278 NAVAJO CEREMONIAL OF HASJELTI DAILJIS. 
THE FLOATING LOGS. 
A man sat thinking, ‘‘Let me see; my songs are too short; I want 
more songs; where shall I go to find them?” Hasjelti appeared and, 
perceiving his thoughts, said, “I know where you can go to get more 
songs.” ‘Well, I much want to get more, and I will follow you.” 
When they reached a certain point in a box canyon in the Big Colorado 
River they found four gods (the Hostjobokon) at work hewing logs of 
cottonwood. Hasjelti said, “This will not do; cottonwood becomes 
water-soaked; you must use pine instead of cottonwood.” The Host- , 
jobokon then began boring the pine with flint, when Hasjelti said, 
“That is slow work,” and he commanded the whirlwind to hollow the 
log. A Jerusalem cross was formed with one solid log and a hollow 
one. The song-hunter entered the hollow log and Hasjelti closed the 
end with a cloud, that the water of the river might not enter when the 
logs were launched upon the great waters. The Hostjobokon, accom- 
panied by their wives, rode upon the logs, a couple sitting on the end 
of each cross arm. These were accompanied by Hasjelti, Hostjoghon, 
and two Naaskiddi, who walked on the banks to ward the logs off 
from the shore. Hasjelti carried a squirrel skin filled with tobacco 
from which to supply the gods on their journey. Hostjoghon carried 
a staff ornamented with eagle and turkey plumes and a gaming ring 
with two humming birds tied to it with white cotton cord. The two 
Naaskiddi carried staffs of lightning.’ After floating a long distance 
down the river they came to waters that had a shore on one side only, 
and they landed. Here they found people like themselves. These peo- 
ple, on learning of the song-hunter’s wish, gave to him many songs and 
they painted pictures on a cotton blanket and said, ‘These pictures 
must go with the songs. If we give this blanket to you you will lose it. 
We will give you white earth and black coals which you will grind to- 
gether to make black paint, and we will give you white sand, yellow 
sand, and red sand, and for the blue paint you will take white sand and 
black coals with a very little red and yellowsand. These together will 
give you blue.’ 
The song-hunter remained with these people until the corn was ripe. 
There he learned to eat corn and he carried some back with him to the 
Navajo, who had not seen corn before, and he taught them how to raise 
it and how to eat it. 
As the logs would not float upstream the song-hunter was conveyed 
by four sunbeams, one attached to each end of the cross-logs, to the 
box canyon whence he emerged. Upon his return he separated the logs, 
placing an end of the solid log into the hollow end of the other and 
planted this great pole in the river, where to this day it is to be seen by 
those so venturesome as to visit this point. 
1The Naaskiddi are hunchbacks; they have clouds upon their backs, in which seeds of all vegetation 
are held. 
2The Navajo will not use real blue coloring in their sand painting, but adhere strictly to the instruc- 
tions of the gods. They do, however, use a bit of vermilion, when it can be obtained, to heighten the 
red coloring in the pouches. 
