Technicians of the sacred : a range of poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe & Oceania

Online version:

The texts

Origins & namings

Visions & spels

Death & defeat

The book of events (I)

The book of events (II)

Africa

America

Asia

Europe & the Ancient Near East

Oceania

The statements

The commentaries. Pre-face (1984)

Pre-face (1967)

THE TEXTS: ORIGINS & NAMINGS. Genesis I (Kato Indian)

Sounds

Genesis II (Arnhem Land, Australia)

Egyptian God Names

Genesis III (Maori, New Zealand)

Images

Bantu Combinations (Africa)

Correspondences (Chinese)

Genesis IV (Hebrew)

Aztec Definitions

Genesis V (Uitoto Indian, Colombia)

The Pictures

The Girl of the Early Race Who Made the Stars (Bushman, Africa)

The Fragments

All Lives, All Dances, & All Is Loud (Gabon Pygmy, Africa)

Yoruba Praises (Africa)

A Poem for the Wind (Welsh)

War God's Horse Song I (Navajo Indian)

War God's Horse Song II (Navajo Indian)

To the God of Fire as a Horse (India)

The Stars (Passamaquoddy Indian)

VISIONS & SPELS. The Annunciation (Tibetan)

How Isaac Tens Became a Shaman (Gitksan Indian)

A Shaman Climbs Up the Sky (Altaic)

The Dog Vision (Sioux Indian [Lakota])

From The Midnight Velada (Mazatec Indian)

The Dream of Enkidu (Mesopotamia)

A List of Bad Dreams Chanted as a Cause & Cure for Missing Souls (Bidayuh, Sarawak)

The Killer (Cherokee Indian)

Spell Against Jaundice (Serbian)

A Poison Arrow (Hausa, Africa)

A Breastplate Against Death (Irish)

Ol' Hannah (Afro-American)

Offering Flowers (Aztec)

From The Night Chant (Navajo Indian)

DEATH & DEFEAT. When Hare Heard of Death (Winnebago Indian)

A Peruvian Dance Song (Ayacucho Indian)

Death Song (Papago Indian)

From The Odyssey (Greek)

The Mourning Song of Small-Lake-Underneath (Tlingit Indian)

The Story of the Leopard Tortoise (Bushman, Africa)

Nottamun Town (Appalachia, United States)

The Flight of Quetzalcoad (Aztec)

The String Game (Bushman, Africa)

The Abortion (Santal, India)

Improvised Song Against a White Man (Malagasy, Madagascar)

Psalm 137 (Hebrew)

A Sequence of Songs of the Ghost Dance Religion

THE BOOK OF EVENTS (I). Lily Events (Arnhem Land, Australia)

Garbage Event (Dayak, Borneo)

Beard Event (Arnhem Land, Australia)

Stone Fire Event (Arnhem Land, Australia)

Climbing Event (Sarawak)

Forest Event (Elungary)

Gift Event (Kwakiud Indian)

Marriage Event (Hervey Islands, Polynesia)

Three Magic Events (Sweden)

Going-Around Event (Asiatic Eskimo)

Language Event (Venda, Africa)

Burial Events (Tibet)

Friendship Dance (Cherokee Indian)

Grease Feast Event (Kwakiutl Indian)

Peacemaking Event (Andaman Islands)

Wild Man Events (Bohemia)

Booger Event (Cherokee Indian)

Sea Water Event (Arnhem Land, Australia)

Noise Event (Hebrew)

THE BOOK OF EVENTS (II). Taming the Storm (Copper Eskimo)

Coronation Event & Drama (Egyptian)

For the Rain God Tlaloc: A Dialogue for God & Chanters (Aztec)

AFRICA. Ghosts & Shadows (Gabon Pygmy)

The Chapter of Changing Into Ptah (Egyptian)

The Cannibal Hymn (Egyptian)

Conversations in Courtship (Egyptian)

The Comet (Ekoi)

The Lovers (Ekoi)

Drum Poem #7 (Ashanti)

Praises of Ogun (Yoruba)

Abuse Poem: for Kodzo & Others (Ewe)

What Fell Down? Penis! (Ekperi)

What Fell Down? Vulva! (Ekperi)

The Train (Hurutshe)

Speaking the World: Seven Praise-Mottoes (Dogon)

Death Rites I and II (Gabon Pygmy)

The Praises of the Falls (Basuto)

Ika Meji (Yoruba)

Little Leper of Munjolóbo (Haya)

Voice of the Karaw (Bamana)

Gassire's Lute (Soninke)

AMERICA. Mide Songs & Picture-Songs (Ojibwa)

