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
At 10 o’clock the ceremonies opened by the entrance upon the avenue of
the song-priest who came from the green room. He wore a rich red blanket
and over this a mountain lion skin; immediately after him followed
Hasjelti, leading the four Etsethle (the first ones). These represented
first, natan (corn); second, natin (rain); third, nanase (vegetation);
fourth, jadetin (corn pollen). Their masks were blue ornamented with
feathers and were similar to the masks worn by the dancers; their bodies
were painted white with many rare beads around their necks, and they
wore loin skirts with silver belts; a gray fox skin was attached pendant
to the back of the belt, and blue stockings, tied with red garters, and
moccasins completed their dress. They carried in their right hands gourd
rattles painted white. The handles of these may be of any kind of wood,
but it must be selected from some tree near which lightning has struck,
but not of the wood of the tree struck by lightning. Corn pollen was in
the palms of their left hands and in the same hand they carried also a
piñon bough. Hasjelti wore a suit of velvet ornamented with silver
buttons; he never speaks except by signs. They advanced single file with
a slow regular step and when within 20 feet of the lodge the priest
turned and faced Hasjelti and repeated a short prayer, when the Etsethle
sang.
SONG OF THE ETSETHLE.
From below (the earth) my corn comes
I walk with you.
From above water young (comes)
I walk with you.
From above vegetation (comes to the earth)
I walk with you.
From below the earth corn pollen comes
I walk with you.
These lines are repeated four times. The first line indicates that corn
is the chief subsistence; the second, that it is necessary to pray to
Hasjelti that the earth may be watered; the third, that the earth must
be embraced by the sun in order to have vegetation; the fourth, that
pollen is essential in all religious ceremonies. The Etsethle signify
doubling the essential things by which names they are known, corn,
grain, etc., they are the mystic people who dwell in canyon sides
unseen. After the song the invalid with meal basket in hand passed
hurriedly down the line of gods and sprinkled each one with meal,
passing it from the right hand up to the right arm, to the head then
down the left arm to the hand, placing a pinch in the palm of the left
hand. The invalid then returned and stood to the north side of Hasjelti
who was to the left of the song-priest. The theurgist stood facing natan
(corn) and offered a prayer which was repeated by the invalid.
Continency must be observed by the invalid during the nine days
ceremonial and for four days thereafter.
PRAYER TO THE ETSETHLE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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