Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians

by S. A. Barrett

kūlī kūlē kūlē ....

hūtsaiya´ hūtsaiya´

hīī ....

(Repeat indefinitely.)

The two masters of ceremonies took up their respective positions at A and C ([fig. 3]) and danced back and forth along the lines AB and CD. In starting the movement, they stood with hands outstretched and bent their bodies sidewise toward the drum as they shouted "hūtsaiya´hīī." They then ran rapidly sidewise to the opposite ends of their respective courses, where they repeated the same bending, this time in the opposite direction. When they had gone back and forth over these courses and had returned to their original positions for the fourth time, they again shouted as at first. This particular set of the dance was repeated four times, thus completing this part. After any such part had ended, it occasionally happened that one dancer would continue his steps just as though the music were in full swing. Ultimately one of his fellow-dancers would strike him lightly to call his attention to the fact that the dance was over, and he also would stop.

Four such parts completed the first division of the dance. After this the masters of ceremonies advanced toward the ghost-dancers, motioning them back toward the center pole with the palms of their hands turned outward and held in front of them, while they said "hahyū´, hahyū´" (repeated indefinitely).

The singers, masters of ceremonies, and the drummer then seated themselves or stood a short distance away from the drum, and the ghost-dancers proceeded with their ceremonial disrobing.

The chief ghost-dancer proceeded from the foot of the center pole by a path, as is indicated in [figure 4], leading around the center pole and fire and back to the east side of the drum, which the ghost-dancers term cūna´ bilat (E), literally "canoe worn out." Upon his arrival at the drum the chief ghost-dancer made a speech in which he said that he and his fellows "had come from the hollow stems of the grass, crawling like snakes," to visit the people.

katsa´ mūtō´lai
grass hollow waha badūt´kiū (E)
travel like a snake

He told them that he had come for their good and with no evil motives, that he had come to bring them good health and happiness, not sickness and misfortune. With a cry of "mē ..." he then jumped across the drum to its west side. The spectators cried "mī´bax bō´wōwa" (E), literally "go on your west side," indicating the west side of the drum, according to the ghost-dancers' inverted method of speech. In compliance with this instruction, the chief ghost-dancer jumped across the drum, after which he sometimes felt around with his foot as if in search of something. Thus he jumped back and forth four times across the drum. He had really been in search of the drum all the time and had feigned his inability to find it. He finally, however, jumped upon it and stamped rapidly for a minute or so to indicate his satisfaction. Throughout this whole performance the singers and others near the drum continually cried "hō ... hō ..." etc. While standing on the drum, the chief ghost-dancer faced toward the wall, thus bringing his back toward the fire. Frequently he made some comic observation to those near by, [18] and from time to time turned his head toward the right so as almost to face the fire, the while he made the peculiar noise, "bū ..." characteristic of this dance. Meanwhile he turned his head slowly, first to the right and then to the left, until he had done this four times in each direction.