Dance Hall Of The Dead Quotes
"In two days when he led Longhorn and the Council from the ancestral village to Zuñi, fatigue would not cause him to forget the words of the great chant, or make any missteps in the ritual dance."
"And when Shalako came he would be ready to dance all the night without an error."
"The thought gave him satisfaction, but it faded quickly."
"He approached these thoughts gingerly, careful to avoid any anger."
"It was always to be avoided, but now it was strictly taboo."
"No matter how badly he wanted to be a Zuñi, to join the Fire God’s own Badger Clan, George was still a Navajo."
"He had not been initiated, had not felt the darkness of the mask slip over his head, and seen through the eyes of the kachina spirit."
"Under the angry red sky he ran, into the thickening darkness, thinking of crazy George, his oldest and best friend."
"George collecting cactus buttons for the doper at the hippie commune, and eating them himself in search of visions."
"George wanting to quit being a Navajo so he could be a Zuñi."
"George was certainly crazy, but George was his friend."
"Salamobia, like all of the ancestor spirits which lived at the Zuñi masks, were visible only to members of the Sorcery Fraternity, and to those about to die."
"Would a Zuñi fly deign to tread upon Navajo skin?"
"I don’t think we’re going to have any jurisdictional problems."
"The fly walked around his finger and disappeared, upside down, under the notebook."
"The road wound through the rough country behind Corn Mountain—nothing more than a seldom-used wagon track."
"It’s never good. It hurts the lungs. But sometimes it is necessary, and therefore one does it."
"You think Cata broke a taboo, and the kachina got Cata for doing it, and is after George."
"He adapted. He began making a different kind of lance point—some of those that we’ve been crediting to entirely different cultures."
"They were human, and smart; they had the intelligence to appreciate beauty and the intelligence to adapt."
"He’s sort of a mystic. Interested in magic and witchcraft and all that sort of thing."
"Every cause has its effect. Every action its reaction."
"In all things a pattern, and in this pattern, the beauty of harmony."
"You ever been really scared? Do you remember how it was? You get panicky and maybe you run. And if you run it’s worse, because you feel like the whole world is chasing you and you’re afraid to stop."
"Sometimes there isn’t any home to go home to."
"A Navajo isn’t likely to know any more about the Zuñi religion than a white man will know about Shintoism."
"The only goal for man was beauty, and that beauty was found only in harmony, and that this harmony of nature was a matter of dazzling complexity."
"Interdependency of nature. Every cause has its effect. Every action its reaction. A reason for everything."
"The Dinee made a harder demand—that man find his place in the harmony of things."
"My grandmother had a motto hanging there in the hogan when I was a kid. Said ‘Beware All Blanket-Asses.’"
"I am the sound you hear running in your hoofprints, I following come, the sound of running. Sacred favors for you I bring. My arrow carries new life for you."
"Thank you, my father. This day I have drunken in the sacred wind of your life."
"But with Reynolds, it’s the other way around. He tells you how to do it and what to look for and he turns you loose. And then whatever you find you publish yourself. There’s a dozen people around the country who have made their reputations that way because of him. He gives away the glory and all he expects in return is that you do him a scientific job."
"All I was suggesting that you do, was bring Susanne here and keep an eye on her until this business settles down."
"These rocks I got here mean the rest of my life," he said slowly. "It means I get past the Ph.D. committee with no sweat, and I get the degree. And instead of being one of a hundred new Ph.D.s fighting it out for maybe three or four decent faculty places around the country, I have my pick. I have the reputation, and a book to write, and the status."
"You know how long I been shoveling out here? Damn near six months. I get out here by the time the light gets good enough. And I’m digging until dark."
"And when I get it made, I’m going to take about two thousand dollars or whatever it costs and I’m going to get these beaver teeth pushed back into my face."
"I don’t think I ever saw a kid with a funnier turn of mind. Quick. Quick. Quick. About half genius and half crazy."
"The point is you gradually learn that witch talk and trouble sort of go together."
"I don’t know whether that makes any sense, but with George sense isn’t all that important."
"What’s important is not where this Zuñi heaven is located. What’s important is where George thinks it’s located."
"George likes me and he trusts me and he isn’t going to shoot at me. I don’t think he’s going to shoot at anybody else, either."
"I’m kinda scared. I bet you are a little, too, aren’t you? But I really do think George needs somebody to help him."
"Exactly, Leaphorn thought. George, and Ted Isaacs, and the pale young man with nightmares, and a younger sister left somewhere back in cruel country, and a world full of losers—they all need Susanne’s help, and they’ll get it if she can reach them."
"You’re good at this, aren’t you," Susanne said. "I’ve been doing it a long time," Leaphorn said.
"He could have understood if George had simply sliced himself a substantial portion of venison and let the carcass lie. It would have gone against the grain, as Navajo and hunter, to waste the meat. But if he had been in a hurry George might have done it."
"The footprint had been made yesterday—after George had killed his deer but not long afterward. Someone had followed George here."
"Try to kill him," Leaphorn said. His voice sounded thick in his ears now, and fierce with rage. "If you don’t keep him away, I think he’ll kill us. I think he’s crazy."
"The swollen bruise on his abdomen reminded him of the first puzzle. Why had the trap been set to catch George Bowlegs but not to kill him? Cata and Shorty Bowlegs had been cut down without qualm or hesitation. Why not George?"
"Above him the sky was turning gray. The overcast had been building since noon."
"The orgy of baking which caught up the women of Zuñi each Shalako season had reached its climax during the morning."
"The Zuñi people had come home from wherever they had wandered."
"The Little Fire God, Leaphorn knew—Shulawitsi entering the Old Village to make his ceremonial inspection of the sacred place before the entry of the Council of the Gods."
"The procession disappeared into the village."
"But where was home for this boy who had hunted heaven?"
"Despite the snow falling outside, they were nude except for black breechcloth and neck scarf, moccasins and mask."
"The sacred wind of your life I breathe, Leaphorn thought. But the sacred wind was gone."
"Snowflakes sifted through the beam of the flashlight, dusting the boy’s tangled hair with white, clinging to an eyelash, melting on the still-warm face."
"He was taking Bowlegs home. But where was home for this boy who had hunted heaven?"
"This whole science is based on everybody being beyond suspicion."
"I'm trying to learn more about white men," he said. "You wanted all that worse than you wanted your woman. What else will you give up for it?"