Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
History
Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
The theurgist carried a bowl of water and pine needles, and an attendant
bore a gourd of water, a small vase of powdered herbs, and an Apache
basket containing corn meal, buckskin bags, horn of the mountain sheep
and a piece of hide cut from between the eyes of the animal. The
theurgist and attendant took seats to the right of the entrance of the
sweat house west of the medicine lodge. This sweat house was decorated
with the rainbow. Over the entrance were, first, two striped blankets,
one upon the other, a buckskin, and a piece of white cotton. Hot stones,
etc., having been previously placed in the sweat house, the sick man
entered. The song-priest and four attendants sang, accompanied by the
rattle. At the conclusion of the chant Hasjelti and Hostjoghon appeared
as on the previous days. Hasjelti lifted the coverings from the entrance
and the invalid came out and sat upon a blanket south of the entrance
and bathed both his hands in the bowl containing the pine needles and
water; he then drank of it and bathed his feet and legs to the thighs,
his arms and shoulders, body and face and head, and then emptied the
remainder over his back. Hasjelti manipulated the right leg with the
sheep’s horn and hide, rubbing the upper part of the leg with the right
hand, then the under part with the left; he then rubbed the sides of the
leg in the same manner, each time giving a hoot; the arms, chest, head,
and face were similarly manipulated. Hostjoghon repeated the hooting
every time he changed the position of the hands. Hasjelti, taking the
gourd containing the water and corn meal, gave four draughts of it to
the invalid, hooting each time the bowl was put to the lips; Hostjoghon
did the same. The song and rattle continued. Hasjelti, then put the
powdered plants from the small vase to the soles of the feet, knees,
palms, breast, back, shoulders, and top of the head of the invalid,
hooting each time an application was made; this was repeated by
Hostjoghon. The invalid took a sip from the bowl and rubbed the
remainder over his body. The song-priest then removed the wands from the
base of the sweat house and the coverings from the door; the pine boughs
and hot stones were also removed and the invalid preceded the
song-priest to the medicine lodge. All the wood of the sweat house was
placed in a tree, excepting four small pieces, which were deposited,
together with the pine boughs from the interior of the sweat house, in a
semicircle formed by the rocks from the sweat house at the base of a
piñon tree. A line of meal 2 inches in length running east and west was
sprinkled on the apex of the semicircle, and upon this line the black
tube was laid. A bit of meal was sprinkled on the tube and a quantity
over the pine boughs of this small shrine. Before sprinkling the meal on
the top of the medicine tube the attendant waved his hand in a circle
from left to right, calling “hooshontko;” meaning: Widespread blessings
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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