Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the Navajo Indians

Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis
and Mythical
by James
Stevenson

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Mythical
Sand Painting of the Navajo Indians by James Stevenson
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Title: Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the
Navajo Indians
Author: James Stevenson
Release Date: September 2006 [Ebook #19331]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
CEREMONIAL OF HASJELTI DAILJIS AND MYTHICAL SAND
PAINTING OF THE NAVAJO INDIANS***

Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand Painting of the
Navajo Indians
by James Stevenson

Edition 1, (September 2006)

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION. CONSTRUCTION OF THE MEDICINE LODGE.
FIRST DAY. PERSONATORS OF THE GODS. SECOND DAY.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SWEAT HOUSES. SWEAT HOUSES AND
MASKS. PREPARATION OF THE SACRED REEDS (CIGARETTE)
AND PRAYER STICKS. THIRD DAY. FIRST CEREMONY.
SECOND CEREMONY. THIRD CEREMONY. FOURTH
CEREMONY. FOURTH DAY. FIRST CEREMONY. SECOND
CEREMONY. THIRD CEREMONY. FOURTH CEREMONY. FIFTH
CEREMONY. SIXTH CEREMONY. FIFTH DAY. FIRST
CEREMONY. SECOND CEREMONY. THIRD CEREMONY.
SIXTH DAY. SEVENTH DAY. EIGHTH DAY. NINTH DAY. FIRST
CEREMONY. SECOND CEREMONY. SONG OF THE ETSETHLE.
PRAYER TO THE ETSETHLE. CONCLUSION - THE DANCE.
MYTHS OF THE NAVAJO. CREATION OF THE SUN. HASJELTI
AND HOSTJOGHON. THE FLOATING LOGS. NAIYENESGONY
AND TOBAIDISCHINNI. THE BROTHERS. THE OLD MAN AND
WOMAN OF THE FIRST WORLD.

ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. 115. Exterior lodge. FIG. 116. Interior lodge. FIG. 117. Gaming
ring. FIG. 118. Sweat house. PLATE CXII. A, Rainbow over eastern
sweat house; B, Rainbow over western sweat house PLATE CXIII.

Blanket rug and medicine tubes PLATE CXIV. Blanket rug and
medicine tubes PLATE CXV. Masks: 1, Naiyenesyong; 2, 3,
Tobaidischinne; 4, 5, Hasjelti; 6, Hostjoghon; 7, Hostjobokon; 8,
Hostjoboard PLATE CXVI. Blanket rug and medicine tubes PLATE
CXVII. 1, Pine boughs on sand bed; 2, Apache basket containing yucca
suds lined with corn pollen; 3, Basket of water surface covered with
pine needles PLATE CXVIII. Blanket rug and medicine tubes and
sticks PLATE CXIX. Blanket rug and medicine tube PLATE CXX.
First sand painting PLATE CXXI. Second sand painting PLATE
CXXII. Third sand painting PLATE CXXIII. Fourth sand painting

INTRODUCTION.
During my visit to the Southwest, in the summer of 1885, it was my
good fortune to arrive at the Navajo Reservation a few days before the
commencement of a Navajo healing ceremonial. Learning of the
preparation for this, I decided to remain and observe the ceremony,
which was to continue nine days and nights. The occasion drew to the
place some 1,200 Navajos. The scene of the assemblage was an
extensive plateau near the margin of Keam's Canyon, Arizona.
A variety of singular and interesting occurrences attended this great
event--mythologic rites, gambling, horse and foot racing, general
merriment, and curing the sick, the latter being the prime cause of the
gathering. A man of distinction in the tribe was threatened with loss of
vision from inflammation of the eyes, having looked upon certain
masks with an irreligious heart. He was rich and had many wealthy
relations, hence the elaborateness of the ceremony of healing. A
celebrated theurgist was solicited to officiate, but much anxiety was felt
when it was learned that his wife was pregnant. A superstition prevails
among the Navajo that a man must not look upon a sand painting when
his wife is in a state of gestation, as it would result in the loss of the life
of the child. This medicine man, however, came, feeling that he
possessed ample power within himself to avert such calamity by
administering to the child immediately after its birth a mixture in water
of all the sands used in the painting. As I have given but little time to

the study of Navajo mythology, I can but briefly mention such events
as I witnessed, and record the myths only so far as I was able to collect
them hastily. I will first describe the ceremony of Yebitchai and give
then the myths (some complete and others incomplete) explanatory of
the gods and genii figuring in the Hasjelti Dailjis (dance of Hasjelti)
and in the nine days' ceremonial, and then others independent of these.
The ceremony is familiarly called among the tribe, "Yebitchai," the
word meaning the giant's uncle. The name was originally given to the
ceremonial to awe the children who, on the eighth day of the ceremony,
are initiated into some of its mysteries and then for the first time are
informed that the characters appearing in the ceremony are not real
gods, but only their representatives. There is good reason for believing
that their ideas in