the name of Chiniwa: "You had better fight us here where we 

 now are and do not follow us, but remain where you are, because you 

 will all be killed. Our people have not yet all arrived ; there are many 

 more farther east." Chiniwa conveyed this information to his 

 brethren warriors but without avail. The Hopi followed the Navaho. 

 and in the valley both drew up a line of battle ready to again engage 

 in regular battle. While the two lines of warriors were facing each 

 other, a Navaho woman, being mounted on a pony, grabbed a lance 

 from a Navaho warrior, dashed towards the line of the Hopi, followed 

 by her people. They broke through the line of Hopi and thus divided 

 the latter into two parties. These they at once surrounded, which 

 placed the Hopi at a disadvantage. 



The sun was by this time just rising and the Hopi saw that the 

 Navaho warriors were simply dressed in their loin cloths, some hav- 

 ing on moccasins. Their bodies were decorated with red paint over 

 which they had drawn their fingers when it was still wet, making 

 their bodies full of lines. Their hair was hanging down their backs 

 loose. They were all mounted on ponies. The Hopi, however, had 

 this advantage, that their bodies were well wrapped with heavy 

 buckskins, while those of the Navaho were nude, so that a great 

 many more of the arrows of the Hopi proved fatal to their enemies 

 than vice versa. The Hopi say that many of the Navaho arrows 

 were shot into the buckskins that were wrapped around their bodies 

 and were dangling down on all sides from their bodies. This accounts 

 partly for the fact that the Hopi, though outnumbered by their 

 enemies, were not exterminated. 



The battle lasted until late in the afternoon. The Hopi would 

 break through the circles of the warriors surrounding them, but were 

 always surrounded again by new parties, so that the circles sur- 

 rounding the fighting Hopi became smaller and smaller. The Hopi 

 say that the Navaho were much better provided with shields than 

 they were, so that they could cover themselves completely when 

 encircling the Hopi, but the Hopi say they would not always shoot 

 at the enemies just in front of them but would sometimes threaten 

 them and then turn around quickly and then shoot at somebody 

 else from the side and past their shields. They also say that the 



