[1.  “North Americans of Antiquity,” p. 239.

2.  Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. iii, p. 105.

3.  “The Metamorphoses,” Fable IV.]

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who enlivened the darkness with music.  One of these, striking by chance on the roof of the limbo with his flute, brought out a hollow sound, upon which the elders of the tribe determined to bore in the direction whence the sound came.  The flute was then set up against the roof, and the Raccoon sent up the tube to dig a way out, but he could not.  Then the Moth-worm mounted into the breach, and bored and bored till he found himself suddenly on the outside of the mountain, and surrounded by water.”

We shall see hereafter that, in the early ages, mankind, all over the world, was divided into totemic septs or families, bearing animal names.  It was out of this fact that the fables of animals possessing human speech arose.  When we are told that the Fox talked to the Crow or the Wolf, it simply means that a man of the Fox totem talked to a man of the Crow or Wolf totem.  And, consequently, when we read, in the foregoing legend, that the Raccoon went up to dig a way out of the cave and could not, it signifies that a man of the Raccoon totem made the attempt and failed, while a man of the Moth-worm totem succeeded.  We shall see hereafter that these totemic distinctions probably represented original race or ethnic differences.

The Navajo legend continues: 

“Under these novel circumstances, he, (the Moth-worm,) heaped up a little mound, and set himself down on it to observe and ponder the situation.  A critical situation enough!—­for from the four corners of the universe four great white Swans bore down upon him, every one with two arrows, one under each wing.  The Swan from the north reached him first, and, having pierced him with two arrows, drew them out and examined their points, exclaiming, as the result, ‘He is of my race.’  So, also, in succession, did all the others.  Then they went away; and toward the directions in which they departed, to the north, south, east, and west, were found four great arroyos,

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by which all the water flowed off, leaving only MUD.  The Worm now returned to the cave, and the Raccoon went up into the mud, sinking in it mid-leg deep, as the marks on his fur show to this day.  And the wind began to rise, sweeping up the four great arroyos, and the mud was dried away.

“Then the men and the animals began to come up from their cave, and their coming up required several days.  First came the Navajos, and no sooner had they reached the surface than they commenced gaming at patole, their favorite game.  Then came the Pueblos and other Indians, who crop their hair and build houses.  Lastly came the white people, who started off at once for the rising sun, and were lost sight of for many winters.