Before noon two sheepskins were spread one upon the other before the
song-priest. Upon these was laid a blanket, and on the blanket pieces of
cotton. These rugs extended north and south. The theurgist then produced a
large medicine bag, from which a reed was selected. The reed was rubbed
with a polishing stone, or, more accurately speaking, the polishing stone
was rubbed with the reed, as the reed was held in the right hand and
rubbed against the stone, which was held in the left. It was then rubbed
with finely broken native tobacco, and afterwards was divided into four
pieces, the length of each piece being equal to the width of the first
three fingers. The reeds were cut with a stone knife some 3-1/2 inches
long. An attendant then colored the tubes. The first reed was painted
blue, the second black, the third blue, and the fourth black. Through all
these, slender sticks of yucca had been run to serve as handles while
painting the tubes and also to support the tubes while the paint was
drying. The attendant who cut the reeds sat left of the song-priest,
facing east; a stone containing the paints was placed to the north of the
rug; and upon the end of the stone next to himself the reed-cutter
deposited a bit of finely broken tobacco. In cutting the reeds
occasionally a bit splintered off; these scraps were placed by the side of
the tobacco on the northeast end of the rug.
[Illustration]
The attendant who colored the reeds sat facing west; and as each reed was
colored it was placed on the rug, the yucca end being laid on a slender
stick which ran horizontally. The first reed painted was laid to the
north. Three dots were put upon each blue reed to represent eyes and
mouth; two lines encircled the black reeds. Four bits of soiled cotton
cloth were deposited in line on the east of the rug. The three attendants
under the direction of the song-priest took from the medicine bag, first
two feathers from the Arctic blue bird (_Sialia arctica_), which he placed
west of the bit of cloth that lay at the north end of the rug; he placed
two more of the same feathers below the second piece of cloth; two under
the third, and two below the fourth, their tips pointing east. Then upon
each of these feathers he placed an under tail-feather of the eagle. The
first one was laid on the two feathers at the north end of the rug; again
an under tail-feather of the turkey was placed on each pile, beginning
with that of the north. Then upon each of these was placed a hair from the
beard of the turkey, and to each was added a thread of cotton yarn. During
the arrangement of the feathers the tube decorator first selected four
bits of black archaic beads, placing a piece on each bit of cloth; then
four tiny pieces of white shell beads were laid on the cloths; next four
pieces of abalone shell and four pieces of turquois.
In placing the beads he also began at the north end of the rug. An aged
attendant, under the direction of the song-priest, plucked downy feathers
from several humming-birds and mixed them together into four little balls
one-fourth of an inch in diameter and placed them in line running north
and south, and south of the line of plume piles. He sprinkled a bit of
corn pollen upon each ball; he then placed what the Navajo term a
night-owl feather under the balls with its tip pointing to the northeast.
(See Pl. CXIII). The young man facing west then filled the colored reeds,
beginning with the one on the north end. He put into the hollow reed,
first, one of the feather balls, forcing it into the reed with the quill
end of the night-owl feather. (A night-owl feather is always used for
filling the reeds after the corn is ripe to insure a warm winter; in the
spring a plume from the chaparral cock, _Geococcyx californianus_, is used
instead to bring rain). Then a bit of native tobacco was put in. When the
reed was thus far completed it was passed to the decorator, who had before
him a tiny earthen bowl of water, a crystal, and a small pouch of corn
pollen. Holding the crystal in the sunbeam which penetrated through the
fire opening in the roof, he thus lighted the cigarettes which were to be
offered to the gods. The forefinger was dipped into the bowl of water and
then into the corn pollen, and the pollen that adhered to the finger was
placed to the top of the tube. After the four tubes were finished they
were placed on the pieces of cloth, not, however, until a bit of pollen
had been sprinkled on the beads which lay on the cloth. The pollen end of
the tube pointed to the east. The four bunches of feathers were then laid
on the tubes. The song-priest rolled up each cloth and holding the four
parcels with both hands he placed them horizontally across the soles of
the feet, knees, palms, breast, back, shoulders, head, and across the
mouth of the invalid, and the invalid drew a breath as the parcel touched
his lips. He sat to the north of the rug facing east. The sick man then
received the parcels from the song-priest and held them so that the ends
projected from between the thumbs and forefingers, and repeated a prayer
after the theurgist, who sat facing the invalid. The prayer ran thus:
People of the mountains and rocks, I hear you wish to be paid. I
give to you food of corn pollen and humming-bird feathers, and I
send to you precious stones and tobacco which you must smoke; it
has been lighted by the sun's rays and for this I beg you to give
me a good dance; be with me. Earth, I beg you to give me a good
dance, and I offer to you food of humming-birds' plumes and
precious stones, and tobacco to smoke lighted by the sun's rays,
to pay for using you for the dance; make a good solid ground for
me, that the gods who come to see the dance may be pleased at the
ground their people dance upon; make my people healthy and strong
of mind and body.
The prayer being offered, the parcels were given by the theurgist to an
attendant, who deposited them in line three feet apart along the side of
the dancing ground in front of the lodge. Their proper place is
immediately on the ground that is to be danced upon, but to prevent them
from being trampled on they are laid to one side. The black tubes are
offerings to the gods and the blue to the goddesses of the mountains and
to the earth.