HO´-NA-AI-TE OF GIANT SOCIETY.]
The ti´ämoni took from a bear-leg skin six small pebble
fetiches, handing one to each man, who in turn passed it to the
ya´niᵗsiwittänñi. This recipient advanced to the front of the altar
and danced to the music of the choir, and waving his left hand over
the altar he dropped a fetich into the medicine bowl, at the same time
waving the eagle plumes and rattle which he held in his right hand.
After dancing awhile he dropped a fetich from his right hand into the
medicine water, and, continuing to dance, he let fall the remaining
four fetiches alternately from the left and right hand. Each time a
fetich was dropped he gave a weird animal-like growl, which was a
call upon the prey animals of the cardinal points to exhort the cloud
people to gather and water the earth that she might be fruitful. He
then returned to his seat, but almost immediately arose and, standing
for a moment, advanced to the front of the altar, stirred the medicine
water with the eagle plumes he held in the left hand and sprinkled the
offerings by striking the plumes on the top with the rattle, held in
the right hand. The sprinkling was repeated four times while the cloud
people were invoked to water the earth; as the plumes were struck the
fourth time the choir stood and sang and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi again
dipped this plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar.
The ho´naaite then leaning forward dipped his plumes into the water
and sprinkled the altar with a weird call for the cloud people to
gather and water the earth that she might be fruitful. Then each member
repeated the sprinkling of the altar with a similar prayer, the little
girl being quite as enthusiastic as the others, straining her voice to
the utmost capacity as she implored the cloud people to gather. The men
struck the plumes in their left hands with the rattles held in their
right, and the woman and child struck the wand held in the left hand
with the one held in the right. Each person repeated the sprinkling
of the altar successively six times, with appeals to the animals of
the cardinal points. After each sprinkling the sprinkler returned to
his place in the line. Thus the choir was at no time deficient in
more than one of its number. At the conclusion of the sprinkling a
stanza was sung and the altar was again sprinkled six times by each
member; in this instance, however, the choir was grouped before the
altar, the ho´naaite alone being seated back of it absorbed in song.
After the sprinkling the choir returned to the line and joined the
ho´naaite in the chant and at its conclusion he sprinkled the altar
four times. He did not leave his seat, but leaned forward and dipped
his plumes into the medicine water. The ti´ämoni then advanced from
the south end of the line and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi from the north end
and sprinkled toward the cardinal points, by passing along the line
of meal as heretofore described, the sprinkling being repeated twice.
The ti´ämoni returned to his seat and the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi removed
the bowl of medicine water, placing it before the fetiches and on the
line of meal and stooping with bended knees and holding his two eagle
plumes and a ya´ya in his left hand he administered the medicine water
to all present, the girl receiving the first draught from an abalone
shell. The woman was served next, some being given to the infant she
held in her arms, the ho´naaite receiving the last draught. Taking the
ya´ya from the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi he drew it to his breast and then
returned it to the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi, he receiving it in his left hand
and lifting the bowl with both hands he left the house and filling his
mouth from the bowl threw the medicine water through his teeth to the
cardinal points, and returning placed the bowl and ya´ya in position
before the altar.
The ho´naaite gathering the hä´chamoni in his left hand and taking a
pinch of meal with his right, stooped before the altar and south of the
meal line and offered a silent prayer, and, after sprinkling the altar
and hä´chamoni, he divided the offerings, holding a portion in either
hand. The ti´ämoni and a companion then stooped north of the line of
meal and facing the ho´naaite, clasped his hands with their right
hands, holding their eagle plumes in their left and responded to a low
litany offered by the ho´naaite, who afterwards drawing a breath from
the plumes laid them upon the blankets over their left arms, the two
men having wrapped their blankets about them before advancing to the
ho´naaite. They then left the ceremonial chamber and walked a long
distance through the darkness to deposit the offerings at a shrine of
the Ko´pĭshtaia. The remaining members talked in undertones until the
return of the absent ones, who, upon entering the chamber, stood before
the altar and offered a prayer which was responded to by the ho´naaite.
