144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
from the ceremonial house. When the tabooed area is established the 
War captain announces this fact publicly and warns people not to enter 
it. He then stations one of his assistants (a gaotcanyi) to stand guard 
near the house for the 4-day period. If the gaotcanyi sees someone 
cross the line, he at once notifies one of the medicinemen in the house. 
The medicineman comes out and ties the feather badge upon the side 
of the head of the trespasser. This person now ‘‘belongs to the 
society”’; he is taken into the ceremonial house and inducted into the 
society then and there. A former member of the Fire society at Sia 
was trapped and inducted by the Fire society of Jemez. 
If a person should throw a stone on top of a society’s ceremonial 
house during an initiation ceremony he would be caught and inducted. 
Little children who are so small that they do not realize what they 
are doing when they cross the taboo lines are nevertheless caught and 
inducted. 
Apart from trapping, there is a procedure that one must follow if he 
himself wishes to join a society or if he wishes to put one of his chil- 
dren in. One must obtain the permission and consent of the head of 
the Flint society, the War captain, and the Tiamunyi, but I am not 
sure of the order in which they are asked. If one of these should refuse 
“that would be the end of it’’; but it is said that permission is vir- 
tually never withheld. After these three have given their permission 
the person who wishes to join, or to put a child in, calls a meeting, to 
be held in his house, of all his close relatives, at which time the matter 
is discussed. The relatives give their consent. Then the person has 
his mother grind some prayer meal (petana). An elderly male mem- 
ber of the clan of the petitioner, ‘‘who knows how,” makes a little 
packet of meal wrapped in a cornhusk. The petitioner prays into the 
meal, after which the clansman takes it in the morning to the head of 
the society in which membership is desired. If nawai accepts it, as he 
is virtually certain to do, he will call a meeting of the members of his 
society for the following evening. If they accept the meal it will be 
divided among them, and in this way their consent to the petition is 
indicated. 
In former times a period of either 2 or 4 years had to elapse between 
the acceptance of a petitioner by a society and his formal induction. 
During this time the candidate had to raise corn, especially in the 
year immediately prior to the initiation, which he would need for the 
ceremony. This food and many other things are given to the 
society members at the time of initiation. 
An informant told me of still another way in which a person might 
become a member of a society, and he cited a particular instance that 
had occurred not long prior to 1957. It is the only case of its sort that 
I have ever heard of among the Keresan pueblos. The informant 
