150 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



parun, a hopping, staccato step, is like the movement of the hands of a 

 clock, only counterclockwise — ^those nearest the p9rufe barely move, 

 while those farthest away move fastest. The men blow their pifalka, 

 the machi beat their kultrur), and the men blow their trutruka — all of 

 them together furnishing the rhythm for the step of the dance. 



(At this point the informant drew the diagram shown in figure 2. 

 The following day I went with the informant to the place where the 

 r|illatun had been held. He stepped off the distances and the following 

 observations were made: Tracks in the path made by the men on 

 horseback showed that riders had been abreast. The grass of the 

 paruf e was untrodden ; a circle around this small area of grass showed 

 that dancing had been done there. Sun shelters, 16 in number, were 

 falling apart (pi. 31, i and 2). Each shelter, approximately 9 by 9 

 feet and 6 feet in height, was a framework of saplings of various kinds 

 with branches used as windbreaks and shelter from the sun's rays, and 

 each had a fireplace on the edge of it toward the parufe. Surrounding 

 the fireplace were heavy logs, probably used for seats.) 



At some distance, probably 15 yards, many of the men now on 

 horseback ride abreast (also anticlockwise) in close formation, the 

 horses prancing to the rhythm of the music. "This dance of the horses 

 is called kiintron." The leader of the men on horseback carries a 

 banner in his left hand with which he also holds the bridle. With his 

 right hand he swings a whip over his head (anticlockwise) in a man- 

 ner similar to the movements when lassoing, and yells "Ya-ah !" The 

 other men on horseback echo "Ya-ah !" twice. The horseback riders 

 perform the kiintron around the complete ellipse, outside the sun 

 shelters, four times. Those within dance the parun until the kiintron 

 has ended. 



A sheep is next cut open in the vicinity of the heart, and the pulsat- 

 ing heart brought forth and rammed into the tip of one of the four 

 colihiie. With each heartbeat of the dying sheep, everyone participat- 

 ing in the rjillatun that can get close enough takes a little of the blood 

 as it squirts from the heart and sprinkles it heavenward — the men first, 

 then the women — "each asking God to help them, now that they are 

 making this sacrifice. Old people say that this is like the sacrifice of 

 Abraham that they are told about today." Children do not sprinkle 

 blood, "but they dance when everybody else dances and are present 

 everywhere during the qillatun." 



After the sprinkling of blood, the leader goes to the fire accompa- 

 nied by men carrying the sheep. Here the leader smokes a pipe while 

 the lung of the sheep is being cut into small pieces by a young boy. 

 The boy gives pieces of it to about 15 or 20 persons. By now the cap- 



