var currentStory="American Tales";
var myTitle="Native American Tales";
var sideTitle=" ";
var defText="Native American and other tales. Click any chapter on the right. Next, click \"start test\" button and begin typing. ";

var chapter0="Once upon a time, when the Field-Mouse was out gathering wild beans for the winter, his neighbor, the Buffalo, came down to graze in the meadow. This the little Mouse did not like, for he knew that the other would mow down all the long grass with his prickly tongue, and there would be no place in which to hide. He made up his mind to offer battle like a man. \"Ho, Friend Buffalo, I challenge you to a fight!\" he exclaimed in a small, squeaking voice. ";

var chapter1="The Buffalo paid no attention, thinking it only a joke. The Mouse angrily repeated the challenge, and still his enemy went on quietly grazing. Then the little Mouse laughed with contempt as he offered his defiance. The Buffalo at last looked at him and replied carelessly: \"You better keep still, little one, or I shall come over there and step on you, and there will be nothing left!\" \"You can\'t do it!\" the Mouse replied. ";

var chapter2="\"I tell you to keep still, \"insisted the Buffalo, who was getting angry. \"If you speak to me again, I shall certainly come and put an end to you!\" \"I dare you to do it!\" said the Mouse, provoking him. Thereupon the other rushed upon him. He trampled the grass clumsily and tore up the earth with his front hoofs. When he had ended, he looked for the Mouse, but he could not see him anywhere. \"I told you I would step on you, and there would be nothing left!\" he muttered. ";

var chapter3="Just then he felt a scratching inside his right ear. He shook his head as hard as he could, and twitched his ears back and forth. The gnawing went deeper and deeper until he was half wild with the pain. He pawed with his hoofs and tore up the sod with his horns. Bellowing madly, he ran as fast as he could, first straight forward and then in circles, but at last he stopped and stood trembling. Then the Mouse jumped out of his ear and said: \"Will you own now that I am the master?\" ";

var chapter4="\"No!\" bellowed the Buffalo, and again he started toward the Mouse, as if to trample him under his feet. The little fellow was nowhere to be seen, but in a minute the Buffalo felt him in the other ear. Once more he became wild with pain, and ran here and there over the prairie, at times leaping high in the air. At last he fell to the ground and lay quite still. The Mouse came out of his ear, and stood proudly upon his dead body. \"Eho!\" said he, \"I have killed the greatest of all beasts. This will show to all that I am the master!\" ";

var chapter5="Standing upon the body of the dead Buffalo, he called loudly for a knife with which to dress his game. In another part of the meadow, Red Fox, very hungry, was hunting mice for his breakfast. He saw one and jumped upon him with all four feet, but the little Mouse got away, and he was terribly disappointed. All at once he thought he heard a distant call: \"Bring a knife! Bring a knife !\" When the second call came, Red Fox started in the direction of the sound. At the first knoll he stopped and listened, but hearing nothing more, he was about to go back. Just then he heard the call plainly, but in a very thin voice, \"Bring a knife!\" Red Fox immediately set out again and ran as fast as he could. ";

var chapter6="By and by he came upon the huge body of the Buffalo lying upon the ground. The little Mouse still stood upon the body. \"I want you to dress this Buffalo for me and I will give you some of the meat,\" commanded the Mouse. \"Thank you, my friend, I shall be glad to do this for you,\" he replied, politely. The Fox dressed the Buffalo, while the Mouse sat upon a mound near by, looking on and giving his orders. \"You must cut the meat into small pieces,\" he said to the Fox. When the Fox had finished his work, the Mouse paid him with a small piece of liver. He swallowed it quickly and smacked his lips. ";

var chapter7="\"Please, may I have another piece?\" he asked quite humbly. \"Why, I gave you a very large piece! How greedy you are!\" exclaimed the Mouse. \"You may have some of the blood clots,\" he sneered. So the poor Fox took the blood clots and even licked off the grass. He was really very hungry. \"Please may I take home a piece of the meat?\" he begged. \"I have six little folks at home, and there is nothing for them to eat.\" \"You can take the four feet of the Buffalo. That ought to be enough for all of you!\" ";

