174 INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST 



through tli(^ ()j)ciiiiiK by means of whicli the people 

 originally came forth. 



The Indians of the Southwest have many myths and 

 tales which they relate particularly during the winter. 

 Ver}' many of these myths explain the origin of the 

 world. While these vary in details, according to the 

 tribe and the individual who tells them, the}' agree as 

 to the general facts. The San Carlos tell of a time 

 before the world existed when Spider, Mirage, Whirl- 

 wind and Black Obsidian lived suspended in space. 

 Obsidian rubbed his side and from the removed cuticle 

 produced the earth. They then Ufted up the sky and 

 supported it at each of the four corners with an obsidian 

 pillar inside the core of a whirlwind. People and 

 animals came to exist within the world in an unexplained 

 manner. They were thi'eatened with a flood and 

 escaped by means of reeds or a ladder through an 

 opening in the sky of the lower world, the crust of this. 

 They were all destroyed by monsters except a girl, 

 Esdzanadlehi. The water pitying her loneh' condi- 

 tion became the father of a daughter who in turn by 

 the rays of the rising sun became the mother of Yinaiyes- 

 gani. This boy visited the sun, his father, withstood 

 severe tests as to his sonship, and secured weapons 

 and promised aid. With these weapons he killed a 

 giant, a monster elk or antelope, a great eagle, and many 

 other e\'il tilings. When this work was completed 

 and the world was repeopled by the creation of men 

 and women from ears of corn, Esdzanadlehi went to 

 the western ocean where she is now living in a floating 



