14 Field Columbian Museum —Anthropology, Vol. VI., No. I. 



a nakwakwosi for the fire, and placed it on the floor near the fireplace; 

 but I am told that this is done in every ceremony Ng6si, who has in 

 the mean while put the medicine bowl, corn-ears, cloud symbols, etc., 

 into their places, pours the water from the mongwikuru into the medi- 

 cine bowl, and when all have seated themselves, sprinkles a heavy 

 meal line from the tiponi to the east side of the ladder, throwing also 

 a pinch up the ladder towards the hatchway. Masatoiniwa then 

 sprinkles on the same line a line of talasi (corn-pollen), also throwing 

 a pinch up the ladder. Both then take a seat in the circle. Masatoi- 

 niwa and Ng6si say: "Pai itam hahlaikahkang pavasionagani" ("Now 

 we shall joyfully perform this ceremony"). Whereupon the singing 

 commences. During the 



First Song nothing of importance takes place, but during the 

 Second Song Talasnga, who fills the position of sprinkler, sprinkles 

 corn meal along the north corn-ear into the medicine bowl, picks up the 

 corn-ear and its husband, and holding them in a slanting position, 

 beats time with them on the floor during the first verse of the song. 

 During the second verse she does the same with the same two objects 

 from the west side of the medicine bowl, and so on with all six. 

 During the 



Third Song Ng6si picks up a tray with fine meal, steps on the 

 banquette north of the altar, and while the first stanza of the song 

 is chanted, rubs with her right hand four lines of meal on the wall. 

 While the second stanza is sung she does the same on the west wall, 

 then on the south and east walls. While the fifth verse is sung she 

 throws four pinches of meal towards the star already described, the 

 object evidently being to make the meal adhere to one of the large 

 joists. During the sixth stanza she places four small piles of meal on 

 the floor on the east side of the altar, pressing them down with the 

 palm side of her fingers. All these meal marks are made at certain 

 reoccurring lines in the diff'erent verses of the song; during the inter- 

 vals the priestess stands and waves the tray up and down to the time 

 of the singing. When she is through she resumes her seat. This 

 performance is called "(to) make a house," and it occurs in many 

 Hopi ceremonies. The four lines are called "house." They are also 

 made in the room in which a child is born, in which case one of them 

 on each wall — beginning from below — is scraped off on the fifth, one 

 on the tenth, one on the fifteenth, and the last four on the twentieth 

 day. This scraping off of the lines I have never observed in cere- 

 monies. 



during the ceremony. On this, the fourth and the eighth day the prayer-offerings are thrust into 

 the fire with the little corn-meal with these words: "It nuii ngem yukii, um shiiyan talat uvivitani!" 

 ("This 1 have made lor you; very brightly you will burn!") 



