No.^Ter' ^^^' ^^^^ ^^ CHANGING WOMAN — BASSO 135 



and the place should be clean. I was at a sing one time and they hadn't cleaned 

 up the place. There were bottles and paper and tin cans lying around. The 

 medicine man picked up a can and threw it away real hard. He was mad be- 

 cause the place wasn't clean. He sang but he was mad. They should have 

 cleaned up. 



THE DANCE GROUND 



As related in the section on ndeh guhyaneh, na ih es may be held at 

 the pubescent girl's own camp, or if this location does not offer the 

 requisite features, elsewhere, usually some distance beyond the resi- 

 dential limits of Cibecue. Apaches prefer to give na ih es at home 

 because less work is required since it is not necessary to build wickiups, 

 shades, or food shelters. A tent may be set up, or a shade enlarged, 

 to accommodate the large stores of food but, ordinarily, the family 

 structures sufl&ce for this purpose. 



At a site beyond the community, four to seven structures are 

 erected. These always include a semipermanent wickiup in which 

 the girl and the members of her family live until 4 days after na ih es, 

 large shades in which great quantities of food are prepared, and small 

 corrallike food shelters for the storage of food, tulipay, etc. (fig. 3). 



Characteristically, these structures are built in two separate groups, 

 always some distance apart, and occasionally facing each other across 

 the dance area (fig. 4). One such camp (at the minimimi consisting 

 of one cooking shade and one food shelter) is used by na ihl esn and 

 her kin, the other by the relatives of the pubescent girl. All prepara- 

 tions are in the hands of the latter, and na ihl esn does not arrive 

 (nor do any of her relatives) at the dance ground until her shades 

 and food shelters have been built. 



The following account, which describes in some detail preparations 

 for a dance ground located about 2 miles north of Cibecue, is quite 

 typical and indicates clearly the three stages through which the work 

 progresses. Shades and food shelters for the girl and her relatives 

 are built, and then those for na ihl esn and her kin. Finally, about 

 a week before na ih es, the dance area is cleared, firewood hauled, 

 and food prepared. By the beginning of the last stage, na ihl esn 

 has arrived at the site with her relatives and bi goh ji tal ('half -night 

 dance'), which is discussed later in this chapter, has begun. 



Stage One— July 17, 1960 : 



I took my family up there and the first night we slept in tents. The next 

 day my son and me and my wife made a big wickiup for my family. It had to 

 be big because I have lots of children. When that was finished, it was good for 

 the whole family. The next day, two of my brothers came up there and so did 

 my wife's father and my parents. The brothers didn't spend the night, but the 

 old people did, and they moved into the tents we had been using before. We 

 didn't do much that day. After that, when my brothers came back, we started 



