Tsetahotsiltali- Navajo CreatureCreature · Monster"He Who Kicks People Off Cliffs"

The Narrow Trail

During the Separation of the Sexes, men and women of the Fourth World lived apart. The women's solitary acts bore monsters into the Glittering World. Tsetahotsiltali was one of those Anaye. He found a narrow trail cut along a cliff face, a path travelers could neither widen nor avoid, and claimed it as his killing ground.

He sat at the trail's narrowest point, legs drawn up tight against his chest. When a traveler edged past, pressed flat against the rock wall, Tsetahotsiltali kicked out with both feet and sent them over the edge. They fell a long way down. His children waited at the base of the cliff among the boulders, and they ate whatever landed. There was no warning, no chance to dodge. One moment a traveler walked the ledge. The next, the ledge was empty. Whole stretches of cliff country became death traps because one monster sat in one spot and kicked.

Monster Slayer on the Path

Wind, who whispered in Monster Slayer's ear throughout the campaign against the Anaye, warned him before he reached the cliff. In Matthews' Navaho Legends, Monster Slayer walked the narrow ledge as any traveler would. He pressed himself against the cliff wall. Tsetahotsiltali sat in his usual posture ahead, legs coiled, ready to strike.

The monster kicked. Monster Slayer braced against the rock and held his ground. He seized Tsetahotsiltali and hurled him from the cliff. The Kicking Monster fell the way his victims had fallen, down to the rocks where his own children crouched. The monster and his children died together at the base of the cliff they had haunted.

The trail became safe to walk again. In Diné tradition, the Anaye the Hero Twins slew left their shapes pressed into the land. Rock formations along canyon walls mark the places where monsters fell and the world was made safe for the People.