154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



receives it before the end of phase I. At the beginning of the fifth, 

 sixth, or seventh song, the medicine man tells the girl to pray to 

 Changing Woman. One informant said: "She couldn't make that 

 prayer if she didn't have power." The girl's prayer is a short one — 

 da ha zhe esh dali. Ih sta nedlfheh ('Long life, no trouble, Changing 

 Woman') . 



II. NIZTAH 



('sitting') 



At the end of phase I, which may have lasted as long as 45 minutes 

 if 16 songs were sung, the singing and dancing cease. Five or ten 

 minutes elapse before the start of phase II. During this recess, the 

 medicine man and his drummers take a drink of tulipay (from a can 

 or pot provided by the girl's camp) or smoke a cigarette. They do 

 not move from their positions behind the girl. Welcoming this chance 

 to rest, she remains on the buckskin. 



Shortly before the first song in phase II, tul ihl esn makes her first 

 formal appearance of the day.^^ She comes out of her shade and walks 

 unescorted toward the center of the dance area. She is dressed in a 

 spotless new camp dress. Her loose unbraided hair has been freshly 

 washed. As she approaches the buckskin, the woman with whom the 

 girl has been dancing in phase I departs. For the remainder of 

 na ih es, na ihl esn will be the girl's partner. 



Unlike the pubescent girl, na ihl esn does not personify a mytholog- 

 ical character. Her function is to instruct the girl throughout na ih es, 

 nothing more. She does not receive power and consequently is never 

 considered holy. As was explained to me: 



Na ihl esn tells the girl what to do, and not to be scared or bashful. The girl 

 does not know what to do next, and someone must tell her. That's what she 

 [na ihl esn] does. She doesn't have any power at all, and the reason she does that 

 [instruct the girl] is because she helped put on the dance, and because they are 

 not relatives. 



For the two or four songs that make up the structure of phase II, 

 the pubescent gkl recreates the impregnation of Changing Woman by 

 the Sun. In 1920, P. E. Goddard (1920, pp. 426-427) was given the 

 following version of this incident.^" 



*' At one na ih es, na ihl esn did not take the place of the maternal relative until after two songs in phase 

 II had been sung. This was because, until that point, she had felt ill. 



3" Unfortunately, Goddard does not make clear the exact Identity of his informants, beyond saying that 

 they were White Moimtain Apache. However, further in the account from which the above quote is taken, 

 he mentions the gan dance. If my informants are correct In saying that Cibecue and Carrizo never per- 

 formed gan In connection with na ih es, we can be reasonably certain that Goddard 's informant was not of 

 either of these bands. 



