BCssELL] RELIGION 2f)3 



place where tlie sun rises. The East Land is separated from the 

 land of the living by the chasm called Tcu'wut Hi'ketany, Earth 

 Crack. When one of the writer's interpreters had gone to school at 

 Hampton, Ya., her associates said that she had gone to the abode of 

 spirits. All Ls rejoicing and ghidness in that other world. There 

 they will feast antl dance, consequently when one dies his best cloth- 

 ing must be put on and his hair must l)e dressed with care, as is the 

 custom in preparing for an earthly ceremony. No idea of spiritual 

 reward or punishment for conduct in this life exists. 



Again, the souls of the dead are supposed to hang about and per- 

 form unpleasant pranks with the living. They are liable to jjresent 

 themselves before the living if they catch the right person alone at 

 night. The ghost never speaks at such times, nor may any but 

 medicine-men speak to them. If one be made sick l)y thus seeing 

 a ghost, he must have the medicine-man go to the grave of the 

 offending soul and tell it to be quiet, "and they always do as they 

 are bid." Old Kisatc, of Santan, thought that the soul continued 

 to reside in the l)ody as that was "its house." During his youth 

 he had accompanied a medicine-man and a few friends to the grave 

 of a man who had been killed near Picacho, about 40 miles south- 

 east of Sacaton. The medicine-man addressed the grave in a long 

 s{)eech, in which he e.xpressed the sorrow and regret of tlio relatives 

 and friends that the corpse should thus be buried so far from liome. 

 Kisatc avers that the spirit within the grave replied to the speech by 

 saying that he did not stay there all the time, but that he occasion- 

 ally went over to hang about the villages, and that he felt unhappy 

 in the state in which he found himself. Of course the medicine-men 

 claim to be in communication with tlie spirits of the departed as well 

 as with supernatural beings capable of imparting magic power. 



DRE.\MS 



Dreams are variously regarded as the result of evil doing, as a 

 natural and normal means of communication with the spirit world, 

 and as being caused by Darkness or Night. During the dream the 

 soul wanders away and passes through adventures as in the waking 

 hours. The young men never slept in the comicil ki for fear of bad 

 dreams. 



To dream of the dead causes siclaiess in the dreamer and if he 

 dream of the dead for several nights in succession he wall die. Dreams 

 are not consulted for information concerning future action except in 



ish the com in the valleys and the grass on the hills? Therefore it is that when we are in need we 

 pray lo Estsanaitehi, the Goddess of the Sunset Land. 



" Hut first nian and first woman wen* angry hecauso they were banished to th<' east, and befon! 

 Ihey left they swore undying hatred and eiunity to our people. And for this reason all evils eome 

 from tlie east— smallpox and other diseases, war, and the white intruder." The Navajo Mythology, 

 in American Antiquarian, v, 224, 1883. 



