THEURGISTIC RITES.
It is only upon acquaintance with the secret cult societies that one may glean something of the Indians’ conception of disease, its cause and cure. It is supposed to be produced almost wholly through one or two agencies—the occult powers of wizards and witches, and the anger of certain animals, often insects. Therefore, though some plant medicines are known to these Indians, their materia medīca may be said to be purely fetichistic; for when anything of a medicinal character is used by the theurgist it must be supplemented with fetich medicine and magical craft.
While there are thirteen secret cult societies with the Zuñi, there are but eight in Sia, some of these being reduced to a membership of two, and in one instance to one. While the Zuñi and Sia each has its society of warriors, the functions of these societies are somewhat different.
The cult societies of the Sia, as well as those of Zuñi, have their altars and sand paintings; but while each Zuñi altar, with its medicines and fetiches, is guarded during ceremonials by two members of the Society of Warriors, this entitling the members of this society to be present at the meetings of all the cult societies, the Sia have no such customs. Their altars and fetiches are not protected by others than the theurgists and vice-theurgists of their respective societies. At the present time, owing to the depleted numbers of the Society of Warriors of the Zuñi, some of their altars have but one guardian.
The Society of Warriors has for its director and vicar, like the Zuñi and the other pueblos, the representatives of the mythologic war heroes, who, though small in stature, are invulnerable. “Their hearts are large, for they have the heart of the sun.” The head or director of a society is termed the elder brother; the vicar, younger brother.
When the cult societies invoke the cloud people to water the earth, the presence of certain anthropomorphic and zoomorphic beings having potent influence over the cloud people is assured by the drawing of a line of meal from the altar to the entrance of the ceremonial chamber, over which these beings pass, temporarily abiding in the stone images of themselves which stand before the altar. These beings are exhorted to use their mystic powers with the cloud people to water the mother earth, that she may become pregnant and bear to the people of Ha´arts (the earth) the fruits of her being.
In order to obtain their services the Sia compensate them. The hä´chamoni (notched stick), which is deposited to convey the message, invariably has plumes attached to it, these plume offerings being actual compensation for that which is desired. Other offerings are made, among which are gaming blocks, hoops for the cloud people to ride upon, and cigarettes filled with the down of humming birds, corn pollen, and bits of precious beads. (See Plate xi).
Eagles are kept caged, and turkeys are domesticated for the purpose of obtaining plumes for these offerings.
It is the prerogative of the ti´ämoni to specify the time for the meetings of the cult societies, excepting ceremonials for the healing of the sick by the request of the patient or his friend. These meetings being entirely under the jurisdiction of the theurgist, who does not possess within himself the power of healing, he is simply the agent acting under the influence of those beings who are present in the stone images.
The gala time is the beginning of the new year in December, when the cult societies hold synchronal ceremonials extending through a period of four days and nights, at which time the fetich medicines are prepared; and those possessing real or imaginary disease gather in the chamber of the society of which they are members, when the theurgists and their followers elaborate their practices of mysticism upon their subjects.
The cult societies have two ways of retaining their complement of members. An adult or child joins a society after being restored to health by a theurgist; and a parent may enter a child into a society, or a boy or girl having arrived at years of discretion, may declare a desire to join a society.
In the case of a young child the paternal or maternal parent calls upon the theurgist and, making known his wish, presents him with a handful of shell mixture,[15] saying, “I wish my child to become a member of your society that his mind and heart may be strong.” In the case of an elder boy or girl the clan is first notified, and the applicant then calls upon the theurgist and, presenting him a handful of the shell mixture, makes known his wish.
Most of the societies are divided into two or more orders, the more important order being that in which the members are endowed with the anagogics of medicine, except in the Snake Society, when the snake order is essential. One must pass through three degrees before being permitted to handle the snakes. In the case of minors they can not be initiated into the third degree until, in the ho´naaite’s judgment, they are amenable to the rigid rules. A person may belong to two or more of these societies.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XI
Drawn by Mary Irvin Wright.
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
HÄ´-CHA-MO-NI BEFORE PLUME OFFERINGS ARE ATTACHED.
Women may be members of the various orders, excepting in the societies of the Snake, Cougar, or Hunters and Warriors. The Snake division of the Snake Society has no female members, and the societies of the Cougar or Hunters and Warriors are composed entirely of men. When one makes known his desire to enter a society he states to the theurgist which division he wishes to join.
The objection to handling the snakes keeps the Snake division of this society limited, though the honor is much greater in belonging to this division. Upon entering the medicine order of any society the new member is presented with the fetich ya´ya by the theurgist, who must practice continency four days previous to preparing the fetich.
The cult societies observe two modes in curing disease: One is by sucking, and the other by brushing the body with straws and eagle plumes. The former mode is practiced when Ka-nat-kai-ya (witches) have caused the malady by casting into the body worms, stones, yarn, etc.; the latter mode is observed when one is afflicted through angry ants or other insects, which are thus drawn to the surface and brushed off.
The medicine ceremonials of the cult societies are quite distinct from their ceremonials for rain.
The only compensation made the theurgist for his practice upon invalids either in the ceremonial chamber or dwelling is the sacred shell mixture. It is quite the reverse with all other Indians with whom the writer is acquainted. The healing of the sick in the ceremonial chamber is with some of the peublos gratuitous, but generous compensation is required when the theurgist visits the house of the invalid.
Continency is observed four days previous to a ceremonial, and an emetic is taken each morning for purification from conjugal relations. On the fourth day the married members bathe (the men going into the river) and have their heads washed in yucca suds. This is for physical purification. The exempting of those who have not been married and those who have lost a spouse seems a strange and unreasonable edict in a community where there is an indiscriminate living together of the people.
The ceremonials here noted occurred after the planting of the grain. Several of the ordinances had been held previous to the arrival of the writer. She collected sufficient data, however, to demonstrate the analogy between the rain ceremonials of the secret cult societies, their songs bearing the one burden—supplication for rain.
RAIN CEREMONIAL OF THE SNAKE SOCIETY.
The morning was spent by the ho´naaite (theurgist) and his vicar in the preparation of hä´chamoni[16] and plume offerings. The hä´chamoni are symbolic of the beings to whom they are offered, the messages or prayers being conveyed through the notches upon the sticks. These symbols frequently have hĕr´rotuma (more slender sticks representing the official staff) bound to them with threads of yucca; Pls. xi and xii show an incomplete set of hä´chamoni before the plume offerings are appended, which the Snake Society deposits when rain is desired; Pl. xiii, specimens of hä´chamoni with plume offerings attached.
About 4 o’clock p.m. the ho´naaite and his younger brother were joined by the third member of the society, when the ho´naaite began the sand painting,[17] the first one being laid immediately before the ä´ᵗchîn (slat altar), which had been erected earlier in the day, and the second in front of the former ([Pl. xiv]).
Upon the completion of the paintings the ho´naaite deposited several long buckskin sacks upon the floor and the three proceeded to remove such articles as were to be placed before the altar. There were six ya´ya, four of these being the property of the ho´naaite, two having come to him through the Snake Society, and two through the Spider, he being also ho´naaite of the Spider Society, the others belonging to the vice ho´naaite and third member of the Snake Society.
The ya´ya are most carefully preserved, not only on account of their sacred value, but also of their intrinsic worth, as the parrot plumes of which they are partially composed are very costly and difficult to obtain, they being procured from other Indians, who either make journeys into Mexico and trade for these plumes with the Indians of that country, or the Indians on the border secure them and bring them for traffic among their more northern brothers.
The ya´ya are wrapped first with a piece of soft cloth, then with buckskin, and finally with another cloth; slender splints are placed around this outer covering and a long buckskin string secures the packages.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XII
Drawn by Mary Irvin Wright.
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
HÄ´-CHA-MO-NI BEFORE PLUME OFFERINGS ARE ATTACHED.
After unwrapping the ya´ya the ho´naaite proceeds to arrange the fetiches. Three of the ya´ya are placed immediately in front of the altar upon a paralellogram of meal, which is always drawn at the base of the altars, and is emblematic of seats for the ya´ya. An image, 8 inches high, of Ko´chinako (Yellow Woman of the North) stands to the right of the ya´ya, and a wolf of red sandstone, its tail being quite the length of its body, which is 6 inches, is placed to the left of the ya´ya, and by the side of this wolf is a bear of black lava, and next an abalone shell; two cougars of red sandstone, some 12 inches in length, are posted to the right and left of the altar; an antique medicine bowl, finely decorated in snake, cloud, and lightning designs, is placed in front of the three ya´ya; two finely polished adzes, 12 inches long, are laid either side of the medicine bowl, and by these two large stone knives; two ya´ya stand side by side in front of the bowl, and before each is a snake’s rattle, each rattle having twelve buttons; the sixth ya´ya stands on the tail of the sand-painted cougar; a miniature bow and arrow is laid before each of the six ya´ya; eight human images are arranged in line in front of the two ya´ya, these representing Ma´asewe, Úyuuyewĕ, and the six warriors who live in the six mountains of the cardinal points, the larger figures being 8 and 10 inches high and the smaller ones 4 and 5, the figure of the Warrior of the North having well-defined eyes and nose in bas-relief. This figure is decorated with a necklace of bears’ claws, a similar necklace being around its companion, a clumsy stone hatchet. Most of the images in this line have a fringe of white wool around the face, symbolic of clouds. In front of these figures are three fetiches of Ko´shairi, not over 4 or 5 inches high, with a shell in front of them, and on either side of the shell there are two wands of turkey plumes standing in clay holders, the holders having been first modeled into a ball and then a cavity made by pressing in the finger sufficiently deep to hold the wand. These holders are sun dried. In front of the shell is a cross, the only evidence discovered of an apparent influence of Catholicism. The cross, however, bears no symbol of Christianity to these Indians. The one referred to was given to a theurgist of the Snake Society in remote times by a priest so good of heart, they say, that, though his religion was not theirs, his prayers traveled fast over the straight road to Ko´pĭshtaia; and so their reverence for this priest as an honest, truthful man led them to convert the symbol of Christianity into an object of fetichistic worship. The cross stands on a 6-inch cube of wood, and is so covered with plumes that only the tips of the cross are to be seen, and a small bunch of eagle plumes is attached pendent to the top of the cross with cotton cord. A bear of white stone, 5 inches long, is placed to the left of the cross and just back of it a tiny cub. A wolf, also of white stone, and 5 inches in length, is deposited to the right of the cross. At either end of, and to the front of, the altar are two massive carvings in relief, in red sandstone, of coiled snakes. Bear-leg skins, with the claws, are piled on either side of the altar, and by these gourd rattles and eagle plumes, in twos, to be used by the members in the ceremonial. A necklace of bears’ claws, with a whistle attached midway the string, having two fluffy eagle plumes fastened to the end with native cotton cord, hangs over the north post of the altar. The ho´naaite wear this necklace in the evening ceremony. The sacred honey jug (a gourd) and basket containing the sacred meal, a shell filled with corn pollen, a buckskin medicine bag, an arrow point, and an ancient square pottery bowl are grouped in front of the snake fetich on the north side of the altar, and to the north of this group are other medicine bags and turkey feather wands, with bunches of fluffy eagle plumes, tipped black and the other portion dyed a beautiful lemon color, attached to them with cotton cord. These wands are afterwards held by the women, who form the line at night on the north side of the room. A Tusayan basket, containing the offerings, consisting of hä´chamoni, each one being tipped with a bit of raw cotton and a single plume from the wing of a humming bird, with plumes attached upright at the base; Hĕr´ro-tume (staffs) ornamented with plumes, Ta´-wa-ka (gaming blocks and rings for the clouds to ride upon), Maic’-kûr-i-wa-pai (bunches of plumes of birds of the cardinal points, zenith and nadir), is deposited in front of the snake fetich on the south side of the altar, and beyond this basket are similar wands to those north of the altar, which are carried in the ceremonial by the women on the south side of the room. Five stone knives complete the group. A white stone bear, 12 inches long, is placed in front of the whole, and a parrot is attached to the top of the central slat figure. ([Pl. xv]) Unfortunately, the flash-light photograph of the altar of the Snake Society made during the ceremonial failed to develop well, and, guarding against possible failure, the writer succeeded in having the ho´naaite arrange the altar at another time. The fear of discovery induced such haste that the fetiches, which are kept carefully stored away in different houses, were not all brought out on this occasion.[18]
When the altar is completed the ho´naaite and his associates stand before it and supplicate the presence of the pai´ätämo and Ko´pishtaia, who are here represented by images of themselves, these images becoming the abiding places of the beings invoked. After the prayer, the ho´naaite and his vicar sit upon their folded blankets near the fireplace, where a low fire burns, and with a supply of tobacco and corn husks content themselves with cigarettes until the opening of the evening ceremony.
