in ancient days they smoked pipes made of terra-cotta. Fragments
of such pipes are often picked up in New Mexico and Arizona. The
cliff-dwellers also had pipes, and these articles are still
ceremonially used by the Mokis. The Navahoes now invariably,
in ceremonies, sacrifice tobacco in the form of cigarettes. But
cigarettes are not new to the Southwest: they are found in ancient
caves and other long-neglected places in New Mexico and Arizona.
217. Ni-no-ká-di-ne` (People up on the Earth) may mean people living
up on the mountains, in contradistinction to those dwelling in
canyons and valleys; but other tribes use a term of similar meaning
to distinguish the whole Indian race from the whites or other races,
and it is probable that it is used in this sense here and in other
Navaho myths. The people whom Nati'nesthani now meets are probably
supposed to be supernatural, and not Indians.
218. The plants mixed with the tobacco were these: tsohodzilaí`,
silátso (my thumb), a poisonous weed, azébini`, and azétloi. It has
not been determined what plants these are; but the Navaho names are
placed on record as possibly assisting in future identification.
219. In the Navaho ceremonies, when sacred cigarettes are finished,
and before they are deposited as offerings to the gods, they are
symbolically lighted with sunbeams. (See par. 94.) The statement made
here, that the hero lighted his pipe with the sun, refers probably
to this symbolic lighting.
220. Ke'tlo is a name given to any medicine used externally, i.e.,
rubbed on the body. Atsósi ke'tlo means the liniment or wash of
the atsósi hatál, or feather ceremony. It is also called atsósi azé
(feather medicine), and atsósi tsíl (feather herbs).
221. Yá-di-di-nil, the incense of the Navaho priests, is a very
composite substance. In certain parts of the healing ceremonies it is
scattered on hot coals, which are placed before the patient, and the
latter inhales actively the dense white fumes that arise. These fumes,
which fill with their odor the whole medicine-lodge, are pungent,
aromatic, and rather agreeable, although the mixture is said to
contain feathers. The author has obtained a formula for yádidinil,
but has not identified the plants that chiefly compose it.
222. These are the animals he raises and controls, as told in par. 527.
223. The Navahoes say they are acquainted with four kinds of wild
tobacco, and use them in their rites. Of these the author has seen
and identified but two. These are Nicotiana attenuata which is the
dsi'lnato, or mountain tobacco; and Nicotiana palmeri, which is
the depénato, or sheep tobacco. N. attenuata grows widely but not
abundantly in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. N. palmeri is
rare; the writer has seen it growing only in one spot in the Chelly
Canyon. It has not been learned what species are called weasel tobacco
and cloud tobacco; but one or more of the three species, N. rustica,
N. quadrivalvis, and N. trigonophylla, are probably known to the
Navahoes.
224. The description of these diseases given by the narrator of this
tale is as follows: "Patients having these diseases are weak, stagger,
and lose appetite; then they go to a sweat-house and take an emetic. If
they have li'tso, or the yellow disease, they vomit something yellow
(bile ?). If they have til-litá, or cooked blood disease, they vomit
something like cooked blood. Those having the yellows have often
yellow eyes and yellow skin. Thatli't, or slime disease, comes from
drinking foul water full of green slime or little fish (tadpoles
?). Tsoxs, worms, usually come from eating worms, which you sometimes
do without knowing it; but tsi'lgo, tapeworm, comes from eating parched
corn." Probably the last notion arises from the slight resemblance
of the joints of Tænia solium to grains of corn. This little chapter
in pathology from Hatáli Natlói is hardly in accordance with the
prevalent theory that savages regard all disease as of demoniac origin.
225. The adjective yazóni, or yasóni, here used, which is translated
"beautiful," means more than this: it means both good (or useful)
and beautiful. It contains elements of the words yatí`, good, and of
inzóni, nizóni, and hozóni, which signify beautiful.
226. According to the Navaho myths and songs, the corn and other
products in the gardens of the yéi or divine ones grow and mature in
a very short time. The rapid growth of the crops in Nati'nesthani's
farm is supposed to result from the divine origin of the seed.
