Rock Jones, Leading Medicine Man of Havasupais.Rock Jones, Leading Medicine Man of Havasupais.Sinyela, with Esuwa, going for Water.Sinyela, with Esuwa, going for Water.
Rock Jones, Leading Medicine Man of Havasupais.Rock Jones, Leading Medicine Man of Havasupais.
Rock Jones, Leading Medicine Man of Havasupais.
Sinyela, with Esuwa, going for Water.Sinyela, with Esuwa, going for Water.
Sinyela, with Esuwa, going for Water.
In one case with which I was familiar, the medicine-man declared that the heart of one sick man had gone away to the topmost peak of one of the canyon walls. It would cost several dollars to charm it back, but he could do it. Yielding to the pleadings of the man without the heart, he began to exercise his charms and incantations, and the next day he came in and declared he had seen it return during the early morning hours, and his patient would recover. His prognostication was correct; the man was soon well and strong, and paid his six-dollar fee for having his heart returned to him, with due gratitude and thankfulness.
Another man who had been on the trail of some runaway horses had become overheated and was attacked severely with cholera morbus. He was brought into the village nearly dead, his pains increased by a terrible soreness in his back, caused by severe vomitings. The medicine-man gave him a large dose of red pepper, and, after sucking the flesh of his stomach, bowels, and back, rubbed the body of the sick man with red pepper, and then began his incantations. Soon he declared that a Wallapai doctor who hated the Havasupais had left a long white rope on the trail over which the sick man passed, and that it was this charmed rope which had entered his body and caused the sickness. On the promise of a fee of several dollars, he expressed confidence that the rope could be successfully taken from the invalid, and that its removal would be followed by immediate recovery. After a little time had elapsed, the crafty charlatan produced a long white rope, which he said his skill had extracted. Needless to add, the patient recovered, and to this day extolsthe wonderful skill and power of his physician.
Of late years a large number of Havasupais have been carried off with a bilious fever, with marked malarial symptoms. The usual indifference in the earlier stages of the disease gives way later on to frantic sweatings and appeals to the medicine-man, who comes and sings and seeks by his incantations to remove the evil something within the patient that causes the disease. If the sick person is daring enough to apply to the agency teacher for medicine, he knows that he no longer need expect any help from the medicine-man, whose curses will follow him to the world of doom. As in the world of civilization there is jealousy, sharp and keen, between the schools of medicine, so do the Havasupai medicine-men resent any innovations upon their time-honored customs.
Here, as elsewhere, one man's skill and reputation is oftentimes maintained by pulling down that of another. Dr. Tommy used to be a fairly successful medicine-man, but once, during a fearful epidemic of grippe, several children died under his ministrations. It was soon noticed that those parents whose children had been treated by another medicine-man were active in spreading the report that "they believed Dr. Tommy had killed the children by giving them coyote medicine." And this "tommy-rot" killed him as a medicine-man, for, though he was never brought to any trial on account of this charge, he was shunned and ostracized, and in very rare cases is ever called upon to exercise his medical powers.
There are now three medicine-men in the tribe, the chief of whom is Rock Jones, whose Havasupai names are suggestive. They are: Pa-a-hu-ya´ and In-ya-ja-al´-o,the former signifying "black," the other "the rising sun." At-nahl, whose name means a "sack," is the second in importance, and the youngest is Ma-tō-mā´, commonly known as Bob. I have just asked Lanoman which is the best medicine-man of the three, and his reply when I asked "Who makes the sick people well the quickest?" was: "All same. All no good. All make people dead pretty quick!"
Death is supposed to be, in every case, the departure of the spirit from the body, and when the sick person is approaching death the friends and relatives, led by the medicine-man, will often sit around the invalid and sing their petitions to the departing spirit in the hope that it may be led to repent and return to the body. If the patient recovers, the medicine-man takes the credit (and what pay he can get) for the return of the spirit, and goes about in high feather, recounting to all he meets the new instance of his wonderful and occult power.