By 9 o’clock the Snake society was joined in the chai-än-ni-kai (ceremonial chamber) archaic, Su´ᵗ-sĕr-ra-kai by the Kapĭna, it being the prerogative of the hónaaite of one organization to invite other societies to take part in his ceremonies. They formed in line, sitting back of the altar; the hónaaite being in the rear of the central slat figure, which symbolized the hónaaite of the cult society of the cloud people. The other members were seated in the rear, as near as could be, of the corresponding symbolic figures of the cloud and lightning people. A boy of 8 years of age, who lay sleeping as the writer entered the room, was aroused to take his position in the line, and a boy of 4 years, who had been sleeping upon a sheepskin, spread on the floor between two of the women, was led from the room by one of them, as he had not entered the degree when he might hear the songs and see the making of the medicine water.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XIII
Drawn by Mary Irvin Wright.
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
HÄ´-CHA-MO-NI WITH PLUMES ATTACHED.
The women formed right angles with the line of men, four sitting on the north side of the room and four on the south side. The elder female member sat at the west end of the line on the north side of the room. The men wore breechcloths of white cotton; the hónaaite and the ti´ämoni wore embroidered Tusayan kilts for breechcloths. The hair was done up as usual, but no headkerchief was worn. The boy and men held oh´-shi-e-kats (gourd rattles) in their right hands and hi´-shä-mi (two eagle plumes) in the left.
The women were attired in their black wool dresses, the calico gown being discarded, and red sashes, wearing the conventional cue and bang. The neck and arms were exposed and the feet and lower limbs were bare. Each woman held two wands of turkey plumes in the right hand, and both men and women wore numerous strings of coral and kohaqua beads with bunches of turkis (properly earrings) attached pendent to the necklaces.
The ceremonial opened with the rattle and song, the women accompanying the men in the song. After a short stanza, which closed, as all the stanzas do, with a rapid manipulation of the rattle, the second stanza was almost immediately begun, when the vicar ([Pl. xvii]) standing before the altar shook his rattle for a moment and then waved it in a circle over the altar. He repeated this motion six times, for the cardinal points, and returned to his seat before the closing of the stanza. The circle indicated that all the cloud people of the world were invoked to water the earth.
On the opening of the third stanza all arose and the hónaaite reaching over the altar took a yá-ya in either hand, he having previously laid his rattle and eagle plumes by the altar. This stanza was sung with great vivacity by the men, who swayed their bodies to the right and left in rhythmical motion, while the women waved their wands monotonously. The movement of the arms of both the men and women was from the elbow, the upper arms being apparently pinioned to the sides; there was no raising of the feet, but simply the bending of the knees.
At the close of the stanza, which continued thirty minutes, the hónaaite gave a weird call for the cloud people to gather; all, at the same instant, drew a breath from their plumes and took their seats. A woman then brought a vase of water and gourd from the northeast corner of the room and placed it in front of the altar. ([Pl. xvi.]) In a moment the song was resumed, and the yáni-ᵗsi-wittäñi (maker of medicine water) proceeded to consecrate the water. He danced in front of the altar and south of the line of meal, which had been sprinkled from the altar to the entrance of the chamber, raising first one heel and then the other, with the knees slightly bent, the toes scarcely leaving the floor; he held his eagle plumes in his left hand, and shook the rattle with the right, keeping his upper arms close to his side, excepting when extending his plumes toward the altar, which he did three times, each time striking the plumes near the quill end with his rattle as he shook them over the medicine bowl. He then waved his plumes toward the north, and giving a quick motion of the rattle in unison with those of the choir, he drew a breath from the plumes as the fourth stanza closed, and in a moment the song was resumed. The three members of the Snake order then put on necklaces of bears’ claws, each having attached, midway, a whistle. The yániᵗsiwittänn̄i, who had not left his place in front of the altar, danced for a few minutes, then dipped a gourd of water from the vase, raised it high with a weird hoot, and emptied it into the medicine bowl. A second gourdful was also elevated, and, with a cry, it was emptied into the cloud bowl, which stood on the sand-painting of the clouds. The third gourdful was emptied into the same bowl, the raising of the gourd and the cry being omitted; the fourth gourdful was uplifted with a cry and emptied into the medicine bowl. The fifth gourdful was also hoisted with a cry, as before, to the snake hónaaite to implore the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth, and emptied into the cloud bowl. The sixth gourdful was raised with the call and emptied into the same bowl. The seventh gourdful was elevated with a wave from the south to the altar and emptied into the medicine bowl. The eighth gourdful was raised with a similar motion and emptied into the cloud bowl. The ninth gourdful was elevated and extended toward the east and returned in a direct line and emptied into the medicine bowl. The tenth gourdful was raised toward the west and emptied into the cloud bowl. The eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth gourdfuls were lifted from the vase and emptied without being hoisted into the same bowl. The fifth stanza closed as the last gourd of water was poured into the bowl. In filling the medicine bowl the gourd was passed between two yá-ya. The woman returned the water vase to the corner of the room, and the yániᵗsiwittänn̄i lifted the bowl and drank from it, afterwards administering a draught of the water from an abalone shell to each member, excepting the hónaaite, who, after the yániᵗsiwittänn̄i had resumed his seat in the line, passed to the front of the altar and drank directly from the bowl and returned it to its place.
In the administering of the water the women were helped first, a feature never before observed by the writer in aboriginal life.
With the beginning of the sixth stanza the hónaaite arose, and leaning forward waved his plumes over the medicine bowl with a weird call, each member repeating the call, the women exhibiting more enthusiasm than the men in this particular feature of the ceremony. The cry, which was repeated four times, was an invocation to the cloud rulers of the cardinal points to water the earth, and, with each cry, meal was sprinkled into the medicine bowl, each member being provided with a small buckskin bag of meal or corn pollen, which had been previously taken from a bear-leg skin, and laid beside the altar. The members of the Snake Division sprinkled corn pollen instead of meal, the pollen being especially acceptable to the Snake hónaaite, to whom many of their prayers are addressed.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XIV
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
ALTAR AND SAND PAINTING OF SNAKE SOCIETY.
The preparation of the medicine water began with the opening of the seventh stanza. The ya´niᵗsiwittänñi danced before the altar, keeping south of the line of meal, and holding six pebble fetiches in either hand, which he had taken from two small sacks drawn from one of the bear-leg skins. He did not sing, but he kept time with the choir. Extending his right hand toward the altar, he touched the two front ya´ya, and then, placing his hands together, he again extended them, and, drawing closer still to the altar, he dropped a fetich from his right hand into the medicine bowl with a weird cry to the Snake ho´naaite of the north to invoke the cloud ruler of the north to send his people to water the earth; and after raising his hands above his head he again extended them toward the altar, and, leaning forward, dropped a fetich from his left hand into the cloud bowl. This was repeated four times with each bowl, with petitions to the Snake ho´naaites of the north, the west, the south, and the east to intercede with the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth. Then, taking two large stone knives from before the altar, he struck them together, and, passing from the south of the line of meal to the north, he again brought the knives together. Recrossing the line of meal, he dipped the knives into the bowl of medicine water and sprinkled the altar; then, passing to the north of the line, he dipped the knives into the medicine water and repeated the sprinkling of the altar four times; again, standing south of the line, he dipped the knives into the water, throwing it to the east, and, crossing the line, dipped them into the bowl and repeated the motion to the east, and resumed his seat at the south end of the line of men. The ho´naaite then leaned over the altar, and, dipping his plumes into the medicine bowl, sprinkled the altar four times by striking the plumes on the top with the rattle held in the right hand. The song, which had continued for an hour without cessation, now closed, and the men gathered around the tobacco which lay near the fire-place, and, making cigarettes, returned to their seats and smoked. The boy ignited the fire-stick and held it for the men to light their cigarettes. He passed it first to the man at the north of the line. As each man took the first whiff of his cigarette he blew the smoke toward the altar and waved the cigarette in a circle as he extended it to the altar. After the smoke the song and rattle again resounded through the room, and at the close of a short stanza the man at the north end of the line cried out in a high tone and the women gathered before the altar, and each, taking a pinch of meal from the meal bowl, sprinkled the altar and returned to their seats. The ya´niᵗsiwittänñi lifted the shell of pollen from before the altar, and, passing to the entrance and opening the door, waved his rattle along the line of meal and out of the door. After repeating the waving of the rattle he passed his hand over the line and threw out the pollen from his fingers, as offering to the Snake ho´naaite. Returning to the altar, he stood while the ho´naaite dipped his plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar by striking the plumes with the rattle. After the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi and ho´naaite had returned to the line, the cloud-maker (a member of the Spider Society), who sat at the north end, crossed the line of meal, and, holding his eagle plumes and rattle in his left hand, lifted with his right the reed which lay across the cloud bowl, and, transferring it to his left, he held it and the plumes vertically while he prayed. The vice ho´naaite dipped ashes from the fire-place with his eagle plumes, holding one in either hand, sprinkled the cloud-maker for purification, and threw the remainder of the ashes toward the choir. During his prayer, which continued for eight minutes, the cloud-maker appeared like a statue. At the close of the prayer he dropped into the cloud bowl a quantity of to´chainitiwa (a certain root used by the cult societies to produce suds, symbolic of the clouds), and sprinkled with corn pollen the surface of the water, which was already quite covered with it; then, taking the reed in his right hand and still holding it vertically, he began a regular and rapid movement with the reed, in a short time producing a snowy-white froth, which, under his dextrous manipulation, rapidly rose high above the bowl, and fell from it in cascades to the floor. The bowl stood on a cincture pad of yucca, a circle of meal symbolic of the heart or life of the water having been first made. The reed was never raised from the bowl during the stirring of the water. When the clouds were perfected the song ceased, and the cloud-maker stood the reed in the center of the suds, which now wholly concealed the bowl. He then rose, and, after holding his two eagle plumes in his left hand for a moment, he changed one to the right hand and began dancing before the altar; presently he dipped a quantity of suds from the base of the bowl with his two eagle plumes, and threw them to the north of the altar; again dipping the suds, he threw them to the south; continuing to dance to the music of the rattle and the song, he dipped the suds and threw them to the fire-place; dipping them again, he threw them to the earth, each time with an invocation to the cloud people. As he threw the suds to the earth two of the choir dipped their plumes into the bowl of medicine water and sprinkled the altar by striking the upper sides of the plumes with their rattles. The cloud-maker again dipped up the suds, and, facing east, threw them toward the zenith; he then dipped the suds and deposited them in the center of the basket containing the plume offerings; then waving his eagle plumes from north to south, he continued dancing, raising first one plume and then the other as he pointed them toward the altar. In a moment or two he dipped suds and threw them toward the women on the north side of the room, and dipping them again threw them toward the women of the south side; at the same time the male members reached forward, and, dipping their plumes into the medicine bowl, sprinkled the altar, each time petitioning the cloud people to gather. The cloud-maker then threw suds to the west; again he dipped the suds and threw them to the zenith, then to the altar; a portion was then placed on the front ya´ya; again he danced, for a time extending his eagle plumes and withdrawing them, and dipped the suds and threw them upward and toward the man on the north end of the line; at the same time the ho´naaite dipped his plumes into the medicine bowl and sprinkled the altar as heretofore described; and the cloud-maker dipped the suds, throwing them toward the vice ho´naaite, and, again dipping them, he threw them toward the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi; he then lifted suds and threw them to the west, then to the zenith, never failing to call the cloud people together. The ho´naaite, keeping his position back of the altar, dipped his plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the members; again the cloud-maker lifted suds and threw them to the zenith; at the same time the second woman at the west end of the line on the north side dipped her wand into the medicine water, with a cry for the cloud people to gather; the cloud-maker then threw the suds to the west and the ho´naaite sprinkled the members with the medicine water, and the cloud-maker placed the suds upon the heads of the white bear and parrot; and stooping he stirred the suds briskly.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XV
ALTAR OF SNAKE SOCIETY.