var chapter8="\"Hi, hi! Thank you, thank you!\" said the Fox. \"But, Mouse, I have a wife also, and we have had bad luck in hunting. We are almost starved. Can\'t you spare me a little more?\" \"Why,\" declared the Mouse, \"I have already overpaid you for the little work you have done. However, you can take the head, too!\" Thereupon the Fox jumped upon the Mouse, who gave one faint squeak and disappeared. --If you are proud and selfish you will lose all in the end. ";

var chapter9="There was once a young man who wanted to go on a journey. His mother provided him with sacks of dried meat and pairs of moccasins, but his father said to him: \"Here, my son, are four magic arrows. When you are in need, shoot one of them!\" The young man went forth alone, and hunted in the forest for many days. Usually he was successful, but a day came when he was hungry and could not find meat. Then he sent forth one of the magic arrows, and at the end of the day there lay a fat Bear with the arrow in his side. The hunter cut out the tongue for his meal, and of the body of the Bear he made a thank-offering to the Great Mystery. ";

var chapter10="Again he was in need, and again in the morning he shot a magic arrow, and at nightfall beside his campfire he found an Elk lying with the arrow in his heart. Once more he ate the tongue and offered up the body as a sacrifice. The third time he killed a Moose with his arrow, and the fourth time a Buffalo. After the fourth arrow had been spent, the young man came one day out of the forest, and before him there lay a great circular village of skin lodges. At one side, and some little way from the rest of the people, he noticed a small and poor tent where an old couple lived all alone. At the edge of the wood he took off his clothes and hid them in a hollow tree. ";

var chapter11="Then, touching the top of his head with his staff, he turned himself into a little ragged boy and went toward the poor tent. The old woman saw him coming, and said to her old man: \"Old man, let us keep this little boy for our own! He seems to be a fine, bright-eyed little fellow, and we are all alone.\" \"What are you thinking of, old woman?\" grumbled the old man. \"We can hardly keep ourselves, and yet you talk of taking in a ragged little scamp from nobody knows where!\" In the meantime the boy had come quite near, and the old wife beckoned to him to enter the lodge. ";

var chapter12="\"Sit down, my grandson, sit down!\" she said, kindly; and, in spite of the old man\'s black looks, she handed him a small dish of parched corn, which was all the food they had. The boy ate and stayed on. By and by he said to the old woman: \"Grandmother, I should like to have grandfather make me some arrows!\" \"You hear, my old man?\" said she. \"It will be very well for you to make some little arrows for the boy.\" \"And why should I make arrows for a strange little ragged boy?\" grumbled the old man. ";

var chapter13="However, he made two or three, and the boy went hunting. In a short time he returned with several small birds. The old woman took them and pulled off the feathers, thanking him and praising him as she did so. She quickly made the little birds into soup, of which the old man ate gladly, and with the soft feathers she stuffed a small pillow. \"You have done well, my grandson!\" he said; for they were really very poor. Not long after, the boy said to his adopted grandmother: \"Grandmother, when you see me at the edge of the wood yonder, you must call out: \'A Bear! there goes a Bear!\' \"\' ";

var chapter14="This she did, and the boy again sent forth one of the magic arrows, which he had taken from the body of his game and kept by him. No sooner had he shot, than he saw the same Bear that he had offered up, lying before him with the arrow in his side! Now there was great rejoicing in the lodge of the poor old couple. While they were out skinning the Bear and cutting the meat in thin strips to dry, the boy sat alone in the lodge. In the pot on the fire was the Bear\'s tongue, which he wanted for himself. ";

var chapter15="All at once a young girl stood in the doorway. She drew her robe modestly before her face as she said in a low voice: \"I come to borrow the mortar of your grandmother!\" The boy gave her the mortar, and also a piece of the tongue which he had cooked, and she went away. When all of the Bear meat was gone, the boy sent forth a second arrow and killed an Elk, and with the third and fourth he shot the Moose and the Buffalo as before, each time recovering his arrow. ";

var chapter16="Soon after, he heard that the people of the large village were in trouble. A great Red Eagle, it was said, flew over the village every day at dawn, and the people believed that it was a bird of evil omen, for they no longer had any success in hunting. None of their braves had been able to shoot the Eagle, and the chief had offered his only daughter in marriage to the man who should kill it. When the boy heard this, he went out early the next morning and lay in wait for the Red Eagle. At the touch of his magic arrow, it fell at his feet, and the boy pulled out his arrow and went home without speaking to any one. ";

