[Illustration: _Yebichai_ Sweat - Navaho]
_Yebichai_ Sweat - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_
Each morning during the first four days of the Navaho Yebichai healing
ceremony, or Night Chant, the patient is sweated--sometimes inside a small
sweat-lodge, oftener by being placed upon a spot previously heated by a
fire and covered with heavy blankets. The three figures are medicine-men,
or singers, chanting. The patient lies under the blankets surrounded by a
line of sacred meal in which turkey-feather prayer-sticks, _kedan_, are
implanted.
A description of the ritual and form of the Yebichai ceremony,--Kleje
Hatal, or Night Chant,--covering its nine days of performance, will give a
comprehensive idea of all Navaho nine-day ceremonies, which combine both
religious and medical observances. The myth characters personified in this
rite are termed Yebichai, Grandfather or Paternal Gods. Similar
personations appear in other ceremonies, but they figure less prominently.
_First Day_: The ceremonial, or medicine, hogan is built some days in
advance of the rite. The first day's ceremony is brief, with few
participants. Well after dark the singer, assisted by two men, makes nine
little splint hoops--_tsipa__n__s yazhe kedan_--entwined with slip-cords,
and places them on the sacred meal in the meal basket. Following this,
three men remove their everyday clothing, take Yebichai masks, and leave
the hogan. These three masked figures are to represent the gods
Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti, Talking God, Haschebaad, Goddess, and Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lapai, Gray God.
When they have gone and passed to the rear of the hogan, the patient comes
in, disrobes at the left of the centre, passes around the small fire
burning near the entrance of the hogan, and takes his seat in the centre,
immediately after which the singing begins. During the third song
Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti enters with his cross-sticks--_Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti balil_--and opens and
places them over the patient's body, forcing them down as far toward the
ground as possible. The second time he places them not so far over the
body; the third, not lower than the shoulders; the fourth time, over the
head only, each time giving his peculiar call, _Wu-hu-hu-hu-u!_ Then
Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti takes up a shell with medicine and with it touches the
patient's feet, hands, chest, back, right shoulder, left shoulder, and top
of head,--this being the prescribed ceremonial order,--uttering his cry at
each placing of the medicine. He next places the shell of medicine to the
patient's lips four times and goes out, after which Haschebaad comes in,
takes one of the circle _kedan_, touches the patient's body in the same
ceremonial order, and finally the lips, at the same time giving the
slip-cord a quick pull. Next comes Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lapai, who performs the same
incantations with the _kedan_. Again Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti enters with the
cross-sticks, repeating the former order, after which he gives the patient
four swallows of medicine,--a potion different from that first given,--the
medicine-man himself drinking what remains in the shell. This closes the
ceremony of the first day. There will, perhaps, be considerable dancing
outside the hogan, but that is merely practice for the public dance to be
given on the ninth night. The singer and the patient sleep in the hogan
each night until the nine days are passed, keeping the masks and medicine
paraphernalia between them when they sleep.
_Second Day_: Just at sunrise the patient is given the first ceremonial
sweat. This is probably given more as a spiritual purification than in
anticipation of any physical benefit. To the east of the hogan a shallow
hole is dug in the earth, in which are placed hot embers and
ashes,--covered with brush and weeds, and sprinkled with water,--upon which
the patient takes his place. He is then well covered with blankets. The
medicine-man, assisted by Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and Haschebaad, places about the
patient a row of feathered _kedan_, and then commences to sing while the
patient squirms on the hot, steaming bed. After singing certain songs the
medicine-man lifts the blanket a little and gives the patient a drink of
medicine from a ceremonial basket. He is again covered, and the singing
goes on for a like time. Later the blankets are removed and Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and
Haschebaad perform over the patient, after which he goes to the hogan. The
brush and weeds used for the bed are taken away and earth is scattered
over the coals. This sweating, begun on the second day, is repeated each
morning for four days: the first, as above noted, taking place east of the
hogan, and the others respectively to the south, west, and north. The
ceremonies of the second night are practically a repetition of those held
the first night. During the third song Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti enters with the
_Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti balil_, placing it four times in the prescribed order and
giving his call; then he goes out, re-enters, and takes from the medicine
basket four sacred reed _kedan_. These he carries in ceremonial order to
the four cardinal points: first east, then south, next west, lastly north.
