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
About noon a circular bed of sand, some four inches in height and four
feet in diameter, was made. Five grains of corn and five pine boughs
were laid thereon; four of the grains of corn and four of the boughs
were placed to the cardinal points. The fifth and center branch of pine
covered most of the circle, its tips pointing to the east. The fifth
grain of corn was dropped in the center of the sand bed. (See Pl.
CXVII, 1). Four of these pine boughs were cut from the east, south,
north, and west sides of one tree. The fifth bough may be taken from any
part of the tree. Of the five grains of corn one must be white, one
yellow, and one blue, and the other two grains may be of either of these
three colors. On this particular occasion there were two blue, two
white, and one yellow. These grains were, after the ceremony, dried and
ground by the theurgist and placed among his medicines. The boughs and
sand absorbed the disease from the invalid, and at the close of the
ceremony they were carried to the north and deposited in a shady spot
that the sun might not touch and develop the latent disease that had
been absorbed by them. The boughs and sand were never afterward to be
touched. An Apache basket containing yucca root and water was placed in
front of the circle. (See Pl. CXVII 2.) There was a second basket south
of it which contained water and a quantity of pine needles sufficiently
thick to form a dry surface, and on the top a number of valuable
necklaces of coral, turquois, and silver. A square was formed on the
edge of the basket with four turkey wands. (See Pl. CXVII 3.) The
song-priest with rattle led the choir. The invalid sat to the northeast
of the circle; a breechcloth was his only apparel. During the chanting
an attendant made suds from the yucca. The basket remained in position;
the man stooped over it facing north; his position allowed the sunbeams
which came through the fire opening to fall upon the suds. When the
basket was a mass of white froth the attendant washed the suds from his
hands by pouring a gourd of water over them, after which the song-priest
came forward and with corn pollen drew a cross over the suds, which
stood firm like the beaten whites of eggs, the arms of the cross
pointing to the cardinal points. A circle of the pollen was then made
around the edge of the suds. The attendant who prepared the suds touched
his right hand to the four points of the pollen lines and in the center
and placed it upon the head of the patient who first made a circle
embracing the sand and basket and then knelt upon the boughs in the
center of the sand.[3] A handful of the suds was afterwards put upon his
head. The basket was placed near him and he bathed his head thoroughly;
the maker of the suds afterwards assisted him in bathing the entire body
with the suds, and pieces of yucca were rubbed upon the body. The chant
continued through the ceremony and closed just as the remainder of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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