All the members then gathered before the altar and asked that their
prayers might be answered. The woman and girl arranged bowls of food in
line midway the room and south of the meal line and the feast closed
the ceremonial at 2 o’clock. a. m.
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXI
SICK BOY IN CEREMONIAL CHAMBER OF GIANT SOCIETY.]
FOUR NIGHTS’ CEREMONIAL OF THE GIANT SOCIETY FOR THE HEALING
OF A SICK BOY.
The night succeeding the ceremonial of the Sko´-yo-Chai´-än (Giant
Society) for rain the assembly began its ritualistic observances, which
continue four consecutive nights, for the curing of the sick by the
brushing process. During the afternoon a sand-painting was made in
the east end of the room (compare sand-painting Giant Society, (Pl.
XVIII_b_); ya´ya and stone fetiches were grouped upon the
painting; a medicine bowl was placed before the ya´ya; bear-leg skins
were deposited on either side of the fetiches and a white embroidered
sacred Tusayan blanket was folded and laid by the bear-leg skins south
of the painting. The five male members of the medicine division of the
society had refreshments served early in the evening by the female
members, and after supper the ti´ämoni, who is a member of the medicine
division, placed a bowl of stewed meat and a basket of bread near the
painting; the remainder of the food was stored in the northwest corner
of the room for future consumption.
The five men formed in line back of the fetiches, the ho´naaite being
the central figure; they had scarcely taken their seats, however,
before the ti´ämoni brought a vase of water and a gourd from the west
end of the room and set it before the sand-painting and returned to his
seat; the ho´naaite, advancing, dipped six gourdfuls of water, emptying
each one into the medicine bowl.[20]
The ho´naaite then passing to the north side of the painting stooped
with bended knees, holding in his left hand two eagle plumes, and
repeated a low prayer; then, taking a small piece of the bread, he
dipped it into the stew and scattered it before the fetiches; and,
taking more bread and a bit of the meat, he left the ceremonial chamber
and threw the food as an offering to the animals of the cardinal
points. The ti´ämoni then returned the bowl of meat and basket of bread
to the far end of the room. Upon the return of the ho´naaite his vicar
spread the Tusayan blanket upon the floor, some 5 feet in front of
the painting. He next sprinkled a line of meal from the edge of the
blanket nearest the painting to the bear fetich, which stood foremost
on the painting; thence across the blanket and along the floor to the
entrance on the south side and near the west end of the chamber; again,
beginning at the center of the blanket he sprinkled a line of meal
across the blanket to the south edge, and beginning again at the center
he sprinkled a line of meal to the north edge and continued this line
to the north wall. Then beginning at the line ending at the south of
the blanket, he ran it out to the south wall (these four lines being
symbolic of the four winds), and placed the bowl of meal in front of
the painting and north of the line of meal. The meal having become
somewhat exhausted, the pottery meal bowl was replaced by an Apache
basket, containing a quantity of fresh meal, ground by a woman in an
adjoining room, where a portion of the family had already retired. The
basket of meal was received from the woman by the ti´ämoni, who stood
to her left side while she ground the corn in the ordinary family mill.
The remainder of the contents of the pottery meal bowl was emptied into
the Apache basket, the portion from the bowl being deemed sufficient
in quantity to lend a sacred character to the freshly ground meal. The
ho´naaite then fastened about his neck a string of bears’ claws with
a small reed whistle, having two soft white eagle plumes tied to the
end, attached midway, which he took from a pile of bear-leg skins,
having first waved the necklace around the white bear fetich, which
stood to the front of the painting. Each member of the society then
put on a similar necklace; two of the members fastened amulets around
their upper right arms and two around their left arms. The ho´naaite
rolled his blanket in a wad and sat upon it. The other members made
similar cushions. The ti´ämoni, whose seat was at the south end of the
line, crossed to the north side of the room, and taking a bit of red
pigment rubbed it across his face and returned to his seat, each member
rubbing a bit of galena across the forehead, across the face below the
eyes, and about the lower part of the face. The paint was scarcely
perceptible. It was put on to insure the singing of the song correctly.