Next stick _kedan_ are taken out of the basket, which holds twelve each of
the four sacred colors. These also are carried to the four cardinal
points--white, east; blue, south; yellow, west; black, north. After all the
_kedan_ are taken out, Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti again enters with the _Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti
balil_, using it in directional order and giving medicine as on the night
before.
[Illustration: _Pikehodiklad_ - Navaho]
_Pikehodiklad_ - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_
The first of the four dry-paintings used in conducting the Kleje Hatal, or
Night Chant, of the Navaho, being made on the fifth night. The purpose of
this night's acts is to frighten the patient; hence the name of the
painting, which signifies "Frighten Him On It."
The encircling figure represents the rainbow, _aklolh_; the first on the
left Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti, Talking God; the central, Haschebaad,
goddess--symbolically the patient--and the right-hand figure a male deity,
Haschebaku{~COMBINING BREVE~}n.
The patient sits on the central figure at its waist line during the
night's performance. When the ceremony in connection with this painting is
concluded the colored sands are carefully collected, carried out toward
the north, and deposited under a tree.
_Third Day_: It is understood that the patient has been sweated in the
morning, as on the second day. On this night he is dressed in spruce
boughs by the assisting medicine-man, bound around the wrists, arms,
ankles, legs, and body, and fastened on the head in the form of a turban.
After several songs, Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani and Tobadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni cut the boughs from
the body, using a stone arrow-point as a knife. Then the boughs are cut
into fragments over the patient's head, after which the singer takes a
feather wand, points it toward the four cardinal points above the fire,
and brushes the patient, chanting meanwhile. At the end of the brushing he
points the wand out of the smoke-hole, at the same time blowing the dust
from it out into the open air.
_Fourth Day_: The ceremonies this day do not begin until later than usual,
probably nine o'clock. Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and Haschebaad dress and go out. The
patient disrobes and takes his place. The assisting medicine-man digs a
small hole just between the patient's feet, and encircles it with a line
of _taditin_, or pollen, leaving an opening to the east, after which the
patient dons a mask. Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti enters, followed by Haschebaad, who
carries a small spruce tree. The former puts sacred pollen in the hole
four times, each time giving his call; then Haschebaad plants the tree in
the hole and fastens its top to the patient's mask; the mask is then
pulled off the patient's head by his jerking quickly away from the tree.
This is the first night in which the ceremonies are continued until dawn.
After the unmasking, the singers take their place at one side of the back
of the hogan and begin singing to the accompaniment of a basket drum. A
youth and a maiden are required to sit in the hogan throughout the fourth
night, the ritual requiring that these be persons who have not had sexual
knowledge.
_Fifth Day_: This is the last day of the sweating, and the day on which
the first dry-painting is made. Just at dark this painting, a small one,
is begun inside. In size it would square about four feet, and is placed
close to the back of the hogan. There are three figures in the painting:
the central one being the patient, the one to the left Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti, the one
to the right Haschebaku{~COMBINING BREVE~}n. Around this painting, at all sides except the
eastern, feather wands, _ndia_, are stuck in the ground; in this case
twelve in number. Foot-tracks are made in the sand with white meal.
Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and Haschebaku{~COMBINING BREVE~}n dress ceremonially, mask, and go out, after
which the patient enters and takes his position on the central figure of
the dry-painting, facing the east. The effort this night is to frighten
the patient and thus banish the evil spirits from his body. The two
maskers come running in, uttering weird, unearthly howls, in which every
spectator in the hogan joins, feigning great fear. The masked figures make
four entries, each like the other. In many cases the patient either
actually faints from fright or feigns to do so. The patient then leaves
the dry-painting and it is destroyed. None of the sand or other pigments
used in this painting is applied to the patient's body, as is done with
that of later paintings. The next part of the fifth night's ceremony is
the initiation of new members into the Yebichai order. No one who is not a
member of the order is allowed to enter the ceremonial hogan. At the time
of the initiation Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and Haschebaku{~COMBINING BREVE~}n are outside in the darkness.
