The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 379-468 — John Shaqi
The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 379-468Matthews, Washington
Religion
The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 379-468
Matthews, Washington
Mountainway (Navajo rite); Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies
the last time, when the old man directed his daughters to dig some soap
root and make a lather. In this he bade his sons wash their hair and the
entire surface of their bodies well. When they were thoroughly cleansed,
he sent them out to set twelve stone fall traps, a task which occupied
all the rest of the day. For each trap they buried a flat stone with its
upper side on a level with the surface of the ground; on this they
sprinkled a little earth, so that the rat would suspect nothing; over
this they placed another flat stone, leaning at an angle and supported
by a slender stick, to which were attached berries of the aromatic sumac
as a bait. That night the young men sat up very late talking with their
father, and did not lie down to sleep until after midnight, when, as
their father directed, they lay side by side with their heads to the
east.
17. The elder brother arose early, stirred the embers and made a fire,
and soon the younger awoke. As they sat by the fire warming themselves,
the elder one said: “Younger brother, I had a dream in the night;
I dreamt I killed a buck deer.” And the younger replied: “Elder brother,
I, too, had such a dream, but that which I killed was a doe.” The old
man heard their words and rose, saying, “It is well, my children; go out
and try again.” They went out to visit their traps. The first one they
came to had fallen; they lifted the stone and found under it the body of
a rat. So each one in turn, as they visited it was found to have fallen,
killing in its fall some small animal; and they returned to the lodge
with twelve little creatures for their food. Then the old man told them
to take their bows and arrows and hunt for deer. “Hunt,” said he, “to
the east, the west, and the north, if you will, but do not pass to the
south of the lodge.” With these instructions they set out, each one in a
different direction. The elder brother had not traveled far when he saw
a herd of deer and shot one of the number. He skinned it, cut it up,
took the backbone, hide, and tallow, and hung the rest in a tree. As he
drew near the house, he saw his younger brother approaching from a
different direction with the hide and meat of a doe. When they entered
the hut, the old man asked which of the two deer was shot first. The
elder brother answered: “I think mine was, for I killed it early this
morning, soon after I left the house.”
“Well,” said the father, “this skin of the first slain is mine; go and
stretch it and dry it for me with care.” After this they went out
hunting every day for twelve days, but fortune seemed to have deserted
them; they killed no more game; and at the end of that time their supply
of meat was exhausted. Then the old man said: “It always takes four
trials before you succeed. Go out once more, and if you kill a deer do
not dress it, but leave it as it is.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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