Читать книгу American Indian Ghost Stories of the West - Antonio Sr. Garcez - Страница 27

I interviewed Josie on the Navajo Reservation not far from the town of Chinle, which is located in the northeast quadrant of the state. Josie is a 41-year-old widow and mother of twin daughters’ aged 16. Our interview took place inside their mobile home, which is situated on deep red, rusty-colored desert land with wispy juniper trees growing in contorted shapes. Overhead is the endless vastness of turquoise blue sky.

Within such beauty, this location would be complete if not for the reality of poverty that lingered all around. As with some Native Americans, Josie daily endures such inconveniences as living without modern plumbing, electricity or heating. The interview was conducted in Josie’s kitchen. On the table were various small plastic tubes and glass jars containing a rainbow of assorted tiny, brightly colored glass beads. Josie and her daughters sew these beads onto leather and make hatbands, necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Once completed, they take these articles to local stores in town and either sell them or exchange them for personal items. Josie spoke in a calm, even tone when relating her personal experience with a witch and ghosts. Her daughters were in the adjoining living room and silently listened as their mother told me her story.

— Antonio

“My 70-year-old grandfather enjoys living in the traditional manner of us Navajos in a Navajo roundhouse or “hogan,” which is right next to our mobile home. He also prefers to speak only our native language. After my grandmother’s death, he lived alone in his hogan for over twenty years. Both he and grandmother lived together in a previous hogan, but after she died, Grandfather burned their original hogan, as is our tradition to do when the owner dies. A new hogan was built for Grandfather a short time later, and this is where he now lives.

About eight years ago, in the month of November, grandfather—who otherwise was in good health—began to suffer from headaches and body aches, which eventually caused him to be bedridden. When grandfather’s condition worsened he began to refuse food. After discussing his situation with my older brother, we both decided that it would be best to take him to a doctor in Window Rock. Grandfather was hesitant, but soon realized the logic in our decision to seek medical help. After being admitted into the clinic, he was taken through the long process of many blood tests and x-rays.

My brother and I spent three days in Window Rock at a friend’s house while grandfather was being cared for. When the results of the tests eventually came back from the lab, to our surprise and relief, they indicated that he only had a rise in blood sugar, which could be treated with drugs. Aside from this, his other tests were normal. Both my brother and I were still not totally convinced that all was well with him. We had seen the turn for the worse that our otherwise active and mentally alert grandfather had taken. His state of constant pain and fatigue was very unusual for him. The doctor prescribed pain medicine to help him sleep.

After filling the prescriptions we returned home. On the drive home, grandfather stated that he wanted to seek the help of a local medicine man in Chinle. Grandfather wanted to have a Sing. Among us Navajos, we have a curing ceremony, which we call a Sing. The “Sing” ceremony involves the participation of an elder medicine man or woman, special songs are sung, incense is burned, and a drum and other ritual items are used. It is a lengthy ceremony and highly respected among traditional Navajos. My brother and I assured my grandfather that we would honor his wishes and contact a medicine man back home. Arrangements were made with an elderly medicine man, and a date for the Sing was set.

Four nights before the ceremony, a strange thing happened to me. It had been snowing heavily during the day, and that evening, the moon was bright and full. At around 11 p.m. The barking of our dog, which we keep chained to our porch, awakened me. Usually she barks at skunks that live under the mobile home, or in response to the yelping of coyotes that sometimes come around our property. This time, her barking sounded different to me. It made me get out of my warm bed and walk to the window.

As I parted the curtains on the front door, I saw the image of a woman I did not recognize walking about my grandfather’s hogan. I reached for my jacket and boots, and walked outside. My dog was growling and barking. In the moonlit night, I followed this strange woman as she made her way to the rear of the hogan. When I yelled at her, “What do you want?” she did not respond. I decided to confront this strange woman. With my dog still barking loudly, I quickly made my way to the hogan as my footsteps crunched noisily into the foot-deep snow. About twenty feet away from the woman, I saw that she was wrapped in a dark shawl from head to toe. Her face was hidden from my sight. Something inside me made me stop in my tracks. As soon as I stopped, the woman suddenly turned away from me. What happened next made my mouth open wide.

The dark woman took off like a flash! She did not run, but seemed to float over the snow-covered ground without leaving a trace of footsteps! My dog barked and barked. I turned in the direction of the trailer and ran back. I missed a step and remember taking a hard fall. Once I reached the trailer I rushed inside and locked the door! Both my daughters told me that they had witnessed the whole affair from the safety of the mobile home window. I was out of breath and shaking. I knew that I had seen something evil outside. My girls were also shaken, and that night we all slept together.

