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
144. In a moment after they had disappeared the form of one personating
an aged, stupid, short sighted, decrepit man was seen to emerge slowly
from among the crowd of spectators in the east. He was dressed in an old
and woefully ragged suit and wore a high, pointed hat. His face was
whitened and he bore a short, crooked, wooden bow and a few crooked, ill
made arrows. His mere appearance provoked the “stoic” audience to
screams of laughter, and his subsequent “low comedy business,” which
excelled much that I have seen on the civilized stage, failed not to
meet with uproarious demonstrations of approval. Slowly advancing as he
enacted his part, he in time reached the place where the yucca stood,
and, in his imbecile totterings, he at length stumbled on the plant and
pretended to have his flesh lacerated by the sharp leaves. He gave a
tremulous cry of pain, rubbed saliva on the part supposed to be wounded,
and muttered his complaints in a weak and shaking voice. He pretended
then to seek for the plant, and was three times wounded in his efforts
to find it. At length, kneeling on the ground, with his face buried in
the leaves, he feigned to discover it, and rejoiced with querulous
extravagance over his success. When he had marked the spot and the way
back to it with an exaggerated burlesque of the Indian methods of doing
these things, he went off to find his “old woman” and bring her to pick
the fruit. Soon he returned with a tall, stalwart man, dressed to
represent a hideous, absurd-looking old granny. The latter acted his
part throughout the rest of the drama with a skill fully equal to that
of his comrade.
145. There were scenes in this drama which may not be told in this
connection. It will suffice to say here that when the yucca fruit was
picked and put in the basket the old man helped the “woman” to shoulder
her load and the pair left the corral. The hackàn-inçá‘ does not
invariably appear in the corral dance. I have attended one ceremony
where it was omitted. I have heard two descriptions of the dance which
differed very much from the one given above.
146. Many facts concerning not only the hackàn inçá‘, but other parts of
the mountain chant, have not been allowed to appear in this essay.
Recognized scientists may learn of them by addressing the author through
the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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