227. The order in which Nati'nesthani lays down the ears of corn
is the order in which sacrificial cigarettes, kethawns, and other
sacred objects, when colored, are laid down in a straight row. The
white, being the color of the east, has precedence of all and is
laid down first. The blue, the color of the south, comes next, for
when we move sunwise (the sacred ceremonial circuit of the Navahoes)
south follows immediately after east. Yellow, the color of the west,
on the same principle, comes third; and black (in this case mixed)
comes fourth. Mixed is properly the coloring of the upper region,
and usually follows after black; but it sometimes takes the place of
black. These apparently superfluous particulars of laying down the
corn have a ceremonial or religious significance. In placing sacred
objects ceremonially in a straight row, the operator proceeds southward
from his starting-point, for this approximates the sunwise circuit,
and he makes the tip ends point east.
228. Pín-i-az bi-tsó (fawn-his-cheese), or fawn-cheese, is a substance
found in the abdomen of the fawn. A similar substance is found in
other young mammals. They say it looks like curds, or cottage cheese,
and that it is pleasant to the taste. They eat it raw. The author has
not determined by observation what this substance is. Dr. C. Hart
Merriam, of the Department of Agriculture, suggests that it is the
partly digested milk in the stomach of the fawn, and this is probably
the case.
229. The dish offered to Nati'nesthani is called by the Navahoes
atsón, which is here translated "pemmican." It consists of dried
vension pounded on a stone and fried in grease.
230. To make di-tló-gi kle-sán, cut the grain off the ear, grind it
to a pulp on a metate, spread out the embers, lay a number of green
corn leaves on them, place the pulp on the leaves, put other leaves
on top of the pulp, rake hot embers over all, and leave it to bake.
231. Di-tló-gin tsi-di-kó-i is made of a pulp of green corn ground
on a metate, like ditlógi klesán. The pulp is encased in husks,
which are folded at the ends, and is then placed between leaves and
hot coals to bake.
232. Thá-bi-tsa (three-ears) is made also of pulp of green corn. This
is placed in folded cones made of husks; three cones being made of
one complete husk, whose leaves are not removed from their stem. It
looks like three ears fastened together, whence the name. It is boiled
in water.
233. The story-teller said: "about as far as from here to Jake's
house,"--a distance which the writer estimated at 300 yards.
234. Over the east door, one cigarette, that for the male, was made of
mountain mahogany (tsé`estagi, Cercocarpus parvifolius), perforated,
painted blue, and marked with four symbols of deer-tracks in yellow;
the other cigarette, that for the female, was made of cliff rose
(awétsal, Cowania mexicana), painted yellow and marked with four
symbols of deer-tracks in blue. Over the south door the cigarette for
the male was made of sunflower (indigíli), painted yellow and dotted
with four symbols of antelope-tracks in blue; the cigarette for the
female was made of "strong-smelling sunflower" (indigíli niltsóni,
Verbesina enceloides), painted white and dotted with four symbols
of antelope-tracks in black. Over the west door, the cigarettes were
of the same material as those in the east; but one was painted black
with symbols of deer-tracks in blue, and the other was painted blue
with symbols of deer-tracks in black. At the bottom of the steps, one
of the cigarettes was painted black and dotted with four symbols of
fawn-tracks in yellow; the other was painted yellow and dotted with
four symbols of fawn-tracks in black. The above was written from the
description of the narrator. The writer has never seen such cigarettes;
but they are said to be employed in some Navaho ceremonies at the
present time. In this series of cigarettes the colors are not in
the usual order,[18] but there may be a special symbolism for these
animals, or the variation may arise because they are the cigarettes
of a wizard and therefore unholy.
235. When driving game to a party in ambush, the Navahoes often
imitate the cry of the wolf. In this myth the old man is supposed
to give the cry, not to drive the bears, but to make Nati'nesthani
believe that deer are being driven.
236. The name Tsa-na-naí is derived from tsan, which means
dung. Tse'-sko-di means Spread-foot. The narrator said the other
bears had names, but he could not remember them.
237. "He did not even thank his son-in-law" is an instance of sarcasm.
238. The bear is a sacred animal with the Navahoes; for this reason
the hero did not skin the bears or eat their flesh. The old man,
being a wizard, might do both.
239. Há-la-dzi-ni? means "What are you doing?" but it is a jocose
expression, used only among intimate relations, or relations by
marriage. In employing this interrogatory the Navaho gave the old
man to understand that he was recognized.
