14 



Virginia Shropshire Heath 



musicians whose business it is to furnish the emotional atmos- 

 phere throughout the entire series of performances, enter and 

 take their places near the outer edge of the enclosure towards the 

 west. As they begin to play, the great fire in the center is lighted 

 and the exhibition is at hand — a series of shows, which, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Matthews® whose account is employed, hold the at- 

 tention and even intense interest of white man and Indian alike. 



" The Mountain Chant " 



Mythological Basis 



This exhibition is not founded 

 upon any immediate experience of 

 or revelation to the prophet Dsilyi' 

 Neyani ( Reared-within-the-Moun- 

 tain) during his sojourn among 

 the cigini (supernatural beings), 

 but was introduced by a stranger 

 tribe of guests from the south pres- 

 ent at the first great Mountain 

 Chant inaugurated by the Navajo 

 shaman or medicine man upon the 

 return of the prophet, for the sake 

 of further "purifying" him that 

 he might no longer find " the odors 

 of the lodge . . . intolerable." Hence, 

 the Mountain Chant was not origi- 

 nated by the prophet, a " healing 

 dance within the dark corral " 

 having long been practised. But it 

 was " imperfect " and needed the 

 supplements Dsilyi' Neyani was pre- 

 pared to give from his revelations 

 to render it " the great dance it is 

 now among the Navajo." The dance 

 described in the opposite column 

 has, it is seen, no direct bearing 

 upon the " rites of the dark circle " 

 and yet it is probably never omitted. 



Dramatic Representation 

 First Dance 



" When the fire gave out its most 

 intense heat, a warning whistle was 

 heard in the outer darkness, and a 

 dozen forms, lithe and lean, dressed 

 only in the narrow white breech- 

 cloth and moccasins, and daubed 

 with white earth until they seemed 

 a group of living marbles, came 

 bounding through the entrance, 

 yelping like wolves and slowly 

 moving around the fire. As they 

 advanced in single file they threw 

 their bodies into divers attitudes — 

 some graceful, some strained and 

 difficult, some menacing. Now they 

 faced the east, now the south, the 

 west, the north, bearing aloft their 

 slender wands tipped with eagle 

 down. . . . Their course around the 

 fire was to the left, that is, from 

 the east to the west by way of the 

 south and back again to the east by 

 way of the north (a course taken 

 by all the dancers of the night, the 

 order never being reversed) . When 

 they had encircled the fire twice, 

 they began to thrust their wands 

 toward it, and it soon became evi- 

 dent that their object was to burn 

 off the tips of eagle down; but, 

 • owing to the intensity of the heat, 

 it was difficult to accomplish this, 

 or at least they acted well the part 

 of striving against such difficulty. 

 . . . Many were the unsuccessful at- 

 tempts ; but, at length one by one, 

 8 See 5th A. R. B. E., Washington, 1883-1884. For "Original Texts 

 and Translations of Songs," see p. 455. 



