Water Sprinkler

Water Sprinkler, Tó Neinilí, is the Diné god of water, responsible for rain, sleet and snow. A blue-bodied yéʼii, he joins the Holy People in the emergence and the fashioning of the world and is one of the deities impersonated by masked dancers in the Nightway ceremony, where he carries water jars and is associated with the bringing of moisture to a dry land. He often plays a clownish, mischievous part among the sacred dancers, mimicking and disrupting the others, so that alongside his solemn office as rain-bringer he carries a comic, trickster-tinged character. A rainbow yéʼii encircling the sandpaintings is sometimes understood as an aspect of him.

Domains

• rain
• water

Powers

• to bring rain, sleet, and snow

Epithets

• Tó NeinilíWashington Matthews, The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, 1902. (secondary)

Relations

• companion: Talking GodWater Sprinkler is numbered among the masked yéʼii of the Nightway alongside Talking God.Washington Matthews, The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, 1902. (secondary)

Sources

• Water Sprinkler (Tó Neinilí) is the Diné yéʼii of rain, sleet and snow, a blue-bodied water god who also appears in a clownish, trickster-like guise among the masked dancers.: Washington Matthews, The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, 1902. (secondary); Gladys A. Reichard, Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism, Bollingen / Pantheon Books, 1950. (secondary)