240. This episode of the twelve bears is the weakest and least
artistic in the tale. Moreover, it details a fifth device on the part
of Deer Raiser to kill his son-in-law. Under ordinary circumstances
we should expect but four devices. It seems an interpolation, by
some story-teller less ingenious than he who composed the rest of the
tale, introduced to get the men out together once more, so that, on
their way home, the incident of the burnt moccasins might occur. The
latter incident has been previously recorded by the writer in another
connection. (See note 242.)
241. Among the Navahoes, when a person dies, the suffix ni, or ini, is
added to his (or her) name, and thus he is mentioned ever afterwards.
242. Before the story of Nati'nesthani was obtained, the writer had
already recorded this tale of the burnt moccasins in a version of the
Origin Legend. In the latter connection it is introduced as one of the
Coyote tales. The mischievous Coyote is made to try this trick on his
father-in-law; but the latter, warned by the Wind, foils the Coyote.
243. The ridge which he crosses in the east and also those which he
crosses later in the south, west, and north are colored according to
the regular order of Navaho symbolism.
244. The narrator described the bird called tsi-das-tó-i thus: When a
man passes by where this bird is sitting, the latter does not fly off,
but sits and looks at the man, moving its head in every direction. It
is about the size of a screech-owl.
245. It must not be supposed that in this and the following paragraph,
when pale-faced people are mentioned, any allusion is made to
Caucasians. The reference is merely symbolic. White is the color
of the east in Navaho symbolism: hence these people in the east are
represented as having pale faces. For similar reasons the man in the
south (par. 551) is said to have a blue face, the man in the west
(par. 552) a yellow face, and the man in the north (par. 553) a dark
face. (See note 18.)
246. Bi-za (his treasure), something he specially values; hence his
charm, his amulet, his personal fetish, his magic weapon, something
that one carries to mysteriously protect himself. Even the divinities
are thought to possess such charms. The songs often mention some
property of a god which they say is "Bi'za-yedigi'ngo" (The treasure
which makes him holy or sacred). (See par. 367 and note 280.)
247. These medicines are still in use among the Navahoes. The
medicine made of gall consists mostly of gall of eagles. If a witch
has scattered evil medicine on you, use this. If there are certain
kinds of food that disagree with you, and you still wish to eat them,
use the vomit medicine. Hunters obtain the materials when they go out
hunting. All the totemic animals named (puma, blue fox, yellow fox,
wolf, and lynx, see par. 548) vomit when they eat too much. So said
the narrator.
248. Buteo borealis. The tail is described as red ("bright chestnut
red," Coues) by our ornithologists; but the Navahoes consider it
yellow, and call the bird atsé-litsói, or yellow-tail.
249. A-tsó-si-dze ha-tál, or a-tsó-si ha-tál means feather chant or
feather ceremony. The following particulars concerning the ceremony
were given by the narrator of the story. Dry-paintings are made on
the floor of the medicine-lodge much like those of the klédzi hatál,
and others are made representing different animals. It is still
occasionally celebrated, but not often, and there are only four priests
of the rite living. It lasts nine days, and it has more stories, songs,
and acts than any other Navaho ceremony. A deer dance was part of the
rite in the old days, but it is not practised now. The rite is good
for many things, but especially for deer disease. If you sleep on
a dry, undressed deer-skin or foul one, or if a deer sneezes at you
or makes any other marked demonstration at you, you are in danger of
getting the deer disease.
250. Yó-i ha-tál, or yói-dze ha-tál (bead chant), is a nine days'
ceremony, which is becoming obsolete. The author has been informed
that there is only one priest of the rite remaining; that he learned
it from his father, but that he does not know as much about it as
his father did.
251. The device of setting up forked sticks to assist in locating fires
seen by night and in remembering the position of distant objects is
often mentioned in the Navaho tales. (See pars. 382 and 497.)
252. Equisetum hiemale, and perhaps other species of Equisetum,
or horse-tail.
253. ["Klis-ka', the arrow-snake, is a long slender snake that moves
with great velocity,--so great that, coming to the edge of a cliff when
racing, he flies for some distance through the air before reaching
the ground again. The Navahoes believe he could soar if he wanted
to. He is red and blue on the belly, striped on the back, six feet
long or longer. Sometimes moves like a measuring-worm."] From the
above description Dr. H. C. Yarrow, formerly curator of reptiles in
the Smithsonian Institution, is of the opinion that the arrow-snake
is Bascanium flagelliforme.
