After the “twelve songs” are finished many others are sung: to Estsánatlehi, a benignant Goddess of the West, and to Yol‘kaí Estsán, the complementary Goddess of the East; to the sun, the dawn, and the twilight; to the light and to the darkness; to the six sacred mountains, and to many other members of a very numerous theogony. Other song-prayers are chanted directly to malign influences, beseeching them to remain far off: to ĭntcóŋgi, evil in general; to dakús, coughs and lung evils, and to the bĭȼakúji, sorcerers, praying them not to come near the dwelling. The singing of the songs is so timed that the last one is delivered just as the first gray streaks of dawn appear, when the visitors round up their horses and ride home.
[THE HOGÁN OF THE YÉBĬTCAI DANCE]
Despite the ceremonies which have been performed, it frequently happens that malign influences affect the new dwelling. The inmates suffer from toothache, or sore eyes, or have bad dreams, or ghosts are heard in the night. Then the house ceremony is repeated. If after this the conditions still prevail and threatening omens are noted, an effort is made to ascertain the cause. Perhaps the husband recalls an occasion when he was remiss in some religious duty, or the wife may remember having seen accidentally an unmasked dancer, or they may be convinced that a sorcerer, a ȼĭlkúji, is practicing his evil art. Such malign influences must be due to some definite cause, and it must be found. Then, if the cause be grave, resort must be had to a very elaborate ceremony, the dance of the Yébĭtcai.
Plate LXXXIX.
A YÉBĬTCAI HOUSE
For the observance of this ceremony it is usual to construct a flat-roof hut called iyáȼaskuni, meaning, literally, “under the flat.” The roof is nearly square as well as flat, and the edifice, with its spreading base, suggests a truncated pyramid; but as it is roughly covered with earth heaped over the entire structure it is externally little more than a shapeless mound. Plate LXXXIX is an exterior view of one of these special hogáns, which is also shown in plan in figure 241.
Fig. 241—Ground plan of Yébĭtcai house