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26 THE GREAT GOD PAN
with the Plumed Serpent, summon the rain, perform strange indecent dances with bull-roarers in their hands. Then there are the Boogermen among the Cherokees, disease-healers who unexpectedly leap into the sick man's presence to startle him and so drive the evil spirits away. They shuffle their feet to a furious unaccented drumming, going a few paces forward, then stopping abruptly, then scuffling sideways, shaking their knees— the effect is exactly like a gross imitation of Charlie's dancing and limping walk, and like Charlie they wear baggy suits of burlap or old rags, and they are adepts at mimicry. During the dance, the music-master will call upon a Boogerman to answer a question, "Who are you?" or "Where do you come from?" The Boogerman must immediately reply with some ludicrous or obscene answer, then he must dance the part, and he does this in the most sprightly manner possible, deliberately breaking the rhythm of the shuffling steps. Finally, having teased and tormented and mimicked everyone in sight, they disappear silently to some remote field where they can remove their disguise, for it would be unthinkable that anyone should see them in their own houses in disguise.
The Boogermen possess little of the charm which is possessed by the "Mud-heads," nor is their behavior so complicated. The "Mud-heads" who may make love realistically on the house-tops and who burlesque everything in sight, are more sacramental. Like the koshare their lunacy seems to spring from a divine source, and it is not to be wondered at that they conceal in their muddy knob-like ears the footprints of people. If they come begging, then food must be given to them; otherwise disaster would befall. If they laugh, you must be silent. They are fearful gods, and their masks have the simplicity of Charlie's: there is no more than the outline of a face, two holes for the eyes, a hole for the mouth.
We come closer to Charlie's mask in the Night Chant of the Navajos, which lasts for nine nights and is attended by complex ceremonies, including the recital of 324 different songs which go to make up a long ritual poem. The cow