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
must expect to be killed.” “We will not think of them longer; they are
dead and gone. We are talking of things of long ago.” The younger
brother sat quietly below and listened to everything that was being
said.
After a time the crows on the other side of the canyon made a great
noise and began to dance. They had many songs at that time. The youth
could not see what they were doing, but he listened all the time. After
the dance began a great fire was made, and then he could see black
objects moving, but he could not distinguish any people. He recognized
the voice of Hasjelti. Though the youth was crazy, he remembered
everything in his heart. He even remembered the words of the songs that
continued all the night; he remembered every word of every song. He said
to himself, “I will listen until daylight.” These people did not remain
on one side of the canyon where the first fires were built, but they
crossed and recrossed in their dance and had fires on both sides of the
canyon. They danced back and forth until daylight (on the ninth night of
the Hasjelti Dailjis was a repetition of this dance), when all the crows
and the other birds flew away to the west. All that he saw after they
left was the fires and smoke. The crazy youth then started off in a run
to his brothers’ camp to tell what he had seen and heard. His brothers
were up early and saw the boy approaching. They said, “I bet he will
have lots of stories to tell. He will say he saw something no one ever
saw, or somebody jumped on him.” And the brother-in-law who was with
them said, “Let him alone; when he comes into camp he will tell us all,
and I believe these things do happen, for he could not make up these
things all the time.”
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