Little Grandfather Brings Good Luck to Those Who Need it

Chei Yazh (Little Grandfather) Photo by Denise Alvarado Copyright 2013 All rights reserved worldwide.

Horned Toad Beliefs

It is said that arrowheads are made by horned toads that blow on a rock and chip it into a form with its breath. There is a taboo against killing horned toads because they are grandfathers or guardians of arrowheads. If you kill one you will get a stomachache, or swell up, or have a heart attack. 

Many different indigenous cultures revere the horned toad. It is attributed with great healing abilities to the Piman who use it during curing ceremonies by placing one on the part of the person's body in need of healing. Among traditional Mexicans, the horned toad is called the Virgin's Little Bull or "Torito de la Virgen." It is likened to a bull because of its horns and is considered sacred because  sometimes it squirts blood from its eyes. This is referred to as weeping tears of blood.

 

Horned toads. Photo by Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

True Story

I was standing outside behind House of Hope, the children's shelter where I worked in New Mexico talking to the Navajo grandmother who was on staff there as part of the traditional program. All of a sudden, a little horned toad ran right by us. Grandma reached down and picked up the little creature and held it up to her heart and said a prayer. She then whispered something to the horned toad and handed it to me. I remember thinking "How cool is this!" because I always loved horned toads. She told me to hold it to my heart and say a blessing for it, then to whisper a request for blessings or something else I needed. I did what she said, and then she placed a tiny bit of corn pollen on its back and told me to set it back on the ground. We watched it run off.

Grandma explained to me that the horned toad is called Chei Yazh, meaning "Little Grandfather". She said that whenever I see one, I should pick it up if it will let me and do as I was shown. She said he bestows great blessings on those who do as she instructed.

That lesson was given to me about 17 years ago and it is one I will never forget. I have passed the tradition on to my son who is half Navajo, and anytime we see a horned toad, we do as grandma instructed.

Coyote and the Horned Toad (Navajo)

Horned Toad was very busy in his cornfield, where the corn was just ripening. Coyote came to him and said, "Please give me some of your delicious corn."

"No," said Horned Toad.

Coyote asked her four times; then he picked some corn for him.

"Corn is very hard to raise," Horned Toad told him. "We have to hoe the weeds away from it and pick off the bugs and worms that want to eat it. We even have to water it during dry weather. I can't afford to give all my corn away."

Coyote kept begging. Horned Toad said he couldn't have any more.

Then Coyote ran out into the field and-pulled off a big ear of corn, stripped the husks away and began eating the kernels.

Horned Toad grabbed one end of the ear, and, when he gulped it down. Coyote also gulped Horned Toad down inside him.

Since he wasn't there to scold him, he ate all the corn he could hold. Then he lay down in the shade. He felt very lazy, but when he heard birds flying down to eat the corn, he raised his head and shouted at them.

"Go away! Don't bother my corn," he shouted "Don't you know it takes work to raise corn? I have to hoe it and water it, and all that."

Down inside him. Horned Toad made some sort of noise.

Horned Toad was very angry with Coyote and wanted to do something to get even with him. As he lay inside Coyote's stomach, he called, "Hey, Cousin!"

Coyote jumped up and looked around to see who was calling. He saw nobody, and he lay down again. The second time he heard someone calling, he jumped up again and ran around the edge of the cornfield, looking for the person whose voice he had heard.

This happened four times. The fourth time that Horned Toad called, Coyote realized where the sound was coming from and he looked down at his stomach and asked, "Is that you making noises inside me?"

"Yes," replied Horned Toad. "I'm going to take a little walk down here and see what I can find."

Soon Coyote began to feel strange, and he told Horned Toad to lie down and be still. Instead, Horned Toad continued to walk around, and he tugged at different parts of Coyote's insides.

"What is this?" he asked. "And what is that?"

Each time he gave a little pull at an organ, he hurt Coyote. Once he touched Coyote's heart and asked, "What is this?"

He pulled at the heart, and Coyote shrieked in pain and yelled, "That's my heart."

Horned Toad climbed upward, and when she reached his throat he called, "Now I'm going to cut your throat, Coyote."

"What are you going to cut it with?" Coyote inquired. "I'm not very smart, but I know that you don't have a knife." "

Just then Coyote felt something sharp hacking at the inside of his throat, and he began begging Horned Toad not to kill him. The toad was using his sharp horns for cutting.

"Just come out of me," he promised, "and I'll help you raise your corn. I'll hoe the weeds in your garden and water the corn. I'll even bring you some firewood."

Horned Toad replied, "No," and he kept on hacking his throat. Coyote got worried and tried to think of something else that might change the horned toad's mind.

"I'm going to run very fast and make you fall out of my throat," he said. But just as he started to run Horned Toad finished cutting his throat.

When he fell dead. Horned Toad crawled out of Coyote's mouth.

He stood there looking at poor Coyote, lying dead.

"I warned you not to bother my corn," he said. And he went about caring for his cornfield.


Adapted from Coyote Stories of the Navajo People, Navajo Curriculum Center Press, 1974 School Board, Inc. Rough Rock Arizona.



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Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.