506 NAVAHO HOUSES (ETH. ANN. 17 
is brightened and the men all squat around it. The women bring in 
food in earthen cooking pots and basins, and, having set them down 
among the men, they huddle together by themselves to enjoy the occa- 
sion as spectators. [very one helps himself from the pots by dipping 
in with his fingers, the meat is broken into pieces, and the bones are 
gnawed upon and sociably passed from hand to hand. When the feast 
is finished tobacco and corn husks are produced, cigarettes are made, 
everyone smokes, and convivial gossipy talk prevails. This continues 
for two or three hours, when the people who live near by get up their 
horses and ride home. Those from a long distance either find places 
to sleep in the hogan or wrap themselves in their blankets and sleep at 
the foot of a tree. This ceremony is known as the gogdn aiila, a kind 
of salutation to the house. 
But the gogdn bigi/n, the house devotions, have not yet been observed. 
Occasionally these take place as soon as the house is finished, but usu- 
ally there is an interval of several days to permit the house builders to 
invite all their friends and to provide the necessary food for their enter- 
tainment. Although analogous to the Anglo-Saxon “house warming,” 
the qogdn bigi’n, besides being a merrymaking for the young people, 
has a much more solemn significance for the elders. If it be not 
observed soon after the house is built bad dreams will plague the 
dwellers therein, toothache (dreaded for mystie reasons) will torture 
them, and the evil influence from the north will cause them all kinds of 
bodily ill; the flocks will dwindle, ill luck will come, ghosts will haunt 
the place, and the house will become bitsi¢, tabooed. 
A few days after the house is finished an arrangement is made with 
some shaman (qagdl%, devotional singer) to come and sing the ceremo- 
nial house songs. For this service he always receives a fee from those 
who engage him, perhaps a few sheep or their value, sometimes three 
or four horses or their equivalent, according to the circumstances of the 
house builders. The social gathering at the gogdn bigi/n is much the 
same as that of the gogdén aiila, when the house is built, except that 
more people are usually invited to the former. They feast and smoke, 
interchange scandal, and talk of other topics of interest, for some hours. 
Presently the gagali seats himself under the iain west timber so as to 
face the east, and the singing begins. 
In this ceremony no rattle is used. The songs are begun by the 
shaman in a drawling tone and all the men join in. The gagdl‘i acts 
only as leader and director. Each one, and there are many of them in 
the tribe, has his own particular songs, fetiches, and accompanying 
ceremonies, and after he has pitched a song he listens closely to hear 
whether the correct words are sung, ‘This is a matter of great impor- 
tance, as the omission of a part of the song or the incorrect rendering 
of any word would entail evil consequences to the house and its inmates. 
All the house songs of the numerous gagdl% are of similar import but 
differ in minor details. 
