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
78. From Lejpáhi¢o the family moved to Dsildjoltcín¢i (Mountain of
Hatred). Thence they went to Tsinbiláhi (Woods on One Side), and from
there to Tse‘yuçáhia‘ (Standing Rock Above). In this place they encamped
but one night, and next day they moved to [¢]epè-aça¢ (Sheep
Promontory), and went on to [¢]epè-¢asi¢i (One Sheep Lying Down). Here
again they camped for the night. Next day they traveled by Tse‘atcàlçali
(Rock Cracked in Two) to Tcoyàjnaskíç (Hill Surrounded With Young Spruce
Trees), to Nigàqokaï (White Ground), and to Tse‘yistci¢ (Dipping Rocks,
i.e., dipping strata), where they stopped to rest for the night. On the
following day they journeyed to Çosakázi (Cold Water), in which place
they encamped again.
79. When the morning came, Dsilyi‘ Neyáni said to his younger brother,
“Let us go out and try to shoot some deer, so that we may make beça‘
(deer masks), such as we wore in [¢]epéntsa, where we killed so many
deer.” The brothers departed on the hunt and came to a place called
Dsil-líjin (Black Mountains), and they sat down on the side of the
mountains looking towards Tsòtsil. As they sat there Dsilyi‘ Neyáni
said, “Younger brother, behold the ¢igìni!” (holy ones); but the younger
brother could see no one. Then he spoke again, “Farewell, younger
brother! From the holy places the gods come for me. You will never see
me again; but when the showers pass and the thunder peals, ‘There,’ you
will say, ‘is the voice of my elder brother,’ and when the harvest
comes, of the beautiful birds and grasshoppers you will say ‘There is
the ordering of my elder brother.’”
80. As he said these words he vanished. The younger brother looked all
around, and seeing no one he started for his home. When he returned to
his people he told them of the departure of Dsilyi‘ Neyáni, and they
mourned as for one dead.
THE CEREMONIES OF DSILYÍDJE QAÇÀL.
81. It has been my lot to see portions of these ceremonies at various
times. The most complete view I had of them was during a visit made to a
place called Niqotlizi (Hard Earth), some twenty miles northwest from
Fort Wingate, New Mexico, and just within the southern boundary of the
Navajo Reservation. This was the only occasion when I obtained full
access to the medicine lodge on the later days of the ceremonies and had
an opportunity of observing the wonderful pictures on sand which are
illustrated in color in the accompanying plates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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