844 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. (October, 
the human forms are molded of moistened corn meal, while dif- 
` ferent ceremonies are performed and by different gods. But 
always Indian corn, in some form, is the substance used. As 
this has been from time immemorial the staple food of the In- 
dian, it is not without reason that his gods have chosen it as the 
proper substance fer making men. All Indian flesh is largely 
derived from maize. 
It is a difficult task to determine which one of their gods is the 
most potent. Religion with them, as with many other peoples, 
reflects their own social conditions. Their government is a strict 
democracy. Chiefs are at best but elders, men of temporary and 
ill-defined influence, whom the youngest men in the tribe may 
contradict and defy. There is no highest chief of the tribe. 
Hence their gods, as their men, stand much on a level of equality. 
But, as you hear the myths recited, you gain the idea that at the 
present day the sun-god is the most potent, though very far from 
being omnipotent. In the earlier days of the world, and in the 
lower worlds, First-man and First-woman, the Coyote and the 
wind-gods, and, above all, the sea-monster, appear as person- 
ages of greater importance. 
When the race came up from the fourth world to this, to escape 
the last flood, two very popular and much beloved persons were 
chosen to carry the sun and the moon, and all were deeply 
grieved when they departed for their distant homes beside the 
great eastern ocean. The sun-god dwells there now ina beautl- 
ful house built of turquoise. The sun is a bright shield which 
the god carries on his arm. The creation myth in one place = 
scribes with much exactness how he comes home after his day s 
work, how he hangs his shining shield on the wall, how it lights 
_ up the inside of the vast edifice, how it dangles and sways 0 the 
wall, going “tla, tla, tla” until at last the vibration stops and the 
= noise ceases. 
But, although they attribute great power to Chohanoat, the sun- 
god, it is not to him that they pray the most. Itis not he who 
_ takes the greatest interest in human affairs and lends his ear most 
readily to human supplication. Is it because they naturally sup- 
. _ pose the most active sympathy to dwell in the breast of a woman 
. = ‘that they have found in a goddess their most beneficent dei 
ty? It 
so, but perhaps there are other reasons equally pee 
vill presently appear, why Æszsánatlehi, the goddess of the | 
