Waterless Mountain

by Laura Adams Armer

  Younger Brother stopped to watch. He had never seen this before. The woman lined the round hole with green corn leaves. Other women came out of the hogan carrying pots of corn meal batter. It was all poured into the hole and covered with more green leaves, after which the hot coals were put back.

  The women were all gay and happy. Someone said to Younger Brother:

  “The cake will be a good one. We bake it for the young daughter of Hasteen Sani. She has been grinding the corn meal for three days. Tell your people to come tonight.”

  The boy wondered what it was all about. He would ask Mother when he reached home. She would know what they were doing. She did know, of course, and she said with a good deal of interest:

  “So the young daughter of Hasteen Sani is to have the sweet corn cake baked for her. We shall go to hear the songs.”

  After supper everyone prepared for the sing. Mother wore her purple plush jacket with all the silver buttons. She took time to brush Father’s long hair for him and tied it with a new string. Then Elder Brother’s hair was brushed and tied. He was looking finer than ever. He had a new silk handkerchief to tie around his hair.

  Father hitched the horses to the wagon while Mother wrapped the baby on her cradle board. They had only two miles to go and arrived at Hasteen Sani’s house just as the full moon rose from behind the Waterless Mountain.

  Inside the hogan all the friends were sitting around the fire. Uncle was the medicine man and he had many young men singers with him. Some would sing for a while then rest and smoke tobacco which they rolled in corn husks. Then another group would take their place. This was to keep up all night. No one must get sleepy because it was the rule to stay awake. Only those who kept awake all night could eat the corn cake in the morning.

  Younger Brother had no trouble at first because he was so interested in everything. There was a lot to look at and a lot to hear. He liked the young daughter of Hasteen Sani. She was slim and tall. Her skin was brown and smooth like the acorn. Her hair was like the night sky. Her slender moccasined feet peeped out from her full skirt and her long fingers were covered with silver and turquoise rings.

  It was her eyes that were the loveliest. They did not seem to see people but looked into space while the young men sang the sacred songs. Sometimes the fire looked at itself in her eyes and then the dark brown color changed into flame and made Younger Brother think of the eyes of the night that sometimes peered from dark places under the trees. He knew she could see things that were holy — the things the young men were singing about.

  Elder Brother also thought she was beautiful, but he noticed how well her red velveteen jacket fitted her, following the curves of her young body. He liked her eyes best when they looked at him, with half-lowered lids fringed with a curtain of darkness. He was glad he had worn the new red handkerchief on his head.

  Just before day everyone except the girl went outside. The singers sang of the dawn and the Turquoise Woman and everybody was happy. At the end of the second song, the young daughter of Hasteen Sani held back the blanket that curtained the doorway and ran as fast as her little feet would carry her. She ran east toward the dawn.

  Several young men raced with her. Elder Brother was the only one who caught up with her as she ran to the dawn. Then they all came back just as the sun sent its first rays over the Waterless Mountain to shine in Hasteen Sani’s open door.

  Younger Brother was watching everything. He saw the woman who had baked the cake remove the coals. He smelled the sweet steam rising from the ground. So did two little fuzzy dogs who ran too close to the cake hoping to have some also. The woman frightened them away with a corn-cob lying near. She threw it at them and they ran away yelping. Everyone laughed. Everyone was gay and happy.

  The corn leaves were lifted from the top of the cake and there it was all brown and hot and four feet across. Younger Brother thought he could not wait for his share but he had to wait until the baker woman cut a circular piece right out of the center. She cut that in four pieces, gave one to Uncle because he was the medicine man, one to the girl because it was her cake, and the other two pieces to her father and mother.

  Younger Brother watched the young girl. He thought she was more beautiful than ever with the sun touching her acorn brown cheeks. Elder Brother was standing near and he was very much surprised and very shy when the girl took her corn cake and gave it to him.

  Everyone laughed except the two brothers and the girl. To them a very serious thing was happening. The girl was hoping that Elder Brother’s father would send a present to her father. The young man was bewildered. He did not understand. Younger Brother, looking at them, was reminded of the deer that danced in the sunlight. He didn’t know why he thought of the deer; maybe it was because the two young people looked as if they would like to leap and run away as the deer had done.

  She ran east toward the dawn.

  While he was thinking, the baker woman handed him a piece of the corn cake. Everyone had a piece and people were getting ready to go home. Younger Brother was so sleepy he hoped someone would help herd the sheep. He even fell asleep in the wagon as Father drove home.

  After that day there was much talk between Father and Mother and Uncle. It was time for Elder Brother to marry and Father must decide whom he should marry. She must be of an industrious, clean family and belong to a clan outside of theirs.

  They thought Hasteen Sani’s daughter would be a very good wife for their son. So it was decided that Father should talk to Hasteen Sani about it, which he did. Everything was settled and the present suggested was acceptable. Father was to give ten fine ponies to Hasteen Sani.

  Younger Brother looked forward to the wedding. He wondered what it would be like. Mother had told him that Elder Brother would not live at home after the wedding. He would have a hogan of his own and the girl would live in it. It would be her hogan too and she would have her own sheep to look after.

