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
106. All was ready now for the treatment of the sick woman. She was sent
for, and a crier went to the door of the lodge to announce that song and
ceremony were to begin. Accompanied by another woman, she entered,
carrying a basket with corn meal in it. This she sprinkled lightly over
the picture and then handed it to some of the assistants, who finished
the work she had begun by strewing the meal plentifully on the figures.
She sat on the form of the god in the east, facing the door, with her
feet extended, and her companion sat on the figure of the cornstalk in
the southeast. (Plate XVI.) In the mean time the medicine man had made a
cold infusion in an earthen bowl and placed it on the hands of the
rainbow figure (paragraph 169), laying over it a brush or sprinkler made
of feathers, with a handle of colored yarn. When the women were seated,
the chanter dipped his brush in the solution; sprinkled the picture
plentifully; touched each divine figure with the moistened brush in
three places-brow, mouth, and chest; administered the infusion to the
women, in two alternate draughts to each; drained the bowl himself; and
handed it to the bystanders, that they might finish the dregs and let
none of the precious stuff go to waste. Next came the fumigation. The
woman whom we have designated as the companion rose from her seat on the
picture and sat on the ground beside the door. The principal patient
retained her seat on the eastern god. Near each a live coal was laid on
the ground. On the coal a strong scented but rather fragrant mixture was
thrown, and as the fumes arose the women waved them towards their faces
and breathed them in as before. The coal was extinguished and carefully
removed, as on previous occasions. The application of the sacred dust to
the body of the patient followed. The shaman moistened his hands with
saliva and pressed them to the feet of all the gods. Some of the powder,
of course, stuck to his palms. This he applied to the feet of the
patient. Thus he took dust from the knees, abdomens, chests, shoulders,
and heads of the figures and applied it to corresponding parts of the
patient’s form, making a strong massage with each application.
107. When the patient had departed many of the spectators advanced to
the picture and gathered the corn pollen (paragraphs 105 and 112), now
rendered doubly sacred, and put it in their medicine bags. Some took
portions of the remaining dust from the figures, after the manner of the
shaman, and applied it to ailing portions of their persons. If the
devotee had disease in his legs, he took dust from the legs of the
figures; if in his head, the dust was taken from the heads of the
figures, and so on.
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