Bell Hammer Song

  • Big HandClick to open the Big Hand menu
    • Big Hand Gallery I
    • Big Hand Gallery II
  • In Memory
  • Song Cycles 1-3Click to open the Song Cycles 1-3 menu
    • The Song of Kokopelli
    • The North Atlantic Graveyard
    • The Land Bridge of Bering Strait
  • Bear HatClick to open the Bear Hat menu
    • Bear Hat Gallery
  • Song Cycles 4-6Click to open the Song Cycles 4-6 menu
    • The Wedding of Squash Blossom
    • The Algonquin of Lacrosse
    • The Totem Dreams of Cedar
  • Song CatalogClick to open the Song Catalog menu
    • Painted Earth
    • Mesa Verde
    • Corn Tassel...
    • Enchanted Ruins
    • Clan Ancestors
    • The Ancient Way
    • Canyon Echo
    • On the Wind
    • The Aerie High
    • The Song of Kokopelli
    • Gone a'Viking
    • The North Atlantic Graveyard
    • In Old Norse Tongue
    • The Evergreen Tree
    • Of Standing Stones
    • By the Midnight Sun
    • Cooking the Heart
    • Greybeard
    • Bear-Pelted, Wolf-Coated (Berserkir, Ulfhednar)
    • Lindisfarne
    • Beringia
    • On the Land Bridge
    • Wave-Swept, Wind-Blown
    • Gone the Swan
    • Deerdancers
    • Grey Whales!
    • Song of the Sasquatch
    • skull/antler/bone
    • Shangri-La
    • Flower Arrows (The Bear-Sending Ceremony)
    • Cloud People
    • The Grass Returns
    • The Wedding of Squash Blossom
    • Footpaths, Handholds
    • Canyon Dry, Mesa High
    • To Catch an Eagle
    • Hopi, Hoho, Hopi
    • Old Oraibi
    • Milagros
    • The Sparrow's Song
    • Dance of the Kachinas
    • The Algonquin of Lacrosse
    • Dreaming the Hunt
    • Smudge with Sage, Sweat with Smoke
    • On Gallows Tree
    • Manitou
    • test
    • The Rolling of Thunder
    • Thirteen Moons
    • Henry Thoreau
    • Cedar Red Canoe
    • Yellow Green & Blue
    • Serpentine Tor
    • Mbuti
    • All Hallows' Eve Race of the Green Pumpkin Men
    • The Totem Dreams of Cedar
    • Relics My Ancestors Left Behind
    • A Trout Streaming Light
    • The Royal Hawaiians
    • The Sounds of Sea and Sky
    • The Falls of the Water Dragon
    • The Tale of Ursa Minor
    • The Song of the Great Beyond
  • Audio LibraryClick to open the Audio Library menu
    • I. Petroglyph
    • II. Fjord Falls
    • III. Barefoot Path
    • IV. Kiva Smoke
    • V. Sky Warrior
    • VI. Totem Dream
  • Video LibraryClick to open the Video Library menu
    • Video Library I
    • Video Library II
    • Video Library III
    • Video Library IV
  • The Thunder Mountain SagaClick to open the The Thunder Mountain Saga menu
    • Introduction
    • 100,000 Songs I
    • Chapter 1
    • 100,000 Songs II
    • Chapter 2
    • 100,000 Songs III
    • Chapter 3
    • 100,000 Songs IV
    • Chapter 4
    • 100,000 Songs V
    • Chapter 5
    • 100,000 Songs VI
    • Chapter 6
    • 100,000 Songs VII
    • Chapter 7
  • Artist PortfolioClick to open the Artist Portfolio menu
    • Wild Blue Yodel
    • Old Shaman Prayer
  • Artifacts from Area 51Click to open the Artifacts from Area 51 menu
    • Aliens
    • Don Juan
    • I Ching
    • Katsu
    • Klaatu Barada Nikto
    • Om
    • Ox-Herding
    • Paracelsus
    • Sgt. Pepper
    • Sasquatch
    • T. Lobsang Rampa
    • Time Travel
    • Zen Sickness
  • About BHS

Dance of the Kachinas

 

Clan Rock from the Salt Trail

 

Chorus

The San Francisco Peaks
El Rio Grande seeks

The Sunset Crater glows
on cinder lava flows

The Colorado Salts
meet at the canyon's faults

The Four Corners divide
the center circles wide

 

 

 I. Wuwuchim

The Crier Chief of Clans
announces the New Year

The "grow up" for young men
opens them to Hopi

The elders close the roads
the old fires extinguished

The new fire is kindled
prayers, songs, dances play out

The path is kept open
for the dead ancestors

The kachinas emerge
from the underworld

The Blue Star Kachina
is the most powerful

He is the god of death
the god of fire and darkness

The mask is taken off
to mark the cycle's end

The hair of the deceased
washed for the soul's journey

The stars on their foreheads
line up with the mesas

The time for growth in youth
the underworld god rules

 The kindling of the fire
the prayers, songs and dances

The kachinas emerge
from holes in floors and roofs

The new fire lit by sticks
birthed of flint and friction

The ancstors hair washed
with yucca at their death



 