The ti´ämoni lighted a cigarette from a coal at the fireplace and handed it to the cloud-maker, who stood the reed in the center of the suds before receiving the cigarette; he blew the first few whiffs over the suds and then smoked a moment or two and laid about one-third of the cigarette by the side of the cloud bowl. The song, which had continued almost incessantly for three hours, now ceased, and the cloud-maker returned to his seat in the line. The ti´ämoni sat by the fire and smoked, several joining him for a short time; but all soon returned to their seats in the line and continued their smoke.
At the beginning of the succeeding song the two women at the east end of the south line danced before the altar and sprinkled it by striking the wand held in the left hand on the top with the one held in the right. One of the women was frequently debarred taking part in the ceremony owing to the attention required by her infant, who was at times fretful.
Two women from the east end of the north line joined in the dance, and then a third woman from the south line; three of the women formed in line running north and south; an aged woman at the west end of the south line danced, but did not leave her place at the end of the line. She pulled the young boy who sat near her forward, telling him to dance. The dancers faced first the east, then the west, sprinkling the altar whenever they reversed, invoking the cloud people to gather. The boy was beautifully graceful, but the women were clumsy; one of them attempted to force out the man at the north end; failing in this, a second woman tried with better success, and the man joined in the dance; this little byplay amused the women. The ho´naaite sprinkled the young man, who in turn sprinkled the ho´naaite. Before the close of the dance the aged woman at the west end of the south line joined the group of dancers and pulled the young man about, telling him to dance well and with animation. At 1:30 a.m. the women sprinkled the altar and returned to their seats, but the man and boy continued to dance and sprinkle the altar at intervals. The vicar placed the basket of plume offerings on the line of meal, and collecting suds from the base of the cloud bowl deposited them in the center of the basket of plumes; and all the members dipped their plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar; the man facing south and the boy north, then sprinkled toward the respective points, and passing down on either side of the meal line they sprinkled eastward, and crossing the line of meal the man sprinkled to the north and the boy to the south, and they returned to the altar and danced for a time, the man remaining north of the line and the boy south. The sprinkling of the cardinal points was repeated four times.
The dancers having taken their seats in the line the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi removed the bowl of medicine water and placed it before the basket of plume offerings; then stooping, he took one of the ya´ya in his left hand and with the right administered the medicine water from an abalone shell to the women first, the infant in the mother’s arms receiving its portion; then to the boy and men. After each draft the hi´shämi and wands were touched to the ya´ya and the sacred breath drawn from them; the ho´naaite was the last to be served by the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi, who in turn received the medicine water from the ho´naaite, who held the ya´ya while officiating. The ya´niᵗsiwittänñi then left the chamber, carrying the ya´ya in his left hand and bowl of medicine water with both hands. When outside the house he sprinkled the six cardinal points, the water being taken into the mouth and thrown out between the teeth.
The ho´naaite lifting the basket of plume offerings stooped north of the meal line and the ti´ämoni and the younger member of the snake division stooped south of the line of meal. The necklaces of bears’ claws had been removed and all but the ho´naaite’s laid on a pile of bear-leg skins, he depositing his on the snake fetich at the north side of the altar. The two young men put on their moccasins and wrapped around them their blankets which had served as seats during the ceremonial before advancing to meet the ho´naaite, who, while the three held the basket repeated a long litany, responded to by the two young men. The women laughed and talked, paying little attention to this prayer. At the conclusion the ho´naaite gave a bundle of hä´chamoni to the ti´ämoni and a similar one to his companion; he then gave a cluster of plume offerings to the ti´ämoni and the remainder of the feathers to the companion. The offerings were received in the blanket thrown over the left arm; and each of the young men taking a pinch of shell mixture left the chamber to deposit them at the shrines of the Ko´pĭshtaia with prayers to the Snake ho´naaites: “I send you hä´chamoni and pay you hĕr´rotume, Ta´waka, maic´kûriwapai, I-´ᵗsa-ti-en (turkis and shell offerings) Ûpĕr-we (the different foods) that you may be pleased and have all things to eat and wear. I pay you these that you will beseech the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth that she may be fruitful and give to all people abundance of all food.”
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XVI
Drawn by Mary M. Mitchell.
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
CEREMONIAL VASE.
As the bearers of the offerings left the chamber the ho´naaite played upon a flute which was quite musical; and upon their return he received them standing in front of the altar, and north of the meal line; after a prayer by the ho´naaite the young men turned to the altar and the ti´ämoni offered a prayer, which was responded to by the ho´naaite, who now sat back of the altar.
The boy then made two cigarettes and, after lighting one, he handed it to the ti´ämoni; the second he gave to the companion. After a feast of bread, stewed meat, and coffee, the ho´naaite stooped before the altar and, taking the ya´ya from the tail of the sand-painted cougar in his left hand, he pressed the palm of his right hand to the sand cougar, and drew a breath from it, and, raising the ya´ya to his lips, drew a breath from it, and clasped it close to his breast and passed behind the altar and, reaching over it, he moved the center one of the three ya´ya to the right, and substituted the one he carried, and resumed his seat. In a moment or two the ho´naaite removed the two large fetiches of the cougar to the back of the altar; and the vicar prayed and touched the four cardinal points of the sand painting with pollen, and then placed the palm of his right hand to the sand-painted cougar and, after drawing the sacred breath, rubbed his hand over his body, when all the members hastened to press their hands to the sand-painting, draw the breath, and rub their bodies for mental and physical purification; during which time the ti´ämoni sat back of the altar holding his eagle plumes with both hands before his face, and silently prayed.
The remaining sand was brushed together from the four points by a woman with an eagle plume, and lifted, with the plume, and emptied into the palm of her left hand and carried to her home and rubbed over the bodies of her male children.
The ya´ya were collected by their individual owners, who blew the meal from the feathers and carefully inclosed them in their three wrappings. The four wands of turkey plumes in the clay holders concealed hä´chamoni for Sûs´sĭstinnako from the ho´naaite of the Spider Society; these were not deposited until sunrise, and then by such members of the Spider Society as were designated by the ho´naaite. They were planted to the north, west, south, and east of the village, whence Po´shaiyänne departed, with prayers to Ût´sĕt to receive the hä´chamoni for Sûs´sĭstinnako, the Creator. After examining them (the spiritual essence) to see that they are genuine, she hands them to Sûs´sĭstinnako.
The hä´chamoni convey to those to whom they are offered messages as clear to the Indian understanding as any document does to the civilized mind.
The following account of the initiation of a member into the third degree of the Snake order was given the writer by the vicar of the Snake Society.
I was very ill with smallpox caused by angry ants, and one night in my dreams I saw many snakes, very many, and all the next day I thought about it, and I knew if I did not see the ho´naaite of the Snake Society and tell him I wished to become a member of that body I would die. In two days I went to the house of the ho´naaite bearing my offering of shell mixture and related my dreams and made known my wish to be received as a member of the society. The man now ill with his heart notified the ho´naaite of the Snake Society that he wished to join the society. The ho´naaite sent for me and the other official member to meet him in the ceremonial chamber to receive the sick man, who, presenting the shell mixture to the ho´naaite informed him that he had dreamed of many snakes and knew that he must become a member of the society or die.
Such is the impression made upon these people by dreams. This man will be a novitiate for two years, as it requires that time to learn the songs which must be committed to memory before entering the third degree. He continued:
I was two years learning the songs, during which time I passed through the first and second degrees. I then accompanied the ho´naaite and the members of the society to the house of the snakes, when I was made a member of the third degree.
The ceremonials in which snakes are introduced are exclusively for the initiation of members into the third degree of the Snake division. These ordinances must be observed after the ripening of the corn.
The day of the arrival of the society at the snake house (a log structure which stands upon a mound some 6 miles from the village) hä´chamoni are prepared by the ho´naaite and the other members of this division of the society; they are then dispatched by the ho´naaite to the north in search of snakes; and after the finding of the first snake the hä´chamoni are planted; the number of snakes required, depending upon the membership, the ratio being equal to the number of members; there must be a snake from each of the cardinal points, unless the membership is less than four, which is now the case. There being but three members at the present time, only the north, west, and south are visited for the purpose of collecting snakes, but the members must go to the east and deposit hä´chamoni to the Snake ho´naaite of the east.
The war chief notifies the people each day that they must not visit the north, west, south, or east; should one disobey this command and be met by any member of the society he would be made to assist in the gathering of the snakes.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XVII
VICE HO´-NA-AI-TE OF SNAKE SOCIETY.
An emetic is taken these four days for purification from conjugal relations, and continency is observed during this period. The emetic is composed of the stalks and roots of two plants, which are crushed on a stone slab by the ho´naaite and mixed with water when he designates the member to place it over the fire. It is drunk slightly warm.
The decoction so constantly drank by the Tusayan Indians previous to their snake ceremonial is an emetic, and is taken for the same purpose, and not, as some suppose, to prevent the poisonous effect of snake bites. Medicine for the snake bite is employed only after one has been bitten; for this purpose the Sia use the plant Aplopapus spinulosus (Indian name ha´-ti-ni) in conjunction with ka´-wai-aite, a mixture of the pollen of edible and medicinal plants. An ounce of the plant medicine is put into a quart of water and boiled; about a gill is drunk warm, three times daily, during the four days and the afflicted part is bathed in the tea, and wrapped with a cloth wet with it. An hour after each draught of the tea a pinch of the ka´-wai-aite is drunk in a gill of water. The patient is secluded four days; should one suffering from a snake bite look upon a woman furnishing nourishment for an infant, death would be the result. The Zuñi have the same superstition.
The fifth day a conical structure of cornstalks bearing ripe fruit is erected some 70 feet east of the log house, in a ravine parallel with the side of the house, and a sand painting is made by the ho´naaite on the floor of the house; and when the painting is completed he takes his seat in the west end of the room (the entrance being in the east end), the male members of the society sitting on his right and left, and the women forming right angles at either end of the line. The novitiates are seated southwest of the sand painting, and all are necessarily close together, as the room is very small.