  Younger Brother thought that would be very nice and he asked Mother if he too could live there sometimes. She laughed and said he must live in Mother’s hogan until he was a man like Elder Brother. He knew that Mother was always right about everything so thought no more about it.

  He only wished that the beautiful young daughter of Hasteen Sani lived where he lived, because he had seen the far-away look in her eyes when she ran toward the dawn. He was sure she could understand the treasures hidden deep in the cave and he knew she could dance with the Star Children or the Deer People, or mount the sun rays that led to the home of Yellow Beak.

  For the first time in his life Younger Brother felt lonely. He wanted to share his treasure cave with someone who understood. Quietly he walked to the cliff and climbed on the big boulders. He crawled in the small opening and sat down on the floor of the cave.

  He took the little cloud bowl from the ledge. He had added two more treasures to his collection. The ruby-red stone was there and beside it lay a pure white arrow head which he had found on the mesa, but most precious of all was a little silver button that had fallen from the girl’s moccasin when she raced to the dawn.

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE TRAIL OF BEAUTY

  VER SINCE Younger Brother had made a new song, he was aware of many wonders in the world. Uncle had named him Little Singer, but that was a secret between them. That was a sacred name and not until he was a grown man, wise enough to be a medicine man, could he be called Little Singer by anyone but Uncle, his teacher. Singing was very important. He knew that, and since he had made a song himself he noticed that everything in the world sang.

  As he sat in his little treasure cave holding the cloud bowl in his hands, he could hear a canyon wren trilling his sweet sad song. He could hear a locust chirruping in the sunshine. If things did not sing they danced to the silent music that filled all the air. He could tell by the way animals walked that they were keeping time to some kind of music. Maybe it was the song in their own hearts that they walked to.

  The music in the poplar tree when the wind blew
made all the little leaves dance merrily. To be alive meant to sing and

  dance. Uncle had told him that and had let him put his head to Uncle’s heart to feel it dancing.

  He remembered how wildly his own heart had danced when he saw the deer leaping in the sunshine, and he remembered how his new song was born at the sight. Singing was good. It made one brother to the wind, the locusts, the birds, and the coyote.

  Coyote was a mighty singer. He could make the clouds weep. He was hard to understand because he had done so many tricky things. Many people disliked him. He had been badly treated by his enemies but he was always ready for a new adventure, and he could always sing with his nose pointed upward.

  Most all people looked upward when they sang. Singers were like growing things on top of the earth. They reached upward to the sun. Everything that was alive and healthy reached upward and sang.

  Younger Brother always liked to watch the coyote when he lifted his nose to the skies and made the clouds weep, and he liked to hear Uncle tell the story of the Young Woman Who Tinkles.

  She was the wife of the original coyote whom the Navahos call Mai. She wore a fine white buckskin dress with a fringe of deer hoofs on the skirt. When she walked or ran, the deer hoofs tinkled and rattled like sweet music. That is why Mai called her the Young Woman Who Tinkles. He was very proud of his young wife, and he came to think the music of her presence the sweetest music in all the world.

  One day Mai was alone in a forest of spruce and pine trees, high in the mountains. Many birds were chattering in the trees and playing a game that Mai had never seen before. They would pull out their eyes, throw them to the top of the trees and then call, “Drop back, my eyes ! Drop back !” The eyes would drop back right where they belonged.

  Mai thought that was a wonderful game. He wanted to play it and asked the birds to pull out his eyes. They didn’t want to play the game with him but he begged so hard they finally consented. Four times they took out his eyes and threw them up. When he called to them, “Drop back, my eyes ! Drop back!” they fell right into place again and he could see as well as ever.

  Mai thought what a fine game that would be to show to his wife so he asked the birds to take his eyes out again. They were bothered by him and angry so the fifth time they took out his eyes they pulled the strings with them and tied them together.

  When the eyes were thrown to the top of the tree the string caught on a branch and the eyes staid there. Poor Mai cried in vain, “Drop back, my eyes ! Drop back !” They never dropped back and he sat there howling, with his nose pointed upward.

  Finally the cruel birds took pity on him and rolled some hard pine gum into two balls just the size of the coyote’s eyes. These they stuck into the empty sockets. They were not very good eyes but Mai could see well enough to start for home. The gum was yellow and that is why coyotes have yellow eyes today.

  On the way home Mai stopped at the home of his brother-in-law. He was cooking meat and offered some to Mai to roast. Mai leaned too near the fire and his pine gum eyes melted. His brother-in-law saw what had happened but he was not sorry because he did not like Mai. He had not wanted his sister to marry him. He thought, “Here is a chance to get rid of the troublesome fellow.”

  He led the blind Mai toward his home. When he reached there he took his sister’s tinkling dress and gave it to a chicken hawk to carry in his beak. The chicken hawk rattled the dress in front of Mai. He thought his dear wife was there and he ran to greet her, but the chicken hawk kept out of reach, rattling the dress until he came to the edge of a deep canyon. Then he flew right over and poor blind Mai, following the rattling noise, stepped off the precipice and fell to the bottom of the canyon. He fell, calling the name of his beautiful Young Woman Who Tinkles.