One of the greatest insults that can be offered to the friends of a dead Havasupai is to refer to him. The reason given to me for this is that whenever a thought is sent after a dead person it either prevents his spirit continuing the journey to Shi-pa-pu, or leads him to desire to return to earth, neither of which are good for a Havasupai.
One of the school teachers informed me that she once, in reconvening the school after a holiday, read out the name of a child that had recently died. The moment the name was pronounced several of both boys and girls burst out, some into a wild wailing and others into fierce and angry denunciations of the wicked white woman who had thus arrested the spirit of the deceased on itsjourney to the underworld.
The last night of our first visit the Havasupais had a Sick Dance. When one of their number is very sick or about to die, the medicine-man summons the principal men and women of the camp to dance around him, in the hope of driving away the disease. It so happened that during our visit one of the young bucks was very sick, and a dance was ordered for Saturday evening. It was quite a distance away from our camp, and Vesna, whose guest we were that night, informed us that we would not be welcomed. The welcome would have been overlooked but for our need of rest, and as it was a mile or two away, it was decided not to attend, although we could hear the incantations at intervals during the night. The dance, however, was similar to such dances elsewhere. The sick man was placed in the open air and a circle formed around him, while a slow and solemn dance was engaged in by those in the circle, and all participated in the chanting of an incantation. This was kept up during the entire night, the voices of the singers at times pitched to a very high key. As soon as one in the circle grew tired, he dropped out and another took his place, but the dance and chant never ceased. If a sick man survives the noise and din and wakefulness of this until morning, it is probable that his vitality will carry him through, and he will recover.
If death is thought to be certainly near, the best clothes of the wardrobe are brought out and placed upon the dying person. A woman's best dress is not too good for her to die in, and a man's finest garments, even to the broadcloth cast-off "Prince Albert" received through the kindness of some white friend in the East, is deemed the only appropriate gear in whichto meet the dread summons to Shi-pa-pu. When life is extinct the dressed-up body is wrapped in the best blanket the hawa affords, and is then ready for the period of wailing and mourning. Relatives and friends of the deceased come and sit in the hawa, and as the spirit moves them they raise their voices in lamentation, or, singing the bravery, the daring, the good deeds of the deceased, ask for him a safe journey to the dread secret places of the underworld. Nothing can be more doleful than to hear these sad lamentations in the dead of the night. All is still, except the never-silent stream which steadily keeps up its murmur as it flows over the stones. Otherwise the very Angel of Silence seems to be brooding over the scene, for the babble of the creek merely accentuates the nearly perfect stillness. Suddenly a loud, long, minor wail rises from the hawa in the midst of the willows, and one feels that he can see the sound ascend to the heights of these enclosing walls, striking here and there, and then rebounding to opposing walls, until the canyon is full of voices, wailing one against the other and making a spirit chorus of infinite sadness and distress. The imagination unconsciously suggests that these echoing wails are the sympathizing spirit voices of men and women—former inhabitants of this canyon of the willows—who have come to weep with those who weep for their dead loved ones.
There is no fixed period for this wailing, but as soon as it is satisfactorily concluded the body is tenderly thrown across the best horse owned by the deceased, if a man,—or ridden by her, if a woman,—and, accompanied by other animals conveying some of his or her most desirable treasures, is taken to the burial or burning ground. Prior to the advent of the white man theHavasupais practised cremation, and between Bridal Veil and Mooney Falls, and also on the rim of the Grand Canyon, at a place since named Crematory Point, the remains of scores of burned bodies of men and women and also of horses were recently to be seen. For it was deemed of the greatest importance to give the spirit of the deceased the spirit of his dead horse, upon which he might ride to the dark abode of the underworld. Before it was burned, the horse must be strangled, and this was done by tightly tying a strip of wet buckskin around his neck, and, as it dried, it rapidly contracted and thus strangled the doomed animal. Then both human being and animal were burned.
But even this was not considered a sufficient offering to the powers of the dead. Returning to the village, a peach tree in the orchard of the dead man was cut down that it might also be "dead" and thus accompany its owner to the spirit world and give him its refreshing fruit there. On the death of a chieftain or great warrior, several peach trees—thapala—are cut down.
