All That Region Belonged To The Puma, Antelope, Deer And Other Horn People, And To-Hi-A (Puma) Led My People, The Tohi-Nyn-Muh, To To-Ko-Na-Bi (Navaho Mountain), And The Sand People And The Horn People Also Dwelt In The Same Region.

"We built many houses at To-ko-na-bi, and lived there many days, but the springs were small, the clouds were thin, rain came seldom, and our corn was weak.

The Ki-mon-wi (village chief) of the To-hi-nyn-muh had two sons and two daughters, and his eldest son was known by the name of Tiyo (the youth). He seemed to be always melancholy and thoughtful, and was wont to haunt the edge of the cliffs. All day he would sit there, gazing down into the deep gorge (of the Grand Canyon), and wondering where the ever-flowing water went, and where it finally found rest. He often discussed this question with his father, saying, 'It must flow down some great pit, into the underworld, for after all these years the gorge below never fills up, and none of the water ever flows back again.' His father would say, 'Maybe it flows so far away that many old men's lives would be too short to mark its return.' Tiyo said, 'I am constrained to go and solve this mystery, and I can rest no more till I make the venture.' His family besought him with tears to forego his project, but nothing could shake his determination, and he won them to give their sorrowful consent.

"The father said, 'It is impossible for you to follow the river on foot, hence you must look for a hollow cottonwood-tree, and I will help you make a wi-na-ci-buh (timber box) in which you may float upon the water.' Tiyo found a dry cottonwood-tree, which they felled, and cut off as long as his body, and it was as large around as they both could encompass with their outstretched arms. They gouged and burned out all of the inside, leaving only a thin shell of dry wood like a large drum; small branches and twigs were fitted in the ends to close them, and the interstices were pitched with pinion gum. All this work was done with the stone axe and the live ember.

"The father then announced that in four days Tiyo should set forth, and during that time the mother and her two daughters prepared kwip-do-si (a kind of corn meal made from corn which has been dried and then ground. A thin gruel is made of it) for food, and the father made prayer emblems and pahos. On the morning of the fifth day the father brought the emblems to Tiyo and laid them on a white cotton mantle, but before he wrapped them up, he explained their significance. He also gave him a wand to be used in guiding his box-boat, after which Tiyo crept into the box, received from his mother and sisters the food, and then his father closed the end of the box, gave it a push with his foot, and it floated away, bobbing up and down.

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