12 Virginia Shropshire Heath 



fnatic conception has progressed beyond the choral stage. The 

 specific character impersonation of the mother of Katcinas is 

 proof of this. And a further instance of the requisites of the 

 secular drama is found in the dialogue between the chorus of 

 young men in Act IV and the fire-tenders. Nor does this exhaust 

 the claims to recognition from a dramatic standpoint. The per- 

 vading atmosphere of religious terror in Act I may be compared 

 with that of Greek tragedy ; or, barring the religious element, it 

 is certainly suggestive of opera. Greatly tempered in tiie still 

 more or less serious representations of Act IV, this tragic atmos- 

 phere is finally reduced almost to the comic in the mud-head per- 

 formance of Act V. Again, in both the Soyaluiia and Paliilii- 

 kofiti ceremonials, the presence of the altar — represented in the 

 latter by the symbolic screen — calls to mind a similar characteristic 

 of the classic Greek stage. And the further analogy of conven- 

 tional masks and costumes, entirely different though the Indian 

 conventions are from the Greek, nevertheless stimulates a desire to 

 follow out a more detailed comparison of the developed drama of 

 that cultured people with the crude beginnings of drama among 

 this savage folk. Such an investigation, it seems, could but con- 

 firm the dramatic promise of certain pueblo ceremonials. 



A Navajo Performance 



A contrast to the general or communal pueblo ceremonials may 

 be found in " The Mountain Chant "of the pueblo-influenced 

 Navajo. Upon the last night of this protracted medicine cere- 

 monial, instituted for the "cure" of an individual member of the 

 tribe, occurs a dramatic pageant of no mean proportions. In spite 

 of the distinctly individual cast of the celebration as a whole, the 

 performances taking place upon this last night, bear the stamp of a 

 wide-spread festal occasion, involving at least representatives from 

 many other tribes. Those making up the audience bring all the 

 holiday freshness of spirit that the Greeks did upon similar occa- 

 sions of great dramatic interest. Over all is the powerful element 

 of religion, superstition or whatever you choose to call that pro- 

 found supernatural influence basic to intense love of action, of 



388 



