NAVAJO VISUAL POETRY A principal area of visual languaging among the Navajos consists of ceremonial s andpaintings, or drypaintings (the

pigments are rarely sands as such). These in turn are part of the complex Navajo chantway system, along with songs, masked da nces, & a range of smaller & larger event-pieces (body painting, prayerstick pla nting, pollen events, herb events, etc.) that work toward a balance of negative & positive elements in the patient & the world. The drypainting as such function s as a narrative & a map, the image of a segment of The People s sacred geography into which successive generations have entered. But the whole chantway system is so complex in fact that the individual medicine man or chanter (hatali, literal ly a keeper-of-the-songs) can rarely keep in mind more than a single ceremony th e nine-day Night Chant for example sometimes only part of one. In the drypainting segment of the chantway the patient is seated within the larg e image, absorbing power from the sacred beings depicted therein or casting off elements of the sickness from his or her own body. After the elaborate construct ion & ritual employment of each painting, the image, which has been nearly oblit erated by the patient s presence, is gathered up & disposed of in a prescribed (= holy) manner. The following is a highly condensed synopsis of one such procedure. PICTURE-EVENT FOR DOCTOR & PATIENT (to be performed after making a sandpainting of male & female dancing figures wi th yellow legs from dancing knee-deep in pollen) Meal applied to divine figures. Plumed wands erected. Cup placed on the rainbow s hands. Cold infusion made, sprinler placed on cup. Pollen applied to figures. Doctor departs, unmasked. Patient enters, song begins. Patient sprinkles picture. Patient sits, southeast, & disrobes. Doctor, masked, returns as god. Doctor sprinkles picture. Assistant takes up meal from picture. Doctor touches moistened sprinkler to figure. Patient sits on picture. Infusion offered to gods & given to patient. Assistant moistens doctor s hands. Sacred dust applied to patient. Doctor yells into patient s ear. Doctor departs, masked. Patient leaves picture. Patient fumigated. Doctor returns, unmasked. Plumed wands pulled out. Picture despoiled. Picture erased. Material from picture taken out & discarded. [From J.R., Shaking the Pumpkin, after Washington Matthews, The Night Chant, a N avajo Ceremony, 1902] Included here also is an example of Navajo weaving in which selected letters of the roman alphabet are made to play a part.