Indians of North America -- Religion; Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies; Peyotism
The leader supplies the paraphernalia: the staff (ᴅo’ᴅę́ä, “brace-to
hold-stick”) of bois d’arc, the gourd rattle, eagle wing-bone whistle,
cedar incense, altar cloth, drum, and perhaps his personal “feathers”
for doctoring. The drum (ᴅωä´ᴅω or ʙώλkωᴅωä`ᴅω) is a No. 6 cast-iron
three-legged trade-kettle with the bail-ears filed off. The buckskin head
is well soaked and tied over the kettle, a third- or half-filled with
water into which ten or a dozen live coals (and sometimes herb-perfumes)
have been dropped; the Kiowa say the drum represents thunder, the water
in it rain, and the coals lightning. Seven marbles are put under the
buckskin around the outside kettle rim to serve as bosses for the thong
wound once-and-a-half times round them; the same thong is passed through
each loop and laced criss-cross seven times under the kettle, unknotted,
to tighten the head and form on the bottom the seven-pointed “Morning
Star.” The single drumstick (ʙωλkωtωn) is straight, carved, beaded, and
embellished with a buckskin tassel or fringe on the handle end. The
gourd-handle is also beaded and fringed, and tufted with red horse-hair
(ɢuλks’ǫgʸä) at the top end passing through the gourd, the neck of which
is plugged with half a spool; the gourd itself may be covered with
texts or symbolical drawings.[92] Participants are free after midnight
to use the cult drumstick and gourd or their individual ones as they
choose. Formerly “only the leader brought in the medicine fan with him,
but now many young men bring them in who have no special business to.”
These have a beaded and fringed cylindrical handle, with feathers loosely
supported in individual buckskin sockets sewed around the shafts; often
they are notched, tipped with horse-hair, or down feathers are added at
the base—as individual “visions” dictate. The leader also supplies the
fetish “father peyote,” but no Bible is used in the Kiowa or usual Plains
ceremony.[93] Formerly only old men and warriors attended meetings, but
now women and girls over thirteen come in, when not menstruating, though
they may not sing the songs or use the paraphernalia.[94]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account