The ritual begins with the rattle and song, and after the song the ho´naaite passing before the line of women on the north side takes a snake from a vase, and, holding it a hand’s span from the head, advances to the east of the sand painting (which is similar in Pl. xiv, with the addition of two slightly diverging lines, one of corn pollen, the other of black pigment, extending from the painting to the entrance of the house), and lays it between the lines, with its head to the east.
There are two vases in niches in the north wall near the west end (Pl. xxxv); one holds the snakes, and the other receives them after they have been passed through the ceremony. At the close of the prayer now offered, he says, “Go to your home; go far; and remain there contentedly.” He then sprinkles corn pollen upon the snake’s head, which rite is repeated by each member; the snake, according to the vice-ho´naaite’s statement, extending its tongue and eating the pollen, “the snake having no hands, puts his food into his mouth with his tongue.” The snake is then placed around the throat and head and over the body of the novitiate.
Though the snake can not speak, he hears all that is said, and when he is placed to the body he listens attentively to the words of the ho´naaite, who asks him to look upon the boy and give the boy wisdom like his own that the boy may grow to be wise and strong like himself, for he is now to become a member of the third degree of the Snake division of the society. The ho´naaite then prays to the snake that he will exhort the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth, that she may bear to them the fruits of her being.
The snake is not only implored to intercede with the cloud rulers to water the earth that the Sia may have abundant food, but he is invoked in conjunction with the sun father in the autumn and winter to provide them with blankets and all things necessary to keep them warm.
Propitiatory prayers are not offered to the snakes, as, according to the Sia belief, the rattlesnake is a peaceful, and not an angry agent. They know he is friendly, because it is what the old men say, and their fathers’ fathers told them, and they also told them that it was the same with the snakes in Mexico. “In the summer the snake passes about to admire the flowers, the trees and crops, and all things beautiful.”
The snake is afterwards placed in the empty vase, and the vice-ho´naaite repeats the ceremony with a second snake, and this rite is followed by each member of the Snake division of the society. The ho´naaite then directs his vicar and another member of the society to carry the vases to the grotto (the conical structure outside) and the latter to remain in the grotto with the snakes; he then with a novitiate by his side passes from the house, and approaching the grotto stands facing it while the vicar and other male members of the society form in line from east to west facing the north, the vice and novitiate standing at the west end of the line.
Those of the Snake division wear fringed kilts of buckskin with the rattlesnake painted upon them, the fringes being tipped with conical bits of tin. The ho´naaite’s kilt is more elaborate than the others, the fringes having fawns’ toes in addition to the tin. Their moccasins are of fine buckskin painted with kaolin. The hair is flowing. The body of the one to receive the third degree is colored black with a fungus found on cornstalks, crushed and mixed with water. The face is painted red before it is colored black, and a red streak is painted under each eye, symbolic, they say, of the lines under the snakes’ eyes. A fluffy eagle plume is attached to the top of the head, and the face is encircled with down from the hawk’s breast. The hands and feet are painted red, and the body zigzagged with kaolin, symbolic of lightning. The buckskin kilt is painted white, with a snake upon it, and white moccasins are worn ([Pl. x] C). The other members of the society do not have their bodies painted, and they wear their hair done up in the usual knot and their feet bare.[19] They wear instead of the kilt a white cotton breechcloth. The women who do not take part in the dance wear their ordinary dress, the cotton gown being discarded.
Upon the opening of the song and dance the ho´naaite procures a snake at the entrance of the grotto and holding it horizontally with both hands presents it to the novitiate, who receives it in the same manner, clasping the throat with the right hand; the ho´naaite and novitiate pass back and forth north of the line from the grotto four times, now and then the novitiate allowing the snake to wrap itself around his throat. The ho´naaite then takes the snake and returns it to the man in the grotto. If there be a second novitiate he and the first one change places, and the ho´naaite inquires of the second whom he wishes for a father and companion; the boy designates a member of the Snake division, and the chosen one is required by the ho´naaite to take his place by the side of the novitiate and accompany him to the grotto; he again receives a snake which he hands to the boy and the former ceremony is repeated. When the novitiates have concluded, each member of the Snake division takes his turn in passing back and forth four times with a snake, the snake being handed him by a companion member. The song and dance does not cease until each snake has been passed through the ceremony. Two of the novitiates, if there be two or more, if not, a novitiate and a member, are requested by the ho´naaite to enter the grotto and receive the vases from the man inside. These they carry to a cave about half a mile distant, and here the bearers of the vases take out each snake separately and placing it upon the ground say: “Go to your home; go far and be contented.” The first snake is deposited to the north, the second to the west, the third to the south, and the fourth to the east; this is repeated until all the snakes are disposed of. The vases are then placed in the cave and the entrance covered with a large slab. The ho´naaite returning to the house takes the ya´ya from the tail of the sand-painted cougar and holding it in his left hand places the palm of his right hand to the cougar and draws from it a breath and rubs his hand over his breast, after which all evidences of the sand-painting are soon erased by the members who hasten forward and rub their bodies with the sand that they may be mentally and physically purified.
When Mr. Stevenson discovered that the Sia held ceremonials with snakes he induced the vicar of the snake society to conduct him to the locality for that special rite. Leaving Sia in the early morning a ride of 6 miles over sand dunes and around bluffs brought the party, including the writer, to the structure known as the snake house, hid away among chaotic hills. Every precaution had been observed to maintain secrecy. The house is a rectangular structure of logs (the latter must have been carried many a mile) and is some 8 by 12 feet, having a rude fireplace; and there are two niches at the base of the north wall near the west end in which the two vases stand during the indoor ceremonial. Though this house presented to the visitors a forlorn appearance, it is converted into quite a bower at the time of a ceremonial, when the roof is covered and fringed with spruce boughs and sunflowers and the interior wall is whitened. Some diplomacy was required to persuade the vicar to guide Mr. Stevenson to the cave in which the vases are kept when not in use. A ride half a mile farther into chaos and the party dismounted and descended a steep declivity, when the guide asked Mr. Stevenson’s assistance in removing a stone slab which rested so naturally on the hillside that it had every appearance of having been placed there by other than human agency. The removal of the slab exposed two vases side by side in a shallow cave. A small channel or flume had been ingeniously made from the hilltop that the waters from ti´nia might collect in the vases. These vases belong to the superior type of ancient pottery, and they are decorated in snakes and cougars upon a ground of creamy tint. Mr. Stevenson was not quite satisfied with simply seeing the vases, and determined if possible to possess one or both; but in answer to his request the vicar replied: “These can not be parted with, they are so old that no one can tell when the Sia first had them; they were made by our people of long ago; and the snakes would be very angry if the Sia parted with these vases.” Whenever opportunity afforded, Mr. Stevenson expressed his desire for one of them; and finally a council was held by the ti´ämoni and ho´naaites of the cult societies, when the matter was warmly discussed, the vicar of the Snake society insisting that the gift should be made, but the superstition on the part of the others was too great to be overcome. Mr. Stevenson was waited upon by the members of the council; the ho´naaite of the Snake society addressing him: “You have come to us a friend; we have learned to regard you as our brother, and we wish to do all we can for you; we are sorry we can not give you one of the vases; we talked about letting you have one, but we concluded it would not do; it would excite the anger of the snakes, and perhaps all of our women and little ones would be bitten and die; you will not be angry, for our hearts are yours.”
The night previous to the departure of the party from Sia the vicar of the Snake Society made several visits to the camp, but finding other Indians present he did not tarry. At midnight when the last Indian guest had left the camp he again appeared and hurriedly said, “I will come again,” and an hour later he returned. “Now,” said he, “closely fasten the tent, and one of you listen attentively all the while and tell me when you hear the first footstep;” and he then took from the sack one of the vases, he being in the meanwhile much excited and also distressed. He would not allow a close examination to be made of the vase, but urged the packing of it at once; he deposited a plume offering in the vase, and sprinkled meal upon it and prayed while tears moistened his cheeks. The vase was brought to Washington and deposited in the National Museum.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XVIII
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
ALTAR AND SAND PAINTING.
GIANT SOCIETY.
RAIN CEREMONIAL OF THE GIANT SOCIETY.
About noon the ho´naaite, who was nude except the breechcloth, left his seat by the fireside in the ceremonial chamber, where his vicar had been assisting him during the morning in cutting willows and preparing hä´chamoni, and proceeded to make a sand painting in the east end of the room, and when this was completed he erected the slat altar ([Pl. xviii] a). During the preparation of the sand painting (b) the vicar remained at his post at work upon the hä´chamoni. When the two female members, a woman and a little girl some 8 years of age, arrived, the ho´naaite took from the wall nine shabby-looking sacks, handing one to each person present, reserving two for himself and laying the remaining four to one side to be claimed by the other members of the medicine order of the society. These sacks contained the ya´ya, one of which, it is claimed, was captured from the Navajo by a former ho´naaite of this society, and this fetich is as precious as the others for the reason that it also represents Ût´sĕt, the mother of all Indians.
The five ya´ya were placed in line in front of the altar and on the sand-painting, and a miniature bow and arrow were laid before four of them, the captive one having none. Bear-leg skins with the claws were piled on either side of the altar, and upon these were laid necklaces of bears’ claws, each necklace having a reed whistle suspended midway, two fluffy eagle plumes, tipped with black, being attached to the end of the whistle. The medicine bowl was posted before the five ya´ya, the stone fetiches arranged about the sand painting, and the cloud bowl in front of the whole. The woman brought a triple cupped paint stone near the altar and ground a black pigment, yellow ocher, and an impure malachite; these powders were mixed with water, and the woman and girl painted the hä´chamoni, the child being quite as dextrous as her elder, and equally interested.
While the hä´chamoni were being colored the ho´naaite was busy assorting plumes. He first laid thirteen turkey plumes separately upon the floor, forming two lines; upon each plume he laid a fluffy eagle feather, and then added successively to each group a plume from each of the birds of the cardinal points, turkey plumes being used instead of chapparal cocks’. A low weird chant was sung while the ho´naaite and his vicar tied each pile of plumes together with native cotton cord, the ho´naaite waving each group, as he completed it, in a circle from left to right before his face. The woman at the same time made four rings of yucca, 1¼ inches in diameter, some two dozen yucca needles having been wrapped in a hank and laid in a bowl of water. The child brought the hank from the farther end of the room to the woman, who, taking a needle of the yucca, wound it four times around her thumb and index finger; then wrapping this with an extra thread of yucca formed the ring. When the four rings were completed the child took them to the paint stone, which the woman had removed to the far end of the room, and dipped them into the yellow paint and laid them by the woman, who tied three of the piles of plumes together and afterwards handed the rings to the ho´naaite, who added to each ring a plume from the wing of a humming bird. These rings were offerings to the cloud children emblematic of the wheels upon which they ride over ti´nia.
In attaching the plume offerings to the hä´chamoni, the latter are held between the large and second toes of the right foot of the men and woman. There were ten hä´chamoni to bear messages to the cloud rulers of the cardinal points—Ho´chänni, high ruler of the cloud people of the world, Sûs´sĭstinnako, Ût´sĕt, and the sun, the extra bunches of plumes being tied pendent to those already attached to the hä´chamoni for Sûs´sĭstinnako, Ût´sĕt, and the sun.
