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
They brought in the pole to the area directly in front of the
dance-house, and here the following ceremony was performed: To the
upper end of the pole a streamer was attached. The fastest runner
among the participants took the end of this streamer, and the other
men, arranged usually in the order of their ability as runners,
grasped the pole at different points down to its butt. Behind this
line certain women who participated formed a second line. The pole was
then carried, at the top speed of the runners, four times around in a
contra-clockwise direction, the pivotal point being the hole in which
the pole was to rest, and over which its base was held. As they ran the
runners swayed the pole up and down, and the women threw upon the men
handfuls of a small, parched, black seed called gēhe´ (E).
Upon the completion of the fourth round some one of the runners shouted
loudly "ha ... ū ..." and at this signal all lifted the pole
vertically into place in the hole. The call was repeated as the pole
was about half way up. When in place, the pole was fixed by tramping
earth and stones about it.
Within a few minutes after the erection of the pole the
Gū´ksū-dancers appeared and stopped about two or three hundred
yards away from the dance-house. Some of the men had been attempting to
climb the pole, both men and women meanwhile throwing at them balls,
gala´l (E), of uncooked meal made of a certain grass seed.
As the Gū´ksū-dancers appeared in the distance the climbing
ceased, and the children who were to be initiated were collected about
the base of the pole. Boys who were to be thus initiated were called
yō´mta (E), while girls were called masa´nta (E). They ranged in
age from perhaps five to ten years. The dancers proceeded to the foot
of the pole, took the children in hand, and performed the following
ceremony, the object of which was to secure for the children good
health and to make them grow rapidly. The children were first made to
lie down upon the ground and were covered with blankets. Then, under
the supervision of the dancers, each child had two cuts made with a
broken shell across the small of its back and about an inch apart.
The cutting was done by the gaxa´ xale (E), an old man selected for
the purpose by the people of the village on account of his long life,
good health, and particularly his good heartedness. This was one of
the most important phases of the initiation, and upon it depended the
effect upon the life of the child. The children were in each case
covered completely with the blanket and were not permitted, under any
consideration, to look up during this part of the ceremony. They might
make any outcry they pleased, but if they attempted to look up from
the ground they were threatened and even beaten with the staffs of the
dancers. The cutting was done quite deeply, so that blood was always
drawn. The children were also prohibited from looking up into a tree
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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