Wanderings, Part II

WANDERINGS, PART II

Everybody was still living, no one had died yet. So the oldest man of the Oak clan was notified that he had been chosen and that he was to come to the broken prayer stick. So they brought him in and told him he had been chosen as the man to be helpful when any sickness

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came among the people. "You will be the means of their recovery." Then they told him that Iatiku was going to instruct him and care for him, (i. e., would give him his altar and paraphernalia). So Iatiku told him to come to her and she then told him to go to North Mountain to look for a pine tree that had been struck by lightning, and to take some of the split wood from the blasted part. "You will also find hati ⁷² (obsidian) which also will be used by you." She told him to bring all this back to her. Then she taught him how to make the black prayer stick as a symbol of the dark, for he was instructed to work at night. She told him to make four of these and to carry them with him when he went to seek the pine and obsidian. "You will also find there an arrowhead with which the pine was struck down." (Even today at Acoma they think there is an arrowhead where lightning has struck. These are sought and worn as amulets.) With this he would have protection; it would be his heart or soul.

So the Oak Man took these four prayer sticks to the north and there he prayed with them and buried them. Then he looked for the pine tree and finally found everything as predicted by Iatiku. He gathered some of the flat split wood into a bundle. He also found some obsidian and the arrowhead. These he brought back. His relatives and clan knew why he had been away and were waiting for him when he returned. The Oak Man told Iatiku that he had brought the things he had been instructed to get. Iatiku told him that he was to make an altar for himself and he was to use the obsidian for a knife. Iatiku taught him to make the altar and the altar prayer sticks (pl. 9, fig. 2). He finished the altar which is commonly called Iatiku (pl. 8, fig. 2). Then Iatiku told Oak Man to make a sand painting (pl. 10, fig. 2). The painting will be blue and circular to represent the sky. The earth is hanging from the Milky Way. This is because the Milky Way is like a beam holding up the earth. This is because the Milky Way does not change its position but is always circling in the east. The head of the earth faces east; the feet are in the west, with arms outstretched north and south. Thus, as the earth lies facing upward, the sun rises over its head and passes over its body lengthwise, setting at its feet. In the ceremony the medicine bowl is always set on the heart with a special prayer. Thus the Medicine derives its strength from the heart of the earth. Sun, Moon, and Stars are drawn as alive with eyes and mouth (pl. 11). (Sun, Moon, Stars are the most powerful of forces. Sun gives everything strength. It gives the seeds in the earth strength to sprout, and this strength is imparted to us when we eat these plants.)

Then Iatiku taught him the songs and showed him how to make two

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fetishes which were to represent the bear. ⁷³ He was going to have the power of the bear, so Iatiku spoke to the bear and said, "You will be a partner to this chaianyi." And Iatiku also spoke to the eagle and told him he was to be a partner of the chaianyi. The bear was to represent the power of all the animals that live on earth, and the eagle the power of all the birds that fly in the air. Iatiku also spoke to mayatup ⁷⁴ (weasel) to be partner with the chaianyi and to represent all the animals that live within the ground. The next thing Iatiku made for him was a square bowl called waitichani, the medicine bowl which Iatiku instructed Oak Man's wife to make from mitsa (a fine clay). So she made the bowl and Iatiku told her to make drawings of two bears on the front; on the back, a picture of an eagle; and on the bottom, the weasel. (Nowadays they put on lizard, Snakes, and clouds besides.) This was the origin of pottery. This particular pot was for mixing medicine. Iatiku told Oak Man then to got branches of the spruce (hakak) and fir (gaiaits’ti’up ? piñon) and the roots of tschuma (an aromatic herb; the roots taste sweet) and another root. He was instructed to grind the four plants together and to have some prepared. Iatiku also told him to get the left front paw of a bear and to skin it a little above the wrist with the claws still on it, and to take all the claws of the other three feet and make a necklace of them, and to place the skin back of the altar. ⁷⁵ She said, "Get the left front paw because that is the bear's best hand. Boars are quicker on the left." The two bear fetishes were to be painted with the bear's blood. On the altar were also two eagle and two weasel fetishes.

