Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/225

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THE GREAT SHELL OF KINTYEL.


556. Kĭntyél,72 Broad House, and Kĭ'ndotz, Blue House,208 are two pueblo houses in the Chaco Canyon. They are ruins now; but in the days when Kinníki lived on earth many people dwelt there. Not far from the ruins is a high cliff called Tse'dezá', or Standing Rock. Near these places the rite of yói hatál,250 or the bead chant,

Fig. 36. Ruin in the Chaco Canyon, probably Kĭntyél (after Bickford).

was first practised by the Navahoes, and this is the tale of how it first became known to man:—

557. Two young men, one from Kĭntyél and one from Kĭ'ndotz, went out one day to hunt deer. About sunset, as they were returning to Kĭ'ndotz, weary and unsuccessful, they observed a war-eagle soaring overhead, and they stopped to watch his flight. He