The ceremony celebrating maturity of girls among the Navaho is held
generally on the fourth night after the first evidence of the maiden's
entrance into womanhood. On the first morning following the moment of this
change in life the girl bathes and dresses in her finest clothes. Later
she stretches herself face downward on a blanket just outside the hogan,
with her head toward the door. A sister, aunt, or other female relation,
if any happen to be close at hand, or if not, a male relative other than
her father, then proceeds symbolically to remould her. Her arms and legs
are straightened, her joints smoothed, and muscles pressed to make her
truly shapely. After that the most industrious and energetic of the comely
women in the immediate neighborhood is called in to dress the girl's hair
in a particular form of knot and wrap it with deerskin strings, called
_tsiklolh_. Should there be any babies or little tots about the home, the
girl goes to them, and, placing a hand under each ear, successively lifts
them by the neck, to make them grow faster. Then she darts off toward the
east, running out for about a quarter of a mile and back. This she does
each morning until after the public ceremony. By so doing she is assured
of continuing strong, lithe, and active throughout womanhood.
The four days preceding the night of the ceremony are days of abstinence;
only such foods as mush and bread made from corn-meal may be eaten, nor
may they contain any salt. To indulge in viands of a richer nature would
be to invite laziness and an ugly form at a comparatively early age. The
girl must also refrain from scratching her head or body, for marks made by
her nails during this period would surely become ill-looking scars. All
the women folk in the hogan begin grinding corn on the first day and
continue at irregular intervals until the night of the third, when the
meal is mixed into batter for a large corn-cake, which the mother bakes in
a sort of bean-hole outside the hogan.
The ceremony proper consists of little more than songs. A medicine-man is
called upon to take charge, being compensated for his services with
blankets, robes, grain, or other articles of value. Friends and neighbors
having been notified, they assemble at the girl's hogan fairly early in
the evening. When dusk has settled, the medicine-man begins his songs,
singing first the twelve "hogan songs" of the Bahozhonchi. After he has
finished, anyone present who so desires may sing songs taken from the
ritual of the same order. This motley singing and hilarity continue until
well toward sunrise, when the mother brings in a bowl of yucca suds and
washes the girl's hair. Her head and hair are dried with corn-meal, after
which the girl takes her last run toward the east, this time followed by
many young children, symbolically attesting that she will be a kind
mother, whom her children will always follow. The _hatali_, or medicine
singer, during her absence sings eight songs, generally termed the Racing
songs. On her return the great corn-cake is brought in, cut, and divided
among the assemblage, when all disperse, and the girl may once more loosen
her hair and partake of any food she pleases.