Iatiku told Oak Man he was to kill an eagle and take the longest feather from each wing ⁷⁶ and the down from under the tail, and to tie them on the top of the last two uprights of the altar. ⁷⁷ He was also to bring all the rest of the feathers. Iatiku then told him to kill a weasel, to place the skin as the foundation (carpet) for the altar, and to place the two front paws with the fetish. The paws look like human hands and the weasel uses them like hands. Blood from the heart of the eagle was used to paint the eagle fetishes, and weasel blood was smeared on the weasel fetishes.

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Iatiku then told him to kill a mallard duck (teal), skin it and take the green feathers from the wings and bring them to the altar. Iatiku told him to get an abalone shell and in the west mountain to get turquoise. He was to make a string of beads from the turquoise and abalone shell. Iatiku told him this would be something sacred and instructed him how to make the beads. She told him not to throw away the chips broken off but to save them, because "these chips will also be sacred and you will use them to pray with." ⁷⁸ Now all was finished but one thing. "You are to make a drum and a rattle. The drum (pl. 12, fig. 1) you are to make from ha’ati (a tree that grows a layer each year). Knock the center out and use the outside cylinder. Cover both ends with the skin of the elk." She instructed him how to lace the skin on. Then she taught him how to make the drumstick out of wood of the same tree. When the drum was finished he was taught how to make the rattle. "Take the scrotum of the elk; take the hair off and stuff it with dry sand and let it dry, tying a stick in it first. When it is dry, pour the sand out. Then put some agave seeds into the rattle." ⁷⁹ Thus it was finished.

At this time Iatiku lived alone in a house on an island in a lake. She lived alone on this island and the people lived all around the lake. She was visited only by Country Chief. While getting instructions for the altar, he ran back and forth to the island. Country Chief would pass the instructions on to Oak Man. Now Iatiku said, "It is my turn. I will make for you honani." ⁸⁰ She instructed Oak Man to bring her the feathers of the eagle and duck that were not used on the altar, the tail feathers of shaask (roadrunner), and the tail feathers of magpie, and to bring some cotton and the ear of corn called tsatchikotsch. ⁸¹ This is an ear which has the kernels clear up to the top with no open space at top of cob. It is very rare. After they had brought these things to Iatiku she called Country Chief and his two helpers and told them to guard around her house, that her place was going to be secret, and no one was to bother her. The trail that led to Iatiku's house was paved with abalone shell. Abalone shells came from this lake.

So Iatiku made this honani with corn in the center into which she had blown her own breath, into the hollow in the bottom of the cob, and then closed it with the cotton. This breath was to be her own power in it; she blew her heart (soul) into it. This ear of corn would

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thereafter symbolize herself, as she was thinking of leaving the people. ⁸² She then covered it with four layers of corn husk. After she blew her breath into the hollow of the ear, she put some honey into the hollow before she closed it up with cotton. This was food for her breath and would be food for all time for the people. Honey was chosen because it comes from all kinds of plants and it therefore symbolizes all plant food. This honey in the cob meant that there would always be food. It would be as a seed or source of all food to come. The Oak Man was present while the honani was being made and he was instructed how it was made, so that when it became necessary to make another it would be up to him. When a man is made a medicine man is the only time a new honani is made. Today there are many of these honani which carry the power of Iatiku. They are kept in the family always. If a medicine society wants one they borrow it from some family.

After wrapping the corn ear in four husks, Iatiku took the skin of the duck's head and a turquoise and placed them under the corn as a seat. Over the top and around the outside husks she spread cotton. The duck skin with blue feathers was placed under the turquoise because the color was like turquoise. From now on the turquoise was going to have a lot of power, the power to make one attractive and to be loved. The breath Iatiku blew into the cob would be all powerful as far as the air extended, but no farther. ⁸³ The roadrunner and magpie and eagle down and turkey feathers (the short tail feathers--there were no parrots then), and the down from under the tail of the eagle were used, (Nowadays just "pretty" feathers are used.) These feathers from then on were to be useful in making prayers. The green wing feathers of the duck were placed in front hiding the face. Then the string of abalone, turquoise, and shell beads was placed above the honani. All these things were to be sacred and valuable from then on. All things that went into the making of the honani were to be regarded as sacred. The whole thing would represent Iatiku.

