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 two masters of ceremonies took up their respective positions at
A and C (fig. 3) and danced back and forth along the lines AB and
CD. In starting the movement, they stood with hands outstretched
and bent their bodies sidewise toward the drum as they shouted
"hūtsaiya´hīī." They then ran rapidly sidewise to the opposite
ends of their respective courses, where they repeated the same bending,
this time in the opposite direction. When they had gone back and forth
over these courses and had returned to their original positions for
the fourth time, they again shouted as at first. This particular set
of the dance was repeated four times, thus completing this part. After
any such part had ended, it occasionally happened that one dancer
would continue his steps just as though the music were in full swing.
Ultimately one of his fellow-dancers would strike him lightly to call
his attention to the fact that the dance was over, and he also would
stop.
Four such parts completed the first division of the dance. After this
the masters of ceremonies advanced toward the ghost-dancers, motioning
them back toward the center pole with the palms of their hands turned
outward and held in front of them, while they said "hahyū´,
hahyū´" (repeated indefinitely).
The singers, masters of ceremonies, and the drummer then seated
themselves or stood a short distance away from the drum, and the
ghost-dancers proceeded with their ceremonial disrobing.
The chief ghost-dancer proceeded from the foot of the center pole by a
path, as is indicated in figure 4, leading around the center pole and
fire and back to the east side of the drum, which the ghost-dancers
term cūna´ bilat (E), literally "canoe worn out." Upon his arrival
at the drum the chief ghost-dancer made a speech in which he said
that he and his fellows "had come from the hollow stems of the grass,
crawling like snakes," to visit the people.
katsa´ mū_t_ō´lai | waha badū_t_´kiū (E)
grass hollow | travel like a snake
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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