254. Accipiter cooperii, called gíni by the Navahoes.
255. Compare with description of Spider Woman and her home in paragraph
306. It would seem that the Navahoes believe in more than one Spider
Woman. (May be they believe in one for each world.) In paragraph 581
we have an instance of black being assigned to the east and white to
the north. (See note 18.)
256. There are several plants in New Mexico and Arizona which become
tumble-weeds in the autumn, but the particular weed referred to here
is the Amarantus albus. It is called tlotáhi nagi'si, or rolling
tlotáhi, by the Navahoes. Tlotáhi is a name applied in common to
several species of the Amarantaceæ and allied Chenopodiacæ. (See
"Navaho Names for Plants."[312]) The seeds of plants of these families
formerly constituted an important part of the diet of the Navahoes,
and they still eat them to some extent.
257. Tsil-dil-gi'-si is said to mean frightened-weed, scare-weed,
or hiding-weed, and to be so named because snakes, lizards, and
other animals hide in its dense foliage when frightened. It is a
yellow-flowered composite, Gutierrezia euthamiæ (T. and G.), which
grows in great abundance in Arizona and New Mexico. It is used
extensively in the Navaho ceremonies in preparing and depositing
sacrifices, etc.
258. Whirlwinds of no great violence are exceedingly common throughout
the arid region. One seldom looks at an extensive landscape without
seeing one or more columns of whirling dust arising.
259. In the full myth of yói hatál, as told by a priest of the rite,
a complete account of the ceremonies, songs, and sacrifices taught
to the Navaho would here be given; but in this account, told by an
outsider, the ritual portion is omitted.
260. In the myth of the "Mountain Chant,"[314] p. 410, it is stated,
as in this tale, that the wanderer returning to his old home finds
the odors of the place intolerable to him. Such incidents occur in
other Navaho myths.
261. In the rite of the klédzi hatál, or the night chant, the first
four masked characters, who come out to dance in the public performance
of the last night, are called atsá`lei. From this story it would seem
that a similar character or characters belong to the yói hatál.
262. These great shells are perhaps not altogether mythical. Similar
shells are mentioned in the Origin Legend (pars. 211, 213, 226),
in connection with the same pueblos. Shells of such size, conveyed
from the coast to the Chaco Canyon, a distance of 300 miles or more,
before the introduction of the horse, would have been of inestimable
value among the Indians.
263. In the myth recorded in "The Mountain Chant: a Navaho
Ceremony,"[314] p. 413, there is an account of a journey given
by a courier who went to summon some distant bands to join in a
ceremony. From this account the following passage is taken: "I ... went
to the north. On my way I met another messenger, who was travelling
from a distant camp to this one to call you all to a dance in a circle
of branches of a different kind from ours. When he learned my errand
he tried to prevail on me to return hither and put off our dance until
another day, so that we might attend their ceremony, and that they
might in turn attend ours; but I refused, saying our people were in
haste to complete their dance. Then we exchanged bows and quivers,
as a sign to our people that we had met, and that what we would
tell on our return was the truth. You observe the bow and quiver I
have now are not those with which I left this morning. We parted,
and I kept on my way toward the north." In par. 597 of "The Great
Shell of Kintyél" reference is made to the same identical meeting
of couriers. It is interesting to observe how one legend is made to
corroborate the other,--each belonging to a different rite.
264. Pésdolgas is here translated serrate knife. A saw is called
benitsíhi, but in describing it the adjective dolgás is used for
serrate. The pésdolgas is mentioned often in song and story. It
is said to be no longer in use. Descriptions indicate that it was
somewhat like the many-bladed obsidian weapon of the ancient Mexicans.
265. The cliff-ruin known as the White House, in the Chelly Canyon,
Arizona, has been often pictured and described. It is called by
the Navahoes Kin-i-na-é-kai, which signifies Stone House of the
White Horizontal Streak (the upper story is painted white). The
name White House is a free translation of this. The Navaho legends
abound in references to it, and represent it as once inhabited by
divinities. (See par. 78 and fig. 22.)
