Fig. 243—Diagram showing measurements of Yébĭtcai house
While the Yébĭtcai ceremony is in progress the hut is occupied by the qaçál‘i and his assistants and by the young men who assume the sacred masks and personate the various deities in the nightly dances. In the mornings the qaçál‘i sits under the western side of the hut and directs the young men in the process of sand painting, the making of curious sand mosaics delineating mythologic subjects. The materials used are dry sand, charcoal, and powdered ochers of different colors, which are poured from the hand between the thumb and fingers. Without the use of a brush or other implement the trickling stream is guided to form intricate designs. These designs are made directly on the earthen floor in a zone about 3 feet wide and extending nearly the entire length of the hut from north to south. This zone, called the iká‘, is made in front of the qaçál‘i, and between him and the fire, which is reduced to small dimensions to enable him to work close under the opening in the roof. During the process the door is closed with the usual hanging blanket, and to increase the light from above a buckskin or white cloth is sometimes suspended as a reflector on a light frame of boughs erected on the roof on the western side of the smoke hole.
The mask recess, which is found in all the larger hogáns, is always made in the middle of the western side of the iyáȼaskuni. It is usually somewhat wider and deeper than in the ordinary dwelling. The bundles containing the masks and other paraphernalia to be used in the ceremony are placed in the recess by the qaçál‘i, who then fastens a skin or cloth across it. The upper edge at a height of about 3 feet from the floor is fastened with strings to the sloping timbers. The lower edge is held by small pegs driven into the edge of the bench-like ledge of earth which marks the limits of the floor. When he needs them the qaçál‘i reaches behind the curtain for the paraphernalia he has previously prepared and deposited there. The masks must never be seen except when worn by the dancers, nor are the fetiches exposed except when certain rites demand their display.
This recess is called by the Navaho djĭc bĭnasklá, literally “mask recess.” Besides its practical use it has a mythic significance, as it indicates the position occupied by First-man, who sat there with Qastcéyalçi (Dawn) and Qastcéqoġan (Twilight) on either hand, in the house where the Corn people were made. They also occupied similar positions in the house in which they made the celestial bodies, and also in the first iyáȼaskuni, which was made by them to celebrate the occurrence of the first menstruation of Estsánatlehi.
No special veneration attaches to the iyáȼaskuni except when a ceremony is in progress. At that time it is devoted exclusively to the qaçál‘i and the other actors in the rites, and it is then known as qaçál‘ biqoġan, the song house. Perhaps the family for whose benefit it was first used may have contributed the larger share of the food for the workers who constructed it, but it is not held to be the exclusive property of any one person; it is for the use of the neighborhood. In the summer time, during which season no important rites are celebrated, the women often erect their vertical looms there and use it as a workroom. Some of the neighbors may find it convenient to occupy it temporarily, or when some occasion brings an influx of visitors they adjourn to the flat-roof house, if there be one near, to smoke and gamble and sleep there. But it is rarely used as a dwelling in winter, as it would have to be vacated whenever one of the neighbors wished to have a ceremony performed. Moreover, owing to its large size, it would be more difficult to keep warm than the more compact hogán.
Plate XC.
DIAGRAM PLAN OF HOGÁN, WITH NAMES OF PARTS