Pl. XXIII. Both belong to the Knife Society and may be seen hanging
side by side on the wall in the ceremonial chamber of the Quer´ränna,
(Pl. XXVIII) which is also the official chamber of the Knife Society.
The second was made in case of failure of the first. The vicar of this
society is also ho´naaite and only surviving member of the Ant Society,
and he, being anxious that the writer should see the sand painting of
the Ant Society, prepared the painting for this occasion instead of
the ho´naaite (Fig. 17). He also drew her a sketch of the painting of
Ant Society for ceremonial held for the sick, which is here introduced
(Fig. 18). This last may be described as follows:
_a_ represents meal painting emblematic of the clouds, _b_ and _c_
bear-leg skins laid either side of it. The remainder of painting is in
sand. _d_: Ant chief clad in buckskin fringed down the arms and legs;
he carries lightning in his left hand; his words pass straight from
his mouth, as indicated by a line, to the invalid _e_, who sits at the
opening of the ceremonial to the right of the painting. The ant chief
speaks that the malady may leave the invalid. A song of this character
is sung by the members of the society. The invalid then passes to the
front of the altar and stands upon a sacred Tusayan blanket (position
indicated by _f_), when the ho´naaite and other members of the society
proceed with their incantations over him, imploring the prey animals to
draw the ants to the surface of the body. When the ants have appeared
and been brushed from the body then a song is addressed to the eagle
_g_ to come and feed upon the ants. When the ants have been eaten by
the eagle the invalid will be restored to health. The two circular
spots _h_ represent ant houses. These, with the paintings of the ant
chief and eagle, are gathered into the blanket upon which the invalid
stood and carried some distance north of the village and deposited.
After the blanket has been taken from the chamber the meal painting is
erased by the ho´naaite brushing the meal from each of the cardinal
points to the center with his hand; he then rubs the invalid’s body
with the meal, after which the members hasten to rub their bodies with
it, that they may be purified not only of any physical malady but of
all evil thoughts.
When the writer entered the ceremonial chamber later in the evening
food was being placed in line down the middle of the room. There
were seven bowls, containing mutton stew, tortillas, waiavi, and
hominy. There was also a large pot of coffee and a bowl of sugar. The
ho´naaite, standing to the east of the meal line, which extended from
the altar to the entrance, repeated a long grace, after which one of
the boy members gathered a bit of food from each vessel, and standing
on the opposite side of the line of meal, handed the food to the
ho´naaite, who received it in his left hand, having transferred his
eagle plumes to the right. He then left the house, and throwing the
food to the cardinal points, offered it to the animal Ko´pĭshtaia, with
a prayer of intercession to the cloud people to gather, saying:
“Ko´pĭshtaia! Here is food, come and eat; Ko´pĭshtaia, Cougar of the
North, receive this food; Bear of the West, receive this food; Badger
of the South, we offer you food, take it and eat; Wolf of the East, we
give you food; Eagle of the Heavens, receive this food; Shrew of the
Earth, receive this food. When you eat, then you will be contented, and
you will pass over the straight road [referring to the passing of the
beings of the ko´pĭshtaia over the line of meal to enter the images of
themselves]. We pray you to bring to us, and to all peoples, food, good
health, and prosperity, and to our animals bring good health and to our
fields large crops; and we pray you to ask the cloud people to come to
water the earth.”
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXV
ALTAR OF KNIFE SOCIETY, WITH HO´-NA-AI-TE AND VICE HO´-NA-AI-TE ON
EITHER SIDE.]
Upon returning to the ceremonial chamber, the ho´naaite, standing
before the altar, prays to Ma´asewe, Úyuuyewĕ, and the six warriors of
the mountains of the cardinal points to protect them from all enemies
who might come to destroy their peace; and, standing at the end of the
line of food, he offers a prayer of thanksgiving, holding his eagle
plumes in his left hand. He then rolls his blanket into a cushion,
sits upon it west of the line of meal and smokes a cigarette. The food
having been brought in by the wives of the members, all present drew
around and enjoyed the feast. That the minor members felt at liberty to
join with their elders was indicated by the way in which they proceeded
to help themselves.
