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The Western Apache of Arizona live in a narrated world (Basso 1996). Every mention of a place-name, however unwitting, involves the quoting of ancestral speech. What matters is not so much when something happened but where it happened. The past is continually present. The pastness of the past has been stripped away (ibid 33). It is a well-worn trail first traced by the founding peoples and then by generations to follow, passing along the same route. Every place possesses a story, which has given it a name. But place-names can also be the origin of stories. They can, in themselves, be abbreviated narratives, each carrying a trace of their own inception. The named place becomes a storied place, so that the use of place-names is essential for the narration of tales. Stories open with a named place and conclude with another. Storytellers speak as if witnessing the past. The toponyms they use present images of past worlds for contemplation. Knowledge of place-names deepens an awareness of the present by rooting it in a continual past.