Part 9

The ya´ya are most carefully preserved, not only on account of their sacred value, but also of their intrinsic worth, as the parrot plumes of which they are partially composed are very costly and difficult to obtain, they being procured from other Indians, who either make journeys into Mexico and trade for these plumes with the Indians of that country, or the Indians on the border secure them and bring them for traffic among their more northern brothers.

The ya´ya are wrapped first with a piece of soft cloth, then with buckskin, and finally with another cloth; slender splints are placed around this outer covering and a long buckskin string secures the packages.

After unwrapping the ya´ya the ho´naaite proceeds to arrange the fetiches. Three of the ya´ya are placed immediately in front of the altar upon a paralellogram of meal, which is always drawn at the base of the altars, and is emblematic of seats for the ya´ya. An image, 8 inches high, of Ko´chinako (Yellow Woman of the North) stands to the right of the ya´ya, and a wolf of red sandstone, its tail being quite the length of its body, which is 6 inches, is placed to the left of the ya´ya, and by the side of this wolf is a bear of black lava, and next an abalone shell; two cougars of red sandstone, some 12 inches in length, are posted to the right and left of the altar; an antique medicine bowl, finely decorated in snake, cloud, and lightning designs, is placed in front of the three ya´ya; two finely polished adzes, 12 inches long, are laid either side of the medicine bowl, and by these two large stone knives; two ya´ya stand side by side in front of the bowl, and before each is a snake’s rattle, each rattle having twelve buttons; the sixth ya´ya stands on the tail of the sand-painted cougar; a miniature bow and arrow is laid before each of the six ya´ya; eight human images are arranged in line in front of the two ya´ya, these representing Ma´asewe, Úyuuyewĕ, and the six warriors who live in the six mountains of the cardinal points, the larger figures being 8 and 10 inches high and the smaller ones 4 and 5, the figure of the Warrior of the North having well-defined eyes and nose in bas-relief. This figure is decorated with a necklace of bears’ claws, a similar necklace being around its companion, a clumsy stone hatchet. Most of the images in this line have a fringe of white wool around the face, symbolic of clouds. In front of these figures are three fetiches of Ko´shairi, not over 4 or 5 inches high, with a shell in front of them, and on either side of the shell there are two wands of turkey plumes standing in clay holders, the holders having been first modeled into a ball and then a cavity made by pressing in the finger sufficiently deep to hold the wand. These holders are sun dried. In front of the shell is a cross, the only evidence discovered of an apparent influence of Catholicism. The cross, however, bears no symbol of Christianity to these Indians. The one referred to was given to a theurgist of the Snake Society in remote times by a priest so good of heart, they say, that, though his religion was not theirs, his prayers traveled fast over the straight road to Ko´pĭshtaia; and so their reverence for this priest as an honest, truthful man led them to convert the symbol of Christianity into an object of fetichistic worship. The cross stands on a 6-inch cube of wood, and is so covered with plumes that only the tips of the cross are to be seen, and a small bunch of eagle plumes is attached pendent to the top of the cross with cotton cord. A bear of white stone, 5 inches long, is placed to the left of the cross and just back of it a tiny cub. A wolf, also of white stone, and 5 inches in length, is deposited to the right of the cross. At either end of, and to the front of, the altar are two massive carvings in relief, in red sandstone, of coiled snakes. Bear-leg skins, with the claws, are piled on either side of the altar, and by these gourd rattles and eagle plumes, in twos, to be used by the members in the ceremonial. A necklace of bears’ claws, with a whistle attached midway the string, having two fluffy eagle plumes fastened to the end with native cotton cord, hangs over the north post of the altar. The ho´naaite wear this necklace in the evening ceremony. The sacred honey jug (a gourd) and basket containing the sacred meal, a shell filled with corn pollen, a buckskin medicine bag, an arrow point, and an ancient square pottery bowl are grouped in front of the snake fetich on the north side of the altar, and to the north of this group are other medicine bags and turkey feather wands, with bunches of fluffy eagle plumes, tipped black and the other portion dyed a beautiful lemon color, attached to them with cotton cord. These wands are afterwards held by the women, who form the line at night on the north side of the room. A Tusayan basket, containing the offerings, consisting of hä´chamoni, each one being tipped with a bit of raw cotton and a single plume from the wing of a humming bird, with plumes attached upright at the base; Hĕr´ro-tume (staffs) ornamented with plumes, Ta´-wa-ka (gaming blocks and rings for the clouds to ride upon), Maic’-kûr-i-wa-pai (bunches of plumes of birds of the cardinal points, zenith and nadir), is deposited in front of the snake fetich on the south side of the altar, and beyond this basket are similar wands to those north of the altar, which are carried in the ceremonial by the women on the south side of the room. Five stone knives complete the group. A white stone bear, 12 inches long, is placed in front of the whole, and a parrot is attached to the top of the central slat figure. (Pl. XV) Unfortunately, the flash-light photograph of the altar of the Snake Society made during the ceremonial failed to develop well, and, guarding against possible failure, the writer succeeded in having the ho´naaite arrange the altar at another time. The fear of discovery induced such haste that the fetiches, which are kept carefully stored away in different houses, were not all brought out on this occasion.[18]

