[6] These words are in the Eastern Pomo dialect.
[THE GHOST OR DEVIL CEREMONY]
This ceremony was perhaps the most important of the four-day ceremonies of the Pomo. It was usually held in the spring and was witnessed only by properly initiated men, never by women or children. The uninitiated men, as well as the women and children, were much afraid of these dancers and kept a very respectful distance when they entered the village. This was due to the belief that to approach closely would produce serious illness.
Such esoteric ceremonies are unusual among the Pomo, though they occur among other California tribes. As examples might be mentioned the Hesi ceremony among the Wintun and Maidu, especially among the Maidu, who have a definite secret society.
STEPHEN POWERS ON THE GHOST DANCE
The ghost dance of the Pomo has been attributed by Powers [7] to a secret society. In speaking of the subject of chastity among the Pomo, he describes a "devil-raising" ceremony conducted by what he terms a "secret society" which had several branches in the various Pomo villages. His description of this ceremony is given from information obtained by him from an old resident closely connected with the Indians of the region in early days, and, while his assumptions and deductions are in many respects incorrect, it is plainly a description of the ghost dance.
After speaking of the "secret society ... whose simple purpose is to conjure up infernal terrors and render each other assistance in keeping their women in subjection," Powers says: [8]
Their meetings are held in an assembly-house erected especially for the purpose, constructed of peeled pine-poles. It is painted red, black, and white (wood color) on the inside in spiral stripes reaching from the apex to the ground. Outside it is thatched and covered with earth. When they are assembled in it there is a doorkeeper at the entrance who suffers no one to enter unless he is a regular member, pledged to secrecy. Even Mr. Potter, though a man held in high honor by them, was not allowed to enter, though they offered to initiate him, if he desired. They do not scruple to avow to Americans who are well acquainted with them, and in whose discretion they have confidence, that their object is simply to "raise the devil," as they express it, with whom they pretend to hold communication; and to carry on other demoniacal doings, accompanied by frightful whooping and yelling, in order to work on the imaginations of the erring squaws, no whit more guilty than themselves.
Once in seven years these secret woman-tamers hold a grand devil-dance (cha-du-el-keh), which is looked forward to by the women of the tribe with fear and trembling as the scourging visit of the dreadful Yu-ku-ku-la (the devil). As this society has its ramifications among the many Pomo tribes, this great dance is held one septennium in one valley, another in another, and so on through the circuit of the branch societies.
Every seven years, therefore, witnesses the construction of an immense assembly-house which is used for this special occasion only. I have seen the ruins of one which was reared in Potter Valley somewhere about the year 1860. The pit, or cellar, which made a part of it was circular, sixty-three feet in diameter and about six feet deep, and all the enormous mass of earth excavated from it was gouged up with small, fire-hardened sticks and carried away in baskets by both men and women, chiefly men. It was about eighteen feet high in the center, and the roof was supported on five posts, one a center pole and four others standing around it, equidistant from it and the perimeter of the pit. Timbers from six to nine inches in diameter were laid from the edge of the pit to the middle posts, and from these to the center pole. Over these were placed grass and brush, and the whole was heavily covered with earth. Allowing four square feet of space to each person, such a structure would contain upward of seven hundred people. In their palmy days hundreds and even thousands of Indians attended one of these grand dances.
When the dance is held, twenty or thirty men array themselves in harlequin rig and barbaric paint and put vessels of pitch on their heads; then they secretly go out into the surrounding mountains. These are to personify the devils. A herald goes up to the top of the assembly-house and makes a speech to the multitude. At a signal agreed upon in the evening the masqueraders come in from the mountains, with the vessels of pitch flaming on their heads, and with all the frightful accessories of noise, motion, and costume which the savage mind can devise in representation of demons. The terrified women and children flee for life, the men huddle them into a circle, and, on the principle of fighting the devil with fire, they swing blazing firebrands in the air, yell, whoop, and make frantic dashes at the marauding and bloodthirsty devils, so creating a terrific spectacle, and striking great fear into the hearts of the assembled hundreds of women, who are screaming and fainting and clinging to their valorous protectors. Finally the devils succeed in getting into the assembly-house, and the bravest of the men enter and hold a parley with them. As a conclusion of the whole farce, the men summon courage, the devils are expelled from the assembly-house, and with a prodigious row and racket of sham fighting are chased away into the mountains.
After all these terrible doings have exercised their due effect upon the wanton feminine mind, another stage of the proceedings is entered upon. A rattlesnake was captured some days beforehand, its fangs were plucked out, and it was handled, stroked, fed, and tamed, so that it could be displayed with safety. The venerable, white-haired peace-chief now takes his station before the multitude, within the great assembly-house, with the rattlesnake before him as the visible incarnation of the dreadful Yukukula. Slowly and sonorously he begins, speaking to them of morality and feminine obedience. Then warming with his subject, and brandishing the horrid reptile in his hand full in the faces and over the heads of his shuddering auditors, with solemn and awful voice he warns them to beware, and threatens them with the dire wrath of Yukukula if they do not live lives of chastity, industry, and obedience, until some of the terrified squaws shriek aloud and fall swooning upon the ground.
Referring again to the "devil dance," as practiced among the Gualala, Powers says:[9]