Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the Navajo Indians — John Shaqi
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
which were gifts to the song priest from the invalid, were gathered
together by the song priest and carried by an attendant to the medicine
lodge. An attendant erased the rainbow by sweeping his hand from the feet
to the head, drawing the sands with him, which were gathered into a
blanket and carried to the north and deposited at the base of a piñon
tree. The song priest placed the wands in a basket, and thus, preceded by
the invalid, carried them in both hands to the medicine lodge singing a
low chant. The sweat house was not carelessly torn down, but was taken
down after a prescribed form. Four men commenced at the sides toward the
cardinal points, and with both hands scraped the sand from the boughs.
When this was all removed the boughs were carefully gathered and conveyed
to a piñon tree some 50 feet distant and fastened horizontally in its
branches about 2 feet above the ground. The heated stones from the
interior of the sweat house were laid on the boughs; the upright logs
which formed the frame work of the house were carried to a piñon tree, a
few feet from the tree in which the boughs and heated stones were placed,
and arranged crosswise in the tree, and on these logs corn meal was
sprinkled and on the meal a medicine tube (cigarette) was deposited. The
tube was about 2 inches long and one third of an inch in diameter, and it
contained a ball composed of down from several varieties of small birds,
sacred tobacco, and corn pollen. It was an offering to Hasjelti. Meal was
sprinkled on the tube. The ground on which the house had stood was
smoothed over, the ashes from the fire carefully swept away, and thus all
traces of the ceremony were removed. The invalid upon entering the lodge
took his seat on the west side facing east. The song priest continued his
chant. He took from the meal bag some sacred meal and placed it to the
soles of the feet of the invalid and on his palms, knees, breast, back,
shoulders, and head. At the conclusion of this ceremony all indulged in a
rest for an hour or more. The bark cups which contained the colored sands
for decorating were placed in the medicine lodge north of the door.
SWEAT HOUSES AND MASKS.
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