var chapter17="But the thankful people followed him to the poor little lodge, and when they had found him, they brought the chief\'s beautiful daughter to be his wife. Lo, she was the girl who had come to borrow his grandmother\'s mortar! Then he went back to the hollow tree where his clothes were hidden, and came back a handsome young man, richly dressed for his wedding. ";

var chapter18="Long ago, when man was newly come into the world, there were days when he was the happiest creature of all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the willow tails, or when his children ripened with the blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod bloomed in the autumn haze. But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more chill, and the sun\'s strokes grew shorter. Then man saw winter moving near, and he became fearful and unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of winter. ";

var chapter19="Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire. So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring day when he was passing a human village. There the women were singing a song of mourning for the babies and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote\'s neck. \"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs,\" one of the men was saying. \"Feel how it warms the earth and makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during the winter.\" ";

var chapter20="Coyote, overhearing this, felt sorry for the men and women. He also felt that there was something he could do to help them. He knew of a faraway mountain-top where the three Fire Beings lived. These Beings kept fire to themselves, guarding it carefully for fear that man might somehow acquire it and become as strong as they. Coyote saw that he could do a good turn for man at the expense of these selfish Fire Beings. So Coyote went to the mountain of the Fire Beings and crept to its top, to watch the way that the Beings guarded their fire. As he came near, the Beings leaped to their feet and gazed searchingly round their camp. Their eyes glinted like bloodstones, and their hands were clawed like the talons of the great black vulture. ";

var chapter21="\"What\'s that? What\'s that I hear?\" hissed one of the Beings. \"A thief, skulking in the bushes!\" screeched another. The third looked more closely, and saw Coyote. But he had gone to the mountain-top on all fours, so the Being thought she saw only an ordinary coyote slinking among the trees. \"It is no one, it is nothing!\" she cried, and the other two looked where she pointed and also saw only a grey coyote. They sat down again by their fire and paid Coyote no more attention. ";

var chapter22="So he watched all day and night as the Fire Beings guarded their fire. He saw how they fed it pine cones and dry branches from the sycamore trees. He saw how they stamped furiously on runaway rivulets of flame that sometimes nibbled outwards on edges of dry grass. He saw also how, at night, the Beings took turns to sit by the fire. Two would sleep while one was on guard; and at certain times the Being by the fire would get up and go into their teepee, and another would come out to sit by the fire. Coyote saw that the Beings were always jealously watchful of their fire except during one part of the day. ";

var chapter23="That was in the earliest morning, when the first winds of dawn arose on the mountains. Then the Being by the fire would hurry, shivering, into the teepee calling, \"Sister, sister, go out and watch the fire.\" But the next Being would always be slow to go out for her turn, her head spinning with sleep and the thin dreams of dawn. Coyote, seeing all this, went down the mountain and spoke to some of his friends among the People. He told them of hairless man, fearing the cold and death of winter. And he told them of the Fire Beings, and the warmth and brightness of the flame. They all agreed that man should have fire, and they all promised to help Coyote\'s undertaking. ";

var chapter24="Then Coyote sped again to the mountain-top. Again the Fire Beings leaped up when he came close, and one cried out, \"What\'s that? A thief, a thief!\" But again the others looked closely, and saw only a grey coyote hunting among the bushes. So they sat down again and paid him no more attention. Coyote waited through the day, and watched as night fell and two of the Beings went off to the teepee to sleep. He watched as they changed over at certain times all the night long, until at last the dawn winds rose. Then the Being on guard called, \"Sister, sister, get up and watch the fire.\" And the Being whose turn it was climbed slow and sleepy from her bed, saying, \"Yes, yes, I am coming. Do not shout so.\" ";

var chapter25="But before she could come out of the teepee, Coyote lunged from the bushes, snatched up a glowing portion of fire, and sprang away down the mountainside. Screaming, the Fire Beings flew after him. Swift as Coyote ran, they caught up with him, and one of them reached out a clutching hand. Her fingers touched only the tip of the tail, but the touch was enough to turn the hairs white, and coyote tail-tips are white still. Coyote shouted, and flung the fire away from him. But the others of the People had gathered at the mountain\'s foot, in case they were needed. Squirrel saw the fire falling, and caught it, putting it on her back and fleeing away through the tree-tops. ";

