THE PRAYER OF A NAVAJO SHAMAN.*

BY DR. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, U. S. A., ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM.

The literature purporting to represent the native devotional expressions of our North American aborigines so far published is very meager, and much of this scanty material is of doubtful authenticity. For these reasons I offer to the Society for its consideration the Prayer of a Navajo Shaman.

It is a composition unique in form and bearing internal evidence of purely heathen origin. It shows no trace of extemporaneousness. That it is the carefully considered ritual composition of a priest well informed in the knowledge of his craft-a priest who, in the language of the Scripture, "sought to find out acceptable words "-I cannot doubt. I have only the word of my informant, who is now over seventy years of age, for its antiquity. He learned it in youth from an old shaman, who, in turn, had it transmitted from an elder man. It is not, however, of sufficient antiquity to contain (except perhaps in one word, qonicqa'de) obsolete terms, which we so often encounter in the prayers and hymns of Navajo medicine-men. The language of rogation is common to the prayers of the Navajos, as it is to the prayers of all other peoples; but this prayer, it will be seen, is not in the form of a supplication. It is a narrative, in which the present tense of the verb is used from the beginning almost to the end. It is evidently primarily intended to counteract witchcraft. My informant said it was the most potent prayer that he knew. So sacred is it held that no one may repeat it, or any part of it, twice on the same day, nor may any portion of it be repeated by itself. It must be said through from beginning to end without stopping. These are conditions which added much to the labor of noting the prayer and obtaining an exact translation.

* In the Navajo words, as they appear in this paper, the vowels have the Continental sounds; there is only one diphthong, ai;' denotes an aspirated vowel ; e has the sound of sh in shine; d before a vowel has the sound of th in this; / is always aspirated, as if spelled hl; n above the line (a) is nasal; 7 has the sound of German ch in machen; t before vowel has the sound of th in thing; the other letters have the ordinary English sounds.

With other Navajo prayers in my collection the act of supplication is preceded by the offering of a sacrifice, and in the prayer the god is reminded of the votive offering and told what blessings are expected in return. With the prayer under consideration, no reference is made to a previous sacrifice and, as far as I could learn, none precedes it, although a song in praise of the war god is sometimes sung as a prelude.

This prayer came to my knowledge almost by accident and perhaps contrary to the wishes of the supplicant. I first heard it at Fort Defiance, Arizona, from a venerable Navajo shaman, well versed in the mythic lore of his race, thoroughly imbued with the superstitions of the savage and the faith of the uncontaminated pagan. He had been engaged for some weeks previously in recounting myths, and explaining to me various medicine practices which I had witnessed in the lodges. In none of my interviews with him had he shown any impatience with my demands for explanations as we progressed or with interruptions in our work. He lingered long over his meals, lighted many cigarettes and smoked them leisurely, got tired early in the evening, and was always willing to go to bed as early as I would let him. When, however, he came to relate the creation myth all this was changed. He arrived early; he remained late; he hastened through his meals; he showed evidence of worry at all delays and interruptions, and frequently begged me to postpone minor explanations. On being urged to explain this change of spirit he said that we were travelling in the land of the dead, in a place of evil and potent ghosts, just so long as he continued to relate those parts of the myth which recount the adventures of his ancestors in the nether world, and that we were in danger as long as our minds remained there; but that when we came to that part of the tale where the people ascend to this-the fifth and last world-we need no longer feel uneasy and could then take our time. His subsequent actions proved that he had given an honest explanation.

It was near sunset one afternoon and an hour or more before his supper time that he concluded his account of the subterranean wanderings of the Navajos and brought them safely through the Place of Emergence, in the San Juan mountains, to the surface of this world. Then he ceased to speak, rolled a cigarette, said he was tired, that he would not be able to tell me any more that night, and left me.

After his departure I learned that he had announced to some of

his friends during the day that he would have to pray at night to counteract the evil effects of his journey through the lower world. After his supper he retired to the apartment among the old adobe huts at Defiance in which he had been assigned room to sleep. I soon followed, and, having waited in the adjoining passage half an hour or more, I heard the voice of the old man rising in the monotonous tones of formulated prayer. Knowing that the rules of the shaman forbade the interruption of any prayer or song, I abruptly entered the room and sat down on the floor near the supplicant. He was seated tailor-fashion in front of the hearth, on which a bright fire blazed, surrounded by two or three Indian listeners. His hands rested on his knees; his head was bent slightly forward; his face wore an anxious expression, and his eyes were steadily directed on the floor at a point about two yards in front of him. He did not even raise his eyes when I entered and never changed his position until he had done. Then he made the sign for complete or finished, and entered unconcernedly into conversation, complimenting himself on his ability to say a prayer well and make no mistakes. I had no difficulty in inducing him to repeat the prayer for me afterwards on several occasions under the conditions mentioned.

The prayer is so iterative that, long as it is, it contains only about a hundred Navajo words, not counting incorporated particles (which are defined separately in the appended glossary). For this reason it was not considered advisable to give the original text in an interlinear or double-column form. It was thought that a clear understanding of the composition as well as economy of space could be best secured by the following method: The Navajo form is placed immediately after the translation for each separate paragraph; in most cases the often-recurring passages of the original are printed but once. A glossary is given, by consulting which the student may discover what liberties have been taken with the original in the endeavor to produce a smooth and intelligible English translation.

THE PRAYER OF THE RENDITION (QA-YAʼ-TYI).

I. From the summit of Jemez mountain Nagaynezgani comes for my sake. From the summit of San Francisco mountain Thobajischeni comes for my sake.

Tsisnadjini bilatade Nagenezgani cikadeya. Dokooslid bilatade Tobajistcini cikadeya.