Of late years, however, these customs of cremation, strangling of horses, burning of treasures, and cutting down of peach trees have not been as universal as formerly. Hotouta, the oldest son of Kohot Navaho, the last of the old chiefs, had great influence with his people, and Mr. Bass succeeded in convincing him of the extravagant folly of thus wasting on the dead, to whom the sacrifices were of no benefit, that which could be of so much use to the living. Consequently his influence materially helped to change the custom from cremation to ground interment. Later, after Hotouta's death, when several families had gone back to the old habit of cremation, others exercised their influencewith the Havasupais to lead them to abandon the old custom. These endeavors were all effective to a large extent, and, when Captain Navaho, the last great Kohot the Havasupais will ever have, died in 1898, he was buried instead of being cremated. Late in 1897, however, the son of Sinyela died, and though in many things Sinyela is one of the most progressive of the Havasupais, he and his brother took the boy's body across a horse, tied an axe to the corpse, and started up the canyon towards Topocobya. When they returned the axe had been used, the horse was strangled, and burned bones of human and equine bodies in a side gorge attest the hold the old superstitions and customs still have upon the Havasupai mind.
And again in the summer of 1899—May or June—when the daughter of the present Kohot and wife of Lanoman (another son of Sinyela) died, Lanoman felt that nothing short of the old and time-honored method of cremation would be suitable for the daughter of the new chief and the wife of so smart and bright an Indian as himself. For Lanoman knew more English, perhaps, than any other Havasupai, and was afflicted with the not uncommon complaint of great self-esteem and conceit. Accordingly, the body was clothed in the finest blankets of the wardrobe, and many precious things were taken with it to the Havasu Canyon below Mooney Falls. Tenderly the body was lowered down the already nearly useless ladder, and after suitable wailing, the funeral pyre was built, the body placed thereupon, more wood heaped around and over the body, and then the whole fired. When the body was destroyed, the mourners returned, kicking down the upper portion of the ladder as they did so,that no other Havasupai should be burned there, and also that no white foot should again desecrate the sacred precincts of the lower Havasu Canyon. Then, that the favorite horse of the woman thus honored after her death should follow her to the underworld, it was taken to the edge of the plateau above, from which the descent to Bridal Veil and the upper portion of Mooney Falls is made, the wet strip of buckskin tied around its neck, and, as the cord dried and tightened, and the poor animal began to reel and totter in its death struggles, it was given a push, tumbled over the edge, and—instead of descending to the lower canyon at the foot of the Falls where the burned body was—fell on the shelves of limestone accretions which terrace the canyon at the side of the Falls, bounded from one terrace to another, and then, to the infinite disgust of the mourners, lodged there. And there it still remains—or what is left of it, for, as I passed by in July, 1899, though I could not see the animal, the frightful odor of the carrion ascended to the very heavens.
On the Navahoes consult the full list prepared by Professor Frederick Webb Hodge in Washington Matthews' "Navaho Legends," published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for the American Folk-Lore Society.
Coues, Elliott.
On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer. The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Garcès in his Travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California. 2 vols. Francis P. Harper, New York, 1900.
Dorsey, George A., and Voth, H. R.
The Oraibi Soyal Ceremony. (Field Columbian Museum, publication 55, Anthropological Series, Vol. III, No. 1. 59 pages and many plates.)
Fewkes, Jesse Walter.
Preliminary Account of an Expedition to the Pueblo Ruins near Winslow, Arizona, in 1896. (In Smithsonian Report for 1896. Pages 517 to 539.)
Preliminary Account of Archæological Field Work in Arizona in 1897. (In Smithsonian Report for 1897. Pages 601 to 603.)
Two Ruins Recently Discovered in the Red Rock Country, Arizona. (In American Anthropologist, August, 1896. Pages 263 to 283.)
Pueblo Ruins near Flagstaff, Arizona. (In American Anthropologist,N. S., Vol. II, 1900. Pages 422 to 450.)