var chapter26="The fire scorched her back so painfully that her tail curled up and back, as squirrels\' tails still do today. The Fire Beings then pursued Squirrel, who threw the fire to Chipmunk. Chattering with fear, Chipmunk stood still as if rooted until the Beings were almost upon her. Then, as she turned to run, one Being clawed at her, tearing down the length of her back and leaving three stripes that are to be seen on chipmunks\' backs even today. Chipmunk threw the fire to Frog, and the Beings turned towards him. One of the Beings grasped his tail, but Frog gave a mighty leap and tore himself free, leaving his tail behind in the Being\'s hand---which is why frogs have had no tails ever since. ";

var chapter27="As the Beings came after him again, Frog flung the fire on to Wood. And Wood swallowed it. The Fire Beings gathered round, but they did not know how to get the fire out of Wood. They promised it gifts, sang to it and shouted at it. They twisted it and struck it and tore it with their knives. But Wood did not give up the fire. In the end, defeated, the Beings went back to their mountain-top and left the People alone. But Coyote knew how to get fire out of Wood. And he went to the village of men and showed them how. He showed them the trick of rubbing two dry sticks together, and the trick of spinning a sharpened stick in a hole made in another piece of wood. So man was from then on warm and safe through the killing cold of winter. ";

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var chapter28="Long, long ago, animals and trees talked with each other, but there was no fire at that time. Fox was most clever and he tried to think of a way to create fire for the world. One day, he decided to visit the Geese, te-tl, whose cry he wished to learn how to imitate. They promised to teach him if he would fly with them. So they contrived a way to attach wings to Fox, but cautioned him never to open his eyes while flying. Whenever the Geese arose in flight, Fox also flew along with them to practice their cry. ";

var chapter29="On one such adventure, darkness descended suddenly as they flew over the village of the fireflies, ko-na- tcic-a. In mid-flight, the glare from the flickering fireflies caused Fox to forget and he opened his eyes--instantly his wings collapsed! His fall was uncontrollable. He landed within the walled area of the firefly village, where a fire constantly burned in the center. Two kind fireflies came to see fallen Fox, who gave each one a necklace of juniper berries, katl-te-i-tse. Fox hoped to persuade the two fireflies to tell him where he could find a way over the wall to the outside. They led him to a cedar tree, which they explained would bend down upon command and catapult him over the wall if he so desired. ";

var chapter30="That evening, Fox found the spring where fireflies obtained their water. There also, he discovered colored earth, which when mixed with water made paint. He decided to give himself a coat of white. Upon returning to the village, Fox suggested to the fireflies, \"Let\'s have a festival where we can dance and I will produce the music.\" They all agreed that would be fun and helped to gather wood to build up a greater fire. Secretly, Fox tied a piece of cedar bark to his tail. Then he made a drum, probably the first one ever constructed, and beat it vigorously with a stick for the dancing fireflies. Gradually, he moved closer and closer to the fire. ";

var chapter31="Fox pretended to tire from beating the drum. He gave it to some fireflies who wanted to help make the music. Fox quickly thrust his tail into the fire, lighting the bark, and exclaimed, \"It is too warm here for me, I must find a cooler place.\" Straight to the cedar tree Fox ran, calling, \"Bend down to me, my cedar tree, bend down!\" Down bent the cedar tree for Fox to catch hold, then up it carried him far over the wall. On and on he ran, with the fireflies in pursuit. As Fox ran along, brush and wood on either side of his path were ignited from the sparks dropping from the burning bark tied to his tail. ";

var chapter32="Fox finally tired and gave the burning bark to Hawk, i-tsarl-tsu- i, who carried it to brown Crane, tsi-nes-tso-l. He flew far southward, scattering fire sparks everywhere. This is how fire first spread over the earth. Fireflies continued chasing Fox all the way to his burrow and declared, \"Forever after, Wily Fox, your punishment for stealing our fire will be that you can never make use of it for yourself.\" For the Apache nation, this too was the beginning of fire for them. Soon they learned to use it for cooking their food and to keep themselves warm in cold weather. ";

var chapter33="Some time before, there had descended among the Pueblos, from the heavens, a divine gambler or gambling-god, named Noqoilpi, or He-who-wins-men (at play); his talisman was a great piece of turquoise. When he came, he challenged the people to all sorts of games and contests, and in all of these he was successful. He won from them, first their property, then their women and children, and finally some of the men themselves. Then he told them he would give them part of their property back in payment if they would build a great house; so when the Navajos came, the Pueblos were busy building in order that they might release their enthralled relatives and their property. ";

