Part 5
108. These dances of the Navaho, although accompanied with religious symbolism, and performed often by men wearing sacred costumes, are undoubtedly intended largely to entertain the spectators. While but a few people may be present during the first eight or nine days of a great ceremony, a large crowd always gathers to witness the performances of the last night, and many people stay up all night to do this. On the last night of the mountain chant the dances are picturesque and various. Many of them are borrowed from other rites. They have been described by the author in a previous work. On the last night of the night chant the dance and song vary but little, and to the ordinary observer may seem not to vary at all. Yet the spectators who come to the mountain chant are not more wakeful and watchful than those who come to the night chant. The dancing is always rhythmical and well-timed. Figures are often introduced like those of our quadrilles; but no round dances, like our waltz or polka, have been observed--the rough ground is not suited for such. The dancers and the drummers practise long in private before coming to the public exhibition.
109. Prayer.--In a paper entitled "The Prayer of a Navaho Shaman,"[315] the author has published a long composition, called a prayer by the man from whom he received it, which is a simple narrative and does not contain a word of supplication. This is the only prayer of such character obtained from a Navaho. Many other long prayers have been recorded, all of which are formed on a common plan. The name of a god is mentioned, and some flattering attributes are given to him. If it is a god such as Hastséyalti, of which there are more than one of the same name, his residence is mentioned. He is informed that sacrifices have been prepared for him. He is asked to remove the spell of disease. Immediately he is assured that it is removed. Then he is asked to bestow various blessings on the supplicant and all his kindred and people. The prayer is given out, one sentence at a time, by the shaman, and the patient repeats it after him, sentence by sentence.
110. These prayers, repeated by two voices, sound much like litanies, and all end with an expression (hozóna hastlé) analogous to the amen of Christian prayers, four times repeated; yet the Navaho prayers show in their spirit no indication of the influence of Christian teaching. They are purely pagan compositions. The only evidence of any modern influence they present is the occasional inclusion of a request for increase of wealth in the shape of horses and sheep. A typical Navaho prayer from the rites of klédzi hatál is given in note 288.
111. Besides these long prayers, repeated by two persons, the shamans have many monologue prayers; there are prayers silent and vocal, formulated and extempore, used by both priest and layman; and there are short devotional sayings which may be classed as benedictions and ejaculations.
THE LEGENDS.
112. Of the many lengthy myths and legends obtained by the author from the Navahoes, three have been selected for publication in this volume. The first is the Origin Legend of the tribe; the other two are incomplete rite-myths, i.e., rite-myths told by men who were not priests of the associated rites.
113. Versions.--As might be expected among an unlettered people, thinly scattered over a wide territory, the legends of the Navahoes have many variants. No two men will tell the same tale exactly alike, and each story-teller will probably maintain that his own version is the only reliable one. Variations of the Origin Legend, which is the property of the tribe at large, and, unlike the rite-myths, is not in the keeping of any especial order or priesthood, are particularly numerous; but even in the rite-myths, as told by priests of the rites, versions may be found. Notwithstanding these varieties, the tale-tellers agree substantially in the more important matters. Of the two rite-myths given in this work, only one version of each was procured; but several versions of the Origin Legend, complete or partial, were recorded. The one here published was selected as being the most complete, extensive, and consistent of all. Other versions often supplement it. The narrators sometimes acknowledged that they had forgotten episodes which others had remembered and detailed. The learned old shaman, Hatáli Nez, forgot to tell how the stars were made; while a younger and less erudite person, Jake the silversmith, related a fair version of this episode, which came also from other sources to the writer. Jake's version of the Legend, which has already been published, is designated in the notes as Version B;[306] that of old Torlino, a priest of the hozóni hatál, is designated as Version A. Other versions are alluded to, but not designated by letter or number. Some fragmentary versions by other authors[291] [300] have been published, but these are not quoted in the notes.
114. Origin Legend.--The Origin Legend divides itself into four very distinct parts or chapters, which are named: I. The Story of the Emergence; II. Early Events in the Fifth World; III. The War Gods; IV. The Growth of the Navaho Nation. The name of the first part is that given to it by the Navaho story-tellers. The names of the other parts are supplied by the author. The first part, The Story of the Emergence, ends when it is related that the people came out from the fourth world to the surface of this, the fifth world.[15]
115. Rite-myths.--By a rite-myth is meant a myth which accounts for the work of a ceremony, for its origin, for its introduction among the Navahoes, or for all these things combined. The Navahoes celebrate long and costly ceremonies, many of which are of nine days' duration. Each ceremony has connected with it one or more myths, or legends which may not be altogether mythical.