A Suggestion as to the Meaning of the Moki Snake Dance. (In Journal of American Folk-Lore, date unknown. Pages 129 to 138.)
The Owakulti Altar at Sichomovi Pueblo. (In American Anthropologist,N. S., Vol. III, 1901. Pages 211 to 226.)
An Interpretation of Katchina Worship. (In the Journal of American Folk-Lore, April-June, 1901. Pages 81 to 94.)
The Pueblo Settlements near El Paso, Texas. (In American Anthropologist,N. S., Vol. IV, No. 1, 1902. Pages 57 to 95.)
The New Fire Ceremony at Walpi. (In American Anthropologist,N. S., Vol. II, No. 1, 1900. Pages 80 to 138.)
Property Rights in Eagles among the Hopi. (In American Anthropologist,N. S., Vol. II, 1900. Pages 690 to 707.)
Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies. (In Nineteenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, 1901. Pages 957 to 1011.)
Archæological Expedition to Arizona in 1895. (In Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898. Pages 520 to 744.)
Snake Ceremonials at Walpi. (Vol. XIV. of Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1894. In this volume is a carefully prepared bibliography on the Snake Dance (see pages 124 to 126) which is too lengthy to be reproduced here and to which the student is referred.)
Garcés, Francisco.
Diary and Itinerary, translated by Elliott Coues. (See Coues.)
Hough, Walter.
Environmental Interrelations in Arizona. (In American Anthropologist for May, 1898. Pages 133 to 155.)
James, George Wharton.
In and Around the Grand Canyon. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston, Mass., 1900.
Indian Basketry. Henry Malkan, New York, 1901.
The Havasupai Indians and their Cataract Canyon Home. (In Good Health, Battle Creek, Mich., August, 1899. Pages 446 to 456.)
The Industries of the Navahoes and Mokis. (In Good Health, June, 1899. Pages 315 to 322.)
The Pueblo Indians and their Prayer Spring. (In Good Health, July, 1899. Pages 379 to 384.)
The Snake Dance of the Mokis. (Two articles in Scientific American, New York, June 24, 1899, and September 9, 1899.)
Scenes of Spanish Occupancy in our Southwest. (In American Monthly Review of Reviews, July, 1899. Pages 51 to 59.)
Discovery of Cliff Dwellings in the Southwest. (In Scientific American, New York, January 20, 1900.)
What I Saw at the Snake Dance. (In Wide World Magazine, London, January, 1900. Pages 264 to 274.)
Harvest Festivals of Some of our Southwestern Aborigines. (In Good Health, October, 1899. Pages 583 to 589.)
Moki Fashions and Customs. (In Good Health, November, 1899. Pages 641 to 647).
Types of Female Beauty among the Indians of the Southwest. (In Overland Monthly, San Francisco, Cal., March, 1900. Pages 195 to 209).
Some Indian Women. (In New York Tribune Supplement, April 8, 1900.)
The Fire Dance of the Navahoes. (In Wide World Magazine, London, September, 1900. Pages 516 to 523.)
The Hopi Basket Dance. (In New York Tribune Supplement.)
Indian Madonnas. (In New York Tribune Supplement, December 23, 1900.)
Indian Pottery. (In House Beautiful, Chicago, April, 1901. Pages 235 to 243.)
Down the Topocobya Trail. (In Wide World Magazine, London, April, 1901. Pages 75 to 80.)
Indian Basketry. (In Outing, New York, May, 1901. Pages 177 to 186.)
The Storming of Awatobi. (In the Chautauquan, Cleveland, O., August, 1901. Pages 497 to 501.)
The Art of Indian Basketry. (In the Southern Workman, Hampton, Va., August, 1901. Pages 439 to 448.)
Indian Basketry in House Decoration. (In the Chautauquan, Cleveland, O., September, 1901. Pages 619 to 624.)
Moki and Navaho Indian Sports. (In Outing, New York, October, 1901. Pages 10 to 15.)
Indian Pottery. (In Outing, New York, November, 1901. Pages 154 to 161.)