The war chief came into the room soon after the beginning of the meal,
wrapped in a fine Navajo blanket, and carrying his bow and arrows. He
stood in front of the altar, on the west side of the meal line, and
prayed. The vice-ho´naaite administered to the war chief a draft of
the medicine water which had been prepared in the afternoon, and then
handed him the official staff of the society (a slender stick some
2 feet in length), which he held with his bow and arrows until the
close of the ceremonial. The war chief sat for awhile at the south
end of the room, and then left to patrol the town and to see that no
one not privileged entered or came near the ceremonial chamber. After
the meal was finished the three boys removed the bowls to another
room, and, upon their return, one of them swept the middle of the
floor, destroying most of the meal line, leaving but 2 feet of it
undisturbed in front of the altar. This line, however, was renewed by
the vice-ho´naaite, who carried two eagle feathers and the meal bowl
in his left hand, while he sprinkled the meal with the right, not
for the purpose of furnishing a road for the beings of pai´ätämo and
ko´pĭshtaia to pass over, for they had previously come to the images of
themselves, but that the songs might pass straight over and out of the
house.
The men now indulged in a smoke. The writer never observed Sia boys
smoking in these ceremonials or at any other time. The cigarettes
were lighted from the long stick passed by one of the boys, and after
smoking, the ho´naaite and his younger brother put on white cotton
embroidered Tusayan kilts as breechcloths, which they took from a hook
on the wall, those of the other members being plain white cotton. The
ho´naaite now took his seat back of the altar and lighted a second
cigarette from the long stick, blowing the smoke over the altar. This
smoke was offered to Pai´ätämo and Ko´pĭshtaia, the ho´naaite saying:
“I give this to you; smoke and be contented.” He then administered
medicine water to all present, dipping the water with a shell. The
vice-ho´naaite, who received the last draft, drank directly from the
bowl, and was careful not to leave a drop in it, after which the
ho´naaite removed the six stone fetiches from the bowl. The process of
preparing medicine water is substantially the same with all the cult
societies, there not being in Sia nearly so much ceremony connected
with this important feature of fetich worship as with the Zuñi and
Tusayan. The six fetiches were returned to the buckskin bag and the
ho´naaite resumed his seat behind the altar, the members and novitiates
having already formed in line back of the altar, the official members
each holding two eagle plumes in the left hand and a gourd rattle in
the right. After a short prayer by the ho´naaite, the boy lifted ashes
from the fireplace with his eagle plumes and placed them near the altar
and east of the meal line; again he dipped a quantity, placing them
west of the line of meal. As the chant opened, he stood west of the
line and facing the altar, and an adult member stood on the east side,
and each of them held an eagle plume in either hand and a gourd rattle
also in the right. The boy dipped with the plumes the ashes which lay
west of the line of meal and the man those which lay east of the line,
and sprinkled toward the north by striking the plumes held in the left
hand on the underside with the plume held in the right; again dipping
the ashes, the boy sprinkled toward the west and the man toward the
east; again lifting ashes, they passed to the south and sprinkled
there; the boy then crossed to the east of the line of meal and the man
to the west of the line, and when midway of the line the boy sprinkled
to the east and the man to the west; then, dancing before the altar,
they again lifted ashes and sprinkled to the north. When dancing, both
eagle plumes were held in the left hand and the rattle in the right.
Ashes were again lifted and thrown twice toward the zenith and then
thrown to the nadir. The sprinkling to the cardinal points, zenith and
nadir, was repeated fifteen times in the manner described. This was to
carry off all impurities of the mind, that it might be pure; that the
songs would come pure from the lips and pass straight over the road of
meal—the one road. The man and boy having resumed their seats in the
line, the vice-ho´naaite stood before the altar to the west side of
the line of meal, shook his rattle for a moment or two, then waved it
vertically in front of the altar, invoking the cloud people to come;
he then waved the rattle from the west to the east, repeating the
weird exhortation, his body being kept in motion by the bending of his
knees, his feet scarcely leaving the ground. The rattle was waved three
times from the west to the east, and then waved toward the west and
toward the altar, the east and to the altar; then, raising the rattle
high above his head, he formed a circle. This waving of the rattle was
repeated sixteen times. Previous to each motion he held the rattle
perfectly still, resting it on the eagle plumes which he held in the
left hand.
