King of Mars.

King of Mars was reading the introduction of the thiner catalogue « NAVAJO SANDPAINTING ART » that his new friend Josette, the espionne rousse du réel, had lended him. The texts had been writed by EUGENE BAATSOSLANII JOE and MARK BAHTI in 1978. « Well, not a very fresh knowledge ! But actually it deals with such old things that fifty years is like twelve seconds ! ».thought King of Mars. « I wonder how the Navajo call my planet. I know there's a confusion in french between the name of my planet and the third month of the year .. well Time and Space are the same thing, EINSTEIN is not french but had to read a french one to begin to think properly ... »

So King of Mars read : « According to the Navajo religion, the Universe is a very delicately balanced thing, full of enormously powerfull forces, with potentiel for good or evil. If this balance is upset, even unintentionnnaly, some disaster – usually an illness- will result. Further, it's believed that only Man can upset the balance.

To restore the balance or harmony means performing one of the myriad Navajo Chants or Ways. These are long and complex ceremonies that may last from one to nine days. Involving the use of medecinal herbs, prayers, sandpaintings and songs, these Ways recount a portion of Navajo legendary history that relates to the particular illness and its cause. By ceremonially identifyng with the hero of the myth in his eventual triumph, the patient becomes stronger and harmony is restored, thereby effecting a cure.

The scene is ancient as the Navajo people The Setting is the traditionnal Navajo hogan, with Mother Earth for a floor and the entrance facing east. The elders of the tribe, in sitting cross-legged, awaken the silence with the shaking of gourd ratlles and the chanting begins.

The sunstreams in through the smokehole of the hogan, bathing the patient in its light. The chanting continues, unfloding the exploits of one heroes of Navajo legend.

The sandpainting is done in a careful and sacred manner, according the ancient knowledge of the art, with each figure, and each design in order and done with the five sacred colors.

As the patient is seated atop the completed sandpainting, the hatathli (medicine man) bends to reverently touch a portion of a figure in the sandpainting, then moves to touch the patient, transferring the medicine and the power. As this is done, the sickness falls from the patient and harmony returns.

Then, before the sun sets, the sandpainting is erased with a sacred feather staff and is swept onto a blanket to be carried outside and carefully disposed of. In casting it away, the last of sickness is carried away from the patient, who, healed throught faith, rises to walk in beauty once again. »

« Well, We do that quite differently on Mars » said King of Mars, breathing with joy.

« Care must be taken to perform the ceremony correctly, down to the smallest detail, lest disaster befall all present. A medicine man's apprentice will spend years learning a single Way before ever performing it himself. (Navajo society is a matriarchal one, but even so, few women ever become a hatathli.)

The importance of these ceremonies to the Navajo should not be underestimated or demeaned. Over the last two decades a number of doctors and hospitals serving the Navajo have come to realize that to succesfully treat a Navajo patient it is often necessary to do it in conjunction with a hatathli

Most ethnologists feel the Navajo probably learned sandpainting from the Pueblo Indians who, fearing reprisals from the Spanish after the Great Pueblo Revolt in 1680, went to live among the Navajo. Since that time sandpaintings have declined somewhat in importance among the Pueblo Indians, but have been refined and evolved onto a vastly more complex level among the Navajo, for whom it plays a major rôle in their religion.

According to Navajo history, however, the Dinneh were first shown the art of sandpainting as part of their ceremonial instruction from the Holy ones, who were never seen by human eyes. Instead they became known only through the instructions they relayed through the spirits, such as the Wind People, who passed on knowledge of the ceremonail songs to the Navajo.

Among the sacred knowledge given the first apprentices, during the seven days ans seven nights of their purification and instruction, were songs, prayers and sandnpainting, as well as medecine tools – objects and plants with protective or curative powers.

The ceremonial paintings which were revealed to them were painted on scrools made of Moutain Sheep skin, but they were told they must do the sandpainting with sand, on Mother Earth, to prevent the knowledge from being hoarded and to insure that anyone wth the necessary ability and patience might learn them. As the Holy People told them :

We will not give you this picture

Men are not as good as we

They might quarrel over the picture and tear it

and they would bring misfortune ;

The black cloud would not come again,

and the rain would not fall ;

the corn would not grow.

but you may paint it on the ground,

with the colors of the earth »

King of Mars has fallen asleep during his reading. He's dreaming now. He's flying in the sky like an eagle.