After Iatiku had taught Oak Man all this she taught the making of the yapaishe altar. It took a long time to teach Oak Man the prayers and songs. After he had learned everything, Iatiku said, "Let us try it out. You are to work 4 days and these 4 days you are not to touch a woman. You are going to eat special food during this time: beans without salt, corn, wa’ak, ⁸⁴ muni (plant), i'mă’ăshchă. None of this food can be mixed with meat." The fourth night was to be the night he would work.

Footnotes

28:71 This term looks very much like taBinock^a, "homed toad" (White, 1932, p. 150) and mĭt^y, "youth."

29:72 At Santa Ana obsidian is pulverized and soaked in water to bathe sore eyes (White, ms.).

30:73 Medicine men are able to effect cures only because they are able to secure power from the "real" medicine men, the animals: bear, who is the greatest of doctors, badger, eagle, wolf. See White, 1930, p. 609; Steven. son, 1894, p. 72, telling how the original animal doctors initiated the first human medicine men (White, 1935, p. 121).

30:74 mai'Dyupⁱ is identified (White, 1942) as black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) or as shrew (Sorex) (Stevenson, 1894, pp. 73. 128). A Santo Domingo Indian identified mounted specimens of Sorex personatus and Blarina brevicauda, as mai'Dyupⁱ (White, 1935, p. 203).

30:75 All medicine men who treat sickness caused by witches in Keresan pueblos wear bear-skin paws on their hands-sometimes on both hands, sometimes on the left only--in treating patients or in fighting witches. See White (1942) for an account of how a medicine man skinned a bear. Medicine men also wear necklaces of bear claws.

30:76 These are the hi'cami with which medicine men extract witch-injected objects from sick people, exorcise evil spirits, or sprinkle medicine water.

30:77 See White, 1932, pl. 1, b; and fig. 5, p. 130, for pictures of Acoma medicine altars.

31:78 She is referring to the so-called shell mixture that, with corn meal or pollen, is sprinkled on the ground.

31:79 Cf. Densmore, 1938, pp. 40-45.

31:80 The cotton-wrapped, bead- and feather-decked corn ear fetish of the Keresan curing society. See Acoma (White, 1932, p. 129); Sia (Stevenson, 1894, p. 4k,, ftn. 1, l. 9); Laguna (Parsons, 1920, pp. 95-96); Santo Domingo (White, 1935, p. 161); Cochiti (Dumarest, 1919, p. 155). It represents the mother of the Indians, Iatiku, and is also called yaya, "mother." Among eastern Keres it is called ia'riko. Honani is the Hopi word for badger, although the accent is different: Acoma, ho'nani; Hopi, hona'ni.

31:81 Called koto'na in other Keresan pueblos. Cf. the Hopi term chochĭmĭnga (Stephen, 1936, Glossary).

32:82 In Sia mythology Iatiku, before taking leave of her people, instructed Tiamoni to make an iariko "which was to represent herself that they might have herself always with them and know her always" (Stevenson. 1894, pp. 40-41).

32:83 Many Santa Ana prayers ask for rain, long life, etc., "as far as my prayers can reach" (White, ms.).

32:84 Sp., guaco, waco, Rocky Mountain Bee plant, Cleome serrulata (or Peritoma serrulatum). It is tabu to the Shikame-Kurena medicine society at Laguna (Parsons, 1920, p. 112, ftn. 3); to the Shikame society at Cochiti (Dumarest, 1919, p. 189) and at Santa Ana (White, ms.); also to the Shi’wanakwe of Zuñi (Parsons 1919, p. 333).(See Robbins, Harrington, and Freire-Marreco, 1916, pp. 58-59, for Tewa uses.)