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
Black paint, masi´k (E) (literally, coals or charcoal), was most easily
obtainable and most freely used. It consisted of ordinary charcoal
from the fire. If a large surface was to be painted, the charcoal was
pulverized in the palms of the hands and rubbed on. If lines were
desired, this powder might be applied with the finger, or a piece
of charcoal might be used as a pencil. Also stripes were sometimes
produced by scraping off part of the paint with the fingernails,
leaving the skin exposed along these lines. In case a sticky surface
was required, as, for instance, when down was to be later applied, the
paint was mixed with saliva.
White paint, wala´lac (E), made from a whitish or very light blue
earth, was also considerably used. It was applied as was the black
paint.
Red paint, ōhma´_r_ (E), was made by pulverizing cinnabar, which was
a rather rare mineral in the Pomo region and was much prized and used
very sparingly.
For purposes of presentation it is simplest to divide the dances into
three classes: (1) those danced by men and women together; (2) those
danced by men; (3) those danced by women. Fairly full information
was obtained about some of these dances, while in other cases barely
the names were remembered. The following dances come under the first
heading:
gī´lak
ho´ho
cō´kin
dūtū´ka
ya´ya
yō
matcō´
lēhūye
kalī´matōtō
īwī´
he´lehela
gūnū´la
da´ma
dja´ne
kara´iya
sawe´t
DANCES IN WHICH MEN AND WOMEN PARTICIPATED
_Gī´lak._--The Gī´lak dance differed from most other Pomo dances
in that it consisted of two performances: one used for opening and
closing proceedings; the other, or main dance, coming in between.
The men painted with a single color (black, white, or red) all of the
face below the eyebrows, after which they scattered eagle-down upon
it. This gave the face a white, fluffy appearance. They painted the
chest and shoulders black. The legs were painted either all black or
all white. Then longitudinal stripes were scratched through the paint
with the fingernails. The arms were painted with three bands, each four
fingers in width; one about the middle of the upper arm, one about the
elbow, and one about the middle of the forearm.
Upon the top of the head each wore a feather tuft. This was parted
from front to rear, and the yellowhammer-feather forehead-band, which
was attached to the hair so as to hang down to the eyebrows, passed
through the part in this and hung down the back to about the hips. A
feather skirt tied just under the arms, and entirely covering the back,
completed the costume, except for a few green twigs which were held in
both hands directly in front of the face while the dance was actually
in progress. No whistle was used by these dancers.
[Illustration: Fig. 8--Position of dancers in _gī´lak ke_.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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