Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/277

Rh now invariably, in ceremonies, sacrifice tobacco in the form of cigarettes. But cigarettes are not new to the Southwest: they are found in ancient caves and other long-neglected places in New Mexico and Arizona.

217. Ni-no-ká-dĭ-ne' (People up on the Earth) may mean people living up on the mountains, in contradistinction to those dwelling in canyons and valleys; but other tribes use a term of similar meaning to distinguish the whole Indian race from the whites or other races, and it is probable that it is used in this sense here and in other Navaho myths. The people whom Natĭ'nĕsthani now meets are probably supposed to be supernatural, and not Indians.

218. The plants mixed with the tobacco were these: tsohodzĭlaí', silátso (my thumb), a poisonous weed, azébini', and azétloi. It has not been determined what plants these are; but the Navaho names are placed on record as possibly assisting in future identification.

219. In the Navaho ceremonies, when sacred cigarettes are finished, and before they are deposited as offerings to the gods, they are symbolically lighted with sunbeams. (See par. 94.) The statement made here, that the hero lighted his pipe with the sun, refers probably to this symbolic lighting.

220. Kĕ'tlo is a name given to any medicine used externally, i.e., rubbed on the body. Atsósi kě'tlo means the liniment or wash of the atsósi hatál, or feather ceremony. It is also called atsósi azé (feather medicine), and atsósi tsĭl (feather herbs).

221. Ya-di-dĭ-nil, the incense of the Navaho priests, is a very composite substance. In certain parts of the healing ceremonies it is scattered on hot coals, which are placed before the patient, and the latter inhales actively the dense white fumes that arise. These fumes, which fill with their odor the whole medicine-lodge, are pungent, aromatic, and rather agreeable, although the mixture is said to contain feathers. The author has obtained a formula for yádidĭnil, but has not identified the plants that chiefly compose it.

222. These are the animals he raises and controls, as told in par. 527.

223. The Navahoes say they are acquainted with four kinds of wild tobacco, and use them in their rites. Of these the author has seen and identified but two. These are Nicotiana attenuate, which is the dsi'lnato, or mountain tobacco; and Nicotiana palmeri, which is the depénato, or sheep tobacco. N. attenuata grows widely but not abundantly in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. N. palmeri is rare; the writer has seen it growing only in one spot in the Chelly Canyon. It has not been learned what species are called weasel tobacco and cloud tobacco; but one or more of the three species, N. rustica, N. quadrivalvis, and N. trigonophylla, are probably known to the Navahoes.

224. The description of these diseases given by the narrator of this tale is as follows: "Patients having these diseases are weak, stagger, and lose appetite; then they go to a sweat-house and take an emetic. If they have lĭ'tso, or the yellow disease, they vomit something yellow (bile ?). If they have tĭl-litá, or cooked blood disease, they vomit something like cooked blood. Those having the yellows have often yellow eyes and yellow skin. Thatlĭ't, or slime disease, comes from drinking foul water full of green slime or little fish (tadpoles ?). Tsos, worms, usually come from eating worms, which you sometimes do without knowing it; but tsĭ'lgo, tapeworm, comes from eating parched corn." Probably the last notion arises from the slight resemblance of the joints of Tænia solium to grains of corn. This little chapter in pathology from Hatáli Natlói is hardly in accordance with the prevalent theory that savages regard all disease as of demoniac origin.

225. The adjective yazóni, or yasóni, here used, which is translated "beautiful," means more than this: it means both good (or useful) and beautiful. It contains