"Harmony in the Sky" is a Navajo legend.

Long ago, in the time before the world was finished, there were no stars in the sky. The gods talked about what to do with the sky. This was a time when Black God, born of fire, walked into the hogan, a dwelling made of logs and mud, to talk with the other gods. On his ankle, he wore a band of six sparkling stars.

The other gods admired the sparkling particles that Black God called Dilyehe.

In a display of fierce power, Black God stamped his foot, and the six stars on his ankle leaped to his knee. When Black God stamped his foot a second time, the stars moved to his hip. Black God stamped a third time, and the stars leaped to his shoulder. "Once more," he said, "once for each direction of the winds," and when he stamped this time, the stars jumped to his temple. "Here they shall remain," he said.

Now Black God looked up at the Dark Upper, the name the gods had given to the sky in those days when not a single light shone there. Black God reached into his fawn-skin pouch and took out a single crystal.

"I shall decorate the sky with my crystals," he said. "Instead of a blanket of darkness, the sky will be a work of art — my gift to the world."

Then Black God reached up and placed the crystal he held in the northernmost corner of the Dark Upper. "This will be North Fire," he said, "and this star shall never move," and to this day North Fire, or Polaris, remains, a guide to all travelers.

Next Black God placed seven crystals in the sky near North Fire. First he placed Turning Male and then Turning Female, then the others. Black God turned and placed five crystals in the eastern sky. "Man With Feet Spread," he announced. And in the southern sky he placed First Big One and then Rabbit Tracks. In the south and west he carefully placed the constellations known as Horned Rattler, Bear and Thunderbird.

Next Black God touched the stars on his left temple. Then he reached into his pouch and placed into the sky a copy of the constellation he wore on his temple, Dilyehe.

He reached in one more time and now took thousands of tiny crystals. These he tossed up, and the Milky Way snaked across the sky.

Proud of his star patterns, Black God stood back and admired his designs. But then Coyote looked up and said: "What's that? Ridiculous. You should have asked for my opinion before you tried to design this part of the world."

"Quiet, Coyote," someone said, for everyone knows Coyote always meddles in business that is not his own.

"What is this?" Coyote asked again as he studied the corners of the Dark Upper.

"These patterns will guide the way of life for those on Earth," Black God said.

By this time Black God was sitting, resting from his hard work. He sat with his legs crossed, the pouch of crystals beside him. Suddenly, Coyote lunged to snatch the pouch.

"I'll show you a beautiful sky," he howled, and he opened the pouch and tossed the crystals into the sky. Then he blew with all his strength so that the thousands of little beams of light went twirling and tumbling.

The gods were horrified. Now that the sky was a jumble of confusion, they decreed these many stars of Coyote's design would have no names, and in this way the trickster god would be punished.

But Coyote didn't care. He opened the pouch again and brought out the last crystal, saying, "This will be my star!" This time, instead of tossing it carelessly into the Dark Upper, he followed Black God's lead and carefully placed his crystal in the southern sky.

Some call this star the Monthless Star, visible only a few days in the year, but most know it as Coyote Star, symbol of disorder. Life, the people say, sometimes is orderly and predictable, just the way Black God believed it should be. But life can also be chaotic and unpredictable — Coyote's way.

The Navajo people study the sky to understand their world, and when Dilyehe, Black God's constellation, which we know as Pleiades, appears in the evening sky, the people celebrate it as a symbol of harmony, a joyful time.