When the altar is completed the ho´naaite and his associates stand before it and supplicate the presence of the pai´ätämo and Ko´pishtaia, who are here represented by images of themselves, these images becoming the abiding places of the beings invoked. After the prayer, the ho´naaite and his vicar sit upon their folded blankets near the fireplace, where a low fire burns, and with a supply of tobacco and corn husks content themselves with cigarettes until the opening of the evening ceremony.

By 9 o’clock the Snake society was joined in the chai-än-ni-kai (ceremonial chamber) archaic, Su´ᵗ-sĕr-ra-kai by the Kapĭna, it being the prerogative of the hónaaite of one organization to invite other societies to take part in his ceremonies. They formed in line, sitting back of the altar; the hónaaite being in the rear of the central slat figure, which symbolized the hónaaite of the cult society of the cloud people. The other members were seated in the rear, as near as could be, of the corresponding symbolic figures of the cloud and lightning people. A boy of 8 years of age, who lay sleeping as the writer entered the room, was aroused to take his position in the line, and a boy of 4 years, who had been sleeping upon a sheepskin, spread on the floor between two of the women, was led from the room by one of them, as he had not entered the degree when he might hear the songs and see the making of the medicine water.

The women formed right angles with the line of men, four sitting on the north side of the room and four on the south side. The elder female member sat at the west end of the line on the north side of the room. The men wore breechcloths of white cotton; the hónaaite and the ti´ämoni wore embroidered Tusayan kilts for breechcloths. The hair was done up as usual, but no headkerchief was worn. The boy and men held oh´-shi-e-kats (gourd rattles) in their right hands and hi´-shä-mi (two eagle plumes) in the left.

The women were attired in their black wool dresses, the calico gown being discarded, and red sashes, wearing the conventional cue and bang. The neck and arms were exposed and the feet and lower limbs were bare. Each woman held two wands of turkey plumes in the right hand, and both men and women wore numerous strings of coral and kohaqua beads with bunches of turkis (properly earrings) attached pendent to the necklaces.

The ceremonial opened with the rattle and song, the women accompanying the men in the song. After a short stanza, which closed, as all the stanzas do, with a rapid manipulation of the rattle, the second stanza was almost immediately begun, when the vicar (Pl. XVII) standing before the altar shook his rattle for a moment and then waved it in a circle over the altar. He repeated this motion six times, for the cardinal points, and returned to his seat before the closing of the stanza. The circle indicated that all the cloud people of the world were invoked to water the earth.

On the opening of the third stanza all arose and the hónaaite reaching over the altar took a yá-ya in either hand, he having previously laid his rattle and eagle plumes by the altar. This stanza was sung with great vivacity by the men, who swayed their bodies to the right and left in rhythmical motion, while the women waved their wands monotonously. The movement of the arms of both the men and women was from the elbow, the upper arms being apparently pinioned to the sides; there was no raising of the feet, but simply the bending of the knees.