var chapter34="They were also busy making a race-track, and preparing for all kinds of games of chance and skill. When all was ready, and four days' notice had been given, twelve men came from the neighboring pueblo of Blue-house to compete with the great gambler. They bet their own persons, and after a brief contest they lost themselves to Noqoilpi. Again a notice of four days was given, and again twelve men of Blue-house -- relatives of the former twelve -- came to play, and these also lost themselves. For the third time an announcement, four days in advance of a game, was given; this time some women were among the twelve contestants, and they too lost themselves. ";

var chapter35="All were put to work on the building of Kintyel as soon as they forfeited their liberty. At the end of another four days the children of these men and women came to try to win back their parents, but they succeeded only in adding themselves to the number of the gambler's slaves. On a fifth trial, after four days' warning, twelve leading men of Blue-house were lost, among them the chief of the pueblo. On a sixth duly announced gambling-day twelve more men, all important persons, staked their liberty and lost it. Up to this time the Navajos had kept count of the winnings of Noqoilpi, but afterwards people from other pueblos came in such numbers to play and lose that they could keep count no longer. ";

var chapter36="In addition to their own persons the later victims brought in beads, shells, turquoise, and all sorts of valuables, and gambled them away. With the labor of all these slaves it was not long until the great Kintyel was finished. But all this time the Navajos had been merely spectators, and had taken no part in the games. One day the voice of the beneficent god Qastceyalqi was heard faintly in the distance crying his usual call \"hu`hu`hu`hu`.\" His voice was heard, as it is always heard, four times, each time nearer and nearer, and immediately after the last call, which was loud and clear, ";

var chapter37="Qastceyalqi appeared at the door of a hut where dwelt a young couple who had no children, and with them he communicated by means of signs. He told them that the people of Blue-house had lost at game with Noqoilpi two great shells, the greatest treasures of the pueblo; that the Sun had coveted these shells, and had begged them from the gambler; that the latter had refused the request of the Sun and the Sun was angry. In consequence of all this, as Qastceyalqi related, in twelve days from his visit certain divine personages would meet in the mountains, in a place which he designated, to hold a great ceremony. He invited the young man to be present at the ceremony, and disappeared. ";

var chapter38="The Navajo kept count of the passing days; on the twelfth day he repaired to the appointed place, and there he found a great assemblage of the gods [Yei]. There were Qastceyalqi, Qastceqogan and his son, Níltci, the Wind, Tcalyel, the Darkness, Tcapani, the Bat, Klictso, the Great Snake, a Little Bird, Nasisi, the Gopher, and many others. Beside these, there were present a number of pets or domesticated animals belonging to the gambler, who were dissatisfied with their lot, were anxious to be free, and would gladly obtain their share of the spoils in case their master was ruined. Níltci, the Wind, had spoken to them, and they had come to enter into the plot against Noqoilpi. ";

var chapter39="All night the gods danced and sang, and performed their mystic rites, for the purpose of giving to the son of Qastceqogan powers as a gambler equal to those of Noqoilpi. When the morning came they washed the young neophyte all over, dried him with [corn] meal, dressed him in clothes exactly like those the gambler wore, and in every way made him look as much like the gambler as possible, and then they counselled as to what other means they should take to out-wit Noqoilpi. In the first place, they desired to find out how he felt about having refused to his father, the Sun, the two great shells. ";

var chapter40="\"I will do this,\" said Niltci, the Wind, \"for I can penetrate everywhere, and no one can see me;\" but the others said, \"No, you can go everywhere, but you cannot travel without making a noise and disturbing people. Let Tcalyel, the Darkness, go on this errand, for he also goes wherever he wills, yet he makes no noise.\" So Tcalyel went to the gambler\'s house, entered his room, went all through his body while he slept, and searched well his mind, and he came back saying, \"Noqoilpi is sorry for what he has done.\" ";

var chapter41="Niltci, however, did not believe this; so, although his services had been before refused, he repaired to the chamber where the gambler slept, and went all through his body and searched well his mind; but he too came back saying Noqoilpi was sorry that he had refused to give the great shells to his father. One of the games they proposed to play is called the thirteen chips. It is played with thirteen thin flat pieces of wood, which are colored red on one side and left white or uncolored on the other side. Success depends on the number of chips, which, being thrown upward, fall with their white sides up. ";

