Elk became quieted and Gopher went back into the ground, and from the
centre dug holes in four directions to the edge of the plain.
Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani then entered one from the east, and coming to the centre
looked up and saw Elk's heart beating. Drawing his flint-pointed arrow to
the head, he shot the monster through the heart, then quickly dropped down
into Gopher's burrow beneath four stones which, one below the other,
stopped the vertical channel. But first he made with his fire-stick a
dense white smoke at the end of the burrow that ran to the east. Elk
leaped down into the opening and rushed in the direction of the smoke,
seeking his enemy. Then in his rage he went to the centre, but in the
meantime Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani had made a cloud of blue smoke at the south, so
Elk ran thither. Successively Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani made yellow smoke at the west
and all-color smoke at the north, each time at the mouth of the burrow,
and each time Elk ran in the direction of the newly made smoke. All the
time blood was pouring from the wound in Tzes' heart. At last he espied
the hole blocked with four stone doors of white, blue, yellow, and
all-colors, which led straight down from the floor of the passage. With
his great antlers the monster broke through the first three doors, but at
the fourth he fell dead. Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani divided the meat with Gopher, and
taking the greater portion on his back, for by this time he was grown
large and strong, he started back to his mother, who was overjoyed by his
safe arrival and because he had brought such a quantity of meat. Near the
village he stopped to rest, and the weight of himself and of Elk's body
flattened the top of the hill on which he sat. Where Elk's blood soaked
into the ground the soil is still red.

[Illustration: Nature's Mirror - Navaho]

Nature's Mirror - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

From his father, Chunnaai, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani had knowledge of another evil
thing and how to destroy it. Cutting off a piece of Elk's intestine, he
filled it with blood and fastened it about his waist. Then he told his
mother to strip off the hide and while it was still soft sew it into a
suit that would cover him completely. When the suit was finished he put it
on, hid Elk's antlers under it, and departed westward in search of Itsa,
the Eagle