PAHSONSj 



CALENDAR 327 



pollen, making the road. In the plaza the town chief buries some- 

 thing known only to himself, kumpa, and the war chief. All shout 



e' o ! e' o ! The towm chief addresses the people. The 



party proceeds to the roundhouses to replace the scalps, and to be 

 dismissed by the town chief. 



During the next four weeks — the racing period — the scalp takers 

 have to take care of the scalps, taking them out of their wall niches 

 several times to comb the hair and wash it. With the water from the 

 washings they make mud balls (teh'ebnaba, Navaho mud, teH> 

 te'Hmne, Navaho, eb (?), naba, mud) which medicine may be asked of 

 the town chief by any one sick from worry or longing (piewe'be'owa, 

 piewe', mind, be'owa, want it). 



Sometime after the above account was recorded another account 

 was given by the same informant which differs from the first account 

 or amplifies it in several particulars, as follows: The town chief sum- 

 mons all the cliiefs, including the scalp takers, to talk about the cere- 

 monial. There follows a 4-day fast, for the chiefs, outside fasting 

 (ibew^yue), i. e., the men live at home, taking a daily emetic, and 

 living continent. During this period people -will not go abroad at 

 night, especially women, because the Navaho dead (teliefp'oyan) are 

 about. The Saturday afternoon before the Sunday race,^* the war 

 party, including the scalp takers and their young men arrayed with 

 lance and bow and arrows, start forth with theii- pack horses and 

 burros to stay out overnight. . . . The following morning the chiefs 

 meet at the town chief's to go forth to meet the war party with the 

 scalps. . . . After all return, singing, they enter the churchyard to 

 kneel and pray, giving thanks for their safe return. A dance follows 

 in the plaza. Two dance lines of men with the scalp takers between, 

 led by kumpa; the women stand on the other side of the lines of men, 

 protected by theni against contact with the scalp takers. The women 

 wear their manta. The hair of the men must hang loose like that of 

 warriors, and they wear beaded buckskin clothes. The scalp is carried 

 on a lance, bound with red, and surrounded by feathers.^"" The scalp 

 takers wear buckskin and a bandoleer, and carry bow and arrows, club, 

 gun, lance, and shield. Their faces are striped across with various 

 colors. . . . The dance is started on the east side of the plaza and 

 continued in a circuit. The scalp takers "sing in Navaho" " which 

 sometimes angers Navaho visitors. There is shooting into the air 

 and yelling. . . . After the scalps are taken to the roimdhouse ■** and 

 restored to their wall niche the scalp takers offer them crumbs of food 



" This must refer to the fourth Sunday nice. And yet the war party was flrst said to go out before the 

 first Sunday race. 



<" Lummis, who saw this dance, "mad dance "in 1891, says the scalps are carried in a bucksliin on her 

 baclc by the woman custodian referred to as the Bending woman. (Lummis 2; 241.) 



'= Which probahly means merely using one or two Navaho words. 



'' In another connection it was said that there were scalps in both roundhouses. 



