COYOTEWAY – Pages 159-188

A Navajo Holyway Healing Ceremonial

Karl W. Luckert 
and
Johnny C. Cooke, Navajo Interpreter

 

 

 

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The Three-yé'ii Ceremony

THE SANDPAINTING

       On the eighth morning the sandpainting differs from the preceding ones in a number of important features. It reintroduces the water bowl at the center. Then, two "rows" of maize plants are indicated between the four cardinal directions. Between these "rows" of maize are traced the trails that various Coyotes have taken to follow to the waterhole. According to tséyi'nii (see Chapter 10) the shamanic hero "came to a little pool of water with grass growing around it, and he saw that there were many tracks coming to the water, one from the south, one from the east, and one from the west. The track that he was following was from the north." The animal manifestations of the Coyote People who made the tracks can be seen in the sandpainting at the outer end of each trail. For assessing the Pueblo influence on Navajo cosmology it is interesting to note that the final portion of the road into the under­world is shown by the roots of maize plants.

       Each lead-yé'ii in this sandpainting carries a stuffed animal-shaped Coyote-person. The six eagle feathers along the backs of the carried animals correspond to identical headgear arrangements on the anthro­pomorphic yé'ii figures. This establishes the identity of the animals with their carrier-yé'ii figures.

       Behind the Coyote Carriers, in each of the four directions, the follower-yé'ii figures carry baskets. These baskets are spoked with eagle feathers and contain ears of maize.

       A pair of these yé'ii-People, Coyote Girls, impersonated by a male who carries a stuffed gray fox and a female who carries a basket, will appear in person a few hours later. They will be attired to match their painted images. The art of sandpainting provides here the scenery for the performance of sacred drama. Both arts together serve to create the best situation in which the divine powers of the Coyote People can be mediated and where the initiatory healing event of mythical times is possible again.

THE CEREMONY

       No new snow fell during the eighth night of the ceremonial, instead a hoarfrost decorates the landscape and low fog contours the rising sun. While the men, inside the hogan, have been occupied since 3 A.M. working on the last sandpainting, relatives of the patient are busy outside clearing a path toward the east. With the yé'iibicheii

 

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           On the eighth morning the sandpainting differs from the preceding ones in a
       number of important features.

among them as their leader, everybody knows that the expected gods will come from the east, on the path which is prepared for them.

       At about 9 A.M. on the eighth morning the sandpainting is completed. However, the singer withholds the feathered prayer-sticks, pollen, and meal. This means that the necessary preparations are not all made for the ceremony to begin. As it turns out, many more preparations are necessary on this special day.

       The yé'ii-impersonators and their tutor go to the eastern end of the path and erect there a wind shelter. To keep warm they build a fire. At the very outset the practitioner puts moist sand into a gray fox skin to soften it. Then all become occupied with rigging up their masks and headdresses. Willow switches are cleaned of their bark and tied together into frames for headdresses. Six eagle feathers are attached to the draping portion of each Coyote Girl's headgear -- in accordance with the corresponding sandpainting figures. The mask of the Talking-god is finished first. Then the Blue Coyote, the gray fox skin, is stuffed with spruce twigs and with twigs from a chokecherry bush. Also, a basket with radiating eagle feathers is made ready; white and yellow ears of maize are bundled together with a spruce twig and laid into the basket.

 

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               No new snow fell during the eighth night of the ceremonial, instead a hoarfrost decorates 
           the landscape and low fog contours the rising sun.

 

 

 


              ...relatives of the patient have been busy clearing a path toward the east.

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       The yé'ii-impersonators and their tutor go to the eastern end of the path
    and erect there a wind shelter.


                                  At the very outset the practitioner puts moist sand
                                into a gray fox skin to soften it.

 

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                   Willow switches are cleaned of their bark and tied together
                    into frames for headdresses.

 

  


                Six eagle feathers are attached to the draping portion of each Coyote Girl's
                  headgear.... The mask of Talking-god is finished first.

 

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                           Then the Blue Coyote, the gray fox skin, is stuffed with spruce twigs
                         and with twigs from a chokecherry bush.

