The Nosa is remarkable for a regularity of structure which yields to analysis and has a certain monotonous harmony of sound.
The Atsugei has a sonorous roll, a strong letter r, and a certain number of words in common with the Shasti, itself one of the r languages.
GENERAL FIELD WORK.
WORK OF DR. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS.
Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon U. S. Army, continued his investigations among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona. He had been stationed in the Navajo country as post surgeon of Fort Wingate, N. Mex., from 1880 to 1884, during which time he devoted himself to studying the language, customs, and ceremonies of this tribe as much as his official duties would permit. Some of the great shamanistic ceremonies of the Navajo, occupying nine days for their performance, he had often seen in part; but he had never had an opportunity of witnessing one throughout its entire duration, as he had not sufficient time at his disposal.
Before leaving New Mexico, however, he secured the friendship and confidence of some of the leading medicine men and obtained their promise to admit him to their most secret rites during their entire performance whenever he should be able to avail himself of the privilege. He was also promised complete instruction in the mythology and symbolism of these rites.
In the autumn of 1884 he was given an opportunity, under the auspices of the Bureau of Ethnology, to return to the Navajo country and devote himself for a considerable time entirely to anthropologic studies among the people.
He first visited the Navajo who dwell in the neighborhood of the San Mateo mountains, the Tsotsildinè, or people of the Great Peak, a local division or subtribe living much farther to the east and having longer and more intimate associations with Mexicans and Americans than the main body of the people. While at this place, he ascended the peak of San Mateo, or Mount Taylor, a mountain held sacred by the Navajo, to observe the various places on the mountain mentioned in the Navajo myths.
Leaving San Mateo he proceeded to Fort Wingate, and learning that one of the most important of the Navajo rites was about to be celebrated at a place called Niqotlizi (Hard Earth), north of Fort Wingate on the Navajo reservation, he repaired thither without delay. The ceremony which he went to witness was that of dsilyídje-qaçàl, or mountain chant. It is also called Ilnasjingo-qaçàl, or chant in the dark circle of branches, from the great corral of evergreens in which the public rites of the last night are performed. It is known to the white men who live among these Indians as the hoshkawn dance, from one of the public dances of the last night, in which the Indian jugglers pretend to grow and develop the hackàn, or Yucca baccata. This last night's performance is varied and interesting and all persons, including whites and Indians of other tribes, are permitted to witness it; but previously, for several days, mystic rites are celebrated in the medicine lodge, to the most of which only the initiated are admitted. Dr. Matthews remained ten days in the Indian camp at Niqotlizi, during which time the shamans admitted him into their medicine lodge and allowed him to observe their rites and practices.
His most interesting discovery on this occasion was that of their system of mythic dry paintings, by which they represent various legends or traditions with dry pigments on the sanded floor of the medicine lodge. A full account of the ceremonies and of the myth on which they are based was prepared by Dr. Matthews and appeared in the Fifth Annual Report of this Bureau.