Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/219

 The Night Chant 631 by whites, and conforms more nearly to our idea of dramatic entertainment. The hero of the Dislyidje qacal is a Navaho, reared in the neighbourhood of the Carrizo Mountains, Arizona, from which he later takes his name, Dislyi Neyani, " Reared-within-the- Mountains." Having disregarded the instruction of his father while out hunting one day, he is taken captive by the Utes and carried to their country. Here the gods, in the shape of an old woman and an owl, the little burrow-nesting owl, signify their intention of befriending him, calling him very much as Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, and setting him, under their tutelage, on the trail toward his home. The rest of the story is taken up with his adventures, all of a supernatural character, and all directed toward the Indian's great desideratum, the acquirement of mystical knowledge and power. The itinerary of this journey is mapped across the Nava- ho country as was the voyage of Ulysses along the coasts of the Mediterranean, with the addition of a number of places belong- ing exclusively to Navaho cosmogony, the House of the Dew, the House of the Lightning, and the House of the Rock Crystal. Reaching his old home at the end of these adventures, Reared-within-the-Mountains discovers that even after he has been washed and dried with commeal according to the Navaho custom, the odours of his people and their lodges are intolerable to him. Finally the difficulty ^'s remedied by performing over him the ceremony of the Dislyidje qacal, recapitulating his ad- ventures, and his people become tolerable to him once more. Not long after this ceremonial purification, Reared-within- the-Mountains is out hunting with his younger brother on Black Mountain. Suddenly he speaks and says: "Younger Brother, behold the Holy Ones'. " But his brother sees nothing. Then Dislyi Neyani speaks again: Farewell, Younger Brother. From the holy places the gods come for me. You will never see me again, but when the showers pass and the thunders peal, "There, " you will say, "is the voice of my Elder Brother. " And when the harvest comes, of the beautiful birds and grasshoppers, you will say, "There is the ordering of my Elder Brother. " And with these words he vanished.