MATTHEWS.] MYTII OF DSILYIDJE QACAL. 387 
the house was shaken by a terrific peal of thunder. He rose at once, 
pale and evidently agitated, and, whispering hoarsely, “Wait till Christ- 
mas; they are angry,” he hurried away. lUhave seen many such evi- 
dences of the deep influence of this superstition on them. 
7. When the man (or the woman) who gives the entertainment con- 
cludes he is sick and that he can afford to call a shaman, it is not the 
latter who decides what particular rites are best suited to cure the 
malady. Itis the patient and his friends who determine this. Then 
they send for a man who is known to be skilled in performing the 
desired rites, and it is his province merely to do the work required of 
him. : 
8. Before beginning to describe the ceremonies it will be well to relate 
the myth accounting for their origin. 
MYTH OF THE ORIGIN OF DSILYIDJE QACAL. 
9. Many years ago, in the neighborhood of Dsilyi‘-qojoni, in the Car- 
rizo Mountains, dwelt a family of six: the father, the mother, two sons, 
and two daughters. They did not live all the time in one locality, but 
moved from place to place in the neighborhood. The young men hunted 
rabbits and wood rats, for it was on such small animals that they all sub- 
sisted. The girls spent their time gathering various wild edible seeds. 
10. After a time they went to a place called Tse‘-bicai (the Wings of 
the Rock or Winged Rock), which lies to the east of the Carrizo Mount- 
ains, on a plain. When they first encamped there was no water in the 
vicinity and the elder brother went out to see if he could find some. 
He observed from the camp a little sandy hillock, covered with some 
vegetation, and he determined to see what sort of plants grew there. 
Arrived there, he noticed a spot where the ground was moist. He got 
his digging stick and proceeded to make a hole in the ground. He had 
not dug long when the water suddenly burst forth in great abundance 
and soon filled the excavation he had made. He hastened back to the 
camp and announced his success. When they left the Carrizo Mount- 
ains it was their intention to go to (epéntsa, the La Plata Mountains, to 
hunt for food, and their halt at Tse‘-bicai was designed to be tempo- 
rary only; but, now that they had found abundance of water, the elder 
brother counseled them not to hasten on, but to remain where they were 
for a while. The spring he developed still exists and is known to the 
Navajo as Cobinakis, or the One-Eyed Water. 
11. The spring was some distance from the camp, and they had but 
one wicker water bottle; so the woman, to lighten her labor, proposed 
that they should move their goods to the vicinity of the spring, as it 
was her task to draw the water. But the old man counseled that they 
should remain where they were, as materials for building were close at 
hand and it was his duty to erect the hut. They argued long about it; 
but at length the woman prevailed, and they carried all their property 
