Gatschet.j ^-l" [Dec. 18, 



kai'nin), the southern by the Laguna medicine men, who are called so 

 for having acquired their art in Laguna, a Quera pueblo. The differences 

 in the ceremonial of both sections, each of which has a separate medicine 

 house, are slight, and during the ceremonies the two "schools" of 

 medicine-men supplement each other. They are subject to the watchful 

 care of the captains of war, of whom there are four or five in each of the 

 two sections. 



There are four annual periods of ceremonial sun worship in their 

 pueblos, and every one of them is followed by a dance. The first of these 

 festival periods occurs in September, the second in December, the third in 

 February, because wheat is planted in the month after ; the fourth, less 

 important, a short time after the third. They last four days, not including 

 the dance, and are evidently instituted for the purpose of influencing the 

 sun deity in favor of granting a bountiful crop to the Indians. 



Both medicine houses are long-shaped, running from west to east, 

 where the entrance is. The fire burns not in the middle, but at the 

 eastern end, the chimney being to the left of the entrance. In the roof a 

 square opening is left for the sunlight to penetrate. Women are admitted 

 to the house, but everything that is non-Indian is excluded ; none of the 

 white man's dress or shoes are admitted ; the participants have to enter 

 without moccasins and to wear the hair long. 



The ceremony takes place at night, and begins with the following act 

 of worship to the sun (tu'aide) ; each medicine-man carries a short buck- 

 skin bag filled with half-ground cornmeal ; he is strewing the contents 

 on the floor before the public, while an allocution is held to the sun, 

 moon and stars. The Indians grasp the meal from the ground, and 

 breathe upon it to blow off any disease from their bodies, for it is thought 

 the meal will absorb or " burn " any disease invisibly present. Then the 

 medicine-men throw the rest of the cornmeal in a line or "road," while 

 "sowing " it on the ground to the sun. When all the meal is spent, they 

 blow again upon their hands and breathe up health from them. This is 

 done during four consecutive nights, during which the medicine-men 

 abstain entirely from eating, drinking and sleeping, but are allowed to 

 smoke. The calumet or reed-pipe, which is presented during the above 

 act, is lighted and the smoke puffed first to the east, then to the north, 

 west, south, then to the sky and to the centre of the earth. No moon 

 worship exists among these Indians. 



On the fifth day commence the dances, which are held under a large 

 concourse of people and last from eight p.m. to four o'clock in the morning. 

 The medicine-house holds about three hundred people, and nobody is 

 allowed to leave before the above-mentioned hour, when the conjurers 

 allow the people to breathe fresh air. 



[In each word of the Isleta text, the emphasized syllable is marked by 

 an acute accent standing after the vowel.] 