The ho´naaite placed the hä´chamoni and rings in a flat basket and set it before the altar in front of the cloud bowl, and posted a stuffed parrot upon the central slat of the altar. At this time the other official members appeared, and, unwrapping their ya´ya, handed them to the ho´naaite, who stood them before the altar ([Pl. xix]). The woman then brought a vase of water and gourd from the far end of the room, and the ho´naaite emptied four gourdfuls into the medicine bowl and then sprinkled corn pollen upon the water, and, dipping his two eagle plumes into the bowl, he sprinkled the altar and offerings. He did not speak a word, but took his seat by the fire and began smoking, awaiting the hour for the evening ceremonial. The ho´naaite and vicar had their meals served in the ceremonial chamber, and after eating, the remainder of the basket of bread and bowl of meat was placed before the altar.
The night ceremony opened with the ho´naaite ([Pl. xx]) and his vicar dipping their plumes into the medicine water and sprinkling the altar and the food which had been placed before it; the ho´naaite then, sitting in front and to the north side of the altar, repeated a long prayer, supplicating Mo´kaitc, Cougar of the North, to intercede with the cloud people of the north to water the earth that the crops might grow; Ko´hai, the Bear, to intercede with the cloud people of the west to water the earth that the crops might grow; a similar invocation was made to the Tuo´pe, Badger of the South, Ka´kanna, Wolf of the East, Tiä´mi, Eagle of the Heaven, and Mai´tubo, Shrew of the Earth. The vicar then gathered a bit of bread from the basket and of meat from the bowl and handed it to the ho´naaite, who left the house with the food in his left hand, holding his eagle plumes in his right; he cast the food to the animal Ko´pĭshtaia of the cardinal points, begging that they would intercede with the cloud people to come and water the earth; then, returning to the ceremonial chamber, he stooped before the altar and to the south side of the line of meal and prayed to the Ko´pĭshtaia, closing with these words: “I have offered you food, our food, that you may eat, and I pray you to exhort the Ko´pĭshtaia of ti´nia [referring to the cloud people] to come and water the earth.” The male members of the society each smoked a cigarette, and afterward the bowl of stew and basket of bread were deposited in the center of the room, and all gathered around and ate. The men then sat on either side of the room and again indulged in a smoke, the woman and girl sitting on the north side near the west end. After the cigarettes were finished the vicar drew a fresh line of meal from the altar to the door situated on the south side and near the west end, and the members formed in line back of the altar. (An explanation of the drawing of the line of meal and the relative positions of the line of men back of the altar has already been given, and is applicable to the rain ceremonials of all the cult societies.) The woman took her seat on the north side of the room, near the altar, the little girl sitting opposite to her on the south side.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XIX
ALTAR OF GIANT SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHED DURING CEREMONIAL.
The ho´naaite and the ti´ämoni (the latter’s position as ti´ämoni has nothing whatever to do with his relations in the cult societies in which he holds membership) wore white Tusayan cotton breechcloths elaborately embroidered in bright colors; the vicar’s was dark blue and the others white cotton; each man held two eagle plumes and a gourd rattle in the left hand. The woman and little girl wore their ordinary dresses, the high-neck calico gowns being omitted, and they held a turkey wand tipped with fluffy eagle plumes dyed a lemon color, in either hand.
The vicar gave a pinch of meal to the ho´naaite from the pottery meal bowl by the altar, who without rising from his seat sprinkled the altar. The song then opened to the accompaniment of the rattle, which had been transferred to the right hand, the eagle plumes still being held in the left, and keeping time with the rattle. Each stanza closed with a short and rapid shake of the rattle. (The writer noticed in the ceremonials of the cult societies of the Sia the absence of the pottery drum, which is such an important feature with the Zuñi and Tusayan.) With the commencement of the ritual the men from either end of the line moved to the fireplace, and lifting ashes with their plumes, deposited them before the altar and north and south of the meal line, and after dancing and gesticulating for a moment or two they again lifted ashes and sprinkled toward the altar, the under side of the plume held in the left hand being struck with the one held in the right; again lifting ashes one sprinkled to the north and the other to the south, and passing down on either side of the meal line they sprinkled to the west, and crossing they passed up the line and when midway one sprinkled to the north, the other to the south; again dipping ashes they sprinkled to the zenith and with more ashes they sprinkled to the nadir. This sprinkling of the cardinal points was repeated four times, and the men then returned to their seats. The second man from the north end of the line coming forward danced while the others sang to the accompaniment of the rattle, each succeeding stanza following in quick succession, the dancer now and then varying the monotony of the song by calling wildly upon the cloud people to come and water the earth. The woman and child waved their wands to the rhythm of the song; the woman who held a sick infant much of the time occasionally fell asleep, but she was awakened by the vicar who sat near her, passing his eagle plumes over her face. Whenever the infant slept it was laid upon a sheepskin, seemingly unconscious of the noise of the rattle and song.
When an especial appeal was to be made to Ût´sĕt, the ho´naaite reached over the altar and took the Navajo ya´ya in his right hand and the one south of it in his left hand (he had deposited his eagle plumes by the altar, but he held his rattle). All now stood, the ho´naaite energetically swaying his body as he waved the ya´ya, holding them out, then drawing them in as he appealed to Ût´sĕt to instruct the cloud people to come and water the earth. This petition concluded, the ho´naaite leaned over the altar, returning the ya´ya to their places, and the choir took their seats and smoked cigarettes of native tobacco wrapped in corn husks. In a few moments the song was resumed, when the woman sprinkled the altar with meal and passing to the west end of the room she lifted a vase of water, placing it on the line of meal, not far from the door, keeping time with the song with her two wands and moving her body up and down by bending her knees, her feet resting firmly on the floor and over the line of meal; again the bowl was raised and moved about 2 feet forward, and she repeated the motion. The bowl was in this way moved five times, the last time being placed immediately before the basket of offerings. As she placed the bowl for the last time she waved the wand held in her right hand twice over the altar, when the song closed only to begin again immediately. The ya´niᵗsiwittänñi now appeared before the altar, north of the meal line and danced, holding two eagle plumes in the left hand and rattle in the right. After a time, transferring the rattle to his left hand, he lifted a gourd of water from the vase and, holding it for a moment, waved it before the altar and emptied it into the medicine bowl with an appeal to the cougar of the north to intercede with the cloud people that the earth might be watered; another gourdful immediately followed; he then took the rattle in the right hand and joined in the song, and danced. A third time he dipped a gourd of water, waved it toward the west with an exhortation to the bear of the west, and emptied it into the bowl, following this with another gourdful, when a weird call was given for the cloud people to come and water the earth. Again he danced and sang, and after a time a fifth gourdful was lifted and waved toward the south, with an appeal to the badger of the south, and emptied into the bowl, when another gourdful followed, and dancing for a moment he lifted another gourdful and emptied it into the medicine bowl, imploring the wolf of the east to exhort the cloud people to water the earth, when another gourdful immediately followed. After dancing for a time a gourdful was again dipped and waved toward the altar, then upward, with a call upon the eagle of the heaven to invoke the cloud people to water the earth, and immediately another gourdful of water was emptied into the bowl. Again dancing awhile, a gourdful was waved toward the altar and emptied into the bowl, with a call upon the shrew of the earth to implore the cloud people to water the earth, and again a gourdful was emptied into the bowl. The song closed as the last gourd of water was poured into the bowl and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi resumed his seat. The woman returned the vase to the west end of the room, and taking a small medicine bag from before the altar, she untied it and handed it to the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi. The men and the girl then took similar bags from before the altar, and the song again began in a low tone to the accompaniment of the rattle. Each member, taking a pinch of corn pollen from his medicine bag, threw it upon the altar and into the medicine bowl, giving a peculiar cry, it being an invocation to the cloud people to gather and water the earth, the woman and child not failing to throw in their share of pollen, raising their voices to the highest pitch as they petitioned the cloud people to water the earth. All then proceeded to take meal from the meal bowl before the altar and throw it into the medicine bowl, continuing their entreaties to the cloud people to water the earth. Six times the meal was thrown into the bowl with invocations to the cloud people. They then returned to their seats, having first deposited the medicine bags before the altar.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XX
HO´-NA-AI-TE OF GIANT SOCIETY.
The ti´ämoni took from a bear-leg skin six small pebble fetiches, handing one to each man, who in turn passed it to the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi. This recipient advanced to the front of the altar and danced to the music of the choir, and waving his left hand over the altar he dropped a fetich into the medicine bowl, at the same time waving the eagle plumes and rattle which he held in his right hand. After dancing awhile he dropped a fetich from his right hand into the medicine water, and, continuing to dance, he let fall the remaining four fetiches alternately from the left and right hand. Each time a fetich was dropped he gave a weird animal-like growl, which was a call upon the prey animals of the cardinal points to exhort the cloud people to gather and water the earth that she might be fruitful. He then returned to his seat, but almost immediately arose and, standing for a moment, advanced to the front of the altar, stirred the medicine water with the eagle plumes he held in the left hand and sprinkled the offerings by striking the plumes on the top with the rattle, held in the right hand. The sprinkling was repeated four times while the cloud people were invoked to water the earth; as the plumes were struck the fourth time the choir stood and sang and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi again dipped this plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar. The ho´naaite then leaning forward dipped his plumes into the water and sprinkled the altar with a weird call for the cloud people to gather and water the earth that she might be fruitful. Then each member repeated the sprinkling of the altar with a similar prayer, the little girl being quite as enthusiastic as the others, straining her voice to the utmost capacity as she implored the cloud people to gather. The men struck the plumes in their left hands with the rattles held in their right, and the woman and child struck the wand held in the left hand with the one held in the right. Each person repeated the sprinkling of the altar successively six times, with appeals to the animals of the cardinal points. After each sprinkling the sprinkler returned to his place in the line. Thus the choir was at no time deficient in more than one of its number. At the conclusion of the sprinkling a stanza was sung and the altar was again sprinkled six times by each member; in this instance, however, the choir was grouped before the altar, the ho´naaite alone being seated back of it absorbed in song. After the sprinkling the choir returned to the line and joined the ho´naaite in the chant and at its conclusion he sprinkled the altar four times. He did not leave his seat, but leaned forward and dipped his plumes into the medicine water. The ti´ämoni then advanced from the south end of the line and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi from the north end and sprinkled toward the cardinal points, by passing along the line of meal as heretofore described, the sprinkling being repeated twice. The ti´ämoni returned to his seat and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi removed the bowl of medicine water, placing it before the fetiches and on the line of meal and stooping with bended knees and holding his two eagle plumes and a ya´ya in his left hand he administered the medicine water to all present, the girl receiving the first draught from an abalone shell. The woman was served next, some being given to the infant she held in her arms, the ho´naaite receiving the last draught. Taking the ya´ya from the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi he drew it to his breast and then returned it to the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi, he receiving it in his left hand and lifting the bowl with both hands he left the house and filling his mouth from the bowl threw the medicine water through his teeth to the cardinal points, and returning placed the bowl and ya´ya in position before the altar.
The ho´naaite gathering the hä´chamoni in his left hand and taking a pinch of meal with his right, stooped before the altar and south of the meal line and offered a silent prayer, and, after sprinkling the altar and hä´chamoni, he divided the offerings, holding a portion in either hand. The ti´ämoni and a companion then stooped north of the line of meal and facing the ho´naaite, clasped his hands with their right hands, holding their eagle plumes in their left and responded to a low litany offered by the ho´naaite, who afterwards drawing a breath from the plumes laid them upon the blankets over their left arms, the two men having wrapped their blankets about them before advancing to the ho´naaite. They then left the ceremonial chamber and walked a long distance through the darkness to deposit the offerings at a shrine of the Ko´pĭshtaia. The remaining members talked in undertones until the return of the absent ones, who, upon entering the chamber, stood before the altar and offered a prayer which was responded to by the ho´naaite. All the members then gathered before the altar and asked that their prayers might be answered. The woman and girl arranged bowls of food in line midway the room and south of the meal line and the feast closed the ceremonial at 2 o’clock. a. m.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXI
SICK BOY IN CEREMONIAL CHAMBER OF GIANT SOCIETY.
