436 THE MOUNTAIN CHANT. 
ners,” &c. When several of these evolutions had been performed in 
a graceful and orderly manner, the choristers rose, and all went sing- 
ing out at the east. 
154. Three times more the same band returned. In the third and 
fourth acts the wands were exchanged for great pifion poles (eight to 
ten feet long), portions of which they pretended to swallow, as their 
predecessors had done with the arrows. (Paragraph 48.) That the 
simple and deyoted Pueblo Indian does actually, in dances of this 
character, thrust a stick far down his gullet, to the great danger of 
health and even of life, there is little reason to doubt; butthe wily Navajo 
attempts no such prodigies of deglutition. A careful observation of 
their movements on the first occasion convinced me that the stick never 
passed below the fauces, and subsequent experience in the medicine 
lodge only strengthened the conviction (paragraph 121). 
135. The instrument designated above as the whizzer is a thin, flat, 
pointed piece of wood, painted black and sparkling with the specular 
iron ore which is sprinkled on the surface; three small 
pieces of turquoise are inlaid in the wood to represent 
eyes and mouth. One whizzer which I examined was 
nine inches long, one and three-fourths inches broad, 
and about a quarter of an inch thick in the thickest 
part. (Fig. 56.) To it was attached a string about two 
feet long, by means of which the centrifugal motion was 
imparted to it. It is called by the Navajo tsin-¢e‘ni*, 
or groaning stick. It is used among many tribes of the 
southwest in their ceremonies. The Navajo chanters 
say that the sacred groaning stick may only be made of 
the wood of a pine tree which bas been struck by light- 
ning. 
136. In the Fourth dance there were about thirty chor- 
isters, in ordinary dress, bearing pinon wands; there 
was a man who shook a rattle, another who whirled the 
groaning stick, and there were three principal dancers, 
wearing fancy masks and representing characters from 
the rites of the klédji qagal or dance of the “ Yaybichy.” 
These three danced a lively and graceful jig, in per- 
fect time to the music, with many bows, waving of 
wands, simultaneous evolutions, and other pretty mo- 
tions which might have graced the spectacular drama 
of a metropolitan theater. Three times they left the 
corral for a moment, and returning varied the dance, 
and always varied to improve. The wands they bore 
were large light frames of reeds adorned with large 
Fic. 56. The whiz. eagle plumes. 
s 137. After this there was an interval of nearly an 
hour, which passed slowly with those in the corral. Some smoked and 
gossiped; some listened to the never ceasing din of the orchestra or 
Section, 

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