THE FOURTH WORLD: PLANNING AND DEATH

-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-

When the first hogan was finished, everyone rested. The first hogan was occupied by First Man and First Woman. Together they planned how things would appear. They discussed that there should be a sun to mark day and night. While the people were planning inside the hogan, a couple of others died outside. No one knew what to do; so they asked Coyote. They told him they were leaving it up to him to decide. Coyote decided that he would take a Tadzootse' (Black Rock) and go to Todilhil (Black Water Lake) to reinforce his decision regarding the dead persons. There he would throw the rock into the lake. If the rock came up and floated, the spirits of the dead persons would go up and there would be no death; if it sank, the spirits would go to the world below and there would be death. When Coyote went to the lake and threw the rock, it sank. That is why the spirits of the dead always go to the world below.

Two days after the persons died, two men looked down the hole through which they had come up into the Fourth World, and they did not see anything and, of course, no tracks. Two days later, they looked again. This time they saw the dead persons sitting in the hole below combing their hair. They went and told the people what they had seen.

-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-

Sun, Moon and Stars | Ethelou Yazzie Home Page | REL 203 Syllabus