46 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XI. 



wait in silence. With regard to the returning of these two priestesses 

 the following is taken from my notes of 1897: Pungnyanomsi returned 

 first. Wickwaya met her at the east side of the ladder, in the kiva, 

 where she stopped. He first strewed a line of sacred meal from where 

 she stood to the figurines on the east side of the altar and threw a pinch 

 of meal on the elevated portion of the floor east of the ladder. He 

 then received from her all the objects that she had taken with her, 

 except the prayer offerings, and placed them in front of the altar. The 

 vessel, of course, now contained water. She then sat down on the 

 elevated portion of the floor close to the ladder where Wickwaya had 

 sprinkled the pinch of meal (see Plate VIII, a), Wickwaya resuming 

 his place by the side of his sister. All again waited in silence until 

 the second woman returned. Wickwaya went through the same per- 

 formance as before, only varying the meal line slightly towards the 

 west and placing the objects a little towards the east from the others, 

 the second woman sitting down by the side of the first. He then took 

 a long buzzard feather (wishoko) and a little meal, stood in front of 

 the two women, sprinkled a pinch of meal along the concave side of 

 the feather and, holding it over the women, hummed a short discharm- 

 ing song, waving or beating time up and down with the feather over 

 the heads of the women from right to left two times, and then brushed 

 off the meal with the back of his fingers towards the hatch-way. This 

 performance he repeated four times (see Plates VI, VII and VIII). 

 He then took the nakwakwosis from their hair and said, "Taa! (Now 

 then!). They took off their white robes, and one of them left the kiva 

 temporarily while the other sat down at another place. The nakwa- 

 kwosis Wickwaya placed with the two water gourds. Hereupon he 

 lighted a pipe and smoked for a while, the others silently waiting. Some 

 more women came in. 



At about five o'clock all arrange themselves around the altar (see 

 Plate XVI, a), the chief priest, his assistant, the chief priestess, her 

 assistant and six other women. The chief priest hands to each one 

 a pinch of sacred meal; he takes a mosilili, (cone shell rattle), the two 

 priestesses each a gourd rattle, all the rest white ears of corn and then 

 the first altar ceremony begins. The participants are arranged in the 

 same manner as in the winter ceremony and the individual members 

 will be referred to mostly by number when mentioned in connection 

 with any particular performance. This will be less confusing, as the 

 participants in the different years were not always the same, but the 

 positions, that those occupied, who performed that particular rite, 

 remained unchanged. 1 It might be mentioned, that the position 



1 See diagram on page 17. 



