Project Gutenberg 2007-03-17 Public domain in the USA. 145 Matthews, Washington 1843 1905 Matthews, W. (Washington) The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 379-468 Reading ease score: 76.2 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. Produced by Louise Hope, Carlo Traverso, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr and by First-Hand History at http://www.1st-hand-history.org) "The Mountain Chant: A Navajo Ceremony" by Dr. Washington Matthews is an ethnographic account written in the late 19th century. The work focuses on the ceremonial practices of the Navajo tribe, particularly the Mountain Chant, which involves intricate rituals performed by shamans or medicine men. The text provides insights into the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the Navajo people, showcasing their connection to the land and the supernatural through various ceremonies and myths. The opening of the text introduces the Mountain Chant ceremony, describing its significance as one of the major Navajo rites intended for healing and invoking blessings for good harvests. Matthews notes that while the ceremony features a series of public performances, it also comprises numerous secret rituals that span several days. He begins by recounting a myth that explains the ceremony's origins and the importance of the characters involved, particularly a family that discovers a life-sustaining spring and their subsequent adventures. As the narrative unfolds, readers encounter themes of survival, spirituality, and the transmission of knowledge within the Navajo community, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of these cultural practices throughout the text. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies Mountainway (Navajo rite) E011 Text Paganism Browsing: Culture/Civilization/Society Browsing: History - American 340391 340073 2024-11-09T07:39:36.310537 2023-09-09T09:48:24.259443 text/html text/html 341658 2007-03-17T10:16:50 text/html; charset=utf-8 998661 2007-03-17T10:18:32 text/html; charset=utf-8 application/zip 1097632 2024-11-09T07:39:47.086480 application/epub+zip 1099873 2024-11-09T07:39:40.661510 application/epub+zip 185352 2024-11-09T07:39:38.960503 application/epub+zip 1307866 2024-11-09T07:39:51.314490 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 1285666 2024-11-09T07:39:45.774490 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 241041 2022-09-10T04:26:22.107573 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 283212 2024-11-09T07:39:35.005567 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 282163 2007-03-17T10:16:44 text/plain; charset=utf-8 100935 2007-03-17T10:18:32 text/plain; charset=utf-8 application/zip 278132 2007-03-17T10:17:50 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 99573 2007-03-17T10:18:32 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 21753 2024-11-09T07:39:51.460435 application/rdf+xml 18239 2024-11-09T07:39:39.535508 image/jpeg 4194 2024-11-09T07:39:39.249499 image/jpeg 1095218 2024-11-09T07:39:36.387540 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia