The song-priest having returned to the green room, emerged therefrom,
followed by Hasjelti, who carried a fawn skin partially filled with meal,
and by twelve dancers and Hostjoghon, holding in each hand a feather wand.
The twelve dancers represented the old man and woman six times duplicated.
Hasjelti led the dancers and Hostjoghon followed in the rear. When they
came near the lodge the song-priest turned and faced the dancers, and
being joined by the invalid, he led him down the line of dancers on the
north side, the invalid carrying a sacred meal basket, and sprinkled the
right side of each dancer. The song-priest and invalid then returned to
their seats in front of the lodge. Hasjelti passed down the line on the
north side and joined Hostjoghon at the east end of the line, both then
passing to the west end, where each one endeavored to be the first to
stamp twice upon the ground immediately in front of the leading dancer.
This double stamp is given with hoots, and they then returned down the
line to the center, when Hasjelti dashes back to the west end, clasping
the throat of the fawn skin with his right hand and holding the legs with
his left, with both his arms extended to the front. Hostjoghon extending
his hands with the feather wands in them, they point the head of the skin
and tops of the wands directly in front of them as they stand facing each
other, hooting at the same time. Reversing sides by dashing past each
other, Hasjelti points his fawn skin to the east while Hostjoghon points
his wands to the west. They then return to their respective positions as
leader and follower.
After the dance begins Hasjelti passes down the north side and joins
Hostjoghon at the east end of the dancers, Hasjelti keeping to the north
side of Hostjoghon. Three of the men, representing women, were dressed in
Navajo squaw dresses and three of them in Tusayan squaw dresses; they held
their arms horizontally to the elbow and the lower arm vertically, and,
keeping their feet close together, raised themselves simultaneously on
their toes. The dance was begun in single file, the men raising only their
right feet to any height and balancing on the left. After a minute or two
the line broke, the women passing over to the north side and the men to
the south side; almost instantaneously, however, they grouped into a
promiscuous crowd, women carrying a pine twig in each hand and the men a
gourd rattle in the right hand and a pine twig in the left. The men's
bodies were painted white and were nude, excepting the silk scarfs and
mountain lion and other skins worn around the loins. Just before the
stamping of the feet in the beginning of the dance, a rattle was shaken by
all the male dancers, which was the signal for a peculiar back motion of
the right arm and body and one which preceded the actual dancing. The six
males lean their bodies to the right side extending the right hand
backward, and then bringing it forward in a circular under sweep around to
the mouth with a hoot. They then turn and face the east, and bending their
bodies toward the south perform the same motion as before, when they turn
to the west and repeat it in that direction. At the same time the leader
and follower repeat their peculiar performance with the fawn skin and
wands to the east and west. Dancing promiscuously for a few moments to
song and rattle, the men representing women singing in feminine tones,
they form again in two lines, the women as before on the north side. The
man at the west end of the male line and the woman at the same end of the
female line, meeting each other midway between the lines she passes her
right arm through the arm of her partner, his arm being bent to receive
it; they pass between the line and are met a short distance from the other
end of the line by Hasjelti and Hostjoghon, who dance up to meet them, the
movement resembling closely the old-fashioned Virginia reel. The couple
then dance backward between the lines to their starting point, then down
again, when they separate, the man taking his place in the rear of the
male line and the woman hers in the rear of the female line. This couple
starting down the second time, the man and woman immediately next in line
lock arms and pass down in the same manner, Hasjelti and Hostjoghon
scarcely waiting for the first couple to separate before dancing up to
meet the second couple; the remaining couples following in like order
until the first couple find themselves in their former position at the
head of the line. Now a group dance is indulged in for a minute or two
when lines are again formed, and a second figure exactly like the first is
danced. This figure was again repeated without variation, after which the
men and women fell into single file, and, led by Hasjelti and followed by
Hostjoghon, left the dancing ground. They did not go to the green,
however, but moved off a short distance to rest for a moment and returned.
Upon each return the invalid passed down the line on the north side
sprinkling each dancer with meal, Hasjelti and Hostjoghon performing with
the fawn skin and wands. This dance of four figures was repeated twelve
times, each time the dancers resting but a moment. After the twelve dances
the dancers passed to the green room, where they were relieved by a second
set of men. The second series of dances were exactly like the first. There
were twenty-one dances, four figures in each dance, and each time the
dancers appeared they were sprinkled with meal by the invalid, while
Hasjelti and Hostjoghon performed their antics with fawn skin and wands.
The third series embraced all the dances exactly like the above. The
fourth series embraced nineteen dances. The only variation in this was
that the leaders were often more clownish in their performances, and upon
several occasions only four men representing women appeared. In this case
two men danced together. Some of the dancers dropped out from weariness,
which caused diminution in some of the sets. The last dance closed at the
first light of day. The song-priest had preceded the last dancers to the
green room and awaited their arrival to obtain the masks, which were his
special property.