Born for Water- Navajo HeroHero"Child of Water"

Child of Water

Changing Woman bathed beneath a waterfall, and the water touched her. From this she conceived Born for Water. His twin brother Monster Slayer came differently: the Sun's rays struck Changing Woman on a flat rock. The two boys grew to maturity in days.

Both understood what was happening to their people. The Naayééʼ, monsters born from transgression during the separation of men and women, were devouring the Navajo. Yéʼiitsoh the Big Giant drank entire lakes and crushed whatever moved. The Monster Eagle snatched people from the ground and fed them to its young. Only weapons from the Sun could stop these creatures, and the Sun was their father. The twins decided to find him.

The Road to the Sun

Spider Woman met them on the way and gave them life feathers and sacred caterpillars. She told them the path. It was not safe. Crushing rocks slammed together on anyone who passed between them, and cutting reeds slashed travelers to pieces. Beyond those lay boiling sands that swallowed feet.

At each obstacle the twins stopped. Born for Water insisted on the correct prayers before they moved forward. In Washington Matthews's Navaho Legends, the twins recited sacred words at every danger, and the dangers parted. Big Fly perched on their shoulders, whispering what to say when their own knowledge failed them. They reached the Sun's turquoise house in the east.

The Sun's Trials

The Sun's wife hid them, but the Sun found them and did not believe they were his sons. He threw them against walls of sharp flint. He boiled them in a great pot. He sealed them in a killing sweat lodge and forced them to smoke a poisoned pipe. Born for Water survived every test alongside his brother, sustained by Spider Woman's gifts.

The Sun accepted them. He armed them according to their natures. Monster Slayer received lightning arrows and flint armor for direct combat. Born for Water received prayer sticks. These were not lesser weapons. They formed a spiritual link between the brothers: if the sticks began to burn, Born for Water would know Monster Slayer was in mortal danger and could intervene with protective songs.

The Campaign Against the Naayééʼ

The twins returned to earth and began the slaughter of the monsters. Monster Slayer fought. Born for Water did not. He stationed himself at a measured distance from each battle and maintained the protective songs and prayers that kept his brother's power alive. Before each engagement, he prepared the sacred materials. After each kill, he performed the rites that cleansed his brother of the slain monster's spiritual contamination. The Naayééʼ had been born from transgression, and killing them released that concentrated disharmony into whoever struck the blow. Without Born for Water's purification, Monster Slayer would have been destroyed not by any monster's strength but by the accumulated poison of his own victories.

At the lake near Mount Taylor, Monster Slayer faced Yéʼiitsoh. Lightning bolts flew. Boulders crashed. Born for Water held the songs steady, his concentration unbroken. The giant fell. Born for Water bestowed the name Naayééʼ Neizghání on his brother, naming what he had become through combat.

When Monster Slayer climbed to the Monster Eagle's cliff nest with the help of Bat Woman, Born for Water kept vigil below, watching the prayer sticks for the first sign of burning. The sticks did not burn. His brother came back down with the eagle's feathers.

The campaign ended. The monsters were dead. In the Monsterway ceremony that commemorates these events, sand paintings depict the twins together: Monster Slayer with his lightning, Born for Water with his prayer sticks, their power working only in concert.