Navajo story time

Here's a story from the Navajo reservation. I lived there for a while when I was a kid. I wrote this in Word and copied it over to here so I'm not sure if the formatting will be ok or not. Not sure if my telling is even remotely accurate, but here goes.

In the beginning of mankind were first man and first woman. First man noticed that first woman was becoming increasingly irritable so he left her to herself for some time to sort through her problems. First woman left and washed herself in the river and came back to first man radiant, happy, and completely agreeable. First man didn’t question fist woman’s sudden change because he was so glad to see her back to, nay, even better than her normal self; instead, he rejoiced. For five days he rejoiced and treated her like a goddess.

On the sixth day when first man rose to kiss the rose-petal lips of first woman, she rolled over and resumed her irritable behavior from before. First man was completely distraught; he tore his hair, he kicked the earth, and he cursed the sky. He left first woman alone again and again after returning from bathing herself in the river she was happy, radiant, and, most importantly, agreeable. Again first man rejoiced and worshiped first woman as a goddess. He kissed the earth and he bowed deeply to the sky for granting him his boon. But again on the sixth day when first man rolled over to kiss the ruby lips of first woman, she rolled over and groaned dissent.

This time first man was not so patient. He gave her space, but silently he crept in her footsteps and followed her to the river’s gurgling stream. He watched her as she lie naked on the river’s bank where another man came to her and stole her in passionate love.

First man ran to second man, third man, fourth man, and so on and told them of first woman’s infidelity. The men, trusting first man’s authority, agreed that first woman’s betrayal was unforgivable and decided that the union forged between men and women could be no more. They prayed to earth and sky asking that woman and man be separated by worlds; in one world would be the men who could not travel to the world of women, in the other world would be the women who could not travel to the world of men. Their prayer was answered and the union between man and woman was severed.

For centuries man and woman lived in their separate worlds, bearing evil and unnatural children; today we call them hate, greed, lust, murder, and so on. These children multiplied under the horrified eyes of their parents who had forgotten that the opposite sex had ever existed.

The world became dark; sky bled and earth cried, her heaving breath terrible and magnificent. When it seemed that earth’s tears were exhausted, sky’s blood drained, and time would be annihilated, a being stepped into the land of first man and walked among them. He brought news of woman and when the memory of man was restored, man asked the being, “How is it that you know of this?” to which the being responded by showing that it was both man and woman.

Since the being was of both sexes he could travel between the two worlds. So the being traveled between the worlds and sutured the rift between man and woman and brought light back to sky and flora to earth.