Читать книгу Native Americans: 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies - Льюис Спенс, James Mooney - Страница 17

Table of Contents

The Gáŭn Bagúdzĭtash, or Dance of the Gods, is the one ceremony of the Apache that bears any material resemblance to the many Yébĭchai dances or "chants" of the Navaho, and even then the only feature common to the two is that the men, typifying gods, wear elaborate masks. The Apache are not unfamiliar with the making and employment of dry-paintings for the treatment of the sick, as has been seen. Originally the dry-paintings and the gáŭn, or gods, always appeared together, but in recent years the Gáŭn dance has been conducted preliminary to and as a part of medicine, puberty, and war ceremonies. Captain Bourke, in his "Medicine-men of the Apache" (Ninth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892), speaks of this as the Spirit or Ghost dance. Though performed infrequently now, as compared with other dances, on account of the expense and of disapproval by the agents, the Gáŭn Bagúdzĭtash is unquestionably the most popular ceremony conducted by the Apache.

Apache Gaŭn

Four always, but generally five, deities are impersonated in this dance—Gaŭnchĭné̆ of the east, Gáŭncho of the south, Gáŭn of the west, Gaŭnchí of the north, and Gaŭnĕskí̆dĕ the fun-maker. These are arrayed in short kilts, moccasins, and high stick hats supported upon tightly fitting deerskin masks that cover the entire head. Each carries two flat sticks about two feet in length, painted with zigzag lines representing lightning.

For the dance a circular plot of ground, fifty or sixty feet in diameter, is cleared of stones and brush, and four small cedar trees are planted about its edge, one at each of the cardinal points. All in attendance assemble in a circle outside the trees, leaving an opening at the eastern side. Unheralded the five masked personators march in from the east and take position in front of the cedar trees, the fifth man standing behind the fourth at the northern side. Four drummers with small drums and an indefinite number of drummers around a large one, at a signal from the medicine-man in charge, who sings, begin drumming. The personated gods dance all about the circle, making motions with their sticks as if picking up and throwing something away, followed by blowing with the breath for the purpose of expelling evil spirits from their midst. While this is going on the fifth masker, Gaŭnĕskídĕ, performs antics designed to amuse the audience. When the songs are finished the dancers depart in an eastwardly direction, whence they came, and all rest.

The drummers begin the next period in the dance by beating their tomtoms. As soon as they commence the gáŭn again appear, coming from the east as before, and stop in single file in front of the cedar tree on the eastern side. There the spectators throw hádĭntĭn upon them and offer prayers, after which the five gáŭn take the same positions as before in front of the small trees. Upon the trees little wheels of cedar twigs have been hung; these the dancers now take, and each dances toward the fire in the centre of the circle and back four times. As the gods dance back and forth the people assembled in the encircling line shift their positions, so that all the women are on the north side and all the men on the south; then the entire body dances, with brief intervals of rest, while twelve songs are sung. The maskers next form in single file on the east, march around the fire, through the flames of which each passes the ends of his two sacred wands to destroy any lurking evil, then back around the eastern cedar tree, again around the fire, then to the southern tree, and so on to each of the four trees, when they take their leave.

This much constitutes that part of the ceremony in which the gáŭn are the chief participants and which usually occupies half the night. The remainder of the night is consumed by the performance of some ceremony forming the principal objective—often the puberty rite above described.

Apache Maiden