MATTHEWS. ] MYTH: HIS RETURN TO HIS PEOPLE. 411 
ready made was not sufficient, and that it would be well to have a great 
dance over him. In those days the Navajo had a healing dance in 
the dark corral; but it was imperfect, with few songs and no kethAwns 
or sacrificial sticks. It was not until Dsilyit Neydni recounted his reve- 
lations that it became the great dance it now is among the Navajo. 
60. It was agreed that before the dance began Dsilyit NeyAni should 
be allowed four days and four nights in which to tell his story and 
that the medicine man should send out a number of young men to col- 
lect the plants that were necessary for the coming ceremony. For 
four nights and for four days he was busy in relating his adventures 
and instructing his hearers in all the mysteries he had learned in the 
homes of the ¢igini. Then they built the medicine lodge and got all 
things ready for the new rites and for the purification of the one who had 
returned. The shaman selected from among the plants brought him by 
the young men such as he thought would best cleanse his patient of 
all the strange food he had taken among the alien Indians and in the 
houses of the supernatural ones whom he had visited. On the first day 
he gave him pine and spruce; on the second day, big and little willows; 
ou the third day, a plant called litci and the aromatic sumac; on the 
fourth day, cedar and pion. Of these the prophet drank cold and hot 
infusions in the morning by the fire. 
61. During these four days the ceremonies which Dsilyit Neyaéni had 
introduced were in progress. On the fifth day it was proposed they 
should send out the akaninili (meal sprinkler) or courier to invite their 
neighbors to the great dance. There were two couriers to be sent: one 
was to go to the north, to a place called Cogojila‘ (Much Grease Wood), 
to invite some friendly bands of Ute, some distant bands of Navajo, and 
some Jicarilla who dwelt there; the other was to go to the south, to 
Tse‘lakai-sila (Where Two White Rocks Lie), to ask the Southern Apache, 
the White Mountain Apache, the Cohonino, and a tribe called (ildjéhe, 
to attend. Tothe camp in the north it was a journey of two days and 
two nights, and it would take the fleetest runner the same time to return. 
To the home of their neighbors in the south it was as far. As these long 
journeys must be made on foot and running, they could not find a 
single young man in the camp who would volunteer for the task. The 
men counseled about the difficulty al] day and tried much persuasion 
on the youths, but none were found willing to make either journey. 
62. As night approached an old woman entered the medicine lodge 
and said: ‘I willsend my grandson as an akaninili.”. This old woman’s 
lodge was not far from where the medicine lodge was built and all 
present knew her grandson well. Whenever they visited her lodge he 
was always lying on the ground asleep; they never saw him go abroad 
to hunt, and they all supposed him to be lazy and worthless; so when 
she made her offer they only looked at one another and laughed. She 
waited awhile, and getting no response she again offered the services 
of her grandson, only to provoke again laughter and significant looks. 
