Twinkling Star 79 



The actors come. Gumwapah, an old medicine woman carrying- a 

 dirty bowl partly filled with water, comes from a near-by wigwam; en- 

 ters the medicine disk by way of the pipe stem; and, in a stooping 

 position, passes around within it from left to right near its outer rim. 

 As she thus moves around near the drawing of the outer circle of light, 

 she takes a pinch of the coloring matter from each respective part of the 

 drawing and puts it into the cup. Completing the dust gathering, she 

 sets the bowl down in the upper corner of the sun's mouth and then 

 passes out of the disk drawing by the way she came. 



Scene 24. — The medicine men come with the patient from a near-by 

 tepee. They are carrying her. They also enter the disk by the pipe 

 stem. They carry her around the circle of the sun's rays from right to 

 left; then to the center of the sun's mouth and place her upon it with 

 face turned toward the afternoon sun. 



Scene 25. — A medicine ghost dancer sallies forth into the open space 

 from a nearby thicket. He is nude with the exception of a dancing 

 skirt. His body is painted in white, and zigzag lines run up his arms 

 and down his lower extremities to represent the blazing thunder bolt 

 of the raging storm. He also wears a loose, sack-like cloth mask, on 

 top of which there extends skyward a row of lath facing the front and 

 so placed as to crudely represent the spread tail of a turkey. In addi- 

 tion, he carries a sword-like wand-stick in one hand and an old Indian 

 knife in the other. Shrieking, whooping, and occasionally gobbling like 

 a turkey, he crow-hops in a large circle around the drawing of the 

 god of day and the sick one waiting to be cured, posing now and then 

 in baboon style. Completing the circle, he makes a rush sidewise for 

 the presence of the sick one like a male swine going to battle. Reaching 

 her presence, he squats in front of her, sticks the knife in the ground 

 by her side, places the wand on the afflicted parts of the sick one in 

 each of the semi-cardinal directions, gathers the sick on the wand in this 

 way, takes the wand up before his face, blows a hissing breath on it 

 to drive the evil spirit "sick" away. He then gives a hideous, ear- 

 grating howl, seizes his knife and gallops forth into obscurity. 



Scene 26. — The chief medicine man enters the circle, and, taking a 

 piece of green gourd rind in his hand, he rubs the sick one all over 

 with it. He then daubs her all over with the muddied water from the 

 bowl, the moistened dust of the drawing of the Father of the Day. This 

 being completed, he places the gourd rind against the lower end of the 

 sick one's breast bone and sings a song to the gods to help her, the 

 musicians with tom-toms aiding him in the singing. 



Scene 27. — The sick one is carried from the medicine disk inclosure; 

 and the medicine drawing is at once obliterated. 



Scene 28.— Subtitle: "The Medicine Dance." 



A huge fire is kindled in the center of a level area among the 

 hills. Here are assembled all the people of the valley. Around the 

 fire in a great circle they are squatted on deer skins. At one end and 

 within the circle are the doctors and musicians; but the dancers and 

 sick one have not yet arrived. 



