Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the Navajo IndiansStevenson, James
Religion
Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the Navajo Indians
Stevenson, James
Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies
Baskets and bowls in unlimited quantity, filled with food, were placed in
a circle around the fire which now burned brightly. The guests formed into
groups and drew the food toward them, but did not touch it for a time. The
invalid, song-priest, and his attendants, indulged in a smoke which was
social and not religious, the white man’s tobacco being preferred on such
occasions. A girl and a boy, about 12 years of age, came into the lodge.
The boy was the son of the invalid, the girl his sister’s child. The boy
knelt at the northeast end of the rug and the girl at the southeast end.
They were richly dressed in Navajo blankets, coral necklaces, etc., and
they remained perfectly quiet. The theurgist and his attendants talked
together in an undertone, and if the inmates of the lodge spoke at all
their voices were scarcely audible. After a time the choir opened, led by
the song-priest with his rattle. During the singing the rattle was passed
from one to the other. The invalid did not join in the song. The choir
continued an hour without cessation, and then rested 2 minutes, and again
began and continued for another hour.(4) At the conclusion of the singing
the song-priest handed to the girl a wand of turkey plumes taken from a
basket of feathers which had stood, since the placing of the masks, on the
west side of him. Another wand was passed to the boy; and the children
received some instructions from the song-priest, who spoke in an
undertone, after which, an attendant filled with water from a wicker water
jug a basket that had stood throughout the ceremony at the east of the
rug.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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