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
