338 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. III. 



events of the day as they transpired in that chamber up to the time of 

 the mutual public performance in the afternoon. 



The priests having arrived in their klva after the singing cere- 

 mony in the Antelope klva all, except the two warriors, divest them- 

 selves of their costumes and arrange themselves around the fireplace 

 and engage in a solemn smoke, which is followed by a prayer from 

 each one present.^ While the prayers by the different participants 

 have a good deal of similarity, they are not quite alike, and some are 

 longer than others. The lightning frames and thunder boards are 

 lying near the fireplace. After this ceremonial smoke another smoke 

 follows, which seems to be of a less solemn nature, and during which 

 some conversation is going on. This being concluded, the two war- 

 riors also lay off their paraphernalia. At about this time Macangon- 

 tiwa's sister, who is an old woman and is also called Tcti Mana (Snake 

 maid), brings several pots to the kiva, which she places on the outside 

 at the south side of the hatchway. These she fills with water (see 

 PI. 192), in which she is assisted by several women. 



The Snakes partake of no food or water on this day until the 

 evening meal is served, after the public performance. 



Early in the afternoon the Chief Snake priest makes two nakwdk- 

 wosis, staining their strings red, as usual, and sends one of the men, 

 belonging to the Badger clan,^ after the herbs for the emetic. I had 

 great difficulty to ascertain the nature of these herbs, but from infor- 

 mation obtained from and substantiated by various members of the 

 Snake Fraternity, and having seen the herbs in the pots while boiling, 

 having furthermore picked up small remnants of them from the floor 

 where they had been lying prior to being put into the pots, and also 

 having obtained a bunch of the boiled herbs after it had been thrown 

 away and also the fresh plants, I have from all this long been con- 

 vinced that the two principal herbs are masi (gray) lachi (not to be 

 confounded with the common or sakwa [green] lachi) and piwannga 

 (weasel medicine) — linum rigidum, Purch. The first grows abun- 

 dantly around Oraibi, the other not, especially in dry years, although I 

 have seen it several times. Whether hohoyaonga, the charm medi- 

 cine, used throughout the ceremony and frequently mentioned in this 

 paper, forms an ingredient of the emetic I have been unable to settle 

 definitely.^ From the information obtained from different sources, I 



' In 1896 two small boys did not utter a prayer. 



' A man of that clan is chosen, it is said, first, because the badger owns the herbs, is very fond 

 of all kinds of roots, was once a doctor, and is now prayed to by the sick, his fat and pudenda being 

 used as medicine— the latter, which is said to be "very hard," is used by impotent men— and 

 secondly, because the badger "always scratches out roots." 



^ Some say it is used, some claim it is not. 



