Yéʼiitsoh- Navajo GiantGiant"Big Giant"

The Giant

Yéʼiitsoh made his home near Tsoodzíl, Mount Taylor, one of the four sacred mountains. He was large enough to drink a lake dry in a single draught and to stride from ridge to ridge without touching the valley between. He hunted humans the way humans hunt rabbits, and the people could not hide from him.

The Battle at Mount Taylor

In Washington Matthews' account, Monster Slayer approached Tsoodzíl and found Yéʼiitsoh kneeling at a lake, drinking. The giant saw his reflection in the water; the hero saw the giant's. They faced each other across the shore.

Monster Slayer carried the lightning arrows his father the Sun had given him. Yéʼiitsoh hurled his own weapons. Monster Slayer dodged. He struck the giant with a bolt of chain lightning. Yéʼiitsoh staggered but did not fall. A second bolt drove him back. A third brought him to his knees. The fourth killed him.

The giant's blood poured from the body in a dark flood, running across the land in all directions. The Wind warned Monster Slayer: if the blood reached a certain point, Yéʼiitsoh would rise again. Lightning struck the blood and it hardened where it lay, cooling into black stone.

The Lava Fields

The malpais around Mount Taylor, where black rock stretches for miles across the desert, is Yéʼiitsoh's blood. Monster Slayer cut off the giant's head and left it where it fell. The scalp, too, turned to stone. The first and worst of the Anaye was dead, and Monster Slayer went on to the next.