After the sixteenth repetition he waved the rattle over the altar. The
song during this time is an appeal to the cloud people of the north,
west, south, east, and all the cloud peoples of the world, to gather
and send rain to water the earth, that all mankind may have the fruits
of the earth. The vicar then stood to the right of the ho´naaite, and
the choir, rising, continued to sing. The ho´naaite, leaning over
the altar, took two of the central ya´ya, one in either hand, and
alternately raised them, keeping time with the song, now and then
extending the ya´ya over the altar. The young novitiate held neither
rattle or plumes. The boy at the east end of the line, having passed
through two degrees, held his rattle in the right hand and in his left
a miniature crook. The vicar who stood at the right of the ho´naaite
and the man who stood to his left moved their rattles and feathers in
harmony with his motion, the three swaying their bodies back and forth
and extending their arms outward and upward. About this time it was
noticed that the boys at the east end of the line had fallen asleep,
and it was more than the man who sat next to them could do to keep
them awake, although he was constantly brushing their faces with his
eagle plumes. This little scene was something of a picture, as the boy
whose shoulder acted as a support for the head of the other is the son
of one of the most prominent and richest men in the pueblo, the other
boy being the pauper referred to. The stanzas in this song were much
longer than any before heard by the writer, and each closed with a
quick shake of the rattle. The song continued an hour and a quarter,
when the singers took a few moments’ rest, and again sang for thirty
minutes; another few minutes’ rest, and the song again continued. In
this way it ran from half past 9 o’clock until midnight. At its close
one of the boys brought a vase of water and a gourd from the southwest
corner of the room and placed it near the altar and west of the line
of meal. The ya´niᵗsiwittänn̄i stood before the vase, and, lifting
two gourdfuls of water, emptied them into the medicine bowl; emptying
two gourdfuls, also, into the cloud bowl, he danced for a time before
the altar, waving his plumes and rattle over it; he then emptied two
more gourdfuls into the medicine bowl and two more into the cloud
bowl, and resumed his dance. He did not sing while performing this
part of the ceremony, but when emptying the water into the bowls he
gave bird-like trills, calling for the cloud people to gather. Again
he emptied two gourdfuls into the medicine bowl and two in the cloud
bowl; and after dancing a moment or two he poured two more gourdfuls
into the medicine bowl and two into the cloud bowl, and resumed the
dance; again he emptied a gourdful into the medicine bowl and two into
the cloud bowl; then he emptied three into the medicine bowl and drank
twice from the bowl, after which he returned to his seat in the line,
the boy restoring the vase to the farther corner of the room. Two small
medicine bags were handed to each member from the altar, one containing
corn pollen and the other corn meal of six varieties of corn: yellow,
blue, red, white, black, and variegated. The bags were held in the left
hand with the eagle plumes, that hand being quiet, while the rattle was
shaken with the right in accompaniment to the song. After singing a few
minutes, pollen and meal taken from the medicine bags were sprinkled
into the medicine bowl. The choir did not rise and pass to the altar,
but leaned forward on either side; and with each sprinkling of the meal
and pollen a shrill call was given for the cloud people to gather; the
ho´naaite, in sprinkling in his pollen, reached over the altar slats.
The sprinkling of the pollen was repeated four times, the novitiates
taking no part in this feature of the ceremony, although they were
provided with the bags of pollen and meal. The ya´niᵗsiwittänn̄i
danced before the altar and west of the line of meal without rattle or
plumes, but continually hooted as he waved his hands wildly over the
altar and dropped pebble fetiches alternately into the medicine and
cloud bowls, until each bowl contained six fetiches; then, reaching
behind the altar for his rattle and eagle plumes, he held an eagle
plume and rattle in the right hand and an eagle plume in the left, and
stirred the water and sprinkled the altar; then he stirred the water
in the cloud bowl with the reed, and sprinkled the altar with it. The
sprinkling of the altar from the medicine bowl and the cloud bowl was
repeated six times.