The ti´ämoni again crossed the room, and taking from the north ledge
a bunch of corn husks, he handed them to the man who sat next to him,
who was careful to manipulate them under his blanket, drawn around him.
The writer thinks that they were made into funnels, in which he placed
tiny pebbles from ant hills. The vice-ho´naaite, at the north end of
the line, left the room, and during his absence the ho´naaite, taking
a bunch of straws which lay by the bear-leg skins, divided it into
five parts, giving a portion to each one present. He reserved a share
for the absent member, who returned in a short time, bearing the sick
child in his arms, being careful to walk on the line of meal; he set
the child upon a low stool placed on the broad band of embroidery of
the blanket. (Pl. XXI) The man then handed the basket of meal
to the child, who, obeying the instructions of the vice-ho´naaite, took
a pinch and threw it toward the altar with a few words of prayer to
Ko´pĭshtaia. The vicar then returned to his seat, and the members, with
eagle plumes and straws in their left hands and rattles in their right,
began the ritual; they were nine minutes singing the first stanza,
which was sung slowly and in very low tones, and at its close each
one drew a breath from the eagle plumes and straws. The second stanza
was sung louder and faster. The monotony of the song was broken by an
occasional animal-like call, which was a request to the cougar of the
north to give them power over the angry ants. The child was afflicted
with a severe sore throat, caused by ants having entered his body when
he was in the act of micturition upon their house, and ascending they
located in his throat. After the second stanza the ho´naaite blew first
on the right side of the child, then on his back, his left side, and
his breast; the other members continuing the song to the accompaniment
of the rattle. When he took his seat, the ti´ämoni and the man who sat
next to him each drew a breath from their eagle plumes and straws, and
dipping them into the medicine water, each one extended his plumes
to the child, who drew a breath from them. The two men then resumed
their seats. The ho´naaite, again dipping his plumes in the medicine
water, passed the ends through the ti´ämoni’s mouth, and afterwards
through the mouth of each member, the plumes being dipped each time
into the bowl of medicine water. The men were occupied a few moments
in drawing something from several of the bear-leg skins. All except
the ho´naaite gathered around the altar, dancing and gesticulating in
excessive excitement and blowing upon the whistles suspended from their
necklaces. They constantly dipped their eagle plumes into the medicine
water, throwing their arms vehemently about, sprinkling the altar and
touching the animal fetiches with their plumes, and then placing the
plumes to the mouths, absorbing from them the sacred breath of the
animal. The ho´naaite with bowed head continued his invocations to the
cougar of the north, seemingly unconscious of all that was going on
about him. After maneuvering before the altar, the four men performed
similar extravagances about the child, one of the men standing him in
the center of the blanket, careful to place the boy’s feet in diagonal
angles formed by the meal lines. Then the four left the room, carrying
with them the material taken from the bear-leg skins. The ho´naaite
did not cease shaking the rattle and singing during the absence of
the four, who visited the house of the sick boy to purify it. Upon
returning to the ceremonial room they threw their arms aloft, waving
their plumes above them and then about the child, singing and growling,
after which they resumed their seats in line with the ho´naaite, and
joined him in the song to the accompaniment of rattles. After a few
moments these four men and the ho´naaite surrounded the boy; the
ho´naaite standing at the northeast corner of the blanket, and the
ti´ämoni at the southeast corner, while the others formed a semicircle
behind the boy. They all waved plumes and straws in their left hands
over the invalid boy, and passed them simultaneously down his body
from head to feet, striking the plumes and straws with rattles which
they held in their right hands; and as the plumes and straws were
moved down the boy’s body ants in any quantity were supposed to be
brushed off the body, while in reality tiny pebbles were dropped upon
the blanket; but the conjuration was so perfect the writer could not
tell how or whence they were dropped, although she stood close to the
group and under a bright light from a lamp she had placed on the wall
for the purpose of disclosing every detail. The tiny nude boy standing
upon the white embroidered blanket, being brushed with the many eagle
plumes, struck with their rattles by five beautifully formed Indians,
was the most pleasing scene of this dramatic ceremonial. The brushing
of the child with the plumes was repeated six times, and he was then
backed off the blanket over the line of meal and set upon the stool,
which had been removed from the blanket, and was afterward given a
pinch of meal and told to stand and look at the ants which had been
extracted from his body, and to sprinkle the meal upon them. After
this sprinkling he resumed his seat upon the stool. The ho´naaite
stooped with bended knees at the northeast corner of the blanket and
whispered a prayer and sprinkled the blanket. Each member with eagle
plumes sprinkled the blanket with meal and carefully brushed together
all the material which had fallen on the floor instead of the blanket,
after which the ti´ämoni gathered the corners together, waved it over
the child’s head, and left the room with it. All sat perfectly quiet,
holding their rattles, eagle plumes, and straws in their right hands
during the absence of the ti´ämoni. Upon his return he waved the folded
blanket twice toward the group of fetiches and toward himself, then
passed it twice around the child’s head, and finally laid it upon the
pile of bear-leg skins at the south side of the painting. The child,
who was ill and burning with fever, was led by the vice ho´naaite to
the fetiches, which he sprinkled with meal, and was carried from the
chamber and through an outer room to his mother at the entrance.
