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Updated: June 2, 2025
The line running down through the center of the face calls upon the gods above to send down rain upon the earth and health to all people. Two or three children started through ignorance to run the meal down one of the cheeks; they were instantly stopped by Hasjelti, but not until the people looking on had expressed great horror.
Hasjelti formed a cross on the breast with the meal and Hostjoboard pressed the two ears of corn to the breast; a cross was made on the back and the two ears of corn pressed to the back. Hasjelti, with his right hand, then drew a line on the girl’s left shoulder, and with his left hand a line on the girl’s right shoulder, the corn being pressed to the shoulders in the manner described.
During the ceremony Hasjelti, dressed in black velvet ornamented with silver, and Hostjoboard, with her nude body painted white and with silk scarf around the loins caught on with silver belt, left the lodge to gather the children upon the mesa for the purpose of initiating them; but the children had already been summoned by men who rode over the mesa on horseback, visiting every hogan to see that all the children were brought for initiation.
At this particular ceremony nine boys and six girls were initiated. When the children were all in position, Hasjelti, carrying a fawn skin containing sacred meal, and Hostjoboard, carrying two needles of the Spanish bayonet, stood in front of the children. The boy at the head of the line was led out and stood facing the east.
A man sat thinking, "Let me see; my songs are too short; I want more songs; where shall I go to find them?" Hasjelti appeared and, perceiving his thoughts, said, "I know where you can go to get more songs." "Well, I much want to get more, and I will follow you." Hasjelti said, "This will not do; cottonwood becomes water-soaked; you must use pine instead of cottonwood."
They did not go to the green, however, but moved off a short distance to rest for a moment and returned. Upon each return the invalid passed down the line on the north side sprinkling each dancer with meal, Hasjelti and Hostjoghon performing with the fawn skin and wands. This dance of four figures was repeated twelve times, each time the dancers resting but a moment.
The man at the west end of the male line and the woman at the same end of the female line, meeting each other midway between the lines she passes her right arm through the arm of her partner, his arm being bent to receive it; they pass between the line and are met a short distance from the other end of the line by Hasjelti and Hostjoghon, who dance up to meet them, the movement resembling closely the old-fashioned Virginia reel.
This couple starting down the second time, the man and woman immediately next in line lock arms and pass down in the same manner, Hasjelti and Hostjoghon scarcely waiting for the first couple to separate before dancing up to meet the second couple; the remaining couples following in like order until the first couple find themselves in their former position at the head of the line.
Hasjelti wore a velvet dress, but Hostjoghon’s body was nude, painted white. This wild, weird ceremony over, the sick man arose and the song-priest gathered the turkey wands from around the painting, while an attendant erased it by rubbing his hands over the sand to the center.
Hasjelti lifted the coverings from the entrance and the invalid came out and sat upon a blanket south of the entrance and bathed both his hands in the bowl containing the pine needles and water; he then drank of it and bathed his feet and legs to the thighs, his arms and shoulders, body and face and head, and then emptied the remainder over his back.
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