BoriiKB.] CEREMONIAL USE OF DOWN OF BIRDS. 533 



t/.itf . malol-ixim, esto es: el quo adivina por el sol, 6 por granos de 

 maiz 6 chile.&quot; 1 



In Guazaeualco the medicine-women &quot;hechaban suertes con granos de 

 Frisoles, a maucra de Dados, i haciau sus invocacioues, porque eran 

 Hechieeros: i si el Dado decia bien, proseguian en la enra, diciendo 

 que sanaria: i si mal. no bolvian al enfermo.&quot; 2 



Herrera in the preceding paragraph recognizes the close similarity 

 between this sacred ceremony of casting lots or divining, and the more 

 orthodox method of gambling, pure and simple, which has in every case 

 been derived from a sacred origin. 



&amp;lt; Les Hachus [one class of Peruvian priests] consul talent 1 avenir an 

 moyen de, grains de ina is on des excrements des animaux. 



The Mexicans &quot;para saber si los enfermos habian de morir, 6 sanar 

 de la enfermedad quo tenian, echaban unpufiadode inai/ lo mas grueso 

 qne podian haber, y lanzabanlo siete 6 ocho voces, como lanzau los dados 

 los que losjuegan, y si algun grano quedaba enhiexto, deeian que era 

 senal de mnerte.&quot; 4 



Father Brebanif relates that at the Huron feast of the dead, which 

 occurred every 8 or 10 years and which he saw at Ossossane, &quot; a few 

 grains of Indian corn were thrown by the women upon the sacred 

 relics. 5 



THE DOWN OF BIRDS IN CERKMONIAL OHSKRVANCES. 



No exhaustive, and accurate examination of the subject of hoddentin 

 could be made without bringing tin; investigator face to face with the 

 curious analogue of &quot;down&quot; throwing and sprinkling which seemingly 

 obtains with tribes which at some period of their history have been 

 compelled to rely upon birds as a. main component of their diet. Ex 

 amples of this are to be met with on both sides of the Pacific as well 

 as in remote Australia, and were the matter more fully examined there 

 is no doubt that some other identifications might be made in very 

 unexpected quarters. The down used by the Tchuktchi on occasions 

 of ceremony had a suggestion of religion about it.&quot; &quot; On leaving the 

 shore, they sung aud danced. One who stood at the head of the boat 

 was employed in plucking out the feathers of a bird s skin and blowing 

 them in the air.&quot; 



In Langsdorffs Travels 7 we learn that some of the dancers of the 

 Koliischau of Sitka have their heads powdered with the small down 

 feathers of the white-headed eagle and ornamented with ermine; also, 

 that the hair and bodies of the Indians at the mission of Saint Joseph, 

 California, were powdered with down feathers.&quot; 



1 Ximenez. Guatemala, p. 177. 



2 Herrera, dec. 4. lib. a, cap. 8, p. 18H. 



* Balboa, Hist. (In Perou, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 15. p. 29. 



4 Meudieta, Hist. Eclesiastica Intl., p. 110. 



5 Henrv Youle Hind, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Kxped., vol. 2, pp. 105, 166. 



&quot;Lisiansky, Voyage Round tbe World, London, 1814, pp. 153,221, 223. 



7 Londoii. 1814, pt. 2. pi. in. p. li:t. 



&quot;Ibid., pi. iv. pp. 104.195. 



