The Night Chant : a Navaho ceremony / by Washington Matthews.

  • Washington Matthews
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Night Chant : a Navaho ceremony / by Washington Matthews. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    7^-—The personator of Nayenezgani appears in the night chant, in two acts of succor ; one on the second night (par. 349 et seq.), the other on the afternoon of the ninth day (par. 594). His body is nearly naked. He wears a mask ; a collar of fox- skin ; a cloth of crimson silk, scarlet bayeta, or some other brilliant material around the hips ; a belt ornamented with plates of silver ; moccasins which are usually but not always of black buckskin ; ear-pendants ; numerous necklaces of turquoise, shell, and coral, most of which are borrowed from friends ; and bracelets. He carries in his right hand a large stone knife or pesAal, which is his special weapon or charm, although in the Waking Song, “ His stone necklace” is the property mentioned. His trunk and limbs are painted with sacred charcoal; his hands are whitened with gle^ (white clay), and on his body eight peculiar marks, symbols of bows, are drawn in gle^. These sym¬ bols are placed as follows : one on each side of the chest; one on each side of the back, partly over the shoulder- blade ; one on each arm extending both above and below the elbow ; one on each leg, below the knee, on the outer aspect. The bows are all shown as bent in one direction—to the right o of the man who executes the painting as he stands at work. The symbols are painted one at a time, that on the left leg first, that on the left side of the back last. The five lines of which the symbol is composed are always drawn from above downwards, and in an established order as shown in the diagram, fig. 2, A. All the bows are repre¬ sented as strung, except those first and last painted and these are represented as unstrung, (fig. 2, B.) 79. —The mask is the usual inverted buckskin bag of the male character. It is painted black with sacred charcoal and has a lightning symbol on one cheek, either right or left, consisting of five white, narrow, zigzag parallel lines which present, each, four obtuse angles. To each of the holes for eyes and mouth is affixed a bril¬ liant white sea-shell. The shells are said to typify, on the eyes, the way in which the god’s orbs glared when he killed Yeitso5; but why the shell is put on the mouth is not obvious unless it be for symmetry. A fringe of hair is secured to the seam of the mask, from side to side ; this is usually red or yellow and may be either flowing or stiff. A turkey-plume and a downy eagle-feather are attached at the top of the mask, at one side of the centre. See plate III, C. 80. —No picture of Nayenezgani has ever been seen by the writer and he has been assured that none is ever made in the dry-paintings. The kethawn sacred to him is described and figured elsewhere (par. 590). Fig. 2. Bow symbols on body of Nayenezgani. A, closed or complete symbol. B, open or incomplete symbol.