Part 12

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

It will be noticed that the slat altar in Pl. XXV differs from that in 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.”

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.