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXII
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
ALTAR AND SAND PAINTING.
KNIFE SOCIETY.]
The ho´naaite is not supposed to leave the ceremonial chamber
throughout the four days and nights, as he must guard the animal
fetiches and medicine. The other members are also supposed to spend
much of the day and all of the night in watching the fetiches; but the
writer is of the opinion that they all go to sleep after the feast,
which is enjoyed as soon as the child leaves the chamber.
The only variation in the ceremonial on the second night was that the
vicar dipped the bit of bread into the bowl of stew and scattered it to
the animal fetiches, having previously lifted ashes from the fireplace
and sprinkled the altar with them by striking the plume held in the
left hand on the under side with the plume held in the right; then
holding the plumes between his hands he repeated a long and scarcely
audible prayer. After scattering the food to the animal fetiches, he
dipped a piece of bread into the stew, left the house and threw the
food to the cardinal points, as the ho´naaite had done the previous
night, and, returning, removed the bowl of stew and basket of bread
to the northwest corner of the room. He then swept the floor with his
two eagle plumes, beginning some 18 inches in front of the altar (the
line of meal remaining perfect to this point) to the point where the
blanket was to be placed, and then laid the blanket and made the meal
lines, the change in the drawing of these lines being that the line was
begun at the line of meal which extended in front of the altar and ran
over the blanket to the entrance of the room; then beginning in the
center of the blanket, the line was extended across to the north wall,
and again beginning in the center, a line was run across to the south
wall. The writer mentions this deviation in the drawing of the meal
lines, though she believes it was a mere matter of taste on the part of
the worker. Instead of the vice ho´naaite receiving the child at the
outer entrance, the man who sat between him and the ho´naaite brought
the child into the room, and he was led out by the ti´ämoni. Upon this
occasion, and on the third and fourth nights, the child walked into and
out of the room, an indication that he was in better physical condition
than on the first night of the ceremony. The songs on the second night
were addressed to the bear of the west instead of the cougar of the
north. The child did not seem to move a muscle throughout the ceremony,
except when he stepped to his position on the blanket.
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXIII
ALTAR OF KNIFE SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHED DURING CEREMONIAL.]
The scenes on the third and fourth nights were coincident with those
of the second, with a few variations. The man who sat between the
ho´naaite and his vicar dipped the ashes with his plumes and sprinkled
the altar, and, returning to his seat, the vicar laid the blanket and
sprinkled the meal lines in the same manner as on the previous night;
he also procured the child. When dancing before the altar two men wore
bear-leg skins on their left arms, and two others wore them on their
right arms. It was noticed that the skins were drawn over the arms upon
which the amulets were worn. Their dancing and incantations were even
more turbulent and more weird than on the two former nights.
The songs the third night were addressed to the badger of the south and
on the fourth to the wolf of the east.
RAIN CEREMONIAL OF THE KNIFE SOCIETY.