The Hopi Indians of Arizona. (In Southern Workman, Hampton, Va., December, 1901. Pages 677 to 683.)
The Collecting of Indian Baskets. (In the Literary Collector, New York, January, 1902. Pages 103 to 109.)
Some Indian Dishes. (In American Kitchen Magazine, Boston, Mass., January, 1902. Pages 129 to 133 and frontispiece.)
The Indians and their Baskets. (In Four Track News, New York, February, 1902. Pages 77 to 79.)
Indian Blanketry. (In Outing, New York, March, 1902. Pages 684 to 693.)
Lummis, Charles F.
Across the Continent. (Scribner's.)
A New Mexico David, and Other Stories. (Scribner's.)
The Land of Poco Tiempo.
The Man that Married the Moon.
All the volumes of "Land of Sunshine," now "Out West," of which he is Editor, published in Los Angeles, Cal.
Matthews, Washington.
Navaho Legends. (The American Folk-Lore Society. In this volume Professor F. W. Hodge has a full bibliography on the Navahoes.)
Mindeleff, Cosmos.
Navaho Houses. (In Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898. Pages 475 to 517.)
Pepper, George H.
The Navaho Indians. An Ethnological Study. (In Southern Workman, Hampton, Va., November, 1900. 7 pages.)
The Making of a Navaho Blanket. (In Everybody's Magazine, New York, January, 1902. Pages 33 to 43.)
Powell, J. W.
The Lessons of Folk-Lore. (In American Anthropologist,N. S., Vol. II, No. 1, 1900. Pages 1 to 36.)
Voth, H. R., and Dorsey, George A.
The Oraibi Soyal Ceremony. (See Dorsey.)
AN IMPORTANT NEW BOOK DESCRIBING THE MOST STUPENDOUS SCENE ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT
In and Around the Grand Canyonof the Colorado River in Arizona
By GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
Illustrated with twenty-three full-page plates and seventy-seven picturesin the text · 8vo · Cloth · Price, $2.50
CROSSING THE COLORADO TO THE SHINUMO.
CROSSING THE COLORADO TO THE SHINUMO.
Thevolume, crowded with pictures of the marvels and beauties of the Canyon, is of absorbing interest. Dramatic narratives of hairbreadth escapes and thrilling adventures, stories of Indians, their legends and customs, and Mr. James's own perilous experiences, give a wonderful personal interest in these pages of graphic description of the most stupendous natural wonder on the American Continent.—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
A veritable storehouse of wonders.—Boston Advertiser.
There is a ring of actuality about this book.—Outing, New York.
The Grand Canyon has never before received such an exposition either with pen or camera.—Literary World.
He has told his story in so fascinating a manner that one feels almost within sight and sound of the great canyon.—San Francisco Bulletin.
The most thorough description of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and its surroundings to be found anywhere.—Chicago Tribune.
He has not been content to describe the wonders in his own words, but from historical records, from the notes of explorers and discoverers, and from the accounts of Indian natives, white hunters, miners, and guides, he has quoted freely wherever he could find matter of interest and value.—Argonaut, San Francisco.
An illustrated work of which too much can scarcely be said in praise. The Grand Canyon is one of the world's wonders, and this volume is the most thorough and satisfying presentation of its many rugged attractions thus far offered.—San Francisco Chronicle.
There is probably no man in the country who is better qualified for the writing of such a book than Professor James.... Too much cannot be said in praise of his work.—Arizona Daily Journal-Miner, Prescott, Arizona.
Will be the standard with reference to the main features—historic, scenic, and scientific—of the Great Canyon of the Colorado.... Legend and tradition are drawn upon for the dramatic effect and local color, so that in many respects the book possesses a charm peculiarly its own.... One of the typical books of the great West.—Brooklyn Standard Union.
