The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
History
The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))
Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
Zia Indians
As the chant opened, he stood west of the
line and facing the altar, and an adult member stood on the east side,
and each of them held an eagle plume in either hand and a gourd rattle
also in the right. The boy dipped with the plumes the ashes which lay
west of the line of meal and the man those which lay east of the line,
and sprinkled toward the north by striking the plumes held in the left
hand on the underside with the plume held in the right; again dipping
the ashes, the boy sprinkled toward the west and the man toward the
east; again lifting ashes, they passed to the south and sprinkled
there; the boy then crossed to the east of the line of meal and the man
to the west of the line, and when midway of the line the boy sprinkled
to the east and the man to the west; then, dancing before the altar,
they again lifted ashes and sprinkled to the north. When dancing, both
eagle plumes were held in the left hand and the rattle in the right.
Ashes were again lifted and thrown twice toward the zenith and then
thrown to the nadir. The sprinkling to the cardinal points, zenith and
nadir, was repeated fifteen times in the manner described. This was to
carry off all impurities of the mind, that it might be pure; that the
songs would come pure from the lips and pass straight over the road of
meal—the one road. The man and boy having resumed their seats in the
line, the vice-ho´naaite stood before the altar to the west side of
the line of meal, shook his rattle for a moment or two, then waved it
vertically in front of the altar, invoking the cloud people to come;
he then waved the rattle from the west to the east, repeating the
weird exhortation, his body being kept in motion by the bending of his
knees, his feet scarcely leaving the ground. The rattle was waved three
times from the west to the east, and then waved toward the west and
toward the altar, the east and to the altar; then, raising the rattle
high above his head, he formed a circle. This waving of the rattle was
repeated sixteen times. Previous to each motion he held the rattle
perfectly still, resting it on the eagle plumes which he held in the
left hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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