A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

AN ORIGIN LEGEND FOR CURING SORCERYDURING theexplanation of the symbolsin the first ceremony, a myth was toldby the informant which he stated to be anorigin legend. This is curious, for no storysimilar to the one recorded in the followingpages is recorded as a complete origin legend.There is a short episode in the myth of theMountain Chant which has some points ofsimilarity to the legend given by John Yazzi(Wheelwright, 1951, pp. 10-11). And thereare some recorded as trickster or coyotestories.As is generally known, trickster cycles appearover a large part of North America. Thefirst portion of this myth is rather similar tothose both inside and outside the area of thePlains and the Southwest. The general themeisthat the trickster feigns death and returns indisguise to seduce his daughter. In the surroundingareas the following groups possesssuch myths: Southern Paiute, 1 Southern Ute, 2Northern Shoshoni, 3 Jicarilla Apache, 4 Mono, 5and Walapai. 6 The origin myth of the JicarillaFemale Shooting Way is similar to the generaltheme of the myth recorded here. 7Schmerler 8 claims that although this tale isfound among the Navaho and White MountainApache, they are rare in the Southwest.This is not so, for published and non-publishedmaterial exists on the Navaho alone, 9 butmuch of this has come to light since thearticle was written.The one version published similar to theone here was written by Matthews in 1885.The motif is different only in the followingpoints: the mother lives away from her daughterdue to the mother-in-law taboo; the motherdiscovers the deception; the raised child killstwo children unrelated to him; warriors followhim and find him chips of wood; and onthe second and following days the number ofmen increases and from these nine men, eightof whom are made from wood, are derivedthe Ute Indians.Father Berard, in an unpublished manuscript,10 has also recorded a story similar tothat of Matthews. The significant differencesare as follows: 11 the male owl took the boyback to the badger hole; each time the boybegan to start to find his relatives he heardnoises in his trachea, ears, nose, or his skinprickled and/or he had bad dreams, whichwere to be the types of warnings the futureEarth People were to have; Coyote's son didnot meet the ash, torch, mano and metate,bush, the yuccas, bear, big snake, thunder andwind; and the boy killed his mother andfather. Another unpublished version has beenrecorded by Leighton. 12 The story is essentiallythe same except Coyote is not the "hero"and the boy is taken back by the father andmother. It is Father Berard's belief 13 that thisstory which tells of witchcraft was utilizedas an explanation of the origin of a ceremony.He bases this on two factors: the activitiesdescribed within the story take place duringpost-emergence time which dates it so it cannotbe classed as an origin legend, and thecoyote in this story is not the Trotting Coyoteof the pre-emergence period.There are several actions within the folktale that denote association with witchcraftto the Navaho, which explains why theymight have believed the story to be an originlegend. Incest and witchcraft are closely associated,and suspicion of one automaticallyleads to suspicion of the other. 14 Dyk 15 describesthe Navaho attitude toward such an'Lowie, 1924, p. 172.sLowie, 1924, p. 28."Lowie, 1909, p. 248.*Opler, 1938, p. 280.6Kroeber, 1901, p. 268."Kroeber, 1954, p. 266.7Kluckhohn and Wyman, 1940, pp. 156-57."1931, p. 196."Dyk, 1945; unpublished material in the Ramahfiles at Harvard University. There did exist, at onetime, a chantway to cure people who had committedincest. Haile, n.d., and Kluckhohn, 1944, p. 22, fn.10 Haile, 1929.11Father Berard's version is much longer and moredetailed than the one described here. It is still unpublishedso only a few of the important differences willbe pointed out."Leighton, 1940.13 Haile, personal communication, December, 1953.14Kluckhohn, 1944, p. 15.16 '945-55