116. When a rite-myth is told by a priest of the rite to which the myth belongs, minute and often tedious particulars concerning the rite, its work, symbolism, and sacrifices are introduced into the tale. When such a myth is told by one who is not a priest of the rite (although he may be a priest of some other rite), these esoteric parts are altogether omitted, or only briefly alluded to. To the latter class belong the two rite-myths given in this book. They are here published because they are among the most interesting and ingenious that have been collected among the Navahoes. The attention of the reader is directed, in the notes, to a few places where esoteric or ceremonial matters are thought to be referred to. Tales containing ceremonial allusions in full are reserved for future publication, along with a description of the rites to which they pertain, as such is considered the more appropriate place for their publication.
117. In one version of the Origin Legend (Version A) a portion of this story is used as a rite-myth. It is embellished with prayers and songs, and interspersed with allusions to ceremonial work which the version of Hatáli Nez does not contain; but in other respects it is inferior to the latter. Thus embellished it contributes a share to the myth of the ceremony of hozóni hatál, or chant of terrestrial beauty. Even in the version of Hatáli Nez, the songs seem introduced from some rite-myth, and scarcely to belong to the original story.
118. Whenever an opportunity has occurred of studying a rite with its associated myth, it has been found that the myth never explains all the symbolism of the rite, although it may account for all the more important acts. A primitive and underlying symbolism, which probably existed previous to the establishment of the rite, remains unexplained by the myth, as though its existence were taken as a matter of course, and required no explanation. Some explanation of this foundation symbolism may be found in the Origin Legend, or in other early legends of the tribe; but something remains which even these do not explain.
119. Myths of the Whirling Logs.--In the ceremony of klédzi hatál there is drawn upon the floor of the medicine-lodge a large dry-painting which is very imperfectly represented in fig. 29. The original was wrought in five colors and was about 12 feet in diameter. It depicts a vision of the prophet Bélahatini, who established the rites of klédzi hatál. On one occasion, says the tale, he was led, in the San Juan valley, to a lake on the borders of which grew four stalks of sacred corn, each of a different color. In the centre of the lake lay two logs crossing one another at right angles. Near both ends of each log sat a pair of yéi, or genii, male and female, making eight in all. On the shore of the lake stood four more yéi, three of whom had staves, by means of which they kept the crossed logs away from the shore and whirling in the waters. The rainbow goddess, the anthropomorphic rainbow of the Navahoes, surrounded the lake. All the circumstances of this strange scene are duly symbolized in the painting.
120. It was in his efforts to get a further explanation of this extraordinary picture that the author came upon the story of Nati'nesthani. It is not the story that explains the picture, although certain passages in it (pars. 481, 488) might seem to explain it. The story to which the picture belongs is that of Bélahatini, which may some day be published in connection with a description of the ceremony of klédzi hatál, or the night chant. The prophet Bélahatini, according to the tale, floated down the San Juan River in a hollow log, until he came to the whirling lake, where he saw the vision depicted in the dry-painting. But when the shaman had finished telling the story of Bélahatini he said: "There is another story of a man who floated down the San Juan River in a hollow log. It is a story belonging to a different rite, the atsósidze hatál. Would you like to hear it?" It was thus that the story of Nati'nesthani came to be told. The narrator of the two tales was a priest of the klédzi hatál, but not of the atsósidze hatál; hence one tale is crowded with allusions to acts in the ceremony, while the other, as here published, has few such allusions.
121. The Great Shell of Kintyél.--The story of the Great Shell of Kintyél, as here given, is a fragment of a rite-myth,--the myth of the yóidze hatál, or yói hatál[250] (bead chant), a nine days' healing ceremony. It conveys a moral often found in Navaho tales, which is, that we must not despise the poor and humble. They may be favored by the gods and prove themselves, to-morrow, more potent than those who yesterday despised and mocked them. It also signalizes the triumph of a poor Navaho over wealthy Pueblos.
122. Translation of Legends.--In rendering the Navaho tales into English, the author has not confined himself to a close literal translation. Such translation would often be difficult to understand, and, more often still, be uninteresting reading. He has believed it to be his duty to make a readable translation, giving the spirit of the original rather than the exact words. The tales were told in fluent Navaho, easy of comprehension, and of such literary perfection as to hold the hearer's attention. They should be translated into English of a similar character, even if words have to be added to make the sense clear. Such privileges are taken by the translators of the Bible and of the classic authors. Still the writer has taken pains never to exceed the metaphor or descriptive force of the original, and never to add a single thought of his own. If he has erred in rendering the spirit of the savage authors, it has been by diminishing rather than by exaggerating. He has erred on the side of safety. He has endeavored to "tune the sitar" rather low than high.15a Again, the original was often embellished with pantomime and vocal modulation which expressed more than the mere words, and which the writer is unable to represent, and it contained extemporized onomatopes which no letters can express.
