| 释义 |
‖ Yeibichai, n.|ˈjeɪbɪtʃaɪ|
Also Yeibechei, Yei-bi-che, Yéibit-cai, etc., and with lower-case initial.
[Navajo Yé'ii Bicheii, lit. ‘Grandfather of the Yé'ii’, f. Yé'ii giant supernatural being(s), lit. ‘fearful one’, + bicheii, bichaii his maternal grandfather.]
A Navajo curative or initiation ceremony performed by masked dancers representing a deity; also, one of the dancers performing the ceremony and the deity so represented (see also quot. 1963).
1887Ann. Rep. U.S. Bureau Amer. Ethnol. 1883–84 385 Another ceremony..which the whites usually call the ‘Ya{ygrave}bichy Dance’ (Yèbitcai), has a final public exhibition which occupies the whole night. 1891Ann. Rep. U.S. Bureau Amer. Ethnol. 1885–86 p. xxv, Mrs. Stevenson was..enabled to obtain a minute description of the celebrated dance, or medicine ceremony, of the Navajos, called the Yéibit-cai. 1923Palacio 15 Dec. 187/2 The men representing two of the Yeibitchai—the deities Hasjelti and Hosjoghon—entered. 1939Yale Rev. Mar. 567 They begin the Yei-bet-chai chant, the most eerie, the most piercing of all chants. 1957Encycl. Brit. XV. Pl. iii (following p. 12), no. 4 (caption) Yeibichai mask. Navajo Indians, New Mex. Ibid. 14/1 The masks used by the Navajo in the Yeibichai, as the night chant is called, are copies of the cylinder and face masks of the Pueblos, but are made of soft buckskin. 1963G. S. Maxwell Navajo Rugs iii. 22 Less common than the Yei is the rug known as a Yeibichai... The Yeibichai represents a line of Navajo dancers impersonating Yeis. 1979Navajo Times (Window Rock, Arizona) 24 May 2/2 Do you have any squaw dances, Yei-bi-che or medicinemen, we asked? 1981L. M. Silko Storyteller 43/1 She faced east and listened to the wind and snow sing a high-pitched Yeibechei song. |