Spiritual healing: Fascinating colorized images show Navajo men wearing eerie masks of the gods used

[driftdiver]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5171113/100-year-old-images-Navajo-gods-used-healing-ritual.html

These days, falling ill will hopefully land you in hospital with a doctor wearing a white coat and stethoscope by your bedside.

But not so for Navajo Indians at the start of the 20th century, who could expect to find themselves in a sweat lodge being attended to by these masked figures.

This fascinating collection of images, taken between 1904 and 1905 by Edward S Curtis, documents a Navajo Night Chat - a healing ceremony that lasts for nine days and involves the patient being routinely sweated while rituals are performed by medicine men dressed as deities from tribal mythology.

[driftdiver]

The pictures in this article are pretty amazing.  Not even close to what I had thought they would look like.    inspired by aliens?  :)

[Sanguine]

I hope that's horsehair.