123. Texts.--The men who narrated to the author the tales contained in this book were not men of unlimited leisure, as many suppose the Indians to be; they were popular shamans, or medicine-men, who had numerous engagements to conduct ceremonies during the summer months, and it was only during the winter months that they permitted themselves to tell the tales. It was usually with difficulty that arrangements were made with one of these shamans to devote a period of two or three weeks to the service of the author. Then, too, they had farms and stock which demanded their care. Neither was the author a man of unbounded leisure. Rarely could he devote more than two or three hours out of twenty-four to the work of ethnography. It has happened more than once that he has been obliged to break an engagement made with a shaman, at a cost of considerable trouble and money, in order to go on detached service away from his proper station. For these reasons it was not practicable to record the original Indian texts of all the stories. The author had to choose between copious texts and copious tales. He chose the latter. But some texts have been recorded. In order that the reader may judge how closely the liberal translation here offered follows the original, the Navaho text of the opening passages--ten paragraphs--of the Origin Legend, with interlinear translations, are given in the notes. The texts of songs, prayers, and interesting passages may also be found in the notes.
ALPHABET USED.
124. Ever since the present alphabet of the Bureau of Ethnology was established (in 1880), it has been the author's custom to use it in spelling Indian words. But heretofore he has written mostly for the scientific world, for ethnologists and philologists who either were familiar with the alphabet, or were willing to constantly refer to it in reading. As the present work is designed to reach a wider circle of readers, the propriety of using the alphabet of the Bureau becomes doubtful. Many of the author's friends have begged him not to use it in this collection of tales, believing that its unusual characters would embarrass the average reader and detract from the interest of the work. Another system has, therefore, been devised, according to which consonants printed in Roman letters have the ordinary English sounds, while those printed in Italics have sounds analogous to the English but not identical with them. The vowels, when unmarked, have the continental sounds. When these sounds are modified, diacritical marks are added in accordance with the latest edition of Webster's Dictionary. The sound of English a in what is indicated by a. The only diphthong is ai, which has the sound of English i in pine. One mark not employed in Webster's orthoepy is used in this book, viz., the inverted comma after a vowel to show that it is aspirated.
125. According to this arrangement, the casual reader will find the Indian words easily legible. If he takes the trouble to consult this and the preceding paragraph he may pronounce the words almost exactly as a Navaho would; if not he may, at least, pronounce them in a way that few Navahoes would fail to comprehend. At all events, to the majority of readers, a perfect pronunciation of the Indian words is immaterial. Many white men, living within the borders of the Navaho land, converse with these Indians in a jargon or debased language which might be spelled in English characters with their ordinary English values. For example, let us take the word for hut or house. This is properly pronounced hogán; but the whites in New Mexico generally call it hogán, and the Navahoes never fail to understand the word as thus pronounced. In this form it is an adopted English word in the Southwest. The following are the values of the consonants when printed in Italics:--
d has the sound of English th in this.
g has a sound unknown in English, gh imperfectly represents it. It is the g of the Dakota, or the Arabic ghain.
h has the sound of German ch in machen.
l is an aspirated l unknown in English, hl imperfectly represents it. It is formed with the side rather than with the tip of the tongue.
s has the sound of English sh in shot.
t has the sound of English th in thing.
z has the sound of English z in azure.
c, j, q, r, and x are not used. The sound of English ch in church is represented by ts; that of English j in jug, by dz.
SPELLING OF NAVAHO.
126. In the many papers about the Navahoes which the author has previously written he has spelled the name of the tribe according to the Spanish system "Navajo," with the plural also in Spanish form, "Navajos." In the present work he spells it, according to English orthography, "Navaho," with an English plural, "Navahoes," and he thus intends to spell it in the future. This he does because the Spanish spelling is misleading to the majority of English readers. It may properly be asked why he should adopt an English orthography for Navaho, a name of Spanish origin, while he retains the misleading Spanish orthography of San Juan. It is not sufficient, in reply, to say that the territory of the Navaho has been in the possession of the United States since 1848, and that we have thus acquired the right to spell this name in our own way; for a thousand other names of Spanish origin have marked our map as long, which we never ventured to change, either in spelling or pronunciation. Perhaps the best defence to be made of our course is that the name Navaho exists nowhere but within our borders. If we change the spelling here, we do not conflict with the spelling elsewhere. But there are scores of San Juans in Spanish America. We could not change the spelling of our San Juan without confusion. It were better that we should follow the example of Lord Byron and pronounce it Jew'an; but this the people of the Southwest will probably never do. They will speak of the stream as the "San Won" or the "San Whon" for all time. Furthermore, the English spelling of Navaho is not a new thing with the writer. Many have already adopted it.
