Evening star., 1896-11-14
man. and the malign influence is counser-

man, and the malign influence is counser-
acted or expelled.
l have been informed by several Navajos
who have seen me killing snakes that
should make arrangements at once to have
q good medicine man sing over" me, Lut
the operation is somewhat costly, the usual
fee being four or five sheep, or a horse
In this ceremony, which is an elaborate
one, a small wooden image Of a snake is
prepared, and through the prayers and
powerful incantations of the medicine man
the spirit of the snake, which has taken
possession of the man who killed it, passes
out of him and into the wooden rm3Se,
after which ii is powarleSs to do harm.
Perhaps the most IUrious Of tabons is
that which forbds Il man to look at his
mother-in-law or to hold amy comrlnica-
ton with her. This is common among
many savage tribes, anl is found i'll 'ull
force and effect among the NaVajo5.
One of the odd ideas OF these people Is
the way they regar1 ihcir dead. They live
in ccnical huts CONSTRUCTED OF l0ss, Nth
a covering of Dark and earth, seldom more
tLan one Two in a place When man
dies; the structure is, . i.'@i down over the
remains and set on fire. This becomes, and
is thereafter, known as a chindi house, the
crndi being sort Of ghost or spirit of the
dead
Avoid Them as n Plague.
There are many thousands of .hese old
sites all over the reservation, and some Of
them are very old, but by signs We'll known
to them all Navajos can identify the places
and they avoid them as we would plague.
Not for anything would they touch a Piece
of wood other article that came from
a chindi site. If an irreverent white man
uses a bit of wood from such a place for a
camp fire, as sometimes happens, the IN
dams with him will withdraw to some
distance where they cannot fecl The heat
smell the smoke, and rather than Par
take of food cooked on such 4 Gre they
will do without any. In sucn ca ses hey
will sometimes build themselves G:ro,.ier
fre off to one side, but they will not start
it from a coal from the white mans fire
after the usual practice If naighbors in
camp.
The chindi is human SHAPED ghost or
spirit. with very large red Eyes .,,ld tGcTm-
Gus claws. He is not necessarily an evil
spirit: be becomes such only when he is
offended by encroachments on his particu-
lar locality, which is the site IF some
chindf house, or when some OF his psrticu
lar property is taken away or han,,'ed by
men. Then he becomes terrible. lie is
active only at night. and the life of the
man who has come under his displc asire
is made miserable.
Bad dreams will haunt Einn his sleep will
be fitful and broken, and lie will rise III the
morning unrefreshed. These are what may
be termed the preliminary symptoms, ard
If immediate resort Is not had to Il n edi-
cine man and certain -.tes performed to
appease the irate ghost lie victim will ie
fortunate if he escapes with his life for
the chindi will take him Dy the throat a
he sleeps ami try. to CHOKE him TO Ie;,,h.
There is another kind of cllndi wood that
must not under any circumstances b,, Used
for fire or for other purposes. this is the
wood from tree which mas been 81 lck
by lightning. The Hr:i is that when
tree Is struck some of the spirit of the
lightning is left in it and is transferred
to any one who handles the wood. There
after such person is particularly liable to
be himself struck by lightning. This iCea
is not very far removed from the modern
scientific doctrine that force travels along
the lines of least resistance.