       Meanwhile, the priest cuts three reed prayersticks; he stuffs them with tobacco and pollen dough as he did the earlier ones. They are intended for the three yé'ii who will come. The female impersonator, at the time still unmasked, "lights" these smoke-prayersticks with a quartz crystal. For the time being the practitioner takes them into his possession. And he sings:

227. Song, Eighth Morning

Hwii eiya eiya, he calls me,

Hwii eiya eiya, he calls me. 
The Son of White Bead Lady I am, he calls me. 
The Clear Crystal Boy I am, he calls me.
 To the top of Blackbelted Mountain, he calls me. 
To the place where Rainbow arches, he calls me. 
The Talking-god Boy, he calls me. 
The Bluebird Feather, he calls me.

Over Cornripener Beetle swaying treasures and pollen, he calls me. 
So his voice is made beautiful, he calls me.
The song of Bluebird before me, he calls me. 
The sound of Cornripener Beetle behind me, he calls me.
With Cornpollen at my feet, he calls me. 
Happiness before me, he calls me.

 

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Happiness behind me, he calls me. 
The Long-life Happiness One I am, he calls me.

Hwii eiya eiya, he calls me.

Hwii eiya eiya, he calls me.

 

       When all the gear of the yé'ii-impersonators lies ready, the practi­tioner bows to sanctify it with pollen. Following the singer's example all three impersonators sprinkle pollen on their gear -- the yé'iibicheii-impersonator does it first. And while this happens the singer, thinking about who it is that will soon be touching the patient, chants two songs:

228. Song, Eighth Morning

White Bead Son is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Tips of Black Belts are touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Floating Rainbow is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Talking-god Boy is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Young Bluebird Feather is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Many White Beads are touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
With his voice he is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Beautiful valuable Things are touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Beautiful Offerings are touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Young Blue One is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Beautiful valuable Things are touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Beautiful Offerings are touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Beautiful Cornripener Beetle is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Cornpollen Girl is touching him. His voice is made beautiful. 
Long-life Happiness One is touching him. His voice is made beautiful.

 

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                           When all the gear of the yé'ii-impersonators lies ready, 
                         the practitioner bows to sanctify it with pollen.

 

 


                                    ...all the three impersonators sprinkle pollen on their
                                    gear -- the yé'iibicheii-impersonator does it first.

 

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Happiness before, his voice is made beautiful. 
       Happiness behind, his voice is made beautiful. 
       The Long-life Happiness One I am.
       The Beautiful Voice I am.

119. Song, Eighth Morning

The White Bead Son I am, it is given to me.

By the tips of Black Belts, it is given to me.

By the Floating Rainbow, it is given to me.

The Talking-god Boy I am, it is given to me.

By the Bluebird Feather, it is given to me.

By the Cornripener's pollen on my tongue, it is given to me.

With this, His voice, it is given to me.

With beautiful valuable Things, it is given to me.

With beautiful Offerings, it is given to me.

With the sound of Young Blue One before me, it is given to me.

With the sound of Cornripener behind me, it is given to me.

With Cornpollen for shoes before me, it is given to me.

With Long-life Happiness One behind me, it is given to me.

The Long-life Happiness One I am.

With Happiness before me.

With Happiness behind me.

The Long-life Happiness One I am.

       After these songs the practitioner bundles up the blankets on which the impersonators sat; they have in the process become his. Before he leaves he gives final instructions to the yé'ii-impersonators on how and where every action is to take place from here on out. Then he leaves the wind shelter and goes to the hogan where the patient awaits him. In the hogan he completes the sandpainting by adding standing-up prayersticks, badger foot, medicine bowl and shell at their usual places. Then he sits down at his regular place and faces the door.

       Back east at the yé'ii-station the impersonators put on their costumes. Headdresses must be secured to the masks. Before long all stand ready to go.

       The Talking-god, yé'iibicheii or Grandfather of the Gods, wears a buck skin over his shoulder and holds a fawn-skin pouch with pollen in his hand. The bag-shaped white mask covers his entire head. A maize plant is painted on it in black along the line of his covered nose. Horsehair and eagle feathers crown the top of his head. A beard of spruce twigs surrounds his chin like a collar.

       Blue Coyote Carrier wears the blue mask of Female God. This mask features a red-dyed and black horsehair top; a brown leather bib
 

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                                   After these songs the practitioner bundles up the 
                                      blankets on which the impersonators sat,
                                    they have in the process become his.

