850 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. (October, 
‘taking such good care of them.” “ Yes,” said Coyote, “I have 
taken care of them for you; but the ground is so nice and soft 
on this mountain I think I shall prefer to go barefoot to-day.” 
Not only is the prairie-wolf a god, but nearly every animal 
in the Navajo land has its own apotheosized prototype, its generic 
ancestral god. All of these gods have their special place in the 
mythology of this people. Many of them have to this day spe- 
cial sacrifices proper to them which are prepared in the medicine- 
lodge and offered according to established ritual. The Navajos 
then are zoolaters; that is, in common with all the still pagan 
aboriginal races of our continent, they worship the lower animals; 
or perhaps it would be more proper to say they worship 200- 
morphic gods. A degraded form of worship no doubt many of 
my readers deem it; but it should be remembered that zoolatry 
was common to all the races of antiquity, and that a marked 
remnant of it is our own heritage to this day. 
Besides all these gods, the Navajos have a host of local divini- 
ties so numerous that I never hope to get a complete list of them, 
The Navajo land is, or was, bounded by four great mountains, 
Jemez on the east, San Mateo on the south, San Francisco on the 
west and San Juan on the north. The resident deities of these 
great peaks seem to receive more honor than any other place-gods, 
but the presiding genii of other mountains, rocks and cañons are 
not neglected by the devout. No people are more ingenious than 
our American aborigines in framing fanciful stories of locality. 
The Navajos particularly delight in this form of myth. Thar 
land abounds in strange geologic formations, in rocks fancifully 
sculptured by the elements, and it abounds equally in myths 
accounting for these features. 
Some recent writers have stated that our American Indians a$ 
a rule offer prayer and sacrifice only to evil spirits, believing that 
time is wasted in endeavoring to gain the favor of beings wi? 
are always benevolent. Among the Navajos, at least, I can sis 
ture to assert that such is not the case. The gods seem to receive 
= worship in proportion to their reputation for good-will toware 
__ malevolence are altogether things of the past. 
= men. Indeed, according to the Navajo’s mythology, the & 
_ gods have nearly all been destroyed, and his worst conceptions 