The initiates enter and sit on the ground in a row--the males naked, the
women dressed in their ordinary mode. They dare not look up, for should
they see Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti before being initiated, they would become blind. One
at a time these novices take their place in the centre of the hogan and
the initiatory rite is performed over them.
[Illustration: _Shilhne'ohli_ - Navaho]
_Shilhne'ohli_ - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_
In this plate is pictured the second dry-painting employed in the Night
Chant, made on the sixth day of the ceremony. It represents crossed logs
which whirl around in a mythic lake. Upon them are alternately seated male
and female deities, singing. The light figures are goddesses,
_haschebaad_; the dark ones gods, _haschebaku{~COMBINING BREVE~}__n_. Their songs treat of
all life-giving plants, of which corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco, the
most important, are pictured as growing from the very centre of the lake,
the point of contact of the logs.
Of the four marginal figures the one in white toward the east is
Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti, Talking God, with his pine-squirrel pouch of sacred meal.
Opposite him stands Haschogan, House God. The other two are Ganaski{~COMBINING BREVE~}dil,
Hunchbacks, Gods of Harvest, with seeds of the field in packs on their
backs. Around the whole is the personified rainbow.
When the dry-painting is in actual use the patient enters upon it over the
feet of Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti and sits at the intersection of the logs. A man
personating a god then enters, places his hands upon the various parts of
the many deities represented in the picture, then upon the corresponding
parts of the patient's body. The whole picture is then destroyed and the
colored sands are carried off to the north in a blanket and strewn under
trees.
_Sixth Day_: This is the first day of the large dry-paintings. The
painting is commenced early in the morning, and is not finished until
mid-afternoon. The one on this day is the whirling log representation.
After it is finished, feathers are stuck in the ground around it, and
sacred meal is scattered on parts by some of the assisting singers. Others
scatter the meal promiscuously; one of the maskers uses a spruce twig and
medicine shell, applying meal to every figure and object in the painting.
Then the medicine-men all gather up portions of the sacred meal, putting
it in their medicine pouches. The patient soon enters and takes his seat
in the centre of the painting. The usual incantations are gone through,
after which the colored sands of the painting are applied to the
corresponding parts of the patient's body, then gathered up and carried
off to the north. During the day two sets of beggars go out to the
neighboring hogans. These personate Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti, Tonenili--Water Sprinkler,
the God of Water, who is really a clown--and as many Haschebaad as care to
go out. The beggars carry whips made of yucca leaves, and one who does not
respond to their appeals for gifts is whipped,--if he can be caught,--which
creates a great deal of amusement. The personators act like a company of
clowns, but at the same time they gather a large quantity of food. When
the day is thoroughly taken up with dry-painting and ceremonies, there is
less of the ceremonial at night. The medicine-men, to the accompaniment of
the basket drum, sing for a short time only on this sixth night, while
outside the late evening is spent in dancing by those who are later to
participate in the closing dance.
_Seventh Day_: This day is practically consumed with the making of another
large dry-painting. The masked men go out on another begging tour, also,
and the medicine ceremonies and the destroying of the dry-painting are
practically the same as those of the day before, while during the evening
the medicine-men sing to the accompaniment of the drum.
_Eighth Day_: The dry-painting is finished about three o'clock in the
afternoon. After its completion there is a large open-air initiation. To
become a full member of the Yebichai order one must first be initiated in
the hogan; the second initiation is a public one; the third, another
inside the hogan; the fourth, another in the open. These different
initiation ceremonies, the same in point of ritualism, may be carried over
several years.
_Ninth and Final Day_: To the average person and to the Indians as a whole
the last day is the Yebichai dance. From a distance the Indians have been
gathering during the two previous days, and the hospitality of the
patient's family, as well as that of all the people living in the
neighboring hogans, is taxed to the utmost. And from early morning until
dark the whole plain is dotted with horsemen coming singly and in groups.
