Third Day
First Ceremony
The construction of the second sweat house began at sunrise and was completed at nine o’clock. Several large rocks were heated and placed in the sweat house and as before white sage and Bigelovia Douglasii were thrown in, the fumes of which were designed as medicine for the sick man. After the invalid entered the sweat house, buckskin blankets, etc., were drawn over the entrance. The song-priest, accompanied by two attendants, sat a little to the south. He sprinkled meal around the west base of the house and over the top from north to south and placed the wands around its base in the manner heretofore described (the twelve wands and medicine used were the special property of the theurgist). The song-priest holding the rattle joined the choir in a chant. To his right were two Navajo jugs filled with water and an Apache basket partly filled with corn meal. A bunch of buckskin bags, one of the small blue medicine tubes, a mountain sheep’s horn, and a piece of undressed hide lay on the meal. Near by was a gourd half filled with water in which meal was sprinkled; near this was a small earthenware vase containing water and finely chopped herbs. At the conclusion of the chant the song-priest passed his rattle to one of the choir and stirred the mixture in the bowl with his forefinger, and after a few remarks to the invalid, who was still in the sweat house, he threw some of the mixture in upon the hot rocks. This was repeated four times, when the song-priest returned to his former position. The sweat-house priest took from his shoulders a Navajo blanket and spread it near the door a little to the right. A call from one of the attendants was a signal for Hasjelti and Hostjoghon to appear. The two men personating these gods were behind a tree south of the sweat house, their bodies, arms, and legs painted white. Foxskins were attached pendent to the backs of their girdles. As the gods approached the sweat house, the patient came out and sat upon the blanket, and Hasjelti took a mountain sheep’s horn, in the right hand and the piece of hide in the other and rubbed the sick man, beginning with the limbs; as he rubbed down each limb, he threw his arms toward the eastern sky and cried “yo-yo!” He also rubbed the head and body, holding the hands on opposite sides of the body. After this rubbing, the sick man drank from the bowl of medicine-water, then arose and bathed himself with the same mixture, the filled gourds being handed to him four times by Hasjelti, each time accompanied with his peculiar hoot. Hostjoghon repeated the same ceremony over the invalid. There was a constant din of rattle and chanting, the gods disappeared, and immediately thereafter the theurgist gathered the twelve wands from the base of the sweat house. He removed the blue reed from the basket and laid it a little to the left of the priest of the sweat house, who in turn handed it to an attendant to be deposited with the wood of the sweat house in a neighboring tree. The invalid proceeded to the medicine lodge followed by the song-priest uttering a low chant. After entering the lodge the invalid took his seat on the west side; the song-priest, still standing, took from a small buckskin bag white powdered material which he rubbed on the soles of the feet, palms, knees, breast, shoulders, and head of the invalid; then taking a pinch of the same material he extended his hand first toward the east and then toward the heavens and the earth. After these attentions he took his accustomed seat in the lodge and joined in conversation with his attendants.
Second Ceremony
Two sheepskins, a blanket, and cotton cloth were spread one upon the other in front of the song-priest; and from the long reeds that had been first rubbed with a polishing stone, then with tobacco, were cut ten pieces an inch and a quarter long and two pieces 2 inches long. These were colored black and blue, one long piece and five small ones being black, the others blue. While these were being decorated the song-priest and choir sang “My fathers, see, we are getting ready! We do our work well, and you would better go into the house for we are to have rain! Now, mothers, send down rain upon us!” This song was constantly repeated.
The tubes when completed were laid in position to form a dual person. The long black tube representing the body was first placed in position. The long blue tube was then laid by its side and south of it. The pollen end of the tubes pointed to the east. The right black leg was the next placed in position, then the right blue leg, the left black leg and left blue leg. The right black arm, then the right blue arm, the left black arm and the left blue arm, then the black head and the blue head. (See PI. CXV.)
These tubes were filled with feathers, balls, and tobacco, and tipped with the corn pollen and lighted with the crystal, the black tubes being offerings to the gods, the blue to the goddesses. After they were completed they were placed in position by a second attendant; and while the tubes were being filled the song-priest and choir sang “See, fathers! We fill these with tobacco; it is good; smoke it!” A message was received from the fathers that they would smoke, and, puffing the smoke from their mouths, they would invoke the watering of the earth. They again sang “All you people who live in the rocks, all you who are born among the clouds, we wish you to help us; we give you these offerings that you may have food and a smoke! All women, you who live in the rocks, you who are born among the fog, I pray you come and help us; I want you to come and work over the sick; I offer to you food of humming-birds’ plumes, and tobacco to smoke!” Two bunches of feathers which had been placed to the east side of the rug pointing east were deposited in two corn husks, each husk containing bits of turquoise, black archaic beads, and abalone shell; corn pollen was sprinkled on these. The song-priest then placed the dual body in the husks thus: First, the black body was laid upon the husks to the north, and upon this a pinch of pollen was sprinkled; the blue body was placed in the other husks and pollen sprinkled upon it; then the two right legs (black and blue) were put into the corn husks with the black body; the two left legs were added to the same; the right and left arms and the two heads were placed in the husk with the blue body and corn pollen sprinkled upon them. The husks were closed and held by the song-priest to the soles of the feet, palms, knees, breast, shoulders, back, and top of head of the invalid, who repeated a long prayer after the theurgist, and the parcels were given to an attendant, who carried them some distance from the lodge to the north and placed them in a secluded shady spot upon the ground. Two bits of tobacco were laid upon the ground and upon these the body was placed, the figure in a recumbent position with the arms over the head. The invalid for whom this ceremony was held spared no expense in having the theurgist make the most elaborate explanation to his near relatives of the secrets of the medicine tubes.
