PARSONS) TALES OP PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 455 



had our ceremony beforehand. As we came near the Navaho camp 

 we saw three women dancing with cedar twigs in their hands; maybe 

 that was the Navaho ceremony, and the Navaho men were calhng 

 out Uke coyotes, foxes, crows. My brother and the other two men 

 just laughed at them for holding their ceremony so late. Before my 

 brother started, our imcle held him in his blanket and did his power. 

 My brother was afraid, but our uncle told him not to be afraid. . . . 

 They began and the Navaho could not get a hold, his hand kept 

 slipping. (That was fi-om the power of our ceremony.) After a while 

 the Navaho asked for a belt. Then my brother hugged him. He 

 could hear his ribs crack and blood came from his mouth and nose. 

 The Navaho called out. The umpire called stop. Then they 

 started again. My brother threw the Navaho, who fell against a 

 wagon wheel, breaking three spokes. That was the end of the fight. 



My brother's hands were swollen. I went wdth him to the white 

 doctor's. We returned in four days; he was all right. The day after 

 we returned, the Navaho died. All the other Navahos, 40 of them, 

 packed up and left camp. They took the corpse wath them. Maybe 

 they were afraid we would take his scalp. From that time on, 

 nobody, white or Mexican, said anything to us; they were afraid. 

 Our boss gave my brother 60 dollars for Avinning. We all gave him 

 1, 2, or 3 dollars, for we all won so much thi'ough him. 



A year later, the same day of the year the Navaho died, my brother 

 was out hunting rabbits. His horse fell and the pommel went into 

 him. After that for 20 days he was sick, spitting blood. We asked 

 the Lagima Fathers to make their ceremony. They made it, in their 

 house, two or three times. In their ceremony they saw that the 

 Navaho had made a ceremony against my brother. When he was 

 hurt he should have died, but somehow he lived on. The Fathers 

 saw in their ceremony that my brother woidd die; but they did not 

 tell us. 



51. How THE Laguna Father Perished 



In the ceremony of the Laguna Fathers Jos^ would bring down 

 thunder and lightning. Besides, on his own, he might go out in the 

 daytime and bring a httle cloud and from it make lightning strilve a 

 rock and shatter it. He knew of himself how to do this; he had not 

 learned it from anybody, nor did he teach it to anybody. He was 

 very powerful. So powerful that somebody in liis ceremony (i. e., 

 society) was envious of him. 



In 1916, when he was 40 years old, Jos6 went to herd sheep for a 

 white man near Phoenix. He stayed awaj' too long. Seven months, 

 instead of the five months he was allowed to be away from his society. 

 So he was punished by liiiu he worked for, b\^ Lightning. 



