Tsetahotsiltáli

Also known as: He Who Kicks (People) Down the Cliff · Role: anáye · First appears: Origin Legend II: Early Events in the Fifth World · Part 2

In Origin Legend II: Early Events in the Fifth World · Part 2, at Tsebináhotyel, a woman bore a strange creature with no head and a long pointed end where its head should have been. The people sealed it in a hole in the cliff and left it to die, but it grew up to become Tsetahotsiltá`li, the destroyer.

In Origin Legend III: The War Gods · Part 8, Tsetahotsiltáli kicked at Nayénezgani as he passed, but he dodged and asked, “Why did you kick at me?” Nayénezgani struck him repeatedly with a stone knife, then discovered that his long hair was rooted in a cleft in the rock. He cut the hair, and Tsetahotsiltáli’s body tumbled down out of sight.

Relationship record

Life events

• A woman bore a strange creature that later became Tsetahotsiltáli.(Origin Legend II: Early Events in the Fifth World · Part 2 · 📍 Tse`bináhotyel)
  • With: [[the woman who bore Tsetahotsiltáli]]
  • “The next night, travelling still to the east, they camped at Tse`bináhotyel, a broad high cliff like a wall, and here a woman bore another strange creature.”
• The people sealed the creature into a hole in the cliff, where it grew into Tsetahotsiltáli.(Origin Legend II: Early Events in the Fifth World · Part 2 · 📍 Tse`bináhotyel)
  • With: the people
  • “This object was deposited in the cliff, in a hole which was afterwards sealed up with a stone. They left it there to die, but it grew up and became the destroyer Tsetahotsiltáli, of whom we shall tell hereafter.”
• Nayénezgani struck Tsetahotsiltáli, cut his hair free from the rock, and sent his body tumbling down.(Origin Legend III: The War Gods · Part 8)
  • With: Nayénezgani
  • “Then the hero struck his enemy with his great stone knife over the eyes, and struck him again and again till he felt sure that he had slain him; but he was surprised to find that the body did not fall down the cliff. He cut with his knife under the corpse in different places, but found nothing that held it to the rock until he came to the head, and then he discovered that the long hair grew, like the roots of a cedar, into a cleft in the rock. When he cut the hair, the body tumbled down out of sight.”

Origin Legend II: Early Events in the Fifth World · Part 2

• parent: [[the woman who bore Tsetahotsiltáli]] “and here a woman bore another strange creature. It had no head, but had a long pointed end where the head ought to be. This object was deposited in the cliff, in a hole which was afterwards sealed up with a stone. They left it there to die, but it grew up and became the destroyer Tsetahotsiltáli, of whom we shall tell hereafter.”

Origin Legend III: The War Gods · Part 8

• enemies with Nayénezgani “As he passed, the latter kicked at him, but he dodged the kick and asked: ‘Why did you kick at me?’”

Also listed in Other Figures — Minor Figures

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Extracted from the original text of Navaho Legends. Made with Rho MD.