At the close of the stanza, which continued thirty minutes, the hónaaite gave a weird call for the cloud people to gather; all, at the same instant, drew a breath from their plumes and took their seats. A woman then brought a vase of water and gourd from the northeast corner of the room and placed it in front of the altar. (Pl. XVI.) In a moment the song was resumed, and the yáni-ᵗsi-wittäñi (maker of medicine water) proceeded to consecrate the water. He danced in front of the altar and south of the line of meal, which had been sprinkled from the altar to the entrance of the chamber, raising first one heel and then the other, with the knees slightly bent, the toes scarcely leaving the floor; he held his eagle plumes in his left hand, and shook the rattle with the right, keeping his upper arms close to his side, excepting when extending his plumes toward the altar, which he did three times, each time striking the plumes near the quill end with his rattle as he shook them over the medicine bowl. He then waved his plumes toward the north, and giving a quick motion of the rattle in unison with those of the choir, he drew a breath from the plumes as the fourth stanza closed, and in a moment the song was resumed. The three members of the Snake order then put on necklaces of bears’ claws, each having attached, midway, a whistle. The yániᵗsiwittänn̄i, who had not left his place in front of the altar, danced for a few minutes, then dipped a gourd of water from the vase, raised it high with a weird hoot, and emptied it into the medicine bowl. A second gourdful was also elevated, and, with a cry, it was emptied into the cloud bowl, which stood on the sand-painting of the clouds. The third gourdful was emptied into the same bowl, the raising of the gourd and the cry being omitted; the fourth gourdful was uplifted with a cry and emptied into the medicine bowl. The fifth gourdful was also hoisted with a cry, as before, to the snake hónaaite to implore the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth, and emptied into the cloud bowl. The sixth gourdful was raised with the call and emptied into the same bowl. The seventh gourdful was elevated with a wave from the south to the altar and emptied into the medicine bowl. The eighth gourdful was raised with a similar motion and emptied into the cloud bowl. The ninth gourdful was elevated and extended toward the east and returned in a direct line and emptied into the medicine bowl. The tenth gourdful was raised toward the west and emptied into the cloud bowl. The eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth gourdfuls were lifted from the vase and emptied without being hoisted into the same bowl. The fifth stanza closed as the last gourd of water was poured into the bowl. In filling the medicine bowl the gourd was passed between two yá-ya. The woman returned the water vase to the corner of the room, and the yániᵗsiwittänn̄i lifted the bowl and drank from it, afterwards administering a draught of the water from an abalone shell to each member, excepting the hónaaite, who, after the yániᵗsiwittänn̄i had resumed his seat in the line, passed to the front of the altar and drank directly from the bowl and returned it to its place.

In the administering of the water the women were helped first, a feature never before observed by the writer in aboriginal life.

With the beginning of the sixth stanza the hónaaite arose, and leaning forward waved his plumes over the medicine bowl with a weird call, each member repeating the call, the women exhibiting more enthusiasm than the men in this particular feature of the ceremony. The cry, which was repeated four times, was an invocation to the cloud rulers of the cardinal points to water the earth, and, with each cry, meal was sprinkled into the medicine bowl, each member being provided with a small buckskin bag of meal or corn pollen, which had been previously taken from a bear-leg skin, and laid beside the altar. The members of the Snake Division sprinkled corn pollen instead of meal, the pollen being especially acceptable to the Snake hónaaite, to whom many of their prayers are addressed.

