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
138. _Fifth dance._ It was after midnight when the blowing of a hoarse
buffalo horn announced the approach of those who were to perform the
fifth dance, the tcòhanoai alili or sun show. There were twenty-four
choristers and a rattler. There were two character dancers, who were
arrayed, like so many others, in little clothing and much paint. Their
heads and arms were adorned with plumes of the war eagle, their necks
with rich necklaces of genuine coral, their waists with valuable silver
studded belts, and their loins with bright sashes of crimson silk. One
bore on his back a round disk, nine inches in diameter, decorated with
radiating eagle plumes to represent the sun. The other carried a disk,
six and a half inches in diameter, similarly ornamented, to symbolize
the moon. Each bore a skeleton wand of reeds that reminded one of the
frame of a great kite; it was ornamented with pendant eagle plumes that
swayed with every motion of the dancer. While the whole party was
passing round the fire in the usual manner wands were waved and heads
bowed towards the flames. When it stopped in the west the choristers sat
and sang and the rattler stood and rattled, while the bearers of the sun
and the moon danced at a lively rate for just three minutes. Then the
choristers rose and all sang and danced themselves out of sight.
A second performance of this dance came between the first and second
repetitions of the next show.
139. I have recorded one story (but have heard of another) accounting
for the origin of this dance; it is as follows: When Dsilyi‘ Neyáni
visited the mountain of Bistcàgi, the home of Estsàn ¢igìni, these
divine beings had for ornaments on their walls the sun and the moon.
When the great mythic dance was given they were among the guests. They
brought their wall decorations, and when the time for their alili came,
they wore the sun and the moon on their backs when they danced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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