Editing Diné Bahaneʼ (section)

==== The Separation of Women and Men ====
One day, First Man brought home a fine deer that he had killed.  First Woman said, "I thank my vagina for this deer."  First Man demanded to know what she meant.  "I mean that you bring me food because you wish to have sex with me," she said.  "But we women could live happily without men.  We are the ones who gather the food and till the fields.  We have no need of men."  First Man grew angry and called all the men together.  "The women think they can live without us," he told them.  "Let us see if that is true."<ref>Zolbrod, 1984, p. 60</ref>

The men and the two hermaphrodite twins crossed the river to the north bank carrying the grinding stones and bowls and baskets that the hermaphrodite twins had made, and the axes and hoes that the men had invented.  The women bared themselves along the bank of the river and called out to the men, saying "See what you are missing?"
There were occasionally men and women who so longed after the other that some jumped into the river that separated them in a vain attempt to reunite with their loved ones. Unfortunately the currents of the river were too strong and the swimmers were washed down the river, never to be seen again.

For four years the women and the men lived apart.  During this time the food that the women harvested became less, because they had no tools, while the men grew more and more food.  But each group longed for the other.  The women sought to satisfy themselves with bones and feathers and long stones.  The men tried to relieve their longing with the fresh meat of animals.  One man, {{spell-nv|Kʼíídeesdizí}}, tried to satisfy himself using the liver of a deer.  Owl called out to him to stop.  "This is wrong," Owl said. "No good can come of this separation. You must bring the men and the women together again." As it turns out Owl was right. From the women who had sought to satisfy themselves with foreign objects, monsters were born out of this. The monsters would go on to terrorize the people wherever they roamed.

{{spell-nv|Kʼíídeesdizí}} spoke to the other men.  Finally they all spoke to First Man.  First Man called across the river to First Woman, and asked, "Do you still think you can live alone?"  "I no longer believe I can," she responded.  "I am sorry I let the things you said make me angry," First Man said.  And then the men sent a raft to the women's side of the river to bring the women across.  The men and women bathed and dried their bodies with corn meal, and remained apart until nightfall.  Then they would resume their lives together.