Diné Bahaneʼ

The First or Dark World, Niʼ Hodiłhił (Navajo pronunciation: [nɪ̀ʔ xòtɪ̀ɬxɪ̀ɬ]) was small and centered on an island floating in the middle of four seas.

In the Third or Yellow World Niʼ Hałtsooí ([nɪ̀ʔ xɑ̀ɬtsʰòːɪ́]), there were two rivers that formed a cross, the Sacred Mountains, and more animal people, but there was still no sun.

This time it was not discord among the people that drove them away but a great flood caused by Tééhoołtsódii ([txéːxòːɬtsʰótì]) when Coyote stole her two children.

It was here that true death came into existence when Coyote tossed a stone into a lake, declaring that if it sank then the dead would go back to the previous world.

The first human born in the Fourth World is Yoołgaii Asdzą́ą́ ([jòːɬkɑ̀ì ɑ̀stsɑ̃́ː]), who matures into Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé [ɑ̀stsɑ̃́ː nɑ́tɬèːxé] and, in turn, gives birth to the Hero Twins called Naayééʼ Neizghání and Tóbájíshchíní.

Multiple batches of modern humans were created a number of times in the Fourth World, and the Diyin Dineʼé gave them ceremonies which are still practiced today.

From the breath of wind, First Man, Áłtsé Hastiin, was formed and with him the white corn, Kóhonotʼíinii, perfect in shape, with kernels covering the whole ear.

The rulers of the four seas, Blue Heron, Frog, White Thunder, and Big Water Creature could stand it no more, and told the beings of the island that they must all leave this world.

The Holy People took each set of twins to their home on the East Mountain and taught them how to wear masks and pray, and then returned them to their parents.

Spider Man taught the people to shape a little wheel, 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and put a slender stick through it to spin the cotton.

Then Spider Man said that the ball of thread should be called "yódí yił nasmas aghaaʼ," meaning "rolling with the beautiful goods."

Then First Man made a drawing in the dirt to plan the location of all the stars seeking to make the sky like a woven rug, orderly and balanced.

At the very summit of Chʼóolʼį́ʼí, he heard the cry of an infant and the crash of lightning, the pouring of rain, and he saw the tip of a rainbow with intense colors in front of the black sky.

He told them they must return to the top of Chʼóolʼį́ʼí with the turquoise figure in twelve days.When they reached a level spot just below the summit ofChʼóolʼį́ʼí, Haashchʼééłtiʼí was there waiting for them.

The Holy People began to sing the sacred song of Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí Sin, and Níłchʼi, the Wind entered between the buckskin blankets.

Then First Man and First Woman stepped outside the hogan and told Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé to run her first race around a cedar tree and return, from east to west, as the sun does.

On the fourth day, she heard a sound behind her and turned and saw a young man on a great white horse with black eyes.

Jóhonaaʼéí the Sun said, "I will see if you are my sons," and he seized them at once and hurled them against the sharp spikes of white shell on the eastern wall of his house.

Then he sent down a streak of lightning onto the top of Tsoodził, the Blue Bead Mountain that was the home of Yéʼiitsoh, the Big Giant, and the twins slid down it.

"[44] Níłchʼi, the Wind came to them and whispered in their ear that since Big Giant was their elder he should be given right of first strike, as they were destroying the child of the Sun.

and suddenly the twins found themselves standing on the end of a rainbow, just as Yéʼiitsoh, the Big Giant, hurled his great black knife at them.

The twins ran to block the flow of blood and it remains on the ground today near the spring at the foot of Tsoodził, the Blue Bead Mountain.

[50] The brothers together made two prayer sticks of the medicine plant azeeʼ łahdiltʼéii, each three finger widths long, and lay them in a turquoise dish.

Naayééʼ Neizghání, Monster Slayer crept back up the full length of the tunnel, to where Gopher had started it, and climbed out.

Monster Slayer traveled to Dibé Nitsaa and found a lean old woman sitting above the tree line without clothing, on the snow.

[52] When he returned home to his mother Changing Woman, he removed the sheath wherein he carried the stone knife that his father Jóhonaaʼéí hataaʼ the Sun had given him.

[53] Changing Woman and Naayééʼ Neizghání and the younger twin, Naʼídígishí, who was also known as Tóbájíshchíní, Child of the Water, now heard a voice from the east chanting in reply: With the Slayer of Monsters I come.

After four days, Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé, Changing Woman, went to the summit of Chʼóolʼį́ʼí, the Giant Spruce Mountain, and sat on a rock near the spot where she had first felt the warmth of the sun deep within her body.

Then she and the Holy People passed through the mountains at Béésh łichííʼí (Red Knife), and in the Chʼíńlį́ Valley they celebrated her betrothal to Jóhonaaʼéí.

Then Naayééʼ Neizghání, Monster Slayer, and his brother Tóbájíshchíní, Water Born, traveled to Tó Aheedlí,[56] where the Pine River flows into the San Juan, and there they continue to live below the earth.