FOUR NIGHTS’ CEREMONIAL OF THE GIANT SOCIETY FOR THE HEALING OF A SICK BOY.
The night succeeding the ceremonial of the Sko´-yo-Chai´-än (Giant Society) for rain the assembly began its ritualistic observances, which continue four consecutive nights, for the curing of the sick by the brushing process. During the afternoon a sand-painting was made in the east end of the room (compare sand-painting Giant Society, ([Pl. xviii]b); ya´ya and stone fetiches were grouped upon the painting; a medicine bowl was placed before the ya´ya; bear-leg skins were deposited on either side of the fetiches and a white embroidered sacred Tusayan blanket was folded and laid by the bear-leg skins south of the painting. The five male members of the medicine division of the society had refreshments served early in the evening by the female members, and after supper the ti´ämoni, who is a member of the medicine division, placed a bowl of stewed meat and a basket of bread near the painting; the remainder of the food was stored in the northwest corner of the room for future consumption.
The five men formed in line back of the fetiches, the ho´naaite being the central figure; they had scarcely taken their seats, however, before the ti´ämoni brought a vase of water and a gourd from the west end of the room and set it before the sand-painting and returned to his seat; the ho´naaite, advancing, dipped six gourdfuls of water, emptying each one into the medicine bowl.[20]
The ho´naaite then passing to the north side of the painting stooped with bended knees, holding in his left hand two eagle plumes, and repeated a low prayer; then, taking a small piece of the bread, he dipped it into the stew and scattered it before the fetiches; and, taking more bread and a bit of the meat, he left the ceremonial chamber and threw the food as an offering to the animals of the cardinal points. The ti´ämoni then returned the bowl of meat and basket of bread to the far end of the room. Upon the return of the ho´naaite his vicar spread the Tusayan blanket upon the floor, some 5 feet in front of the painting. He next sprinkled a line of meal from the edge of the blanket nearest the painting to the bear fetich, which stood foremost on the painting; thence across the blanket and along the floor to the entrance on the south side and near the west end of the chamber; again, beginning at the center of the blanket he sprinkled a line of meal across the blanket to the south edge, and beginning again at the center he sprinkled a line of meal to the north edge and continued this line to the north wall. Then beginning at the line ending at the south of the blanket, he ran it out to the south wall (these four lines being symbolic of the four winds), and placed the bowl of meal in front of the painting and north of the line of meal. The meal having become somewhat exhausted, the pottery meal bowl was replaced by an Apache basket, containing a quantity of fresh meal, ground by a woman in an adjoining room, where a portion of the family had already retired. The basket of meal was received from the woman by the ti´ämoni, who stood to her left side while she ground the corn in the ordinary family mill. The remainder of the contents of the pottery meal bowl was emptied into the Apache basket, the portion from the bowl being deemed sufficient in quantity to lend a sacred character to the freshly ground meal. The ho´naaite then fastened about his neck a string of bears’ claws with a small reed whistle, having two soft white eagle plumes tied to the end, attached midway, which he took from a pile of bear-leg skins, having first waved the necklace around the white bear fetich, which stood to the front of the painting. Each member of the society then put on a similar necklace; two of the members fastened amulets around their upper right arms and two around their left arms. The ho´naaite rolled his blanket in a wad and sat upon it. The other members made similar cushions. The ti´ämoni, whose seat was at the south end of the line, crossed to the north side of the room, and taking a bit of red pigment rubbed it across his face and returned to his seat, each member rubbing a bit of galena across the forehead, across the face below the eyes, and about the lower part of the face. The paint was scarcely perceptible. It was put on to insure the singing of the song correctly. The ti´ämoni again crossed the room, and taking from the north ledge a bunch of corn husks, he handed them to the man who sat next to him, who was careful to manipulate them under his blanket, drawn around him. The writer thinks that they were made into funnels, in which he placed tiny pebbles from ant hills. The vice-ho´naaite, at the north end of the line, left the room, and during his absence the ho´naaite, taking a bunch of straws which lay by the bear-leg skins, divided it into five parts, giving a portion to each one present. He reserved a share for the absent member, who returned in a short time, bearing the sick child in his arms, being careful to walk on the line of meal; he set the child upon a low stool placed on the broad band of embroidery of the blanket. ([Pl. xxi]) The man then handed the basket of meal to the child, who, obeying the instructions of the vice-ho´naaite, took a pinch and threw it toward the altar with a few words of prayer to Ko´pĭshtaia. The vicar then returned to his seat, and the members, with eagle plumes and straws in their left hands and rattles in their right, began the ritual; they were nine minutes singing the first stanza, which was sung slowly and in very low tones, and at its close each one drew a breath from the eagle plumes and straws. The second stanza was sung louder and faster. The monotony of the song was broken by an occasional animal-like call, which was a request to the cougar of the north to give them power over the angry ants. The child was afflicted with a severe sore throat, caused by ants having entered his body when he was in the act of micturition upon their house, and ascending they located in his throat. After the second stanza the ho´naaite blew first on the right side of the child, then on his back, his left side, and his breast; the other members continuing the song to the accompaniment of the rattle. When he took his seat, the ti´ämoni and the man who sat next to him each drew a breath from their eagle plumes and straws, and dipping them into the medicine water, each one extended his plumes to the child, who drew a breath from them. The two men then resumed their seats. The ho´naaite, again dipping his plumes in the medicine water, passed the ends through the ti´ämoni’s mouth, and afterwards through the mouth of each member, the plumes being dipped each time into the bowl of medicine water. The men were occupied a few moments in drawing something from several of the bear-leg skins. All except the ho´naaite gathered around the altar, dancing and gesticulating in excessive excitement and blowing upon the whistles suspended from their necklaces. They constantly dipped their eagle plumes into the medicine water, throwing their arms vehemently about, sprinkling the altar and touching the animal fetiches with their plumes, and then placing the plumes to the mouths, absorbing from them the sacred breath of the animal. The ho´naaite with bowed head continued his invocations to the cougar of the north, seemingly unconscious of all that was going on about him. After maneuvering before the altar, the four men performed similar extravagances about the child, one of the men standing him in the center of the blanket, careful to place the boy’s feet in diagonal angles formed by the meal lines. Then the four left the room, carrying with them the material taken from the bear-leg skins. The ho´naaite did not cease shaking the rattle and singing during the absence of the four, who visited the house of the sick boy to purify it. Upon returning to the ceremonial room they threw their arms aloft, waving their plumes above them and then about the child, singing and growling, after which they resumed their seats in line with the ho´naaite, and joined him in the song to the accompaniment of rattles. After a few moments these four men and the ho´naaite surrounded the boy; the ho´naaite standing at the northeast corner of the blanket, and the ti´ämoni at the southeast corner, while the others formed a semicircle behind the boy. They all waved plumes and straws in their left hands over the invalid boy, and passed them simultaneously down his body from head to feet, striking the plumes and straws with rattles which they held in their right hands; and as the plumes and straws were moved down the boy’s body ants in any quantity were supposed to be brushed off the body, while in reality tiny pebbles were dropped upon the blanket; but the conjuration was so perfect the writer could not tell how or whence they were dropped, although she stood close to the group and under a bright light from a lamp she had placed on the wall for the purpose of disclosing every detail. The tiny nude boy standing upon the white embroidered blanket, being brushed with the many eagle plumes, struck with their rattles by five beautifully formed Indians, was the most pleasing scene of this dramatic ceremonial. The brushing of the child with the plumes was repeated six times, and he was then backed off the blanket over the line of meal and set upon the stool, which had been removed from the blanket, and was afterward given a pinch of meal and told to stand and look at the ants which had been extracted from his body, and to sprinkle the meal upon them. After this sprinkling he resumed his seat upon the stool. The ho´naaite stooped with bended knees at the northeast corner of the blanket and whispered a prayer and sprinkled the blanket. Each member with eagle plumes sprinkled the blanket with meal and carefully brushed together all the material which had fallen on the floor instead of the blanket, after which the ti´ämoni gathered the corners together, waved it over the child’s head, and left the room with it. All sat perfectly quiet, holding their rattles, eagle plumes, and straws in their right hands during the absence of the ti´ämoni. Upon his return he waved the folded blanket twice toward the group of fetiches and toward himself, then passed it twice around the child’s head, and finally laid it upon the pile of bear-leg skins at the south side of the painting. The child, who was ill and burning with fever, was led by the vice ho´naaite to the fetiches, which he sprinkled with meal, and was carried from the chamber and through an outer room to his mother at the entrance.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXII
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
ALTAR AND SAND PAINTING.
KNIFE SOCIETY.
The ho´naaite is not supposed to leave the ceremonial chamber throughout the four days and nights, as he must guard the animal fetiches and medicine. The other members are also supposed to spend much of the day and all of the night in watching the fetiches; but the writer is of the opinion that they all go to sleep after the feast, which is enjoyed as soon as the child leaves the chamber.
The only variation in the ceremonial on the second night was that the vicar dipped the bit of bread into the bowl of stew and scattered it to the animal fetiches, having previously lifted ashes from the fireplace and sprinkled the altar with them by striking the plume held in the left hand on the under side with the plume held in the right; then holding the plumes between his hands he repeated a long and scarcely audible prayer. After scattering the food to the animal fetiches, he dipped a piece of bread into the stew, left the house and threw the food to the cardinal points, as the ho´naaite had done the previous night, and, returning, removed the bowl of stew and basket of bread to the northwest corner of the room. He then swept the floor with his two eagle plumes, beginning some 18 inches in front of the altar (the line of meal remaining perfect to this point) to the point where the blanket was to be placed, and then laid the blanket and made the meal lines, the change in the drawing of these lines being that the line was begun at the line of meal which extended in front of the altar and ran over the blanket to the entrance of the room; then beginning in the center of the blanket, the line was extended across to the north wall, and again beginning in the center, a line was run across to the south wall. The writer mentions this deviation in the drawing of the meal lines, though she believes it was a mere matter of taste on the part of the worker. Instead of the vice ho´naaite receiving the child at the outer entrance, the man who sat between him and the ho´naaite brought the child into the room, and he was led out by the ti´ämoni. Upon this occasion, and on the third and fourth nights, the child walked into and out of the room, an indication that he was in better physical condition than on the first night of the ceremony. The songs on the second night were addressed to the bear of the west instead of the cougar of the north. The child did not seem to move a muscle throughout the ceremony, except when he stepped to his position on the blanket.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXIII
ALTAR OF KNIFE SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHED DURING CEREMONIAL.
The scenes on the third and fourth nights were coincident with those of the second, with a few variations. The man who sat between the ho´naaite and his vicar dipped the ashes with his plumes and sprinkled the altar, and, returning to his seat, the vicar laid the blanket and sprinkled the meal lines in the same manner as on the previous night; he also procured the child. When dancing before the altar two men wore bear-leg skins on their left arms, and two others wore them on their right arms. It was noticed that the skins were drawn over the arms upon which the amulets were worn. Their dancing and incantations were even more turbulent and more weird than on the two former nights.
The songs the third night were addressed to the badger of the south and on the fourth to the wolf of the east.
RAIN CEREMONIAL OF THE KNIFE SOCIETY.
