Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians

by S. A. Barrett

The entire assemblage next entered the dance-house, the dancers going directly to their positions in the rear without the preliminary ceremony of entry which was required in most other ceremonies. The children were made to lie on the floor and were again covered with their blankets. The dancers then performed for their benefit, making a great deal of fun both of the children and of the scarification ceremony. They danced thus for a short time, then went on the west side of the fire, where they turned their heads slowly to the left four times, after which the people cried "ya...." The dancers then ran out and into the brush, where they took off and left their dancing paraphernalia. This ceremonial leaving of the dance-house was supposed to remove all illness from the village, the dancers taking it with them as they went out. The spirits which they represented supposedly returned at that time to their supernatural home at the south end of the world.

Another feature of the initiation in the Gū´ksū ceremony is described by a Central Pomo informant, who says that young men were initiated by being ceremonially shot with the bow and arrow.

STEPHEN POWERS ON THE GUKSU CEREMONY

Powers describes what he terms a "spear dance" among the Gallinomero (which evidently refers to this same ceremony), as follows:[22]

First they all unite, men and squaws together, in a pleasant dance, accompanied by a chant, while a chorister keeps time by beating on his hand with a split stick. In addition to their finest deerskin chemises and strings of beads, the squaws wear large puffs of yellowhammers' down over their eyes. The men have mantles of buzzards', hawks', or eagles' tail-feathers, reaching from the armpits down to the thighs, and circular headdresses of the same material, besides their usual breech-clouts of rawhide, and are painted in front with terrific splendor. They dance in two circles, the squaws in the outside one; the men leaping up and down as usual, and the squaws simply swaying their bodies and waving their handkerchiefs in a lackadaisical manner. Occasionally an Indian will shoot away through the interior of the circle and caper like a harlequin for a considerable space of time, but he always returns to his place in front of his partner.

After this is over, the coward or clown is provided with a long, sharp stick, and he and his prompter take their places in the ring ready for performances. A woman as nearly nude as barbaric modesty will permit is placed in the center, squatting on the ground. Then some Indian intones a chant, which he sings alone, and the sport, such as it is, begins. At the bidding of the prompter, the coward makes a furious sally in one direction, and with his spear stabs the empty air. Then he dashes back in the opposite direction and slashes into the air again. Next he runs some other way and stabs again. Now perhaps he makes a feint to pierce the woman. Thus the prompter keeps him chasing backward and forward, spearing the thin air toward every point of the compass, or making passes at the woman, until nearly tired out, and the patience of the American spectators is exhausted, and they begin to think the whole affair will terminate in "mere dumb show." But finally, at a word from the prompter, the spearman makes a tremendous run at the woman and stabs her in the umbilicus. She falls over on the ground, quivering in every limb, and the blood jets forth in a purple stream. The Indians all rush around her quickly and hustle her away to another place, where they commence laying her out for the funeral pyre, but huddle around her so thickly all the while that the Americans cannot approach to see what is done. Thus they mystify matters and hold some powwow over her for a considerable space of time, when she somehow mysteriously revives, recovers her feet, goes away to her wigwam, encircled by a bevy of her companions, dons her robe, and appears in the circle as well as ever, despite that terrible spear-thrust.

Men who have witnessed this performance tell me the first time they saw it they would have taken their oaths that the woman was stabbed unto death, so perfect was the illusion. Although this travesty of gladiatorial combat is intended merely for amusement, yet all the Indians, these stoics of the woods, gaze upon it with profound and passionless gravity. If they laugh at all it is only after it is all over, and at the mystification of the Americans.

Referring to another phase of the same dance, as practiced in another division of the Pomo, Powers says:

Their fashion of the spear dance is different from the Gallinomero. The man who is to be slain stands behind a screen of hazel boughs with his face visible through an aperture; and the spearman, after the usual protracted dashing about and making of feints, strikes him in the face through the hole in the screen. He is then carried off, revives, etc.[23]

The novices who were thus shot were called tcō´ktcōk (C) [plural tcō´ktcōkau], and the person who did the shooting, at the direction of the head captain, was called yo´mta (C). The informant did not state just where the shooting was performed and was not explicit as to its exact nature, but it appears probable that it occurred in the dance-house. These novices were forbidden to eat fresh manzanita berries and the flesh of the fawn, the gray squirrel, and the red-headed woodpecker. After the shooting ceremony the novices were taken out into the area directly in front of the dance-house, and here a ceremony of healing was performed over them by the one who shot them. He told them that they would have long life and health, and that a feast would be held for them in the course of a few days.

COMPLETION OF THE GUKSU CEREMONY

The Gū´ksū-dancers appeared only once each day in this Gū´ksū ceremony, though various other dances might be held during the day, and it was only upon the first morning that the ceremony about the pole and the scarification above described were held. The ceremony lasted, all told, six days. The ceremonies of the first day have just been described. Those of the following three days consisted of one appearance of the Gū´ksūs each day, accompanied by a simple dance.