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
If you will go after the dead deer you must expect to be
killed." "We will not think of them longer; they are dead and gone. We are
talking of things of long ago." The younger brother sat quietly below and
listened to everything that was being said.
After a time the crows on the other side of the canyon made a great noise
and began to dance. They had many songs at that time. The youth could not
see what they were doing, but he listened all the time. After the dance
began a great fire was made, and then he could see black objects moving,
but he could not distinguish any people. He recognized the voice of
Hasjelti. Though the youth was crazy, he remembered everything in his
heart. He even remembered the words of the songs that continued all the
night; he remembered every word of every song. He said to himself, "I will
listen until daylight." These people did not remain on one side of the
canyon where the first fires were built, but they crossed and recrossed in
their dance and had fires on both sides of the canyon. They danced back
and forth until daylight (on the ninth night of the Hasjelti Dailjis was a
repetition of this dance), when all the crows and the other birds flew
away to the west. All that he saw after they left was the fires and smoke.
The crazy youth then started off in a run to his brothers’ camp to tell
what he had seen and heard. His brothers were up early and saw the boy
approaching. They said, "I bet he will have lots of stories to tell. He
will say he saw something no one ever saw, or somebody jumped on him." And
the brother-in-law who was with them said, "Let him alone; when he comes
into camp he will tell us all, and I believe these things do happen, for
he could not make up these things all the time."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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