While the ho´naaite and his vicar sat during the morning making hä´chamoni they rehearsed in undertones the songs of their cult. The membership of this society consists at the present time of five men and two boys, and two novitiates, a man and a boy.
The sun was far to the west when the members came straggling in and the ho´naaite proceeded to set up the slat altar ([Pl. xxii]a). Then each man took from the wall a soiled buckskin sack. The well-wrapped ya´ya was first taken out and then other fetiches. After the ho´naaite had unwrapped his ya´ya he prepared the sand painting in front of the altar ([Pl. xxii]b). The five ya´ya were stood on the line specially made for them and a miniature bow and arrow laid before each ya´ya. The ho´naaite then grouped fetiches of human and animal forms, then the medicine bowl containing water and a basket of sacred meal. He then drew a line of meal which extended from the slat altar to a distance of 3 feet beyond the group of fetiches, his vicar afterwards assisting him with the additional fetiches. Two stone cougars 2 feet in length each were stood up on either side of the group. A cougar 12 inches long, with lightning cut in relief on either side, and a concretion, were then deposited before the group. Bear-leg skins were piled high on either side of the altar. The cloud bowl and reed were added, the two flat baskets of hä´chamoni and plume offerings shown in the sketch were afterwards deposited upon the backs of the cougars. While this arrangement was in progress the minor members returned the powdered kaolin and black pigment to the ancient pottery vases, from which they had been taken to prepare the sand-painting.
Fig. 17.—Sand painting as indicated in Pl. xxv.
The ho´naaite consecrated the bowl of water by a prayer, and dropping in the six fetiches he dipped his eagle plumes into the water and striking them on the top with his rattle, sprinkled the altar; holding the plumes in the left hand and the rattle in the right, he sprinkled the cardinal points. The vicar formed a circle of meal, then sprinkled meal upon the circle and placed a cincture pad of yucca upon it, and holding the cloud bowl high above his head, he invoked the cloud people of the north, west, south, east, zenith, and nadir, and of the whole world, to water the earth. The bowl was then set upon the pad and a reed 8 inches long laid across it from northeast to southwest. The vice ho´naaite spread a small cloth and upon it reduced the bit of root which was to produce the suds to a powder, which he placed in a little heap in front of the cloud bowl. The ho´naaite, who had left the chamber, now returned with a parrot and a white stone bear 12 inches long; the bear was wrapped in a large fine white buckskin and the parrot was under the ho´naaite’s blanket. These were deposited before the altar ([Pl. xxiii]).
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXIV
HO´-NA-AI-TE OF KNIFE SOCIETY.
Fig. 18.—Sand painting used in ceremonial for sick by Ant Society.
The ho´naaite ([Pl. xxiv]) stooped and, praying, sprinkled corn pollen upon the bear and parrot. The bear and the bird had eagle plumes attached to their necks with cotton cord. Those on the bear were on the top of the neck and those of the parrot hung under the beak. After the prayer the ho´naaite lighted a cigarette of native tobacco and corn husk from a stick some 5 feet long, held by a boy member, and puffed the smoke over the bear and parrot. He then extended the cigarette over the altar, afterwards waving it to the cardinal points. The vicar and boy sprinkled the bear and parrot with pollen from an abalone shell and the vicar dipped his eagle plumes into the medicine bowl and sprinkled them four times, then the altar, by striking the plumes with the rattle held in his right hand. The ho´naaite then puffed smoke into the cloud bowl and over the bear and parrot, and extended his cigarette to the cardinal points, and over the altar. The vicar lighted a similar cigarette from the long stick held by the boy, and standing to the west of the altar blew smoke over it, the ho´naaite standing and smoking to the right of him. The vicar laid the end of his cigarette by the cloud bowl and to the east of the line of the meal. The shell of corn pollen was then placed back of the altar and the ho´naaite’s eagle plumes and rattle laid beside it; a prayer before the altar by all the members closed the afternoon ceremony.
It will be noticed that the slat altar in [Pl. xxv] differs from that in [Pl. xxiii]. Both belong to the Knife Society and may be seen hanging side by side on the wall in the ceremonial chamber of the Quer´ränna, ([Pl. xxviii]) which is also the official chamber of the Knife Society. The second was made in case of failure of the first. The vicar of this society is also ho´naaite and only surviving member of the Ant Society, and he, being anxious that the writer should see the sand painting of the Ant Society, prepared the painting for this occasion instead of the ho´naaite ([Fig. 17]). He also drew her a sketch of the painting of Ant Society for ceremonial held for the sick, which is here introduced ([Fig. 18]). This last may be described as follows:
a represents meal painting emblematic of the clouds, b and c bear-leg skins laid either side of it. The remainder of painting is in sand. d: Ant chief clad in buckskin fringed down the arms and legs; he carries lightning in his left hand; his words pass straight from his mouth, as indicated by a line, to the invalid e, who sits at the opening of the ceremonial to the right of the painting. The ant chief speaks that the malady may leave the invalid. A song of this character is sung by the members of the society. The invalid then passes to the front of the altar and stands upon a sacred Tusayan blanket (position indicated by f), when the ho´naaite and other members of the society proceed with their incantations over him, imploring the prey animals to draw the ants to the surface of the body. When the ants have appeared and been brushed from the body then a song is addressed to the eagle g to come and feed upon the ants. When the ants have been eaten by the eagle the invalid will be restored to health. The two circular spots h represent ant houses. These, with the paintings of the ant chief and eagle, are gathered into the blanket upon which the invalid stood and carried some distance north of the village and deposited. After the blanket has been taken from the chamber the meal painting is erased by the ho´naaite brushing the meal from each of the cardinal points to the center with his hand; he then rubs the invalid’s body with the meal, after which the members hasten to rub their bodies with it, that they may be purified not only of any physical malady but of all evil thoughts.
When the writer entered the ceremonial chamber later in the evening food was being placed in line down the middle of the room. There were seven bowls, containing mutton stew, tortillas, waiavi, and hominy. There was also a large pot of coffee and a bowl of sugar. The ho´naaite, standing to the east of the meal line, which extended from the altar to the entrance, repeated a long grace, after which one of the boy members gathered a bit of food from each vessel, and standing on the opposite side of the line of meal, handed the food to the ho´naaite, who received it in his left hand, having transferred his eagle plumes to the right. He then left the house, and throwing the food to the cardinal points, offered it to the animal Ko´pĭshtaia, with a prayer of intercession to the cloud people to gather, saying:
“Ko´pĭshtaia! Here is food, come and eat; Ko´pĭshtaia, Cougar of the North, receive this food; Bear of the West, receive this food; Badger of the South, we offer you food, take it and eat; Wolf of the East, we give you food; Eagle of the Heavens, receive this food; Shrew of the Earth, receive this food. When you eat, then you will be contented, and you will pass over the straight road [referring to the passing of the beings of the ko´pĭshtaia over the line of meal to enter the images of themselves]. We pray you to bring to us, and to all peoples, food, good health, and prosperity, and to our animals bring good health and to our fields large crops; and we pray you to ask the cloud people to come to water the earth.”
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXV
ALTAR OF KNIFE SOCIETY, WITH HO´-NA-AI-TE AND VICE HO´-NA-AI-TE ON EITHER SIDE.
Upon returning to the ceremonial chamber, the ho´naaite, standing before the altar, prays to Ma´asewe, Úyuuyewĕ, and the six warriors of the mountains of the cardinal points to protect them from all enemies who might come to destroy their peace; and, standing at the end of the line of food, he offers a prayer of thanksgiving, holding his eagle plumes in his left hand. He then rolls his blanket into a cushion, sits upon it west of the line of meal and smokes a cigarette. The food having been brought in by the wives of the members, all present drew around and enjoyed the feast. That the minor members felt at liberty to join with their elders was indicated by the way in which they proceeded to help themselves.
The war chief came into the room soon after the beginning of the meal, wrapped in a fine Navajo blanket, and carrying his bow and arrows. He stood in front of the altar, on the west side of the meal line, and prayed. The vice-ho´naaite administered to the war chief a draft of the medicine water which had been prepared in the afternoon, and then handed him the official staff of the society (a slender stick some 2 feet in length), which he held with his bow and arrows until the close of the ceremonial. The war chief sat for awhile at the south end of the room, and then left to patrol the town and to see that no one not privileged entered or came near the ceremonial chamber. After the meal was finished the three boys removed the bowls to another room, and, upon their return, one of them swept the middle of the floor, destroying most of the meal line, leaving but 2 feet of it undisturbed in front of the altar. This line, however, was renewed by the vice-ho´naaite, who carried two eagle feathers and the meal bowl in his left hand, while he sprinkled the meal with the right, not for the purpose of furnishing a road for the beings of pai´ätämo and ko´pĭshtaia to pass over, for they had previously come to the images of themselves, but that the songs might pass straight over and out of the house.
The men now indulged in a smoke. The writer never observed Sia boys smoking in these ceremonials or at any other time. The cigarettes were lighted from the long stick passed by one of the boys, and after smoking, the ho´naaite and his younger brother put on white cotton embroidered Tusayan kilts as breechcloths, which they took from a hook on the wall, those of the other members being plain white cotton. The ho´naaite now took his seat back of the altar and lighted a second cigarette from the long stick, blowing the smoke over the altar. This smoke was offered to Pai´ätämo and Ko´pĭshtaia, the ho´naaite saying: “I give this to you; smoke and be contented.” He then administered medicine water to all present, dipping the water with a shell. The vice-ho´naaite, who received the last draft, drank directly from the bowl, and was careful not to leave a drop in it, after which the ho´naaite removed the six stone fetiches from the bowl. The process of preparing medicine water is substantially the same with all the cult societies, there not being in Sia nearly so much ceremony connected with this important feature of fetich worship as with the Zuñi and Tusayan. The six fetiches were returned to the buckskin bag and the ho´naaite resumed his seat behind the altar, the members and novitiates having already formed in line back of the altar, the official members each holding two eagle plumes in the left hand and a gourd rattle in the right. After a short prayer by the ho´naaite, the boy lifted ashes from the fireplace with his eagle plumes and placed them near the altar and east of the meal line; again he dipped a quantity, placing them west of the line of meal. As the chant opened, he stood west of the line and facing the altar, and an adult member stood on the east side, and each of them held an eagle plume in either hand and a gourd rattle also in the right. The boy dipped with the plumes the ashes which lay west of the line of meal and the man those which lay east of the line, and sprinkled toward the north by striking the plumes held in the left hand on the underside with the plume held in the right; again dipping the ashes, the boy sprinkled toward the west and the man toward the east; again lifting ashes, they passed to the south and sprinkled there; the boy then crossed to the east of the line of meal and the man to the west of the line, and when midway of the line the boy sprinkled to the east and the man to the west; then, dancing before the altar, they again lifted ashes and sprinkled to the north. When dancing, both eagle plumes were held in the left hand and the rattle in the right. Ashes were again lifted and thrown twice toward the zenith and then thrown to the nadir. The sprinkling to the cardinal points, zenith and nadir, was repeated fifteen times in the manner described. This was to carry off all impurities of the mind, that it might be pure; that the songs would come pure from the lips and pass straight over the road of meal—the one road. The man and boy having resumed their seats in the line, the vice-ho´naaite stood before the altar to the west side of the line of meal, shook his rattle for a moment or two, then waved it vertically in front of the altar, invoking the cloud people to come; he then waved the rattle from the west to the east, repeating the weird exhortation, his body being kept in motion by the bending of his knees, his feet scarcely leaving the ground. The rattle was waved three times from the west to the east, and then waved toward the west and toward the altar, the east and to the altar; then, raising the rattle high above his head, he formed a circle. This waving of the rattle was repeated sixteen times. Previous to each motion he held the rattle perfectly still, resting it on the eagle plumes which he held in the left hand.