var chapter42="\"Leave the game to me,\" said the Bat; \"I have made thirteen chips that are white on both sides. I will hide myself in the ceiling, and when our champion throws up his chips I will grasp them and throw down my chips instead.\" Another game they were to play is called nanjoj; it is played with two long sticks or poles, of peculiar shape and construction (one marked with red and the other with black), and a single hoop. A long many-tailed string, called the \"turkey-claw,\" is secured to the center of each pole. \"Leave nanjoj to me,\" said the Great Snake; \"I will hide myself in the hoop and make it fall where I please.\" ";

var chapter43="Another game was one called tsinbetsil, or push-on-the-wood; in this the contestants push against a tree until it is torn from its roots and falls. \"I will see that this game is won,\" said Nasisi, the Gopher; \"I will gnaw the roots of the tree, so that he who shoves it may easily make it fall.\" In the game of tcol, or ball, the object was to hit the ball so that it would fall beyond a certain line. \"I will win this game for you,\" said the little bird, Tsilkali, \"for I will hide within the ball, and fly with it wherever I want to go. Do not hit the ball hard; give it only a light tap, and depend on me to carry it.\" ";

var chapter44="The pets of the gambler begged the Wind to blow hard, so that they might have an excuse to give their master for not keeping due watch when he was in danger, and in the morning the Wind blew for them a strong gale. At dawn the whole party of conspirators left the mountain, and came down to the brow of the canyon to watch until sunrise. Noqoilpi had two wives, who were the prettiest women in the whole land. Wherever she went, each carried in her hand a stick with something tied on the end of it, as a sign that she was the wife of the great gambler. ";

var chapter45="It was their custom for one of them to go every morning at sunrise to a neighboring spring to get water. So at sunrise the watchers on the brow of the cliff saw one of the wives coming out of the gambler\'s house with a water jar on her head, whereupon the son of Qastceqogan descended into the canyon, and followed her to the spring. She was not aware of his presence until she had filled her water-jar; then she supposed it to be her own husband, whom the youth was dressed and adorned to represent, and she allowed him to approach her. She soon discovered her error, however, but deeming it prudent to say nothing, she suffered him to follow her into the house. ";

var chapter46="As he entered, he observed that many of the slaves had already assembled; perhaps they were aware that some trouble was in store for their master. The latter looked up with an angry face; he felt jealous when he saw the stranger entering immediately after his wife. He said nothing of this, however, but asked at once the important question, \"Have you come to gamble with me?\" This he repeated four times, and each time the young Qastceqogan said \"No.\" Thinking the stranger feared to play with him, Noqoilpi went on challenging him recklessly. ";

var chapter47="\"I\'ll bet myself against yourself;\" \"I\'ll bet my feet against your feet;\" \"I\'ll bet my legs against your legs;\" and so on he offered to bet every and any part of his body against the same part of his adversary, ending by mentioning his hair. In the mean time the party of divine ones, who had been watching from above, came down, and people from the neighboring pueblos came in, and among these were two boys, who were dressed in costumes similar to those worn by the wives of the gambler. ";

var chapter48="The young Qastceqogan pointed to these and said, \"I will bet my wives my against your wives.\" The great gambler accepted the wager, and the four persons, two women and two mock women, were placed sitting in a row near the wall. First they played the game of thirteen chips. The Bat assisted, as he had promised the son of Qastceqogan, and the latter soon won the game, and with it the wives of Noqoilpi. This was the only game played inside the house; then all went out of doors, and games of various kinds were played. First they tried nanjoj. ";

var chapter49="The track already prepared lay east and west, but, prompted by the wind god, the stranger insisted on having a track made from north to south, and again, at the bidding of the Wind, he chose the red stick. The son of Qastceqogan threw the wheel: at first it seemed about to fall on the gambler\'s pole, in the \"turkey-claw\" of which it was entangled; but to the great surprise of the gambler it extricated itself, rolled farther on, and fell on the pole of his opponent. The latter ran to pick up the ring, lest Noqoilpi in doing so might hurt the Snake inside; but the gambler was so angry that he threw his stick away and gave up the game, hoping to do better in the next contest, which was that of pushing down trees. ";

