Hatałii- Navajo FigureMortal"Singer"
Description
To master a single chantway, a hatałii memorizes over five hundred songs and dozens of sand painting designs, every element transmitted orally from teacher to student in a chain reaching back to the Holy People themselves.
Mythology & Lore
The Singer's Burden
An apprentice studies under an established hatałii for years, learning everything by ear. Nothing is written down. A major chantway like the Nightway contains over five hundred songs and dozens of sand painting designs, and every element requires precision. A single error in the song cycle can render a ceremony ineffective or dangerous.
Most singers spend years mastering a single ceremony. The knowledge passes from teacher to student in an unbroken chain reaching back to the time when the Holy People first taught the ceremonies to human beings. Every hatałii practicing today stands at the far end of that chain.
Healing Through Song
The hatałii does not diagnose. That work belongs to the hand-tremblers and star-gazers who identify the cause of illness. Once the proper ceremony is determined, the Singer takes over, directing a ritual that may last from one to nine nights.
Inside the hogan, the hatałii creates sand paintings from colored sands and crushed minerals. The figures depict Holy People and mythological events specific to the chantway being performed. When the painting is complete, the patient sits upon it. The hatałii presses sacred materials from the painted figures onto corresponding parts of the patient's body, transferring the Holy People's power directly into the one who needs healing.
Relationships
- Enemy of