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
snakes are four more of much greater length; they form a frame or
boundary to the picture, except in the west, where the mountain of
Dsilyà-içín lies beyond them. There is a white snake in the east, lying
from north to south and bounding the picture in the east; a blue snake,
of similar size and shape, in the south; a yellow one in the west, and a
black one in the north. They seem as if following one another around the
picture in the direction of the sun’s apparent course, the head of the
east snake approximating the tail of the south snake, and so on.
162. In the northeast is seen the yay, Niltci, who accompanied the
Navajo prophet to the home of the snakes. In the extreme west is a black
circular figure representing the mountain of Dsilyà-içín. In the
original picture the mountain was in relief--which I have not attempted
to represent--a little mound of about ten or twelve inches high. The
description of the mountain given in the myth is duly symbolized in the
picture, the halo added. The green spot in the center is designed to
represent a twig of spruce which was stuck in the mound of sand to
indicate the spruce tree door. From the summit of the mountain to the
middle of the central waters is drawn a wide line in corn meal, with
four footprints, depicted at intervals, in the same material. This
represents the track of a bear. Immediately south of this track is the
figure of an animal drawn in gray pigment. This is the grizzly himself,
which here, I have reason to believe, is used as a symbol of the Navajo
prophet. The bear, in the sacred language of the shamans, is
appropriately called Dsilyi‘ Neyáni, since he is truly reared within the
mountains. His track, being represented by a streak of meal, has
reference to the same thing as the name akáninili and the practice of
the couriers (paragraph 102), who are dressed to represent the prophet,
throwing corn meal in front of them when they travel.
163. The SECOND PICTURE is said to be a representation of the painting,
which the prophet saw in the home of the bears in the Carrizo Mountains
(paragraph 40). In the center of this figure is the bowl of water
covered with black powder, to which I referred before. The edge of the
bowl is adorned with sunbeams, and external to it are the four
ca‘bitlol, or sunbeam rafts, on which seem to stand four gods, or yays.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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