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
When he had finished his prayer an old man came and danced around him,
and when the latter had done an old woman approached with a whistle in
her hand and she whistled all around him. This was for joy because they
had captured one of an alien tribe. Then his master motioned to him to
go into the tent. Here he was given a large bowl of berries of which he
ate his fill, and he was allowed to lie down and sleep undisturbed until
morning.
28. Next morning the Ute began to enter the tent. They came one by one
and in small groups until after a while there was a considerable crowd
present. Then they gave the Navajo to understand by signs that they
wished to know for what purpose he wore the mask and the buckskin. He
answered that he used them for no particular purpose, but only for a
whim. They repeated the question three times very pointedly and
searchingly, but he continued to make evasive replies. The fourth time
they addressed him they charged him to tell the truth and speak quickly,
reminding him that he was a prisoner whose life was in the hands of his
captors and telling him that if he did not disclose the use of his mask
and robe he would be killed before sunset, while if he revealed the
secret his life would be spared. He pondered but a short time over their
words and determined to tell them the truth. So he explained to them the
use of the mask and the robe in deceiving the deer and told the
wonderful power he had of getting game by shooting into certain bushes.
At dark they sent in two young men to be initiated into his mysteries.
He began by giving them a full account of all his father had done and
all he had shown him; he then taught them how to build the sweat-house,
how to make the mask, how to shoot the pluck, and how to walk like a
deer, and he made them practice the walk and the motions of the animal.
All this occupied eleven days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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