The preparation of the medicine water began with the opening of the seventh stanza. The ya´niᵗsiwittänñi danced before the altar, keeping south of the line of meal, and holding six pebble fetiches in either hand, which he had taken from two small sacks drawn from one of the bear-leg skins. He did not sing, but he kept time with the choir. Extending his right hand toward the altar, he touched the two front ya´ya, and then, placing his hands together, he again extended them, and, drawing closer still to the altar, he dropped a fetich from his right hand into the medicine bowl with a weird cry to the Snake ho´naaite of the north to invoke the cloud ruler of the north to send his people to water the earth; and after raising his hands above his head he again extended them toward the altar, and, leaning forward, dropped a fetich from his left hand into the cloud bowl. This was repeated four times with each bowl, with petitions to the Snake ho´naaites of the north, the west, the south, and the east to intercede with the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth. Then, taking two large stone knives from before the altar, he struck them together, and, passing from the south of the line of meal to the north, he again brought the knives together. Recrossing the line of meal, he dipped the knives into the bowl of medicine water and sprinkled the altar; then, passing to the north of the line, he dipped the knives into the medicine water and repeated the sprinkling of the altar four times; again, standing south of the line, he dipped the knives into the water, throwing it to the east, and, crossing the line, dipped them into the bowl and repeated the motion to the east, and resumed his seat at the south end of the line of men. The ho´naaite then leaned over the altar, and, dipping his plumes into the medicine bowl, sprinkled the altar four times by striking the plumes on the top with the rattle held in the right hand. The song, which had continued for an hour without cessation, now closed, and the men gathered around the tobacco which lay near the fire-place, and, making cigarettes, returned to their seats and smoked. The boy ignited the fire-stick and held it for the men to light their cigarettes. He passed it first to the man at the north of the line. As each man took the first whiff of his cigarette he blew the smoke toward the altar and waved the cigarette in a circle as he extended it to the altar. After the smoke the song and rattle again resounded through the room, and at the close of a short stanza the man at the north end of the line cried out in a high tone and the women gathered before the altar, and each, taking a pinch of meal from the meal bowl, sprinkled the altar and returned to their seats. The ya´niᵗsiwittänñi lifted the shell of pollen from before the altar, and, passing to the entrance and opening the door, waved his rattle along the line of meal and out of the door. After repeating the waving of the rattle he passed his hand over the line and threw out the pollen from his fingers, as offering to the Snake ho´naaite. Returning to the altar, he stood while the ho´naaite dipped his plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the altar by striking the plumes with the rattle. After the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi and ho´naaite had returned to the line, the cloud-maker (a member of the Spider Society), who sat at the north end, crossed the line of meal, and, holding his eagle plumes and rattle in his left hand, lifted with his right the reed which lay across the cloud bowl, and, transferring it to his left, he held it and the plumes vertically while he prayed. The vice ho´naaite dipped ashes from the fire-place with his eagle plumes, holding one in either hand, sprinkled the cloud-maker for purification, and threw the remainder of the ashes toward the choir. During his prayer, which continued for eight minutes, the cloud-maker appeared like a statue. At the close of the prayer he dropped into the cloud bowl a quantity of to´chainitiwa (a certain root used by the cult societies to produce suds, symbolic of the clouds), and sprinkled with corn pollen the surface of the water, which was already quite covered with it; then, taking the reed in his right hand and still holding it vertically, he began a regular and rapid movement with the reed, in a short time producing a snowy-white froth, which, under his dextrous manipulation, rapidly rose high above the bowl, and fell from it in cascades to the floor. The bowl stood on a cincture pad of yucca, a circle of meal symbolic of the heart or life of the water having been first made. The reed was never raised from the bowl during the stirring of the water. When the clouds were perfected the song ceased, and the cloud-maker stood the reed in the center of the suds, which now wholly concealed the bowl. He then rose, and, after holding his two eagle plumes in his left hand for a moment, he changed one to the right hand and began dancing before the altar; presently he dipped a quantity of suds from the base of the bowl with his two eagle plumes, and threw them to the north of the altar; again dipping the suds, he threw them to the south; continuing to dance to the music of the rattle and the song, he dipped the suds and threw them to the fire-place; dipping them again, he threw them to the earth, each time with an invocation to the cloud people. As he threw the suds to the earth two of the choir dipped their plumes into the bowl of medicine water and sprinkled the altar by striking the upper sides of the plumes with their rattles. The cloud-maker again dipped up the suds, and, facing east, threw them toward the zenith; he then dipped the suds and deposited them in the center of the basket containing the plume offerings; then waving his eagle plumes from north to south, he continued dancing, raising first one plume and then the other as he pointed them toward the altar. In a moment or two he dipped suds and threw them toward the women on the north side of the room, and dipping them again threw them toward the women of the south side; at the same time the male members reached forward, and, dipping their plumes into the medicine bowl, sprinkled the altar, each time petitioning the cloud people to gather. The cloud-maker then threw suds to the west; again he dipped the suds and threw them to the zenith, then to the altar; a portion was then placed on the front ya´ya; again he danced, for a time extending his eagle plumes and withdrawing them, and dipped the suds and threw them upward and toward the man on the north end of the line; at the same time the ho´naaite dipped his plumes into the medicine bowl and sprinkled the altar as heretofore described; and the cloud-maker dipped the suds, throwing them toward the vice ho´naaite, and, again dipping them, he threw them toward the ya´niᵗsiwittänñi; he then lifted suds and threw them to the west, then to the zenith, never failing to call the cloud people together. The ho´naaite, keeping his position back of the altar, dipped his plumes into the medicine water and sprinkled the members; again the cloud-maker lifted suds and threw them to the zenith; at the same time the second woman at the west end of the line on the north side dipped her wand into the medicine water, with a cry for the cloud people to gather; the cloud-maker then threw the suds to the west and the ho´naaite sprinkled the members with the medicine water, and the cloud-maker placed the suds upon the heads of the white bear and parrot; and stooping he stirred the suds briskly.

The ti´ämoni lighted a cigarette from a coal at the fireplace and handed it to the cloud-maker, who stood the reed in the center of the suds before receiving the cigarette; he blew the first few whiffs over the suds and then smoked a moment or two and laid about one-third of the cigarette by the side of the cloud bowl. The song, which had continued almost incessantly for three hours, now ceased, and the cloud-maker returned to his seat in the line. The ti´ämoni sat by the fire and smoked, several joining him for a short time; but all soon returned to their seats in the line and continued their smoke.

At the beginning of the succeeding song the two women at the east end of the south line danced before the altar and sprinkled it by striking the wand held in the left hand on the top with the one held in the right. One of the women was frequently debarred taking part in the ceremony owing to the attention required by her infant, who was at times fretful.