[sapir] GIRL'S PUBERTY CEREMONY 73 



palm up, the dance itself consisting of a gentle swaying or turning by- 

 gradual rhythmically ordered steps from side to side for the space of 

 about a quarter circle, not of a series of definitely progressing steps. 



After the song was completed, the speaker pioceeded to explain 

 that a game was to be played, the right to which was held by the host 

 as a topati. A bunch of short sticks was taken and bound together 

 around the middle; they were all white at one end, but two among 

 them were declared to be red at the other. The sticks were handed 

 over to Louis, who, standing on his platform in plain sight of all, -held 

 the bunch with the white ends pointed towards the people. Whoever 

 among the guests succeeded in picking out one of the marked sticks 

 was to receive a dollar from the girl's father, while the other red, which 

 was specially marked in some way, would win its guesser two dollars. 

 As soon as this had been explained by the speaker, the same song was 

 sung as before. It was sung once again and was then followed by ano- 

 ther family song of the same type, which was sung twice. Meanwhile, 

 while the singing was actually going on, but not during the pauses 

 between the songs, various people walked up, almost always in twos, 

 to try their luck. One of the dancing women pulled out a stick, which, 

 as it turned out to be red, she held up so that everyone might see, con- 

 tinuing with her dance at the same time. When a sufficient number 

 had guessed, the money was paid out as announced, two who had come 

 near to guessing a red being also given something. It is a general 

 practice among these Indians for the host always to do a little better 

 in the way of distributing gifts than he announces, whereby his liberality 

 is made more manifest. At other puberty ceremonies that I have 

 witnessed other such topati games were played. These differ quite con- 

 siderably in detail, but all have in common the giving of rewards to such 

 as make successful trials. In some of these games the element of a test 

 of endurance, strength or skill comes in very clearly, less conspicuously 

 in the game just described. I speak of this because the symbolic idea 

 that lies back of these puberty ceremonial games is the same as the test 

 theme which is so common in aboriginal American suitor myths. In 

 these the hero is not allowed to marry the girl whose hand he seeks 

 until his prospective father-in-law has put him through a series of severe 

 tests, generally such as involve danger of life. So also in the more 

 innocent puberty ceremonial tests, as I was definitely informed, there 

 is present the idea that only such a one will eventually be allowed to 

 marry the girl as will, when suing for her hand, succeed in the test oi 

 trial submitted to him. In actual practice this may be a fiction, of 

 couise. In typical cases the game is a diamatization of a suitor incident 

 in the ancestral legends owned by the family of the girl. Here, then, 

 legend, game, and song form a cohering topati unit, exactly as in the 