The next day I wasted no time in telling my experience to my brother. After hearing my story, he knew that what had taken place that night had to be witchcraft. A ghost or witch had for some reason visited our property. My brother said, “Who knows how long these evil visits have been going on without us being aware of them?” We all decided that it would be best not to tell our grandfather for fear that such information would upset him, and we didn’t want to risk him becoming even more ill. We also knew that this new information needed to be related to our medicine man.

My brother drove me to the medicine man’s home, and we informed him of what I had seen. He was not surprised by my story. He said, “Oh, I know who this is.” Then he explained to us that there was a Navajo medicine woman who lived not far from his house who wanted to gain a reputation in the Indian community as being a powerful spiritual person. After I heard the medicine man’s description of this woman, I could recall her from a visit she made to my grandfather’s hogan several weeks before grandfather became ill. I remember grandfather telling me that this woman had visited him because she wanted him to be her boyfriend. When grandfather refused, she got very angry with him and yelled obscenities. She left our property in a rage!

The medicine man further explained, “It is difficult to gain power without earning it in the correct manner. This woman has decided to seek the help of certain animal spirits instead of asking the Creator for direction, and doing what is right.” He also said, “You need to know that this woman wants to hurt your grandfather. Your grandfather refused to do what she demanded, so now she has taken revenge. She chose to make him ill, but she will not stop until he is dead.” My brother and I could not understand why this medicine woman would want to be so evil as to hurt our grandfather.

Our concern now was for our grandfather to be healed. The medicine man said that he would be ready to confront this woman’s witchcraft during grandfather’s Sing. The night of the ceremony came and we all gathered inside my grandfather’s hogan. We used kerosene lamps for light and a fire was started in the wood stove. Soon the medicine man arrived and the ceremony began. Grandfather was seated on top of a blanket, which was placed on the dirt floor.

In front of him the medicine man placed the items which would be used for the cleansing: a bowl of water, a leather bag of corn pollen, a basket with a beautiful eagle feather, and various other items. The medicine man began to drum and sing his songs, calling the positive forces of Mother Earth and the four directions. He sang towards the heavens and asked the Creator for vision, help, and power in defeating all evil. His singing continued for about an hour or so. He reached for the basket, which held the eagle feather and grabbed hold of the feather’s stem. Saying a prayer he passed the feather over grandfather’s head and body. Then the medicine man returned the feather to the basket and closed his eyes. All our eyes were focused on the medicine man’s face as it began to slowly change. His eyes closed tightly and his mouth began to display a severe expression of pain. His clenched teeth were very noticeable in the warm orange glow of the lanterns. I held on to my brother’s arm so strongly that knew I must have left bruise marks. I was scared from watching what was taking place before us. This small elderly old man seated on the ground before us was changing into something spiritual. A force had taken over him, and what we were seeing was scaring me. Grandfather was so weak with illness that I had to brace his body with one hand so he wouldn’t fall over. As grandfather closed his eyes and prayed to himself, he was unaware of the transformation, which was taking place with the medicine man.

With a quick motion, the medicine man turned over on all fours, and with the gestures of a determined dog or wolf, began to crawl around, sniffing the air and pawing at the ground. Then he crawled his way to a corner of the hogan, and began to dig vigorously with his bare hands at the dirt floor. His breathing became loud and filled with energy. He dug and dug with the force of a man much younger and stronger than he. I took a quick glance at my brother. His face showed that he was also in awe at what was taking place before us. I returned my eyes to the medicine man that had now dug a hole about a foot deep. Then he stopped his digging and seemed to recover from his trance.

In a dazed voice, the medicine man asked my brother to bring a lamp over to him, which he quickly did. Then the medicine man reached into the hole he had just dug, and to all our amazement, pulled out a soil-covered sweater, which belonged to my grandfather! The medicine man said, “Here is what the witch used for her evil medicine against your grandfather, but now I will use it against her. She used this sweater as her only way to witch him. She will no longer be able to have control over him!” After saying this, he sang a song while placing the eagle feather and corn pollen over the head and shoulders of my grandfather. My grandfather took a deep breath and fell to one side. My brother was ready to catch him as he fell. Grandfather said he was tired and wanted to sleep. We left him there in his hogan covered in warm wool blankets. The ceremony was over.

We followed the medicine man outside the hogan as he carried the sweater and placed it on the ground. He asked for a lamp, and emptied the kerosene from it over the sweater. He lit a match and tossed it on the sweater. The fire slowly began to burn and consume the sweater. Then, in the distance, we heard a piercing loud scream, a howl. We turned in the direction of the sound and spotted a ball of light, which rose up high into the sky, then bounced away and disappeared into the desert! The medicine man informed us that what we had just heard and seen was the witch. He said, “She will never be able to recover her strength, I found her power and she will be eaten up by her own evil.”

After that night, grandfather returned to his old self. I am convinced of the powers, which some bad people can use to harm others. So much jealously and evil exits in the world. However, it is good to know that in the end, the power of the Creator always wins. I have seen it.”