II. The One Horns, the Two Horns, the Singers

 

 

 

 The One Horns and Two Horns,
the Singers guide the Way

The One Horns name Bear chief,
the Enforcers of Law

The Two Horns mouth-to-ear
 speak with God for Hopi

The Singers consecrate
by chanting and dancing



 

III. Soyal, Winter Solstice Ceremony

 

     MastopSoyal                                                                    Mastop

 

 

The prayer ceremony
tidings of the new year

The feathers and pinyon
needles tied to pahos

The willow branch sticks tied
with feathers, evergreens

The chief wears a headdress
of clouds and shield with star

The shield and sun bearers
fight the darkest of days

The plumed snake growls in battle
poking its head around

The black snake represents
the sun driven away

The snake is persuaded
"not to swallow the sun"

Without soyaluna
the sun may never come back

The dances, songs and sun light
were timed by the three stars

The stars above proclaim:
winter solstice is made.

The clown celebrate joy
distributing all gifts
 

 

Mastop kachina mask    Hemis kachina mask
Mastop                                                                  Hemis

 

 

 Hopi Mudhead Chants

 

 

IV. The Clowns and Crow Mother

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

The black-winged Crow Mother
sings a quiet, frail song

The basket of winter sprouts
with beans in solstice light

The children try to hide
fearing the Whippers lash

  The blows and stings leave welts
reminding then to be good

 



V. Powamuya, Bean Dance Ceremony

 

The masks painted with beans
shows sprouts planted in ice

The ancestors masked in 
and cowrie shell leggings

The dolls carved, rattles made,
bows and arrows for boys

 Pika bread, bean sprout soup,
made ready for the feast

 The bird, beast, plant may mask

The yucca whip with curls
feathers the squash blossoms

The witch with crook and blade,
hooting, whistling, coughing

The Hopi's wish for rain

 

 VI. The Ogres Are Coming! The Ogres Are Coming!

 

 

 The gourd rattles small stones
the drum beats the deerskin


The rhythm of swaying
heard with beats in kiva


The Soyoko Whuti
the Ogress Mother hoots, growls

Floggings, whippings, loud shouts
fangs, red tongues, long beaks clack

 

The Ogres are coming, no doubt!
The Ogres are coming, no doubt!


Chants, laughs, armed with axes
breaks, knocks, drilling noises

The Ogress Mother grinds
smacking her lips, slurps

Possessions seized, clothes torn
ripped off, shredded, trash alone

The children are punished
for errors, transgressions

 

VII. The Ogres Are Here! The Ogres Are Here!, Part One

 

Clowns, Ogres, Whippers, the owl scolds
the clowns are warned

The yucca whip blade, a grass thorn
fools ignore warnings

Giant mouth clacks, bells, jugglers balls
a caution of wrong and rights, alarms 

The shenanigans of the clowns say
they men are not spirits 


 

VIII. The Ogres are Here! The Ogres Are Here!, Part Two


The Soyal losing balance, falling,
settling into twilight blue

Hissing, laughing the Ogres smile
the game, the play of monsters


Kachinas open alldancing groups
the only act-spirit burlesque

The sprinkling of water, blowing, bubbling
smoke from clay pipes, prayer feathers

 

 

 

Yellow northwest, the sky blue southwest
the white northeast, red southeastern +/-
Purple north, speckled southern +/-
corncobs, melons, gourds, beans, clouds

Thunder the drums of deerskin, gourds-bells
hammer beats rollimg, chant-rhymes

The spruce tree with upturned branches for rain
raiment the spirits Hopi:

The mouth to ear, transmission spoken
The One Horn-Enforcer, Two Horned the-
Philosopher, Singer-

...

Yellow corn, pacific northwest
Red corn, atlantic southeast
Blue corn, desert southwest
White corn, arctic northeast Purple corn, upward sky
Speckled corn, downward earth

The roads closed, fires put out
death the god, no visits

The whistling noises, clacks, coughs, chants
the sawing of rings, bells

 
IX.Talangma, Niman, Home Going Ceremony

The bullroarer, the gourd grasps rain
Aholi befriends all

The home-going of the gods
the father, Etoto

The kachinas return to rain
the eagles must fly home

The source of moisture, trees and herbs
the dreams of summer mist

...

The San Francisco Peaks await
a special reverence

Sharp-eyed eagles guard Hopiland
prayer feathers the raiment

Last crops in, first crops out
rituals in silence

The water drops flinged, clay pipe smoked
the eagle feather flies home

 

X. The Flute Ceremony

 

 

In the ancestral rooms of the flute

the warrior swings the bullroarer as thunder

 The prayers for rain and corn, songs, cloud smoke

Kokopelli goes from clan to clan

bringing harvest with snakes

Birds fly, the grass retuns, rain for drought

The zigzags flash lightning

 ...