Seven Chippewa (Ojibwa) Songs

From The Wishing Born Cycle (Swampy Cree)

Three Teton Sioux Songs

From Battiste Good's Winter Count (Dakota)

Peyote Songs (Comanche)

Song of the Humpbacked Flute Player (Hopi)

Coyote & Junco (Zuni)

The Tenth Horse Song of Frank Mitchell (Navajo)

A Song of the Winds (Seri)

Six Seri Whale Songs

Flower World: Three Poems from the Yaqui Deer Dance

"To Find Our Life" (Huichol)

The Painted Book (Nahuatl, Texcoco)

From Codex Boturini (Aztec)

From The Popol Vuh: Blood-Girl & the Chiefs of Hell (Maya)

Mayan Definitions

From Inatoipippiler (Cuna)

From The Elegy for the Great Inca Atawallpa (Quechua)

Three Quechua Poems

Poems for a Carnival (Quechua)

Raising the Mediating Center & the Field of Evil (Spanish, Peru)

The Machi Exorcises the Spirit Huecuve (Araucanian)

Words from Seven Magic Songs (Copper Eskimo)

My Breath (Netsilik Eskimo)

Eskimo Prose Poems

ASIA. The Quest of Milarepa (Tibetan)

Keeping Still / The Mountain (Chinese)

The Marrying Maiden (Chinese)

From The Nine Songs (Chinese)

Song of the Dead, Relating the Origin of Bitterness (Na-Khi, China)

A Shaman Vision Poem (Chinese)

AI Que Quiere: II pai-hua (Chinese)

From The Kojiki: How Opo-Kuni-Nusi Bids Farewell to His Jealous Wife, Suseri-Bime, in Song (Japanese)

A Song of the Spider Goddess (Ainu)

Things Seen by the Shaman Karawe (Chukchee)

Praise Song of the Buck-Hare (Teleut)

Setchin the Singer (Vogul)

Mantra for Binding a Witch (Baiga, India)

The Pig (Baiga, India)

Two Cosmologies (Sanskrit, India)

From The Guide to Lord Murukan (Tamil, India)

For the Lord of Caves (Kannada, India)

EUROPE & THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST. The Calendar (Upper Paleolithic)

The Vulva Song of Inana (Sumerian)

The Battie Between Anat & the Forces of Mot (Ugaritic)

From The Song of Ullikummi (Hittite)

From Theogony [Godbirths] (Greek)

Song of the Arval Brothers (Roman)

Birth of the Fire God (Armenian)

The Round Dance of Jesus (Syriac)

A Song of Amergin (Irish)

From The Red Book of Hergest (Welsh)

Two Poems for All-Hallows' Eve (Welsh)

The Fairy Woman's Lullaby (Scottish Gaelic)

The Nine Herbs Charm (Anglo-Saxon)

From Shakespeare's Lear (English)

Odin's Shaman Song (Icelandic)

From Kalevala (Finnish)

The Fox (Lapp)

Blood River Shaman Chant (Nenets)

Bald Mountain Zaum-Poems (Russian)

A Poem for the Goddess Her City & the Marriage of Her Son & Daughter (Serbian)

The Message of King Sakis & the Legend of the Twelve Dreams He Had in One Night (Serbo-Croatian)

A Love Poem with Witches (Rumanian)

The Descriptions of King Lent (French)

Deep Song (Spanish Gypsy)

The Canticle for Brother Sun (Italian)

From Europe a Prophecy (English)

OCEANIA. Twelve Kura Songs from Tikopia (British Solomon Islands)

Two for the God Aia (Mekeo, New Guinea)

Tolai Songs (Kuanua, New Guinea)

Pidgin Song (Papua New Guinea)

The Gumagabu Song (Trobriand Islands, New Guinea)

Three Drum Poems (Trobriand Islands, New Guinea)

Songs & Spirit-Songs (Duke of York Islands, Melanesia)

The Daybreak (Mudbara, Australia)

Sightings: Kunapipi (Arnhem Land, Australia)

From The Goulburn Island Cycle (Arnhem Land, Australia)

The First Truck at Tambrey (Jindjiparndi, Australia)

Night Births (Hawaii, Polynesia)

The Woman Who Married a Caterpillar (Hawaii, Polynesia)

The Body-Song of Kio (Tuamotua, Polynesia)

Funeral Eva (Mangaian, Polynesia)

Toto Vaca (Maori, Polynesia)

The Lovers I (Kapingamarangi, Polynesia)

The Lovers II (Kapingamarangi, Polynesia)

Flight of the Chiefs: Song V (Fiji, Melanesia)

Animal Story X (Fiji, Melanesia)

The Statements

The Commentaries

Post-face