Great crowds gather at the contests given half a mile from the hogan,
where horse-races, foot-races, groups of gamblers, and throngs of Indians
riding wildly from race-track to hogan fill the day with hilarity and
incidents memorable to all. Toward the end of the day preparation is made
for the closing part of the nine-day rite. Great quantities of fuel have
been brought from the distant plateau, and placed in many small piles at
each side of the smooth dance ground to the east of the hogan. As soon as
it is dark the fuel is ignited, making two long lines of camp-fires,
furnishing both light to see the dancers and warmth to the spectators, for
the Yebichai cannot be held until the autumn frosts begin, when the nights
have the sharp, keen air of the high altitudes.
[Illustration: _Zahadolzha_ - Navaho]
_Zahadolzha_ - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_
This is the last of the dry-paintings used in the Night Chant, being
destroyed on the night of the eighth day's ceremonies. It takes its name
from the fact that the principal characters represented in it, the dark
figures, are all Zahadolzha, Fringe-mouth Gods. According to the myth
underlying the rite these gods made the first paintings of this sort used
among the spirit people, and were the ones who furnished succor to the
patients on the eighth day of the nine days' healing ceremony. The light
figures are female deities--haschebaad. In the centre is the cornstalk, a
life-giving symbol, and partially encircling the whole is the personified
light-giving rainbow, a female personage.
During the ceremony a man masked as a Zahadolzha places his hands first
upon a part of his likeness pictured in colored earths and then on the
corresponding part of the patient, as head, body, and limbs. Later the
colored earths or sands are carried away in a blanket and placed under
brush or trees toward the north.
With the gathering darkness the human tide flows toward the medicine
hogan, illuminated in the dusk by the long lines of camp-fires. All gather
about and close around the dance square, having to be kept back by those
in charge. Men, women, and children sit on the ground near the fires. Many
on horseback have ridden up, and form a veritable phalanx back of the
sitting spectators. The dance does not begin at once, and those assembled
spend the time telling stories, jesting, and gossiping. Belated arrivals
make coffee, or do hurried cooking around the fires.
Some distance to the east of the dance ground is a brush enclosure where
the dancers prepare for their part in the rite. There, too, is a fire for
light and warmth. The men in preparation remove all clothing, save short
kilts, and paint their bodies with a mixture of water and white clay.
Anyone who may have experienced the enjoyment of a sponge bath out in the
open on a cold, windy night can appreciate the pleasure of the dance
preparation. The dancers are impersonators of Navaho myth characters,
twelve usually taking part. No qualifications are necessary other than
that the participant be conversant with the intricate ritual of the dance.
The dance continues throughout the entire night, one group of men being
followed by another. The first twelve men dance through four songs,
retiring to the dressing enclosure for a very brief rest after each. Then
they withdraw, and twelve others dance for a like period, and so on. The
first group sometimes returns again later, and the different groups vie
with one another in their efforts to give the most beautiful dance in
harmony of movement and song, but there is no change in the step. The
several sets have doubtless trained for weeks, and the most graceful take
great pride in being pronounced the best dancers. The first group of
grotesquely masked men is ready by nine or ten o'clock; they file into the
dance enclosure led by Hasche{~COMBINING BREVE~}lti, their naked, clay-painted bodies
glinting in the firelight. While wearing masks the performers never speak
in words; they only sing or chant. To address one in conversation would
incur the displeasure of the gods and invite disaster. Time is kept by the
basket drum and the rhythm of the singing.
The white visitor will get his best impression of the dance from a short
distance, and, if possible, a slight elevation. There he is in touch with
the stillness of the night under the starry sky, and sees before him, in
this little spot lighted out of the limitless desert, this strange
ceremonial of supplication and thanksgiving, showing slight, if any,
change from the same performance, held on perhaps the same spot by the
ancestors of these people ages ago. As the night wears on the best group
of dancers come out. They are, perhaps, from the Redrock country, or from
some other far-away district, and have been practising for weeks, that
they might excel in this dance. The most revered song of the Yebichai is
the Bluebird song, which is sung at the approach of day, and is the
closing act of the drama. With the last words, "_Dola anyi, dola anyi_,"
the assembled multitude start for their homes, near and far, melting into
the gray of the desert morn, and by the time the sun breaks above the
horizon the spot which was alive with people a few hours before is wrapped
in death-like stillness, not a soul being within range of the eye.
[Illustration: _Yebichai Hogan_ - Navaho]
_Yebichai Hogan_ - Navaho
_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_