A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMBNow a pause occurs, and the women bringbaskets of bread fresh from the adobe ovens,pans of mutton stew, melons, coffee, andsugar. The men group about the food, cuttingthe meat with their own knives and dippingthe stew with the crusty bread. Whenthe women have taken away the remains ofthe dinner, the medicine man opens a buckskinbag of pollen and, carefully stepping onthe background sand, takes pinches of theyellow powder to bless each symbol. With acircular motion of his hand he dusts the pollenover the guards, and ends with a motionof tossing some through the opening in theroof. Throughout this pollen blessing rite themedicine man intones a low prayer.When the medicine man is again seated onhis blankets a helper steps outside the doorand calls loudly, "The ceremony is about tobegin."This is a signal for the patient, accompaniedby a sponsor, to enter the hogahn closely followedby the women of the patient's familyand all others who wish to be present at thehealing rites. Before entering the hogahn, thepatient has been handed a basket of corn meal;white for a man, yellow for a woman. Heholds this basket in the curve of his left arm,and the medicine man directs him in scatteringmeal on each symbol following the samesequence as the pollen blessing. But this cornmeal is in the nature of a gift and is not accompaniedby either prayer or chant. The patientis offering this food to the forces representedby the sand symbols.Then the patient sits near the door to removeshoes, clothing, and jewelry; a man wearsonly his shorts or gee-string, but a woman removesonly her shoes, velvet blouse, and jewelry.When ready, the patient is helped to hisfeet and the medicine man leads him to theplace he is to sit on the sand painting. Thisis generally west of the central symbol andalways facing the east.The medicine man returns to his seat, picksup his rattle, and starts the rhythm. Thereare usually several men who sit near the medicineman to assist with the chant, and a fewmay have rattles. When the correct number ofprayer songs have been chanted, the medicineman sets aside his rattle and walks onto thesand painting to stand before or beside thepatient.The various healing rites which he performsduring this part of the ceremony are accompaniedby intermittent chanting started by themedicine man and carried through by thechorus. There is the ritual of pressing medicinebundles to the body of the patient, thedrinking of herb infusion, and other symbolicrites. The rite most closely connected withthe symbols depicted on the sand painting isthe pressing of sand to the patient's head,body, and limbs. To begin this, the medicineman pours the few remaining drops of herbmixture over the palms of his hands, thenpresses his palms to the heads of all the sandsymbols and transfers the colored sand to thehead of the patient. His hands are nextpressed to the neck and chest of each design,and then to the neck and chest of the patient.This procedure continues until it is completedat the soles of the patient's feet, when themedicine man raises his hands, palms upward,toward the smoke hole with a gesture of dismissal.The last act in this series of healing rites isthe fumigation. Live coals are placed in frontof the patient and also in front of any memberof the audience who has paid for a bit ofhealing. The powder which the medicineman sprinkles over these coals is a mixture ofaromatic sumac, bird feathers, water pollen,and dust from a gopher hole. A blue sweetsmellingsmoke arises, over which the patientand other participants stoop to inhale as muchas possible before it disappears. This rite issymbolic of internal and mental healing, andto banish the fear of having the ailment reappear.It also protects the patient from possibleoverpowering effects of the rites.A bundle of eagle wing feathers is held outto the patient to help him to his feet and thenis used to brush the colored sands from hisbody before he steps off the painting. Hethen gathers his clothing and jewelry in hisblanket and walks to the men's quarters.After the patient leaves the ceremonial hogahn,all members of the audience are at libertyto enter the painting from the east andpick up and apply the colored sand to anypart of their bodies where there is an ache or