  Younger Brother always felt sorry for Coyote and he liked to think of the beautiful young woman. He wondered if she were as lovely as the young daughter of Hasteen Sani whom Elder Brother was soon to marry. It must be very soon because Mother had been making new clothes for all the family.

  Just then, looking from the cave, he noticed a cloud of dust rising in the wash. Someone was driving horses. The dust moved nearer and nearer and from his secret place high above the floor of the valley, Younger Brother could recognize Father.

  He had been out all day rounding up his ponies. They went running past the rocks to the corral with their heads held high and their manes flying in the wind. Father looked very proud and straight in the saddle. Not many men could give ten fine ponies for a wedding present and still have enough left to make him wealthy.

  Younger Brother knew that if the ponies were left in the corral it must be nearly time for the wedding. He put his treasures all in place and climbed down from the cliff. At home he found everyone busy. Uncle was there. That was good. Uncle said:

  “Have you brought the root of the yucca ?”

  “Yes, Uncle. I dug it myself. It was growing near the hole of the prairie dog.”

  “Good, my child. The water is ready. We can wash our hair.”

  A fine lather was made from the root and Mother washed everyone’s hair. Then she brushed all the hair with the stiff brush made of grass stems tightly bunched and tied. Uncle gave Younger Brother a beautiful new velveteen shirt, whispering to him:

  “It is right that Little Singer should be well dressed at his brother’s wedding.”

  “Do we soon go to Hasteen Sani’s hogan ?”

  “Yes, my child, we start when the sun is two fingers above the western horizon.”

  Mother drove the horses hitched to the wagon, for Father must drive the ten ponies. They were a splendid sight, all of them riding to the home of Hasteen Sani. Father rode first on his best black horse whose bridle was mounted in turquoise and silver. He was proudly driving the ten prancing ponies. Behind him came Mother and Baby and Younger Brother in the new red wagon bought at the trading post. It had the Big Man’s name painted on it in black. Behind the wagon Uncle and Elder Brother rode on their ponies. Two of the sheep dogs trotted behind.

  They traveled westward with the Sun on his way to the Turquoise Woman. Soon Elder Brother would be with his own woman who had raced him to the dawn. His heart sang the song of the Sun.

  I travel a trail of beautiful thoughts.

  I walk to the ends of earth to your hearth.

  O woman of turquoise waiting for me

  I travel a trail of beautiful thoughts.

  CHAPTER IX

  THE BASKET CEREMONY

  OR DAYS the young daughter of Hasteen Sani had watched her mother preparing for the wedding. She had made new clothes for all the family, sewing bright-colored calico skirts for the women. Ten yards of cloth went into every skirt, with its ruffle reaching to the ground in brilliant splendor of orange bands. The girl’s skirt was lovely. It was the color of the garnets on the ant hills and trimmed with a finger-wide band of deep blue. Her jacket of apple-green plush made a perfect background for the heavy turquoise necklace that her mother had given her.

  The mother was so busy she had little time to think about losing her daughter. She wished she could be at the wedding but Navaho custom does not permit the mother-in-law of the husband ever to be in his presence. She must never be seen by him. When he is away she may visit her daughter, but only when he is away. So she must be content doing things for the girl.

  Two new log hogans had been built, one for the ceremony and one for the bride to live in.

  Mutton was stewing in pots and ready to roast over the fire. Blue cornmeal dumplings were rolled and ready to boil and sweet green corn was to be roasted in the coals. Stewed dried peaches scented the air. Watermelons and muskmelons were piled against the log wall. There was plenty to eat, for every guest must have his fill and be able to take something home in a flour sack.

  As darkness crept over the Waterless Mountain, the family, waiting outside the hogan, could hear the horses and the wagon coming down the road, which wound its way among stunted cedars.

  Soon, on top of a rocky k
noll, the first of the prancing ponies ran into the light of the campfire. Then the rest appeared, with Father on his black horse skillfully driving them to Hasteen Sani’s corral. The firelight gleamed on his silver bridle. Everyone thought what a fine marriage this is.

  Wealth was to be added to wealth, beauty to beauty.

  The girl’s mother hid behind the hogan where she could not be seen by her son-in-law, but she couldn’t help peeking out to look at the ten beautiful ponies.

  Then came all the rest of the party.

  When everything was ready for the ceremony, Elder Brother lifted the blanket hanging over the entrance to the new hogan. He lifted it on the north side, entered the sweet cedar log house with its fire in the center, walked from the east to the south and sat on a blanket spread west of the fire.

  The first of the prancing ponies ran into the light of the camp fire.

  While he sat there, still singing in his heart the song of the Sun Bearer, the bride entered with her father. She walked on the south side of the fire and sat on the blanket beside Elder Brother.

  Then all the friends and relatives came in and sat all around.

  It was a big party.

  When everyone was seated, Hasteen Sani placed a shallow basket of cornmeal porridge in front of the young couple. On this porridge he drew a line of white corn pollen from east to west and back again. Then he crossed the white line with yellow corn pollen from south to north and back again.

  Next he drew a circle with yellow pollen around the cross, beginning in the east and going to south and west and north and completing it in the east. Because the sun travels that way, it is the right way.