 

 


                    Before he leaves he gives final instructions to the yé'ii-impersonators.

 

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                                     Headdresses must be secured to the masks.

  


                              The Talking-god wears a buckskin over his shoulder
                               and holds a fawn-skin pouch with pollen in his hand.

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                               Blue Coyote Carrier wears the blue mask of Female
                                   God.... Quite obviously, the Coyote Carrier and 
                                    his Blue Coyote together constitute one being.


drapes around the chin. The facial features -- triangular eyes, square mouth, and ladder-shaped nose -- are outlined in black. Because of the cold weather the man is permitted to keep on his undershirt; his exposed body portions are, however, painted white. From his zigzag decorated kilt dangle eagle feathers. From his belt, behind, hangs a gray fox skin -- the same kind as the stuffed animal that he carries under his arm. The Blue Coyote under the impersonator's arm wears along his back a headdress made of red-dyed horsehair; it contains the customary six eagle feathers. Quite obviously, the Coyote Carrier and his Blue Coyote together constitute one being.

        The third impersonator is a lady, wearing a festive white Navajo skirt and a dark velvet blouse. Her mask is identical to that of the Blue Coyote Carrier. She carries in her hands a traditional Navajo "wedding basket" with a Pueblo Indian pattern. White and yellow ears of maize are in the basket, and eagle feathers are fastened to its sides.

        The yé'ii-impersonators are lined up, ready to go. A few minutes pass. An awesome silence settles on the entire region. In everyone's breast excitement mounts as we are nearing the climax of the nine-day mystery play. The Talking-god impersonator lifts his mask to listen. When the singer's voice can be heard chanting from the hogan it is time for them to move on. Then, the gods can be seen moving toward the hogan, invited by the priest's song:

 

 

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                                   The third impersonator is a lady... her mask is 
                                  identical to that of the Blue Coyote Carrier.

 

  


                                 The yé'ii -impersonators are lined up, ready to go.

 

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120. Song, Eighth Morning

Beneath the Two Rising he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the White Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
Through the Snakeweed he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn.

Beneath the Two Setting he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the White Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the Yellow Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
Through the Snakeweed he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 

Beneath the Two Above he is moving,. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the White Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the Yellow Corn he is moving, Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the Blue Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
Through the Snakeweed he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn.

Beneath Where the Stars Turn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn.
In the White Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the Yellow Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the Blue Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
In the Black Corn he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn. 
Through the Snakeweed he is moving. Coyote's corn is my corn.

 

       Several times on their walk toward the ceremonial hogan, with the Wind People carrying the invitational song to the tips of their ears, the gods answer with their specific calls. Only the female impersonator remains silent. The Talking-god shouts:

                                                                                                              

 

  

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      The Talking-god impersonator lifts his mask to listen.

 

 


            Then, the gods can be seen moving toward the hogan, invited by the priest's song.

 


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As the three gods approach the hogan, the patient comes out to meet them. Standing on a buffalo skin he awaits their blessings.

       Talking-god, with short dance steps, approaches the patient from the east; he gives his call and sprinkles pollen on him. Immediately after him, also from the east, approaches the Coyote Carrier; he raises his animal counterpart above the patient and gives his howl. Both yé'ii, the Talking-god and the Coyote Carrier, repeat their actions identi­cally toward the Female God who at the time stands east of the patient. Why are Female God and patient treated alike? Is this rite reminiscent of the first shaman's marriage with his Coyote Girls in the underworld? Be that as it may. There is now no time to ponder. Events move fast when three gods reenact a divinely synchronized rite. After having blessed the patient from the east they move on to identically repeat their blessings from the south. A gap among the spectators opens up; it is possible now to capture on celluloid the last gesture of the Coyote Carrier in the south. The Talking-god is already moving on for his approach from the west.

       This assembly of three gods has a human prompter. And prompters in all cultures are important people. Our good man has a remarkable talent for getting in front of my camera lens. He has clear ground to walk on, while I must jump about in two feet of snow if I wish to change my position. In spite of all this, he cannot completely hide the Talking-god's blessings from above and from the west.

