20 Virginia Shropshire Heath 



parts of the Estsan Cigini in the Fifth Dance. A sort of text is 

 discernible in the conscientious attempt on the part of those pre- 

 senting a show to adhere to long-estabHshed order of action in 

 concert with perhaps even more accurately reproduced song ac- 

 companiment. The action itself, however, is not iron' bound. 

 There may be detected certain individual interpretations and 

 innovations, the recognized license of every dramatic imper- 

 sonator. 



In these acted legends the greatest emphasis should be laid upon 

 the Navajo's unmistakable employment of definite character parts. 

 The moment the story side of the legend is lost sight of, in the 

 objective, impersonal sense, and the moment the distinctly per- 

 sonal religious zeal and enthusiasm is lost sight of in the objec- 

 tified, impersonal acting of a role, that moment the epic and lyric 

 ingrains of a people's rudimentary literary consciousness is welded 

 in the mean of dramatic expression. This stage has probably 

 long been established among the Navajo as well as among the 

 pueblo tribes. In serious performances the characters selected 

 for impersonation, like the Greek characters in tragedy, are de- 

 rived, not from the common ranks of men, but from gods or god- 

 favored men. The deeds of this nobler typer of beings alone in- 

 spired the Indian audience. Thus, in the two akdninilis of the 

 Second Dance may be discerned the semi-divine Dsilyi' Neyani 

 himself with one of his affiliated gods — one of those in whose 

 likeness the Butterfly Woman molded the prophet. And in the 

 strange actions and call of the Yaybichy may be recognized the 

 personality of t^ie good supernatural friend and guide of Dsilyi' 

 Neyani during his long series of hardships. In the Fifth Dance, 

 nothing short of gods themselves, with little of the man occa- 

 sioned interest such as is found in the Yaybichy is exhibited to the 

 spectators in the roles of the Estsan Cigini. 



These are some of the characteristics of the serious drama 

 present in Navajo exhibitions. But the Navajo, as well as the 

 Hopi, had not only achieved a certain perfection in representations 

 of this nature, but they had also progressed sufficiently beyond the 

 sombre and awe-inspired stage of religious domination to allow 

 of secular relaxation in the midst of the serious. The bit of low 



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