the place some 1,200
Navajos. The scene of the assemblage was an extensive plateau near the
margin of Keam's Canyon, Arizona.

A variety of singular and interesting occurrences attended this great
event--mythologic rites, gambling, horse and foot racing, general
merriment, and curing the sick, the latter being the prime cause of the
gathering. A man of distinction in the tribe was threatened with loss of
vision from inflammation of the eyes, having looked upon certain masks
with an irreligious heart. He was rich and had many wealthy relations,
hence the elaborateness of the ceremony of healing. A celebrated
theurgist was solicited to officiate, but much anxiety was felt when it
was learned that his wife was pregnant. A superstition prevails among
the Navajo that a man must not look upon a sand painting when his wife
is in a state of gestation, as it would result in the loss of the life
of the child. This medicine man, however, came, feeling that he
possessed ample power within himself to avert such calamity by
administering to the child immediately after its birth a mixture in
water of all the sands used in the painting. As I have given but little
time to the study of Navajo mythology, I can but briefly mention such
events as I witnessed, and record the myths only so far as I was able to
collect them hastily. I will first describe the ceremony of Yebitchai
and give then the myths (some complete and others incomplete)
explanatory of the gods and genii figuring in the Hasjelti Dailjis
(dance of Hasjelti) and in the nine days' ceremonial, and then others
independent of these. The ceremony is familiarly called among the tribe,
"Yebitchai," the word meaning the giant's uncle. The name was originally
given to the ceremonial to awe the children who, on the eighth day of
the ceremony, are initiated into some of its mysteries and then for the
first time are informed that the characters appearing in the ceremony
are not real gods, but only their representatives. There is good reason
for believing that their ideas in regard to the sand paintings were
obtained from the Pueblo tribes, who in the past had elaborated sand
paintings and whose work at present in connection with most of their
medicine ceremonies is of no mean order. The Mission Indians of southern
California also regard sand paintings as among the important features in
their medicine practices. While the figures of the mythical beings
represented by the Navajo are no dou