The honey pot, corn meal, gourds of water

sacred meal, good weather

 

XI. The Snake Ceremony

Snake ceremony

 

 

 Choruses

The San Francisco Peaks

El Rio Grande seeks

The Sunset Crater glows
in cinder lava flows

The Colorado Salts
 at the canyon's faults

The Four Corners divide
square to circle statewide

 

 

 

 

 Betatakin Ruins

 

 

I. Soyalangwul, Winter Solstice Ceremony,

"Establishing Life Anew for All the World" Part One

The host of ghosts, the stars frost cold
the dancers drift in dreams

The winter dead, the sun asleep
the springtime path awaits

The lone man lurches and lumbers
in his old deerskin shirt

The warrior whirls, his bull roarer
the Soyal muted sings

II. Soyalangwul, Winter Solstice Ceremony,
Part Two

The Mastops clown, the white hands grope
the women young and old

The shield with star and antelope,
the plumed snake effigy

The dancing troupe, the Qoqolos
clowning, shooting marbles

The shoulder blades, the bows homemade
for fiddle works, gut strings

The peaches and melons, fruits first
water bowls, blessings cast

The ceremonial pipe, smoke
clouds, good tobacco grade

The gifts for children, bows, arrows
kachina dolls, prayer sticks

The chief kachina, Soyal dancing
 
as he came, now he goes

III. Powamuya, Bean Dance Ceremony


The Aholi opens the chambers
the sands with seeds of hope

The moccasins, the cowrie shells
the old masks painted new

The dancing wands, the lightning sticks
the secret fires of night

The kiva smoke, the forehead sight
corn free of fungus smut

The rusted can, the wrinkled face
the drop of moisture placed

The snow melt, the arroyos full
the wind directionless

The grass returns, the humid bean
the shapes of seeds, shoots, sprouts

The kachinas march at solstice
the harvest thanks given

IV. The Crow Mother

The black-winged robed, the Crow Mother
the basket of bean sprouts

The Whippers' blows, the yucca welts
the hoots of child nicknames

The Soyoko, her crook with knife
the bad child pulled from home

The Ogres loud/
their laughter shrill
the floggings just and wise


V. The Ogres Are Coming! The Ogres Are Coming!


The Ogres are coming! The Ogres are coming!

The pollen smell, the flower blooms
sweet honey from petal

Soyok Wuhti with ugly face
hooting, whistling, snears

Ritual flogging, whipping, shouts
fangs, red tongues, large beaks clack

The Ogres are coming, no doubt!
The Ogres are coming, no doubt!

Chants, hoots, armed with knives and axes
beaks, knocks, drilling noises

Ogre Woman (Wuhti) smacks lips
lugubrious, terrifying

Awful sounds, a child's


The Ogres are here! The Ogres are here!

VI. The Ogres Are Here! The Ogres Are Here!

The Ogres are here! The Ogres are here!

Clowns, Ogres, Whippers (dance horror)
the clowns are warned

The yucca whip blade, a grass thorn
gluttonous, lascivious girls

Turtle shell clacks, bells, jugglers balls
a warning of wrong and rights, alarms 

Windbreaks an early spring of rites
cornmeal, shelling, winnowing, washed

Soyal losing balance, awkward ,
coming into light after dark

Mastops simulate intercourse
a blessing in fertility

Quqolo opens dancing groups
first act in burlesque theater

Yellow northwest, sky blue southwest
white northeast, red southeast +/-
Purple north, speckled south +/-
corncobs,melons, gourds, beans, clouds

Thunder drums of deerskin, gourds-bells
hammer thunder, song, chant-rhymes prayer

The spruce tree with upturned branches
a throne for the clouds...for raindrops

Hopi: mouth to transmission of ear-wisdom
One Horn-Enforcer, Two Horn-Philosopher
Singer-Concecrater

Yellow corn, pacific nortwest
Red corn, atlantic southeast
Blue corn, desert southwest
White corn, arctic northeast

Purple corn, upward sky
Speckled corn, downward earth


The roads closed off, the fires put out
the god of death, no visitors

The whistling noises, the clacks and chants
the sawing of jumping bells

The Witch Mother


VI.The Soyohim/Anktioni

The woody stalk, the agave
the shield beaver, at dawn


Squash blossoms in hair, white kilts, sash
leggings with shells, corn dance

Ruff of feathers, fir, spruce 'rounds neck

eagle, motion of birds

VII
.Talangma, Niman, Home Going Ceremony

The bullroarer, the gourd grasps rain
Aholi befriends all

The home-going of the gods
the father, Etoto


The Hemis yield to skies
the eagles must fly home

The blue spruce twigs/holy priests come
the dreams of summer mist


VII. Tala'paamuya, Snake Dance and Flute Ceremony

The snakes in shades, the rain makers
the watchers of springs

The snakes, powerful


The footracers/the rattlesnakes
serpent priests fond of snake shrines

The footracers/the coiled snakes
serpent priests find home-shrines


 





 

Bear 

Copyright 2010-2017 Bell Hammer Song. All rights reserved.