       Only in their final round, when divine actions proceed from the north, do the gods answer the prayer of a photographer for a nice action sequence. From the north, again the Talking-god approaches the patient first and blesses him with pollen and a howl; after him Coyote Carrier comes and claims him by his call and by the blessings of his animal presence. A Female God at the periphery, again, shares in the patient's experience.

       Inside the hogan, the singer has completed his song. The patient, the three gods, and their prompter enter the hogan for the final sand-painting ceremony.

       At this point in the ceremony it is impossible for any spectator to enter the hogan. Earlier I had to make a choice to either be outside or be inside. After assuring myself that nothing new would happen inside I chose the outside. My choice proved to be the right one, especially in the light of what subsequently I could reconstruct through conver­sations. While the group is inside I will keep the tape recorder going by the door.

       After the yé'ii enter the hogan, the animal Coyote is laid down on a blanket; his function has been fulfilled outside. The ritual inside is essentially the One-yé'ii Ceremony, a detailed description of which has

 

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                  Talking-god, with short dance steps, approaches the patient from the east.

 

 


              ...he raises his animal counterpart above the patient and gives a howl.

 

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               After having blessed the patient from the east they move on to identically
     repeat their blessings from the south.

 

 


              A gap among the spectators opens up; it is possible now to capture on celluloid
         the last gesture of the Coyote Carrier in the south.

 

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             …he cannot completely hide the Talking-god's blessings from above and from the west.

  

 


                From the north, again the Talking-god approaches the patient first and
             blesses him with pollen and a howl.

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             ...after him Coyote Carrier comes and claims him by his call and
            by the blessings of his animal presence.


            The Female God (impersonated by a female), again, shares in the patient's experience.

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 The patient, the three gods, and their prompter, enter the Hogan
                    for the final sandpainting ceremony.

already been given. It is not difficult to visualize the few minor changes produced by the increased number of participating gods.

       With the two Coyote Girls standing aside, the Talking-god becomes active. He sprinkles pollen, cornmeal, and kétłoh medicine on the figures in the sandpainting -- on the lead-yé'ii in the east first, then on the follower-ye M, and finally on the white maize plants. This sequence is repeated -- with pollen, cornmeal, and kétłoh -- in the west, the south, and the north of the sandpainting. All the while the priestly singer chants a song in which he recognizes the presence of the Grand­father of the Gods. He also recognizes the happiness which the god is bringing to all his divine and human grandchildren in the hogan:

121. Song, Eighth Morning

All is Happiness, all is well.

All is Happiness, all is well.

All is Happiness, all is well.

All is Happiness, all is well.

With the Talking-god's Children, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the White Beads, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Black Prayerstick, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Black Clouds, all is Happiness, all is well.

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With the Lightning Flash, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With White Bead Woman, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Roots of Early Morning, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With these He went. All is Happiness, all is well. 
Over the Mountains. All is Happiness, all is well. 
With Happiness He returned. 
With Happiness He returned.

All is Happiness, all is well --

Now all is Happiness, all is well.

Now all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Children of this Hogan, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Children of Turquoise, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Black Prayerstick, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Black Clouds, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With the Holy Medicine, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With all Growing Plants, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With Rain behind me, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With many kinds of Turquoise, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With Roots of Sunlight touching the mind, all is Happiness, all is well. 
With Sunshine touching what lives, all is Happiness, all is well.

All is Happiness, all is well --

Now all is Happiness, all is well.

Now all is Happiness, all is well.

       After the Talking-god's blessings the patient sits down at his place on the sandpainting, west of the hole of emergence. Then the Coyote Carrier continues in the role of his counterpart from the One-yé'ii Ceremony. He puts kétłoh and zaa'nił medicines into the patient's mouth and rubs the remainders on his body -- on feet, knees, breast, arms, back, and head.

       While the female impersonator with her basket moves around the sandpainting to match the Coyote Carrier's directional activity, the latter takes sands from the feet of the yé'ii and the roots of the maize figures in the east of the sandpainting and applies them to the feet of the patient. This is repeated in an east, west, south, north sequence. The entire round is enacted for the patient's feet, knees, breast, arms, back, and head. Then four times the god touches with sand the tips of the patient's toes and four times his fingertips. In conclusion he puts pollen into the patient's mouth and howls into each of his ears. The songs chanted during these procedures are the same as in the One-yé'ii Ceremony:


 

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222, 86, 95, 101. Song, Fifth Through Eighth Mornings

From the Hogans I came down, from the Hogans I came down, 
       From the Hogans I came down,  from the Hogans I came down. 
From beneath the Two Rising I came down, through the bushes....

