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40 Navahoes do not. The gods who are supposed to love and help men the most receive the greatest honor. The evil spirits are not worshipped except, rumor says, by the witches. It would appear, moreover, from the Origin Legend, that the worst of evil powers—the alien gods—were long ago destroyed, and that only demons of minor influence remain. The chief of witches, Estsán Natán, or Woman Chief, has her home beneath the earth, in one of the lower worlds.

88. A great number of ceremonies are practised by the Navaho priests. Many of these are of nine days' duration; there are others that last but a single day or a few hours. To learn one of the great



rites so as to become its hatáli (chanter, singer),16 or priest, is the work of many years, and no one knows more than one such rite perfectly. The older priests know something of other rites, may assist at them and sing songs at them, but are not competent to conduct them. A priest of a great rite may know some of the lesser rites.

89. All the great ceremonies which the writer has witnessed among the Navahoes are primarily for the healing of the sick; but the occasion is always used to ask the gods for various temporal