CONTENTS
LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers
254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON
FOOTNOTES:[1]"In and Around the Grand Canyon."[2]"The Storming of Awatobi,"The Chautauquan, August, 1901.[3]Since writing the above, however, a sad event has transpired which leads me to modify my statement. A young lady missionary, riding alone, was criminally assaulted by a Navaho, and almost brought to death's door. When I heard of it Navahoes were hunting for the culprit. It is to be hoped he will be found and severely punished.[4]Since writing this I visited the Hopi Snake Dance at Oraibi, in September, 1902. One of the Navahoes I met there informed me that he had come as the messenger of my peshlikai friend at Tohatchi, and he asked, "Whenklish(the rattlesnake) bit you did you wear the klish ring?" I answered, "Yes." "Then," said he, "that was the reason you recovered. Had you not worn it you would speedily have died." Of course I believed him.[5]This chapter is composed mainly from an article of mine entitled "Indian Blanketry," which appeared inOutingof March, 1902.[6]There are several other fair springs in the vicinity, chiefly Johnson's to the north of Kingman, and Gentile Springs, below the pass through which the Santa Fé railway enters Sacramento Valley.[7]See "In and Around the Grand Canyon."[8]See chapter "Basketry the Mother of Pottery," in "Indian Basketry," by George Wharton James.
[1]"In and Around the Grand Canyon."[2]"The Storming of Awatobi,"The Chautauquan, August, 1901.[3]Since writing the above, however, a sad event has transpired which leads me to modify my statement. A young lady missionary, riding alone, was criminally assaulted by a Navaho, and almost brought to death's door. When I heard of it Navahoes were hunting for the culprit. It is to be hoped he will be found and severely punished.[4]Since writing this I visited the Hopi Snake Dance at Oraibi, in September, 1902. One of the Navahoes I met there informed me that he had come as the messenger of my peshlikai friend at Tohatchi, and he asked, "Whenklish(the rattlesnake) bit you did you wear the klish ring?" I answered, "Yes." "Then," said he, "that was the reason you recovered. Had you not worn it you would speedily have died." Of course I believed him.[5]This chapter is composed mainly from an article of mine entitled "Indian Blanketry," which appeared inOutingof March, 1902.[6]There are several other fair springs in the vicinity, chiefly Johnson's to the north of Kingman, and Gentile Springs, below the pass through which the Santa Fé railway enters Sacramento Valley.[7]See "In and Around the Grand Canyon."[8]See chapter "Basketry the Mother of Pottery," in "Indian Basketry," by George Wharton James.
[1]"In and Around the Grand Canyon."
[2]"The Storming of Awatobi,"The Chautauquan, August, 1901.
[3]Since writing the above, however, a sad event has transpired which leads me to modify my statement. A young lady missionary, riding alone, was criminally assaulted by a Navaho, and almost brought to death's door. When I heard of it Navahoes were hunting for the culprit. It is to be hoped he will be found and severely punished.
[4]Since writing this I visited the Hopi Snake Dance at Oraibi, in September, 1902. One of the Navahoes I met there informed me that he had come as the messenger of my peshlikai friend at Tohatchi, and he asked, "Whenklish(the rattlesnake) bit you did you wear the klish ring?" I answered, "Yes." "Then," said he, "that was the reason you recovered. Had you not worn it you would speedily have died." Of course I believed him.
[5]This chapter is composed mainly from an article of mine entitled "Indian Blanketry," which appeared inOutingof March, 1902.
[6]There are several other fair springs in the vicinity, chiefly Johnson's to the north of Kingman, and Gentile Springs, below the pass through which the Santa Fé railway enters Sacramento Valley.
[7]See "In and Around the Grand Canyon."
[8]See chapter "Basketry the Mother of Pottery," in "Indian Basketry," by George Wharton James.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Otherwise, the author's original spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and use of accents have been left intact.Inconsistencies in the author's use of periods (full stops) with illustrations have been resolved. The list of illustrations has been modified so that illustrations appear in the correct sequence.
Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Otherwise, the author's original spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and use of accents have been left intact.
Inconsistencies in the author's use of periods (full stops) with illustrations have been resolved. The list of illustrations has been modified so that illustrations appear in the correct sequence.