123, 87, 96, 102. Song, Fifth Through Eighth Mornings

From the hidden Hogan I came with herbs, 
       From the hidden Hogan I came with herbs, 
       From the hidden Hogan I came with herbs, 
       From the hidden Hogan I came with herbs. 
Beneath the Two Rising I came with herbs....

       After these songs the Coyote Carrier administers the Feather-burning Rite. That being completed, the priest gives to each of the yé'ii the prayerstick that he prepared earlier. The impersonators are instructed to deposit them under a snakeweed plant.

       When the ye'ii-impersonators leave the hogan, they take off their costumes and lay them, according to instructions, on a blanket "in the sun." There they dismantle their gear. With their intention to deposit

 

 
                       When the yé'ii-impersonators leave the hogan, they take off their 
                       costumes and lay them... on a blanket "in the sun."


 

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their prayersticks under a snakeweed plant, however, they face a problem. No such plants can be seen; with two feet of snow now on the ground only the tips of some tall weeds show. Eventually the resource­ful practitioner advises them to keep the prayersticks until the snow melts; then the sticks should be placed in the appropriate manner, with a prayer.

       While the yé'ii are leaving the hogan, the singer chants again the usual departure song. Coyote Carrier calls from all four directions of the sandpainting. Then, as in the preceding One-yé'ii Ceremonies, the singer wipes out the divine figures with his badger-foot tool and sends them home as they want to be sent home -- with a song:

124, 88, 97,103. Song, Fifth Through Eighth Mornings

Beneath the Two Rising, he ran.

With Early Morning, Boy, he ran....

       After the feathered prayersticks are taken off the floor, all the sand is carefully swept into a blanket and carried outside. Several loads of this are deposited at a distance from the hogan while the impersonators are still busy dismantling their gear. The Three-yé'ii Ceremony is now over. Before long everybody goes into the hogan for a festive meal. Only the summarizing of the basket-drum songs remains to be done during the next night; the climax of the nine-night ceremonial has just been passed.
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                  Several loads of sand are deposited at a distance from the hogan while 
                …the impersonators are still busy dismantling their gear.

 

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         Before long everybody goes into the hogan for a festive meal.

 

 

 

 

8

The Ninth-Night Summary

Beginning soon after midnight during the ninth night, the group of men rises and prepares for the final Basket-drum Ceremony. The Sandpainting Ceremonies have all been performed and the Holy yé'ii-People have come to bless and have gone again their ways. Now the task remains to sum up all the available blessings of the preceding nights. The patient returns to his regular place in the hogan; evidently it is no longer infectious. For a final medicinal measure in the cere­monial, yucca leaves are burned and given to the patient to drink, suspended in water. The cleansing power of yucca (soapweed) is so combined and put to work with the cleansing power of fire. All the basket-drum songs are repeated, full-length, on this last night. By the time all the songs are chanted a new day will be dawning in the east.

       During the last of all the songs the patient again leaves the hogan. Then, while the singing continues, accompanied only by the rattle, the drumstick is taken apart. The now power-imbued maize kernels are taken out and distributed among the participants. The place is swept and what little of the illness that might still have remained by this time is carried outside.

       Eventually the patient returns. Everybody relaxes and is content. There is Happiness before us. There is Happiness behind us. The blessings of Talking-god and the holy Coyote People are floating all about us. "I feel real good, real good," says Luke Cook.

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       After our last breakfast together we all depart. The practitioner, who until now has maintained toward me the dignified distance re­quired by his professional role, now clasps my hands and pats my shoulders for about a minute -- perhaps the closest intimacy possible by Navajo custom among friends: "Ya 'at 'eeh, Ya'at'eeh!" -- It is good, it is good! The Coyoteway is now recorded. It will not be forgotten.