While the ho´naaite and his vicar sat during the morning making
hä´chamoni they rehearsed in undertones the songs of their cult. The
membership of this society consists at the present time of five men and
two boys, and two novitiates, a man and a boy.
The sun was far to the west when the members came straggling in and
the ho´naaite proceeded to set up the slat altar (Pl. XXII_a_). Then
each man took from the wall a soiled buckskin sack. The well-wrapped
ya´ya was first taken out and then other fetiches. After the ho´naaite
had unwrapped his ya´ya he prepared the sand painting in front of the
altar (Pl. XXII_b_). The five ya´ya were stood on the line specially
made for them and a miniature bow and arrow laid before each ya´ya. The
ho´naaite then grouped fetiches of human and animal forms, then the
medicine bowl containing water and a basket of sacred meal. He then
drew a line of meal which extended from the slat altar to a distance
of 3 feet beyond the group of fetiches, his vicar afterwards assisting
him with the additional fetiches. Two stone cougars 2 feet in length
each were stood up on either side of the group. A cougar 12 inches
long, with lightning cut in relief on either side, and a concretion,
were then deposited before the group. Bear-leg skins were piled high
on either side of the altar. The cloud bowl and reed were added, the
two flat baskets of hä´chamoni and plume offerings shown in the sketch
were afterwards deposited upon the backs of the cougars. While this
arrangement was in progress the minor members returned the powdered
kaolin and black pigment to the ancient pottery vases, from which they
had been taken to prepare the sand-painting.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.—Sand painting as indicated in Pl. XXV.]
The ho´naaite consecrated the bowl of water by a prayer, and dropping
in the six fetiches he dipped his eagle plumes into the water and
striking them on the top with his rattle, sprinkled the altar; holding
the plumes in the left hand and the rattle in the right, he sprinkled
the cardinal points. The vicar formed a circle of meal, then sprinkled
meal upon the circle and placed a cincture pad of yucca upon it,
and holding the cloud bowl high above his head, he invoked the cloud
people of the north, west, south, east, zenith, and nadir, and of the
whole world, to water the earth. The bowl was then set upon the pad
and a reed 8 inches long laid across it from northeast to southwest.
The vice ho´naaite spread a small cloth and upon it reduced the bit of
root which was to produce the suds to a powder, which he placed in a
little heap in front of the cloud bowl. The ho´naaite, who had left the
chamber, now returned with a parrot and a white stone bear 12 inches
long; the bear was wrapped in a large fine white buckskin and the
parrot was under the ho´naaite’s blanket. These were deposited before
the altar (Pl. XXIII).
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXIV
HO´-NA-AI-TE OF KNIFE SOCIETY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.—Sand painting used in ceremonial for sick
by Ant Society.]
The ho´naaite (Pl. XXIV) stooped and, praying, sprinkled corn
pollen upon the bear and parrot. The bear and the bird had eagle plumes
attached to their necks with cotton cord. Those on the bear were on the
top of the neck and those of the parrot hung under the beak. After the
prayer the ho´naaite lighted a cigarette of native tobacco and corn
husk from a stick some 5 feet long, held by a boy member, and puffed
the smoke over the bear and parrot. He then extended the cigarette over
the altar, afterwards waving it to the cardinal points. The vicar and
boy sprinkled the bear and parrot with pollen from an abalone shell and
the vicar dipped his eagle plumes into the medicine bowl and sprinkled
them four times, then the altar, by striking the plumes with the rattle
held in his right hand. The ho´naaite then puffed smoke into the cloud
bowl and over the bear and parrot, and extended his cigarette to the
cardinal points, and over the altar. The vicar lighted a similar
cigarette from the long stick held by the boy, and standing to the west
of the altar blew smoke over it, the ho´naaite standing and smoking to
the right of him. The vicar laid the end of his cigarette by the cloud
bowl and to the east of the line of the meal. The shell of corn pollen
was then placed back of the altar and the ho´naaite’s eagle plumes and
rattle laid beside it; a prayer before the altar by all the members
closed the afternoon ceremony.