N the beginning the People of the Middle, led by Ahaiyúta and the fathers of all the people, settled at Kwákina. They built a beautiful terraced city and a great court for their dances.

The Brotherhood of Fire had its place of ancient origin In this town, and it was in the court of Kwákina that they first gave their great dance drama of the Mountain Sheep.

After a little while they built another terraced city, and called it Háwikuh, which means the Place of the White Flowering Herbs. This was because the town was erected upon the very top of a little hill, and it over-looked the green meadows and the white flowers of summer time.

The years went by like a singing stream, and the people of the Valley of Shíwina (the Middle Place of the World) modeled four more cities from the red earth of their All-Mother. And the Sun-Father looked down upon them with pride, for the children of men were also his children.

And in the time when people dwelt in each of these cities, they talked with the beasts and the gods alike. And many things that are lost to us were precious to them.

Now the chiefs and the priests of Shíwina wished to be sure that they had reached the true middle of the world, so they called together a great council of men and the beings, beasts, birds and insects of all kinds.

After they had talked together for a very long time, they decided that K'yanäs'tipe, the Water-skate who had six legs, should feel forth in the six directions, West, North, East, South, Above and Below, and tell them the truth. Then they called for K'yanäs'tipe to come, and their many voices together sounded like the rolling of the thunder stone. The Sun-Father heard their cries, and, assuming the form of the Water-skate, only much larger, appeared before them.

He listened silently to all that the old ones told him and then he lifted himself up to the sky, and stretched out his six feet to all of the six regions. To the North were the great waters; to the West and the South and the East were also great waters.

To the North his foot grew cold so he drew it in. To the West the waters touched his foot, so he drew it in also. To the South and East his feet reached a very, very long way. Gradually he settled downward, and called out; — "Where my heart rests is the Middle of the World, and there you must build a town as it will be the nearest to the Earth-Mother."

There the fathers of the people built the seventh city, and they called it Halona, or the Abiding Place of Happy Fortune.