DANCES AND CEREMONIES.
Plate LXXXI exhibits drawings of various masks used in dancing, the characters of which were obtained by Mr. G. K. Gilbert from rocks at Oakley Springs, and were explained to him by Tubi, the chief of the Oraibi Pueblos. They probably are in imitation of masks, as used by the Moki, Zuñi, and Rio Grande Pueblos.
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXI
MOKI MASKS ETCHED ON ROCKS. ARIZONA.
Many examples of masks, dance ornaments, and fetiches used in ceremonies are reported and illustrated in the several papers of Messrs. Cushing, Holmes, and Stevenson in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Paintings or drawings of many of them have been found on pottery, on shells, and on rocks.
In this connection the following extract from a letter dated Port Townsend, Washington, June 1, 1883, from Mr. James G. Swan, will be acceptable: “You may remember my calling your attention about a year since to the fact that a gentleman who had been employed on a preliminary survey for the Mexican National Construction Company had called on me and was astonished at the striking similarity between the wooden-carved images of the Haida Indians and the terra-cotta images he had found in the railroad excavations in Mexico.
“I have long entertained the belief that the coast tribes originated among the Aztecs, and have made it a subject of careful study for many years. I received unexpected aid by the plates in Habel’s Investigations in Central and South America. I have shown them to Indians of various coast tribes at various times, and they all recognize certain of those pictures. No. 1, Plate 1, represents a priest cutting off the head of his victim with his stone knife. They recognize this, because they always cut off the heads of their enemies slain in battle; they never scalp. The bird of the sun is recognized by all who have seen the picture as the thunder bird of the coast tribes. But the most singular evidence I have seen is in Cushing’s description of the Zuñi Indian, as published in the Century Magazine. The Haidas recognize the scenes, particularly the masquerade scenes in the February [1883] number, as similar to their own tomanawos ceremonies. I have had at least a dozen Haida men and women at one time looking at those pictures and talk and explain to each other their meaning. One chief who speaks English said to me after he had for a long time examined the pictures, ‘Those are our people; they do as we do. If you wish, I will make you just such masks as those in the pictures.’
“These Indians know nothing, and recognize nothing in the Hebrew or Egyptian, the Chinese or Japanese pictures, but when I show them any Central or South American scenes, if they do not understand them they recognize that they are ‘their people.’”
According to Stephen Powers (in Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol. III, p. 140), there is at the head of Potter Valley, California, “a singular knoll of red earth which the Tátu or Hūchnom believe to have furnished the material for the creation of the original coyote-man. They mix this red earth into their acorn bread, and employ it for painting their bodies on divers mystic occasions.” Mr. Powers supposed this to be a ceremonial performance, but having found the custom to extend to other tribes he was induced to believe the statements of the Indians “that it made the bread sweeter and go further.”
See also the mnemonic devices relative to Songs, page [82], and to Traditions, page [84]; also page [237].
Plate LXXXII represents stone heaps surmounted by buffalo skulls found near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers by Prince Maximilian zu Wied, and described in his Reise in das Innere Nord-America. Coblenz, 1841, II, p. 435. Atlas plate 29. The description by him, as translated in the London edition, is as follows: “From the highest points of this ridge of hills, curious signals are perceived at certain distances from one another, consisting of large stones and granite blocks, piled up by the Assiniboins, on the summits of each of which are placed Buffalo skulls, and which were erected by the Indians, as alleged, for the purpose of attracting the Bison herds, and to have a successful hunt.”
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXII
BUFFALO-HEAD MONUMENT.
This objective monument is to be compared with the pictographs above, “making buffalo medicine,” frequent in the Dakota Winter Counts.
Descriptions of ceremonies in medicine lodges and in the initiation of candidates to secret associations have been published with and without illustrations. The most striking of these are graphic ceremonial charts made by the Indians themselves. Figure 38, on page [86], is connected with this subject, as is also No. 7 of Figure 122, page [205]. A good illustration is to be found in Mrs. Eastman’s Dahcotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux, page 206. Sketches, with descriptions of drawings used in the ceremonials of the Zuñi and Navajo, have been made by Messrs. Cushing and Stevenson and Dr. Matthews, but cannot be published here.
Figure 111a was drawn and interpreted by Naumoff, a Kadiak native, in San Francisco, California, in 1882.
It represents the ground plan of a Shaman’s lodge with the Shaman curing a sick man.
The following is the explanation:
Fig. 111a. Shaman’s lodge. Alaska.
No. 1. The entrance to the lodge.
No. 2. The fire place.
No. 3. A. vertical piece of wood upon which is placed a cross-piece, upon each end of which is a lamp.
No. 4. The musicians seated upon the raised seats furnishing drumming and music to the movements of the Shaman during his incantations in exorcising the “evil spirit” supposed to have possession of the patient.
No. 5. Visitors and friends of the afflicted seated around the walls of the lodge.
No. 6. The Shaman represented in making his incantations.
No. 7. The patient seated upon the floor of the lodge.
No. 8. Represents the Shaman in another stage of the ceremonies, driving out of the patient the “evil being.”
No. 9. Another figure of the patient; from his head is seen to issue a line connecting it with No. 10.
No. 10. The “evil spirit” causing the sickness.
No. 11. The Shaman in the act of driving the “evil being” out of the room. In his hands are sacred objects, his personal fetish, in which the power lies.
No. 12. The flying “evil one.”
Nos. 13, 14. Are assistants to the Shaman, stationed at the entrance to hit and hasten the departure of the evil being.
A chart of this character appears to have been seen among the natives of New Holland by Mr. James Manning, but not copied or fully described in his Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland (Jour. of Royal Society, New South Wales, Vol. XVI, p. 167). He mentions it in connection with a corrobery or solemn religious ceremony among adults, as follows: “It has for its form the most curious painting upon a sheet of bark, done in various colors of red, yellow, and white ochre, which is exhibited by the priest.” Such objects would be highly important for comparison, and their existence being known they should be sought for.