34 THE SWALLOW 



origin of the swallow comes from the Navaho 

 Indian tribes of our own western country. 

 In it we find the swallows, before coming to 

 earth, occupying one of those heavens which 

 so often figure in Indian traditions. 



Navaho Origin Legend 



The Story of the Emergence 



They went in circles upward till they 

 reached the sky. It was smooth. They 

 looked down ; but there the water had risen, 

 and there was nothing else but water there. 

 While they were flying around, one having a 

 blue head thrust out his head from the sky 

 and called to them, saying, " In there, to the 

 eastward, there is a hole." They entered the 

 hole and went through it up to the surface 

 of the second world. 



The blue one belonged to the Swallow. 

 People. The Swallow People lived there. 

 A great many of their houses, rough and 

 lumpy, lay scattered all about. Each tapered 

 toward the top, and at that part there 



