Ceremonies of the Pomo IndiansBarrett, S. A. (Samuel Alfred)
Religion
Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians
Barrett, S. A. (Samuel Alfred)
Pomo Indians -- Social life and customs; Pomo dance
The crier continued his calls until finally the leader of the dancers
walked along a zigzag path to a position about one-quarter of the
distance between the line of dancers and the dance-house (see fig. 2).
Here he halted and cried "wuī´ ..." after which the crier at the
dance-house called all the initiated men of the village to assemble.
There was a fixed restriction against the presence of the uninitiated
in this assembly. One informant maintained that the ceremony, as held
in his locality (the coast of the Central Pomo area), required that
four posts be set up, each at a distance of several yards from the
dance-house, as is shown in figures 1 and 2, the imaginary lines from
post to post forming an inclosure for the dance-house and its immediate
vicinity, within which none but the initiated dared venture.
The singers and others officially concerned with the dance came from
within the dance-house and formed two lines, one on each side of the
outer door of the tunnel, as indicated by the small crosses in figure
2. As the crier gave his call, the initiates answered with a cry of
"ye ..." after which they formed these two lines between which the
ghost-dancers must pass to enter the dance-house.
At the outer ends of these lines were two masters of ceremonies
who directed the ceremony from this point on to its close. They
first chased each of the dancers[15] as he came to enter the house,
returning each time to the heads of the two lines, there to await the
arrival of the next dancer. These masters of ceremonies were called
xahlū´īgak käldaiyaū (E) or masa´n käldaiyaū (E), and were
entirely nude except for a head-net and a feather tuft on their heads.
[Illustration: Fig. 3--Course of each ghost-dancer entering
dance-house.]
The chief ghost-dancer entered the house backwards and started towards
the drum, passing, however, on the west or wrong side of the fire.
Before he had gone very far, he stopped and groped around with one
foot, as if to find his way, and finally inquired which way he should
go. Ghost-dancers used the same words in speaking that ordinary people
did, except that they inverted their statements and reversed the
meanings of words. In this case the spectators replied, "You must go on
the west side,"[16] meaning, of course, that the dancer was expected
actually to go down the east side of the dance-house. He then reversed
his direction, as is shown in figure 3, and circled four times about
the fire, finally passing to a position in front of the center pole.
The spectators meanwhile constantly called out to each dancer to pass
down the "east" side of the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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