       Following a ceremonial of this magnitude, nothing is quite the same anymore for anyone among the participants -- not to speak of the severe cold with which this ten-day camping trip has burdened me. The greatest transformation, however, is traditionally experienced by the patient. Initiated into the mysteries of the Coyote People, he has become a new person. His relationship to the Coyote-gods is evident by his new life-style. He must from here on out never harm a coyote, dog, fox, bobcat, badger, porcupine, or skunk. In his new relationship of close union with the holy Coyote People, these animals must now be considered his relatives. Moreover, he may no longer eat chokecherries because the branches and leaves of this bush have been used to stuff the fox skin for the final yé'ii ceremony. Eating these berries could be taken as eating his tutelary animal. Nevertheless, this same man is at the same time leaning toward acceptance of Christianity. It seems

  


            All the basket-drum songs are repeated, full-length, on this last night.

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appropriate therefore to provide the reader with a few glimpses of the greater ontological landscape in which his religious thinking presently may roam:

       Mysticism, the ultimate religious posture that implies that man surrender his ego to be absorbed into a greater-than-human reality, is universally understood by religious people. Christian mystics become one with the universal Christ; Navajo Coyoteway singers and patients become one with the universal Coyote. The external differences among these two kinds of mysticism are related directly to the differences which exist among the concerns and fascinations in the traditions of monarchial herdsmen and primal hunters.

       Coyote and his carnivorous relatives are predators -- in relation to man they are fellow hunters and not sacrificial victims of the hunt. By contrast, the Christian savior is generally encountered within the thought structure of a sheepherder's world; he is the atoning and sacri­ficial Lamb of God. Coyotes eat lambs; and it is for this and other reasons that some Navajo Christians, shepherds, have concluded that Coyote is the Navajo devil. The counterpart to the Lamb of God in the traditional Navajo hunter religion is Deer (see Luckert 1975). The holy Deer People gave their flesh and blood sacrificially to the hunter ancestors of the Navajos.

       Whether the Christian storyteller likes it or not, deity, in Navajo tradition, is revealed, among others, also in Coyote. God "appeared in flesh" -- if you like -- as a fellow hunter-person. He stood his ground aggressively, after the manner in which Christ "barked at" -- again if you like -- the anti-human forces of his time. Christ stood his ground until he lost and was killed. In the eyes of some he was executed as an agent of the Devil; to the eyes of those who know better he has revealed himself as the heavenly Shepherd's sacrificial Lamb, sent for the sal­vation of humankind. Coyote, while insisting on his incarnate dignity as a fellow hunter person, was in the end himself hunted and killed. Coyotes, in predator-animal form, are killed because to some they appear to be agents of evil; from the perspective of those who know better. Coyotes must die in accordance with a procedure prescribed by Coyote gods, to furnish the paraphernalia and means for saving human patients.

       In our post-hunting era many Navajo hunter gods have lost their influence over the people. Roaming now mainly among shepherds and planters, many have also lost their reputation with regard to being dependable savior gods. And so it seems the more remarkable that a rather pure hunter mysticism has survived to this day, intact, in the nearly extinct Coyoteway healing ceremonial. This book may, there­fore, be compared to the efforts of a landscape painter who, enrap­tured by trans-human dimensions of beauty, is trying to sketch the

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radiant play of colors in a cloudy sunset -- before it all disappears. Coyoteway is the afterglow of a type of human fascination that long ago has been the property of all humankind. It is the shimmering light of an era along the human trail which is now fading into the dark recesses of forgotten aeons, carried along swiftly by the small currents of eternity.

       For every sunset there is a sunrise. In the history of Coyoteway, as in the histories of many other Navajo ceremonials, this rising sun is the Talking-god, grandfather and chief of the pantheon. His leadership and supervision on the eighth morning puts authority behind the activities of the Coyote Girls. Then, at the moment when in the hogan the last song of Coyoteway ebbs away into silence, the Talking-god rises outside in his cosmic dimension as the White of Early Morning Dawn. Talking-god is an ancient anthropomorphic hunter tutelary who never appeared in animal clothes. The same divine-human process, which gives birth to Christ in a candlelit Christmas vesper, which lifts him from his tomb at an Easter morning sunrise, is what helps the solarized anthropomorphic Talking-god prevail against the wear and tear of time. He will outlive the animal revelations of the hunter era, of Coyote, and of his brothers and sisters.