348 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [x=ru. ann. 24 
tossed it up; if it fell with the black side up, the nocturnal party were to begin, 
but it fell with the gray side up and those of the diurnal side took the stone. 
These raised a blanket to conceal their operations and sang a song, which is sung 
to this day by the Navajos when they raise a screen in this game . . . and 
the game went on. 
They commenced the game with only one hundred counters but a little whitish, 
odd-looking snake called lic-bitedi, i.e., maternal grandmother of the snakes, 
said they ought to have two more counters. Therefore they made two, notched 
them so that they would look like snakes, and called them bitedi, maternal 
grandmothers, which name the two notched counters used in the game still bear. 
The cunning coyote would not cast his lot permanently with either side. He 
usually stood between the contending parties, but occasionally went over to one 
side or the other, as the tide of fortune seemed to run. 
Some of the genii of those days joined the animals in this contest. On the side 
of the night animals was the great destroyer Yeitso, the best guesser of all, who 
soon took the stone away from the day animals. Whenever the latter found it in 
the moccasins of their moon-loving enemies they could not hold it long, for the 
shrewd-guessing Yeitso would recover it. They lost heavily and began to 
tremble for their chances, when some one proposed to them ‘to call in the aid of 
the gopher, nasizi. He dug a tunnel under the moccasins leading from one to 
another and when Yeitso would guess the right moccasin the gopher, unseen 
by all, would transfer the stone to another place . . . ‘Thus was Yeitso 
deceived, the day party retrieved their losses and sang a taunting song of 
him A 
But when they had won back nearly all the counters, luck appeared to again 
desert them. The noctivagant beasts came into possession of the pebble, and 
kept it so long that it seemed as if their opponents could never regain it. Guess 
as cleverly as they might, the stone was not to be found in the moccasin indi- 
eated by those who longed for an eternal day. Then the owl sang a song 
expressive of his desires . . . and when he had done, one of the wind-gods 
whispered into the ear of one of the diurnal party that the owl held the stone in 
his claws all the time, and never allowed it to be buried in the moccasin. So, 
when next the screen was withdrawn, the enlightened day animal advanced, and, 
instead of striking a moccasin, struck the owl’s claws, and the hidden stone 
dropped out on the ground. 
After this the game proceeded with little advantage to either side, and the 
animals turned their attention to composing songs about the personal peculiari- 
ties, habits, and history of their opponents, just as in social dances to-day the 
Navajos ridicule one another in song. Thus all the songs relating to animals 
which form the great majority of the songs of the Kesitce, originated. 
Later the players began to grow drowsy and tired and somewhat indifferent 
to the game, and again the wind-god whispered—this time into the ear of the 
magpie—and said, ‘‘ Sing a song of the morning,’ whereat the magpie sang his 
song . . . As he uttered the last words, “ Qa-yel-ki! Qa-yel-ka!” (It 
dawns! It dawns!) the players looked forth and beheld the pale streak of dawn 
along the eastern horizon. Then all hastily picked up their counters and 
blankets and fled, each to his proper home—one to the forest, another to the 
desert, this to the gully, that to the rocks. 
The bear had lent his moccasins to be used in the game. They were, there- 
fore, partly buried in the ground. In his haste to be off he put them on 
wrong—the right moccasin on the left foot, and vice versa; and this is why 
the bear’s feet are now misshapen. His coat was then as black as midnight, 
but he dwelt on top of a high mountain, and was so.late in getting back to his 
