All over the reservation there are hundreds of little structures which
are miniature models, as it were, of the hogáns, but they lack the
projecting doorway. These little huts, scarcely as high as a man’s hip,
look like children’s playhouses, but they occupy an important place
both in the elaborate religious ceremonies and in the daily life of the
Navaho. They are the sweat houses, called in the Navaho language
_çó‘tce_, a term probably derived from _qáço‘tsil_, “sweat” and
_ĭnçĭníl‘tce_, the manner in which fire is prepared for heating the
stones placed in it when it is used. The structure is designed to hold
only one person at a time, and he must crawl in and squat on his heels
with his knees drawn up to his chin.
In the construction of these little huts a frame is made of three boughs
with forked ends, and these have the same names as the corresponding
timbers in a hogán. They are placed, as in the hogán, with the lower
ends spread apart like a low tripod. Two straight sticks leaned against
the apex form a narrow entrance, which, as in the hogán, invariably
faces the east. Numerous other sticks and boughs inclose the frame,
and enough bark and earth are laid on to make the structure practically
air-tight when the entrance is closed.
When the place is to be used a fire is made close beside it, and in
this fire numerous stones are heated. The patient to be treated is
then stripped, placed inside the little hut, and given copious drafts
sometimes of warm or hot water. The nearly red-hot stones are rolled in
beside him and the entrance is closed with several blankets, forming in
fact a hot-air bath. In a short time the air in the interior rises to a
high temperature and the subject sweats profusely. When he is released
he rubs himself dry with sand, or if he be ill and weak he is rubbed
dry by his friends. This ceremony has a very important place in the
medicine-man’s therapeutics, for devils as well as diseases are thus
cast out; but aside from their religious use, the _çó‘tce_ are often
visited by the Indians for the cleansing and invigorating effect of
the bath, with no thought of ceremonial. The Navaho, as a race or
individually, are not remarkable for cleanliness, but they use the
_çó‘tce_ freely.
[Illustration: Fig. 240--Low earth-covered shelter]
During the _Yébĭtcai_ dance or ceremony four _çó‘tce_ are set around the
song house, about 40 yards distant from it, one at each cardinal point.
The _qaçál‘i_, or chief medicine-man, sweats the patient in them on four
successive mornings, just at dawn, beginning with the east and using one
each morning. The _çó‘tce_ on the east is merely an uncovered frame, and
after the patient enters it and hot stones have been rolled in it is
covered with many blankets and a large buckskin is spread over all. On
this skin the _qaçál‘i_ sprinkles iron ochers and other colored sands
in striated bands, symbolic of the rainbow and sunbeams which covered
the early mythic houses. He and his assistants stand near the hut
shaking rattles and singing a brief song to Qastcéjĭni, at the
conclusion of which the patient is released. The initial spark of the
fire used at these ceremonies and for all religious purposes is obtained
by friction, and is regarded as essentially different from fire produced
by flint and steel or otherwise, because the first spark of friction
fire was brought from Qastcéjĭni, who is the god of the underworld fire.
The production of fire by friction is a very simple matter to these
Indians and is often done in play; frequently, under the windy
conditions that prevail in their country, in but little more time than a
white man can accomplish the same result with matches. For this purpose
they often use the dry, brittle stalks of the common bee weed (_Cleome
pungens_). The drill, which is whirled between the palms of the hands,
consists of a stalk perhaps a quarter of an inch in diameter. This is
made to revolve on the edge of a small notch cut into a larger stalk,
perhaps an inch in diameter. A pinch of sand is sometimes placed under
the point of the drill, the rapid revolution of which produces a fine
powder. This powder runs down the notch or groove, forming a little pile
on the ground. Smoke is produced in less than a minute, and finally, in
perhaps two minutes, tiny sparks drop on the little pile of dry powder,
which takes fire from them. By careful fostering by feeding with bits
of bark and grass, and with much blowing, a blaze is produced.
It is said that First-man made the first _çó‘tce_. After coming up the
_qadjinaí_, or magic reed, he was very dirty; his skin was discolored
and he had a foul smell like a coyote. He washed with water, but that
did not cleanse him. Then Qastcéjĭni sent the firefly to instruct him
concerning the _çó‘tce_ and how to rotate a spindle of wood in a notched
stick. As First-man revolved the spindle, or drill, between his hands,
Firefly ignited the dust at its point with a spark of fire which
Qastcéjĭni had given it for that purpose. There is another myth
concerning the origin of these little sweat houses which does not agree
with that just stated. According to this myth, the _çó‘tce_ were made by
the Sun when the famous twins, Nayénĕzgani and Ço‘badjĭstcíni, who play
so large a part in Navaho mythology, were sent to him by Estsánatlehi.
When they reached the house of the Sun they called him father, as they
had been instructed to do, but the Sun disowned them and subjected them
to many ordeals, and even thrust at them with a spear, but the mother
had given each of the youths a magic feather mantle impervious to any
weapon. Kléhanoai (the night bearer--the moon) also scoffed at them and
filled the mind of the Sun with doubts concerning the paternity of the
twins, so he determined to subject them to a further ordeal.
He made four _çó‘tce_, but instead of using wood in their construction
he made them of a metallic substance, like iron. He placed these at the
cardinal points and sent the moon to make a fire near each of them. This
fire was obtained from the “burning stars,” the comets. The _çó‘tce_
were made exceedingly hot and the twins were placed in them
successively; but instead of being harmed they came out of the last one
stronger and more vigorous than ever. Then the Sun acknowledged them
as his sons and gave the elder one the magic weapons with which he
destroyed the evil genii who infested the Navaho land. This is the
reason, the Navaho say, why it is well to have many _çó‘tce_ and to use
them frequently. Their use gives rest and sweet sleep after hard work;
it invigorates a man for a long journey and refreshes him after its
accomplishment.
First-woman, after coming up the _qadjinaí_, was also foul and ill
smelling, and after First-man she also used the _çó‘tce_. Hence the
Navaho women use the _çó‘tce_ like the men, but never together except
under a certain condition medical in character. The _çó‘tce_ is built
usually in some secluded spot, and frequently large parties of men go
together to spend the better part of a day in the enjoyment of the
luxury of a sweat bath and a scour with sand. On another day the women
of the neighborhood get together and do the same, and the men regard
their privacy strictly.