After each sprinkling a quick shake of the rattle was given. The
ho´naaite then reached over the altar slats, taking a ya´ya in either
hand, and all stood and sang. In a moment the man to the right of the
ho´naaite leaned over the west side of the altar, and, dipping his
plumes in the medicine water, sprinkled the altar; he repeated the
sprinkling four times, and when the two ya´ya were returned to the
altar the ho´naaite dipped his eagle plumes into the medicine water,
and sprinkled the altar by striking them on the top with the rattle
held in the right hand. Each member then sprinkled the altar four
times, with a wild exhortation to the cloud people, all apparently
exhibiting more enthusiasm when sprinkling the altar than at any
other time during the ceremonial. When the song closed two of the
boys proceeded to prepare cigarettes, taking their places before the
fireplace, and, tearing off bits of corn husks of the proper size, they
made them pliable by moistening them with saliva. One boy made his
cigarettes of native tobacco, which he took from an old cloth hanging
on the wall; the other filled his with commercial tobacco. As the boys
made cigarettes they tied them with ribbons of corn husks, simply to
keep them in shape until the smokers were ready. The remaining
native tobacco was returned to the old cloth and put in place upon the
wall. About the time the boys had finished preparing the cigarettes,
the vice-ho´naaite took his seat on his wadded blanket, in front of the
cloud bowl and west of the line of meal. The man at the east end of the
line dipped his eagle plumes into the ashes, holding a plume in either
hand and striking the one held in the left hand on the under side with
the plume held in the right, he sprinkled the head of the vicar, who
was offering a silent prayer, and at the same moment the song opened
to the accompaniment of the rattle. Previous to the vicar leaving the
line, the ho´naaite removed a white fluffy eagle feather from one of
the ya´ya, to which it had been attached with a white cotton cord, and
tied it to the forelock of the vicar, who put into the cloud bowl the
powdered root which was to produce the froth; then dipping the reed
into corn pollen he sprinkled the altar. He placed a pinch of pollen
into the upper end of the reed, and, turning that into the water, he
put a pinch into the other end, and touched the four cardinal points
of the cloud bowl with the corn pollen, and made bubbles by holding
the hollow reed in the center of the bowl and blowing through it. This
operation lasted but a few moments, when he began stirring the water
with the reed, moving it from right to left, and never raising the
lower end to the surface of the water, producing a beautiful egg-like
froth. Not satisfied with its rising high above the bowl, he did not
cease manipulating until the suds had completely covered it, so that
nothing could be seen but a mass of snowy froth; fifteen minutes of
continual stirring was required to produce this effect. He then stood
the reed in the center of the froth, and holding an eagle plume in each
hand danced before the altar vehemently gesticulating. He dipped suds
with his two plumes and threw them toward the altar, with a wild cry,
and again dipping suds he threw them over the altar to the north; a
like quantity was thrown to the west, and the same to the south, the
east, the zenith, and the nadir. He then dipped a quantity, and placing
some on the head of the white bear and putting some over the parrot, he
resumed his seat on the blanket and began blowing through the reed and
beating the suds. In five minutes he stood the reed as before in the
center of the bowl, then, dancing, he dipped the suds, placing them on
the head of the bear and over the parrot; he then removed the remaining
suds from the plumes by striking one against the other over the bowl
(this froth is always referred to by the Sia as clouds). During this
part of the ceremony the choir sang an exhortation to the cloud
peoples. A boy now handed a cigarette of native tobacco to the vicar,
who puffed the smoke for some time, extending the cigarette to the
north; smoking again, he blew the smoke to the west, and extended the
cigarette to that point; this was repeated to the south and east; when
he had consumed all but an inch of the cigarette, he laid it in front
of the cloud bowl and east of the meal line. The choir did not cease
singing during the smoking, and when the bit of cigarette had been
deposited, the vicar transferred his rattle to his right hand, keeping
time with the choir. When the song closed he left his seat in front of
the cloud bowl and stood by the west side of the altar, and removing
the eagle plume from his head returned it to the ya´ya and took his
seat near the fireplace. Two of the boys then lighted cigarettes of
native tobacco with the long fire-stick, handing one to each member.
