_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_
The Jicarillas, like their kindred the Navaho and Apache, pay much
attention to religion and ceremony. Compared with the Navaho their life
seems almost lacking in ceremony, but when contrasted with the various
Yuman tribes on the Colorado and Gila rivers of Arizona it is fairly rich.
Their healing or medicine rites include a dance, called _Isane_, that
occupies four days and four nights, and many one-day "sings," in all of
which dry-paintings are employed. Like the Apache the Jicarillas attach
much importance to the girls' puberty ceremony and still rigidly adhere to
it.
A four-day medicine dance is founded on the following legend:
Two maidens lived at the bottom of a deep pit. Many of the men wished to
marry them, but the girls were well content and refused to come out. The
Bear and the Snake formed a plan to carry them off and make them their
wives. A beautiful butterfly was sent fluttering down over the girls'
heads, but they paid little heed to its beauties. Another was sent, then
another, and yet a fourth, which was so beautiful that the girls reached
up to catch it, for they wished to copy its splendid colors on a large
basket they were weaving. But the butterfly escaped them and flew upward,
keeping ever out of reach as the girls followed to the mouth of the pit.
There the Bear and the Snake in waiting suddenly reached over, seized the
girls, and carried them away. The people, learning of this, asked them to
bring the girls back, but the Bear and the Snake refused, so an appeal was
made to Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani and Kobadjischini. These two gods built a fence
around the world to keep the Bear and the Snake from escaping, and,
summoning all the people, compelled the Bear and the Snake to bring the
two young women back. The one the Bear had married had grown very fat and
coarse, like her master. "What have you done to make this girl so fat?"
demanded Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani in anger. "You must give her medicine to make her
comely again." So the Bear sang songs and made medicine until the girl was
herself again. Then came the Snake with the girl he had stolen. She had
become thin, like her master. "What have you done to make this girl so
thin?" cried Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nayezgani. "You must give her medicine to make her well
again." The Snake then sang his songs and made medicine until the girl
became again robust and beautiful.
As already mentioned, the performance of this ceremony extends through a
period of four days and four nights. The day preceding is spent in
preparation: the head of the family of the sick person makes ready for a
feast, and helpers build a corral of pinon and spruce branches. This
corral is circular, about forty yards in diameter and six feet high, with
an opening at the east. To the west, close to the fence, is the medicine
_kozhan_. The latter part of each morning of the four days is spent by the
medicine-man and his assistants in the _kozhan_, where a dry-painting of
blue, black, yellow, and red earths is made in the shape of a snake lying
in a circle with a space between the head and the tail. The circle is
about six feet in diameter, and within it are represented numerous
animals: the bear, turkey, deer, eagle, buffalo, elk, badger, gopher, and
others. A decoction is mixed in an earthen bowl and the patient is
summoned. Sand from the various parts of the painting are sprinkled on the
corresponding parts of his body, and the medicine mixture is given him to
drink.
The night portions of the ceremony begin shortly after dark. The
medicine-man and any persons who know the songs gather in the _kozhan_ and
sing, accompanied with a drum made of a basket inverted over a hole in the
ground and covered with a buffalo skin, the head toward the east. The hole
represents the pit in the legend, the basket the one the girls were
weaving, and a figure interwoven in the latter symbolizes the butterfly of
the story. The beating of the drum is varied at intervals by the use of a
leg-bone of a mountain sheep rasped quickly over a notched stick. Any men
of the tribe may enter the _kozhan_, and even a white man who is well
known. The songs consist of recitals of the powers of the medicine-man and
invocations to the various animals, as the bear, snake, and mountain
sheep. Some of the songs consist merely in naming the parts of the
animal's body, while others are supposed to be those used by the Bear and
the Snake in the legend. After singing these songs for about three hours,
with intervals of rest, the dancing begins. On each side of the enclosure
are three fires. Behind these on the north side are the men, on the south
the women; thus a large open space is bounded by the two lines of fires,
the _kozhan_, and the opening of the corral. Two women walk slowly into
this space, their heads modestly bent. They stop, and a young man
approaches to ascertain with whom they would dance. He then finds the
desired persons, takes each by the arm, and drags him out. The men always
feign unwillingness to go. In the meanwhile other pairs of women have come
out and other young men become busy finding partners for them. As a rule
they dance in groups of four, men and women facing each other and moving
backward and forward five or six steps. As the dance progresses the man is
likely to lay his hands upon the woman's shoulders, but modesty forbids
her a similar liberty. The same pair may remain dancing together
throughout the night, or they may cease when either desires. On the first
night the dancing continues until about midnight; the second, an hour or
two longer; the third, until well toward dawn; the fourth, until sunrise.
[Illustration: Jicarillas]