After the sixteenth repetition he waved the rattle over the altar. The song during this time is an appeal to the cloud people of the north, west, south, east, and all the cloud peoples of the world, to gather and send rain to water the earth, that all mankind may have the fruits of the earth. The vicar then stood to the right of the ho´naaite, and the choir, rising, continued to sing. The ho´naaite, leaning over the altar, took two of the central ya´ya, one in either hand, and alternately raised them, keeping time with the song, now and then extending the ya´ya over the altar. The young novitiate held neither rattle or plumes. The boy at the east end of the line, having passed through two degrees, held his rattle in the right hand and in his left a miniature crook. The vicar who stood at the right of the ho´naaite and the man who stood to his left moved their rattles and feathers in harmony with his motion, the three swaying their bodies back and forth and extending their arms outward and upward. About this time it was noticed that the boys at the east end of the line had fallen asleep, and it was more than the man who sat next to them could do to keep them awake, although he was constantly brushing their faces with his eagle plumes. This little scene was something of a picture, as the boy whose shoulder acted as a support for the head of the other is the son of one of the most prominent and richest men in the pueblo, the other boy being the pauper referred to. The stanzas in this song were much longer than any before heard by the writer, and each closed with a quick shake of the rattle. The song continued an hour and a quarter, when the singers took a few moments’ rest, and again sang for thirty minutes; another few minutes’ rest, and the song again continued. In this way it ran from half past 9 o’clock until midnight. At its close one of the boys brought a vase of water and a gourd from the southwest corner of the room and placed it near the altar and west of the line of meal. The ya´niᵗsiwittänn̄i stood before the vase, and, lifting two gourdfuls of water, emptied them into the medicine bowl; emptying two gourdfuls, also, into the cloud bowl, he danced for a time before the altar, waving his plumes and rattle over it; he then emptied two more gourdfuls into the medicine bowl and two more into the cloud bowl, and resumed his dance. He did not sing while performing this part of the ceremony, but when emptying the water into the bowls he gave bird-like trills, calling for the cloud people to gather. Again he emptied two gourdfuls into the medicine bowl and two in the cloud bowl; and after dancing a moment or two he poured two more gourdfuls into the medicine bowl and two into the cloud bowl, and resumed the dance; again he emptied a gourdful into the medicine bowl and two into the cloud bowl; then he emptied three into the medicine bowl and drank twice from the bowl, after which he returned to his seat in the line, the boy restoring the vase to the farther corner of the room. Two small medicine bags were handed to each member from the altar, one containing corn pollen and the other corn meal of six varieties of corn: yellow, blue, red, white, black, and variegated. The bags were held in the left hand with the eagle plumes, that hand being quiet, while the rattle was shaken with the right in accompaniment to the song. After singing a few minutes, pollen and meal taken from the medicine bags were sprinkled into the medicine bowl. The choir did not rise and pass to the altar, but leaned forward on either side; and with each sprinkling of the meal and pollen a shrill call was given for the cloud people to gather; the ho´naaite, in sprinkling in his pollen, reached over the altar slats. The sprinkling of the pollen was repeated four times, the novitiates taking no part in this feature of the ceremony, although they were provided with the bags of pollen and meal. The ya´niᵗsiwittänn̄i danced before the altar and west of the line of meal without rattle or plumes, but continually hooted as he waved his hands wildly over the altar and dropped pebble fetiches alternately into the medicine and cloud bowls, until each bowl contained six fetiches; then, reaching behind the altar for his rattle and eagle plumes, he held an eagle plume and rattle in the right hand and an eagle plume in the left, and stirred the water and sprinkled the altar; then he stirred the water in the cloud bowl with the reed, and sprinkled the altar with it. The sprinkling of the altar from the medicine bowl and the cloud bowl was repeated six times.
After each sprinkling a quick shake of the rattle was given. The ho´naaite then reached over the altar slats, taking a ya´ya in either hand, and all stood and sang. In a moment the man to the right of the ho´naaite leaned over the west side of the altar, and, dipping his plumes in the medicine water, sprinkled the altar; he repeated the sprinkling four times, and when the two ya´ya were returned to the altar the ho´naaite dipped his eagle plumes into the medicine water, and sprinkled the altar by striking them on the top with the rattle held in the right hand. Each member then sprinkled the altar four times, with a wild exhortation to the cloud people, all apparently exhibiting more enthusiasm when sprinkling the altar than at any other time during the ceremonial. When the song closed two of the boys proceeded to prepare cigarettes, taking their places before the fireplace, and, tearing off bits of corn husks of the proper size, they made them pliable by moistening them with saliva. One boy made his cigarettes of native tobacco, which he took from an old cloth hanging on the wall; the other filled his with commercial tobacco. As the boys made cigarettes they tied them with ribbons of corn husks, simply to keep them in shape until the smokers were ready. The remaining native tobacco was returned to the old cloth and put in place upon the wall. About the time the boys had finished preparing the cigarettes, the vice-ho´naaite took his seat on his wadded blanket, in front of the cloud bowl and west of the line of meal. The man at the east end of the line dipped his eagle plumes into the ashes, holding a plume in either hand and striking the one held in the left hand on the under side with the plume held in the right, he sprinkled the head of the vicar, who was offering a silent prayer, and at the same moment the song opened to the accompaniment of the rattle. Previous to the vicar leaving the line, the ho´naaite removed a white fluffy eagle feather from one of the ya´ya, to which it had been attached with a white cotton cord, and tied it to the forelock of the vicar, who put into the cloud bowl the powdered root which was to produce the froth; then dipping the reed into corn pollen he sprinkled the altar. He placed a pinch of pollen into the upper end of the reed, and, turning that into the water, he put a pinch into the other end, and touched the four cardinal points of the cloud bowl with the corn pollen, and made bubbles by holding the hollow reed in the center of the bowl and blowing through it. This operation lasted but a few moments, when he began stirring the water with the reed, moving it from right to left, and never raising the lower end to the surface of the water, producing a beautiful egg-like froth. Not satisfied with its rising high above the bowl, he did not cease manipulating until the suds had completely covered it, so that nothing could be seen but a mass of snowy froth; fifteen minutes of continual stirring was required to produce this effect. He then stood the reed in the center of the froth, and holding an eagle plume in each hand danced before the altar vehemently gesticulating. He dipped suds with his two plumes and threw them toward the altar, with a wild cry, and again dipping suds he threw them over the altar to the north; a like quantity was thrown to the west, and the same to the south, the east, the zenith, and the nadir. He then dipped a quantity, and placing some on the head of the white bear and putting some over the parrot, he resumed his seat on the blanket and began blowing through the reed and beating the suds. In five minutes he stood the reed as before in the center of the bowl, then, dancing, he dipped the suds, placing them on the head of the bear and over the parrot; he then removed the remaining suds from the plumes by striking one against the other over the bowl (this froth is always referred to by the Sia as clouds). During this part of the ceremony the choir sang an exhortation to the cloud peoples. A boy now handed a cigarette of native tobacco to the vicar, who puffed the smoke for some time, extending the cigarette to the north; smoking again, he blew the smoke to the west, and extended the cigarette to that point; this was repeated to the south and east; when he had consumed all but an inch of the cigarette, he laid it in front of the cloud bowl and east of the meal line. The choir did not cease singing during the smoking, and when the bit of cigarette had been deposited, the vicar transferred his rattle to his right hand, keeping time with the choir. When the song closed he left his seat in front of the cloud bowl and stood by the west side of the altar, and removing the eagle plume from his head returned it to the ya´ya and took his seat near the fireplace. Two of the boys then lighted cigarettes of native tobacco with the long fire-stick, handing one to each member.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXVI
SHRINE OF KNIFE SOCIETY.
In fifteen minutes the song was resumed and the man west of the ho´naaite dipped his eagle plumes in the medicine water and sprinkled the altar, repeating the sprinkling four times. In twenty-five minutes the song closed and the men enjoyed a social smoke, each man after lighting his cigarette waving it towards the altar. In twenty-five minutes the choir again sang, two boys standing in front of the altar, one on either side of the line of meal. The one on the west side of the line dipped his plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar, and the one on the east side of the line dipped his crook into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar. They then dipped into the cloud bowl and threw the suds to the north; dipping suds again the boy west of the line threw the suds to the west, and the one east of the line threw the suds to the east; again dipping medicine water they passed to the south and threw the water to that point, the boy west of the meal line crossed to the east, and the one on the east of the line of meal crossed to the west, and returning to the altar they dipped suds, the boy to the west of the line throwing suds in that direction, and the boy east of the line throwing suds to that point; again dipping the medicine water they sprinkled to the zenith, and dipping the suds they threw them to the nadir; then the boy on the west of the line crossed to the east, and the one on the east of the line crossed to the west, and thus reversing positions they repeated the sprinkling of the cardinal points, zenith and nadir, twelve times, dipping alternately into the medicine water and the cloud bowl. With the termination of the sprinkling the song ceased for a moment, and by command of the ho´naaite the boys, each taking a basket of hä´chamoni, which were resting on the backs of the cougar fetiches either side of the altar, stood in front of the altar, one on the west side of the meal line and the other on the east, and holding the baskets in their left hands shook their rattles; they then held the basket with both hands, moving them in time to the song and rattles of the choir. The ho´naaite directed them to wave the baskets to the north, west, south, and east, to the zenith and the nadir; this they repeated twelve times and then deposited the baskets either side of the cloud bowl, and the vicar placed the bowl of medicine water two feet in front of the cloud bowl, on the line of meal, and taking one of the ya´ya in his left hand, he passed east of the line and, stooping low, he stirred the medicine water with an abalone shell, and then passed his hand over the ya´ya and drew a breath from it. The man at the west end of the line of worshipers now came forward and the vicar gave him a drink of the medicine water, then the man at the east end of the line received a draft. The boy who threw the suds with the plumes came next, and following him the boy (the pauper) who held the miniature crook; then the third boy advanced and drank; the man on the left of the ho´naaite following next, the ho´naaite came forward; he did not receive the water from the shell, but drank directly from the bowl; the vicar holding the bowl with his right hand placed it to the ho´naaite’s lips, the ho´naaite clasping the ya´ya, which was held in the left hand of the vicar; he then taking the bowl with his right hand and clasping the ya´ya with his left, held it to the lips of the vicar, who afterwards left the room, carrying with him the remainder of the medicine water and the ya´ya. He passed into the street and, filling his mouth with the water, he threw a spray through his teeth to the north, west, south, and east, the zenith and the nadir and then to all the world, that the cloud people might gather and water the earth. In a short time he returned and placed the bowl and ya´ya before the altar. The shell was laid east of the line of meal and in front of the cloud bowl. A cigarette was then handed the ho´naaite and, after blowing the first few puffs over the altar, he finished it without further ceremony, and taking the two baskets of plume offerings in either hand he stooped with bended knees a short distance in front of the altar and west of the line of meal. The two minor members wrapped their blankets around them and stooped before the ho´naaite on the opposite side of the meal line. The ho´naaite divided the offerings between the two, placing them on the blanket where it passed over the left arm; these offerings were to Pai´ätämo and Ko´pĭshtaia, and were deposited by the boys at the shrines of Kopĭshtaia (Pls. [xxvi] and [xxvii]). Food was now brought in by the boy novitiate, and with the feast the society adjourned at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXVII
SHRINE OF KNIFE SOCIETY.