NOTES.
126. In preparing the notes the author has usually limited himself to such matters as he believes he only can explain, or such as, at least, he can explain better than any one else. In a few cases he has given information on subjects not generally known and not easily to be investigated. The temptation to wander into the seductive paths of comparative mythology, and to speculate on the more recondite significance of the myths, had to be resisted if the work were to be kept within the limits of one volume. Resemblances between the tales of the Navahoes and those of other peoples, civilized and savage, ancient and modern, are numerous and marked; but space devoted to them would be lost to more important subjects. Again, many of the readers of this book may be prepared, better than the author, to note these resemblances.
SHAMANS.[16]
127. So much has been said against the medicine-men of the Indians by various writers, who accuse them of being reactionaries, mischief-makers, and arrant deceivers, that the writer feels constrained to give some testimony in their favor,--in favor, at least, of those he has met among the Navahoes; he will not speak now for other tribes.
128. There are, among the Navahoes, charlatans and cheats who treat disease; men who pretend to suck disease out of the patient and then draw from their own mouths pebbles, pieces of charcoal, or bodies of insects, claiming that these are the disease which they have extracted. But the priests of the great rites are not to be classed with such. All of these with whom the writer is acquainted are above such trickery. They perform their ceremonies in the firm conviction that they are invoking divine aid, and their calling lends dignity to their character. They interfere little with the political affairs of the tribe.
129. Smiling Chanter.--It is a source of great regret that a better likeness cannot be presented of Hatáli Natlói than that shown in fig. 31. It is reproduced from a painting which was copied from a dim kodak photograph. His name may be translated Smiling Chanter, or Smiling Doctor; an angry or unpleasant expression is never seen on his face. He is also called Hatáli Pahozóni, which may be translated Happy or Good-natured Chanter. He is a priest of the klédzi hatál, or night chant. He would be considered a man of high character in any community. He is dignified, courteous, kind, honest, truthful, and self-respecting. But his dignity is not of the pompous kind. He has a keen sense of humor, makes an excellent joke, and is a good mimic; but, for all his fun, he is neither vulgar nor unkind. He never begged from the author, and never made a bargain with him in advance for his services, or named a price for them when he was done. He always took the greatest pains to explain everything, and, after the writer had been duly initiated into the mysteries of his order, he withheld nothing. To him we are indebted for the story of Nati'nesthani.
130. Tall Chanter.--Figure 32 represents an aged priest named Hatáli Nez, or Tall Chanter. He was the first who could be persuaded to explain to the author the ceremonies or relate the rite-myths; but when he set the example, others were found to follow. He also is a priest of the night chant. Of late years he has become unpopular as a shaman, owing to an increasing irritability of temper; but he exhibits no envy of his more popular rivals. He perhaps has a better knowledge of the legends than any other man in the tribe. Before he would confide any of his secrets to the author he said: "The chanters among the Navahoes are all brothers. If you would learn our secrets you must be one of us. You must forever be a brother to me. Do you promise this?" He has ever since addressed the author as Sitsi'li, "My younger brother," and has in turn been called Sinái, "My elder brother."
131. Ethics.--Among themselves, these men have a code of ethics which is, in general, more honestly upheld than the code of our own medical profession. They exhibit no jealousy of one another. They boast not of the excellence of the particular rite they practise. They assist and counsel one another. If a medicine-man, in performing a rite, finds that his supply of some sacred article is exhausted, he sends to the nearest medicine-man for it. If the latter has it, he is obliged to give, and is not allowed to receive payment in return.
132. Torlino.--They are as willing as any other Indians to learn the white man's philosophy. Old Torlino, a priest of hozóni hatál, sent a son to school at Carlisle, and when the young man returned he no doubt imparted to his father much that he had learned there. The writer sent for the old man to get from him the myth of hozóni hatál. Torlino began: "I know the white men say the world is round, and that it floats in the air. My tale says the world is flat, and that there are five worlds, one above another. You will not believe my tale, then, and perhaps you do not want to hear it." Being assured that the tale was earnestly desired, despite of all white men's theories, he proceeded. "I shall tell you the truth, then. I shall tell you all that I heard from the old men who taught me, as well as I can now remember. Why should I lie to you?" And then he made the interesting asseveration which is here literally translated: "I am ashamed before the earth; I am ashamed before the heavens; I am ashamed before the dawn; I am ashamed before the evening twilight; I am ashamed before the blue sky; I am ashamed before the darkness; I am ashamed before the sun; I am ashamed before that standing within me which speaks with me (my conscience!).[274] Some of these things are always looking at me. I am never out of sight. Therefore I must tell the truth. That is why I always tell the truth. I hold my word tight to my breast."