266. Hát-das-tsi-si is a divinity who is not depicted in the
dry-paintings, and whose representative the author has not seen. He
appears rarely in the ceremonies and is thus described: The actor
wears an ordinary Navaho costume, and an ordinary yébaka mask adorned
with owl-feathers, but not with eagle-plumes. He carries on his back
an entire yucca plant with the leaves hanging down, and a large ring,
two spans in diameter, made of yucca leaves (to show that he is a great
gambler at nánzoz). He carries a whip of yucca leaves, and goes around
among the assembled crowd to treat the ailing. If a man has lumbago he
bends over before the actor and presents his back to be flagellated;
if he has headache he presents his head. When the actor has whipped
the ailing one, he turns away from him and utters a low sound (like
the lowing of a cow). When he can find no more people to whip, he
returns to the medicine-lodge and takes off his mask. The cigarette
(which the author has in his possession) appropriate to this god is
painted black, and bears rude figures of the yucca ring and the yucca
plant. It is buried east of the lodge beside a growing yucca. Ten songs
are sung when the cigarette is being made, and a prayer is repeated
when the work is done. The yucca which the actor carries must have
a large part of its root-stock over ground. It is kicked out of the
ground,--neither pulled nor cut. The principal home of the divinity
is at Tsasitsozsakád (Yucca Glauca, Standing), near the Chelly Canyon.
267. The following is a list of the twenty-one divinities represented
by masks in the ceremony of the klédzi hatál:--
MALE.
1. Hastséyalti.
2. Gánaskidi.
3. Tó`nenili.
4. Nayénezgani.
5. To`badzistsíni.
6. Dsahadoldzá.
7. Hastsézini.
8. Hastséhogan.
9. Hátdastsisi.[266]
10. Hastséltsi.[271]
11. Tsóhanoai.
12. Kléhanoai, or Tléhanoai.
13. Hastsébaka.
Each, for the first seven, wears a different mask. The last six wear
masks of one pattern, that of yébaka. (See plate I., fig. 1.)
FEMALE.
14. Hastséoltoi.
15 to 21. Hastsébaad, or goddesses.
All the female characters wear masks of one kind. (See fig. 28 and
plate I., fig. 3.)
268. The language of the Eleventh Census is quoted here, although it
differs slightly from the official report of the count of 1869, made
by the acting agent, Capt. Frank T. Bennett, U.S.A. Captain Bennett
says the count was made on two separate days, October 2d and 18th,
and gives the number of Indians actually counted at 8,181. (Report
of Commission of Indian Affairs for 1869, p. 237.[298])
269. Plate IV. represents a man dressed to personate Nayénezgani,
or Slayer of the Alien Gods, as he appears in an act of succor in
the ceremony of the night chant, on the afternoon of the ninth day,
in company with two other masqueraders (To`badzistsíni[270] and
Hastséoltoi[206]). The personator has his body painted black with
charcoal of four sacred plants, and his hands painted white. He wears
a black mask which has a fringe of yellow or reddish hair across the
crown and an ornament of turkey's and eagle's feathers on top. Five
parallel lines with five angles in each, to represent lightning, are
painted on one cheek of the mask (sometimes the right, sometimes the
left). Small, diamond-shaped holes are cut in the mask for eyes and
mouth, and to the edge of each hole a small white shell is attached. On
his body there are drawn in white clay the figures of eight bows;
six are drawn as shown in the picture and two more are drawn over the
shoulder-blades. All these bows are shown as complete (or strung)
except those on the left leg and left side of the back, which are
represented open or unstrung, as shown in the plate and fig. 41. The
symbol at the left leg is made first, that on the left shoulder last
of all. All the component lines of the symbol are drawn from above
downward; fig. 41 shows the order in which they must be drawn. The
symbols must all turn in one direction. The personator wears a collar
of fox-skin, a number of rich necklaces of shell, turquoise and coral,
a fine skirt or sash around his loins (usually scarlet baize, bayeta,
but velvet or any rich material will do), a belt decorated with silver,
and ordinary moccasins. He carries in his right hand a great stone
knife, with which, in the scene of succor, he makes motions at the
patient and at the medicine-lodge to draw out the disease. The patient
prays to him, and gives him a cigarette painted black and decorated
with the bow-symbols in white. This cigarette is preferably deposited
under a piñon-tree. A dry-painting of this god has never been seen
by the author, and he has been told that none is ever made.