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
knocked the ashes and tobacco out of his pipe and rubbed the latter on
the feet, legs, abdomen, chest, shoulders, forehead, and mouth of each
of the bears in turn, and they were at once resuscitated. He replaced
the pipe in the corner of his robe. When the bears recovered they
assigned to the Navajo a place on the east side of the fire where he
might lie all night, and they brought out their stores of corn meal and
tciltcin and other berries and offered them to him to eat; but
Qastcèëlçi warned him not to touch the food and again disappeared. So,
hungry as he was, the Indian lay down supperless to sleep. When he woke
in the morning the bears again offered food, which he again declined,
saying he was not hungry. Then they showed him how to make the bear
kethàwns, or sticks to be sacrificed to the bear gods, and they drew
from one corner of the cave a great sheet of cloud, which they unrolled,
and on it were painted the forms of the yays of the cultivated plants.
As he departed the bears said, “There are others in these parts who have
secrets to tell you. Yonder is Tsenástci, where many dwell.” So he set
forth for Tsenástci (Circle of Red Stones.)
41. As he passed down the valley he heard a loud rushing noise be hind
him, and looking around he beheld a tornado. The air was filled with
logs and uprooted trees, borne along by the great storm. It came nearer
and seemed to be advancing to destroy him. He was terrified and cried
out to the storm: “Ciyèïcçe, Dsilyi‘ Neyáni. Quaïláçi?” (“’Tis I, Reared
Within the Mountains. Who art thou?”) The tempest recognized him and
subsided, and in its place appeared four men in the shape of the glòï or
weasel. The four weasel men showed him how to make the glòï-bikeçan, or
sacrificial sticks of the glòï. What name the Navajo bore before this
time the ancient tale does not tell us; but from the moment he said
these words he was called among the gods Dsilyi‘ Neyáni, and was
afterwards known by this name among his people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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