Third Ceremony
The theurgist occupied his usual seat, surrounded by his corps of attendants. The man personating Naiyenesgony had his body and limbs painted black. The legs below the knee, the scapula, the breasts, and the arm above the elbow were painted white. His loins were covered with a fine red silk scarf, held by a silver belt; his blue knit stockings were tied with red garters below each knee, and quantities of coral, turquois, and white shell beads ornamented the neck. The man representing Tobaidischinni had his body colored reddish brown, with this figure
(the scalp knot) in white on the outside of each leg below the knee, on each arm below the shoulder, each scapula, and on each breast. This design represents the knot of hair cut from the heads of enemies, and the style is still in use by the Navajo. The man wore a red woolen scarf around the loins, caught on by a silver belt, and his neck was profusely ornamented with coral, turquois, and white beads.1 Naiyenesgony and Tobaidischinni left the lodge, carrying with them their masks. (See Pl. cxv, 1, 2, 3.) Bunches of pine boughs, which during the forenoon had been made into wreaths by joining pieces together with yucca in this fashion were laid across each end of the rug.
After the two men personating the gods left the lodge the invalid entered and took his seat on the rug with his back to the theurgist. Two attendants dressed him with the wreaths, beginning with the right ankle; a piece was then tied around the calf, thigh, waist, around the chest, right wrist, elbow, upper arm, throat, forehead, then around the upper left arm, elbow, wrist, thigh, left knee, calf, and ankle. Thus the man was literally obscured with a mass of pine. He sat in an upright position with the legs extended and arms falling by his sides. A chant was sung by the song priest, and in a few minutes Naiyenesgony and Tobaidischinni appeared. Naiyenesgony drew his stone knife in front of the invalid over the forehead to the feet, then down the right side and down the back and down the left side. He then began to remove the pine. As each wreath was taken off the clusters were partly separated with the stone knife. Tobaidischinni assisted Naiyenesgony by holding the wreaths while they were being cut.
When all the evergreen had been removed the personators of the gods exclaimed, “Now, my people, we have killed all enemies!” and immediately left the lodge. The song priest placed a small wreath of the pine on the sick man’s head, and holding in his left hand a bunch of eagle plumes, and in his right hand a rattle, he sang the ten songs and prayers, assisted by the choir, that were given by Naiyenesgony and Tobaidischinni to the Navajo to bring health and good fortune. After the pine-bough wreaths had been separated the bits of yucca-strings were picked up by the attendant and handed to Naiyenesgony, who held them over the sick man’s head, after which the bits were again divided with the knife. After the ten songs and prayers had been chanted the invalid left the rug and sat a little to the northeast, of it, with his knees drawn up. The song priest placed two live coals in front of the invalid and sprinkled chopped herbs on the coals, the fumes of which the invalid inhaled. The pines were carried off and placed in the shade of a pine tree, that the disease might not leave the pine and return to the invalid.2
Fourth Ceremony
The personators of Hasjelti and Hostjoghon adorned themselves for the ceremony. Hasjelti wore ordinary clothing and a red scarf, with a silver belt around the waist. Hostjoghon’s body was painted white, and he wore a red woolen scarf around the loins, caught on with a silver belt. A rug, composed of a blanket and a piece of white cotton, was spread in front of the song priest, and the masks of Hasjelti and Hostjoghon placed thereon. (See Pl. CXV, 4,5,6.)
Upon the completion of the toilets of the personators of the gods they hurried from the lodge, bearing their masks with them, when an attendant made a cavity immediately in front of the rug 4 inches in diameter, and the song priest sprinkled a circle of meal around the cavity. The invalid entered the lodge and stood on the rug and removed all of his clothing except the breech cloth. He then took his seat facing east, with knees drawn up. A mask of the Hostjobokon, which had been laid upon the rug, was drawn over the invalid’s head. Hasjelti and Hostjoghon appeared at this juncture bearing a pine bough some 5 feet in height. An attendant made gestures over the sick man, holding in his right hand a pinch of sacred meal, which was afterward placed in the cavity. Hasjelti waved the pine bough five times around the invalid and planted it in the cavity, where it was held in place by the gods. Then bending its top, the attendant attached it to the mask over the invalid’s head by a buckskin string which was fastened to the mask. The song priest and choir all the while sang a weird chant. The gods raised the bough, gave their peculiar hoots, and disappeared from the lodge, carrying with them the pine bough with the mask attached to it. In a few minutes they came back with the mask. After the chant the song-priest placed meal on the soles of the invalid’s feet, knees, palms, breast, back, shoulders, and head, and then put some in the cavity, after which the cavity was filled with earth. Two coals were laid in front of the invalid, and upon these the song priest placed finely broken herbs; an attendant sprinkled water on the herbs, and the invalid inhaled the fumes. The cotton cloth was removed from the blanket rug, and the invalid stepped upon the rug and put on his clothing. When the mask was removed from the invalid’s head it drew all fever with it.