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXVI
SHRINE OF KNIFE SOCIETY.]
In fifteen minutes the song was resumed and the man west of the
ho´naaite dipped his eagle plumes in the medicine water and sprinkled
the altar, repeating the sprinkling four times. In twenty-five minutes
the song closed and the men enjoyed a social smoke, each man after
lighting his cigarette waving it towards the altar. In twenty-five
minutes the choir again sang, two boys standing in front of the altar,
one on either side of the line of meal. The one on the west side of
the line dipped his plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the
altar, and the one on the east side of the line dipped his crook into
the medicine water and sprinkled the altar. They then dipped into the
cloud bowl and threw the suds to the north; dipping suds again the
boy west of the line threw the suds to the west, and the one east of
the line threw the suds to the east; again dipping medicine water
they passed to the south and threw the water to that point, the boy
west of the meal line crossed to the east, and the one on the east of
the line of meal crossed to the west, and returning to the altar they
dipped suds, the boy to the west of the line throwing suds in that
direction, and the boy east of the line throwing suds to that point;
again dipping the medicine water they sprinkled to the zenith, and
dipping the suds they threw them to the nadir; then the boy on the
west of the line crossed to the east, and the one on the east of the
line crossed to the west, and thus reversing positions they repeated
the sprinkling of the cardinal points, zenith and nadir, twelve times,
dipping alternately into the medicine water and the cloud bowl. With
the termination of the sprinkling the song ceased for a moment, and by
command of the ho´naaite the boys, each taking a basket of hä´chamoni,
which were resting on the backs of the cougar fetiches either side of
the altar, stood in front of the altar, one on the west side of the
meal line and the other on the east, and holding the baskets in their
left hands shook their rattles; they then held the basket with both
hands, moving them in time to the song and rattles of the choir. The
ho´naaite directed them to wave the baskets to the north, west, south,
and east, to the zenith and the nadir; this they repeated twelve times
and then deposited the baskets either side of the cloud bowl, and the
vicar placed the bowl of medicine water two feet in front of the cloud
bowl, on the line of meal, and taking one of the ya´ya in his left
hand, he passed east of the line and, stooping low, he stirred the
medicine water with an abalone shell, and then passed his hand over
the ya´ya and drew a breath from it. The man at the west end of the
line of worshipers now came forward and the vicar gave him a drink of
the medicine water, then the man at the east end of the line received
a draft. The boy who threw the suds with the plumes came next, and
following him the boy (the pauper) who held the miniature crook; then
the third boy advanced and drank; the man on the left of the ho´naaite
following next, the ho´naaite came forward; he did not receive the
water from the shell, but drank directly from the bowl; the vicar
holding the bowl with his right hand placed it to the ho´naaite’s lips,
the ho´naaite clasping the ya´ya, which was held in the left hand of
the vicar; he then taking the bowl with his right hand and clasping the
ya´ya with his left, held it to the lips of the vicar, who afterwards
left the room, carrying with him the remainder of the medicine water
and the ya´ya. He passed into the street and, filling his mouth with
the water, he threw a spray through his teeth to the north, west,
south, and east, the zenith and the nadir and then to all the world,
that the cloud people might gather and water the earth. In a short time
he returned and placed the bowl and ya´ya before the altar. The shell
was laid east of the line of meal and in front of the cloud bowl. A
cigarette was then handed the ho´naaite and, after blowing the first
few puffs over the altar, he finished it without further ceremony, and
taking the two baskets of plume offerings in either hand he stooped
with bended knees a short distance in front of the altar and west of
the line of meal. The two minor members wrapped their blankets around
them and stooped before the ho´naaite on the opposite side of the meal
line. The ho´naaite divided the offerings between the two, placing them
on the blanket where it passed over the left arm; these offerings were
to Pai´ätämo and Ko´pĭshtaia, and were deposited by the boys at the
shrines of Kopĭshtaia (Pls. XXVI and XXVII). Food was
now brought in by the boy novitiate, and with the feast the society
adjourned at 3 o’clock in the morning.
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XXVII
SHRINE OF KNIFE SOCIETY.]
SOCIETY OF THE QUER´RÄNNA.