Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians

by S. A. Barrett

The crier continued his calls until finally the leader of the dancers walked along a zigzag path to a position about one-quarter of the distance between the line of dancers and the dance-house ([see fig. 2]). Here he halted and cried "wuī´ ..." after which the crier at the dance-house called all the initiated men of the village to assemble.

There was a fixed restriction against the presence of the uninitiated in this assembly. One informant maintained that the ceremony, as held in his locality (the coast of the Central Pomo area), required that four posts be set up, each at a distance of several yards from the dance-house, as is shown in [figures 1 and 2], the imaginary lines from post to post forming an inclosure for the dance-house and its immediate vicinity, within which none but the initiated dared venture.

The singers and others officially concerned with the dance came from within the dance-house and formed two lines, one on each side of the outer door of the tunnel, as indicated by the small crosses in [figure 2]. As the crier gave his call, the initiates answered with a cry of "ye ..." after which they formed these two lines between which the ghost-dancers must pass to enter the dance-house.

At the outer ends of these lines were two masters of ceremonies who directed the ceremony from this point on to its close. They first chased each of the dancers[15] as he came to enter the house, returning each time to the heads of the two lines, there to await the arrival of the next dancer. These masters of ceremonies were called xahlū´īgak käldaiyaū (E) or masa´n käldaiyaū (E), and were entirely nude except for a head-net and a feather tuft on their heads.

Fig. 3—Course of each ghost-dancer entering dance-house.

The chief ghost-dancer entered the house backwards and started towards the drum, passing, however, on the west or wrong side of the fire. Before he had gone very far, he stopped and groped around with one foot, as if to find his way, and finally inquired which way he should go. Ghost-dancers used the same words in speaking that ordinary people did, except that they inverted their statements and reversed the meanings of words. In this case the spectators replied, "You must go on the west side," [16] meaning, of course, that the dancer was expected actually to go down the east side of the dance-house. He then reversed his direction, as is shown in [figure 3], and circled four times about the fire, finally passing to a position in front of the center pole. The spectators meanwhile constantly called out to each dancer to pass down the "east" side of the house.

When the dancer entered through the tunnel, the spectators all cried, "ye´-ye." He at first advanced very slowly backwards until he reached the point at which he inquired his way. As soon as he received this direction he sprang up and ran the prescribed four times around the fire and finally reached the foot of the center pole, making meanwhile the same "bū ..." noise which he had made upon entering the village. He here awaited the arrival of the other dancers, who went through the same succession of movements.

The chief ghost-dancer, upon arriving in front of the center pole, said, "mamūle´" (E), to which the spectators replied, "hehē´...." Then he made a short speech in a more or less archaic language. Its purport was: "I do not come to do any one harm, but rather to take all sickness away and to make everybody strong."