var chapter50="For this the great gambler pointed out two small trees, but his opponent insisted that larger trees must be found. After some search they agreed upon two of good size, which grew close together, and of these the wind-god told the youth which one he must select. The gambler strained with all his might at his tree, but could not move it, while his opponent, when his turn came, shoved the other tree prostrate with little effort, for its roots had all been severed by the Gopher. Then followed a variety of games, on which Noqoilpi staked his wealth in shells and precious stones, his houses, and many of his slaves, and lost all. ";

var chapter51="The last game was that of the ball. On the line over which the ball was to be knocked all the people were assembled: on one side were those who still remained slaves; on the other side were the freedmen and those who had come to wager themselves, hoping to rescue their kinsmen. Noqoilpi bet on this game the last of his slaves and his own person. The gambler struck his ball a heavy blow, but it did not reach the line; the stranger gave his but a light tap, and the bird within it flew with it far beyond the line, where at the released captives jumped over the line and joined their people. ";

var chapter52="The victor ordered all the shell beads and precious stones and the great shells to be brought forth. He gave the beads and shells to Qasteyalzi, that they might be distributed among the gods; the two great shells were given to the Sun. In the mean time Noqoilpi sat to one side saying bitter things, bemoaning his fate, and cursing and threatening his enemies: \"I will kill you all with the lightning. I will send war and disease among you. May the cold freeze you! May the fire burn you! May the waters drown you!\" he cried. ";

var chapter53="\"He has cursed enough,\" whispered Niltci to the son of Qastceqogan. \"Put an end to his angry words.\" So the young victor called Noqoilpi to him, and said, \"You have bet yourself and have lost; you are now my slave and must do my bidding. You are not a god, for my power has prevailed against yours.\" The victor had a bow of magic power named Ezin C-ilyil, or the Bow of Darkness: he bent this upwards, and placing the string on the ground, he bade his illustrious slave stand on the string; then he shot Noqoilpi up into the sky as if he had been an arrow. Up and up he went, growing smaller and smaller to the sight till he faded to a mere speck, and finally disappeared altogether. ";

var chapter54="As he flew upwards he was heard to mutter in the angry tones of abuse and imprecation, until he was too far away to be heard; but no one could distinguish anything he said as he ascended. He flew up in the sky until he came to the home of Bekotcic-e, the god who carries the moon, and who is supposed by the Navajos to be identical with the god of the Americans. He is very old, and dwells in a long row of stone houses. When Noqoilpi arrived at the house of Bekotcic-e, he related to the latter all his misadventures in the lower world and said, \"Now I am poor, and this is why I have come to see you.\" ";

var chapter55="\"You need be poor no longer,\" said Bekotcic-e \"I will provide for you.\" So he made for the gambler pets or domestic animals of new kinds, different to those which he had in the Chaco valley; he made for him sheep, asses, horses, swine, goats, and fowls. He also gave him bayeta, and other cloths of bright colors, more beautiful than those woven by his slaves at Kintyeli. He made, too, a new people, the Mexicans, for the gambler to rule over, and then he sent him back to this world again, but he descended far to the south of his former abode, and reached the earth in old Mexico. ";

var chapter56="Noqoilpi\'s people increased greatly in Mexico, and after a while they began to move toward the north, and build towns along the Rio Grande. Noqoilpi came with them until they arrived at a place north of Santa Fe. There they ceased building, and he returned to old Mexico, where he still lives, and where he is now the Nakai C-igIni, or God of the Mexicans. ";


/* -- end Navajo */

allChapters=new Array(chapter0,chapter1,chapter2,chapter3,chapter4,chapter5,chapter6,chapter7,chapter8,chapter9,chapter10,chapter11,chapter12,chapter13,chapter14,chapter15,chapter16,chapter17,chapter18,chapter19,chapter20,chapter21,chapter22,chapter23,chapter24,chapter25,chapter26,chapter27,chapter28,chapter29,chapter30,chapter31,chapter32,chapter33,chapter34,chapter35,chapter36,chapter37,chapter38,chapter39,chapter40,chapter41,chapter42,chapter43,chapter44,chapter45,chapter46,chapter47,chapter48,chapter49,chapter50,chapter51,chapter52,chapter53,chapter54,chapter55,chapter56);