150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
which will qualify him for curing in a second induction ceremony held 
4 or 8 years later. 
A person who wishes to join the Fire society, or a parent who 
desires to have a child inducted, will take a packet of prayer meal to 
the head of the society with his petition for membership. ‘The head 
of the Fire society will give some of the meal to the head of Kapina 
society, and he in turn will give meal to the head of the Snake society. 
Each head man will distribute the meal to his own society’s members. 
All of them will then take part in the ceremony of induction. The 
Kapina and Fire societies help each other in initiation ceremonies; 
Kapina and Snake always help each other. The Snake society may 
assist the Fire society, but the latter would not assist the former in 
initiation ceremonies. A strip of cornhusk is enclosed in the packet 
of meal; it has knots tied in it, each knot indicating a year which 
must elapse before the family of the candidate will be ready for the 
initiation ceremony. 
When the time has come for the initiation, the Fire society will 
notify the candidate and his family. The members of the society 
retire to their ceremonial house for 4 days. During this time they 
will be making paraphernalia—an iariko (corn-ear fetish), fetishes, 
etc.—for the candidate. On the third day of their retreat the medi- 
cinemen will call the candidate in so that he may choose his “father” 
and “mother’’; these will be a male and a female member, respectively, 
of the Fire society. 
On the afternoon of the fourth day the candidate is called into 
the ceremonial house of the Fire society. They have their wooden 
slat altar up, their sand painting on the floor, and their fetishes and 
other paraphernalia laid out (fig. 13). The candidate stands before 
the sand painting, facing the altar behind which the medicinemen 
and women are sitting. The candidate’s ceremonial mother stands 
on his right side; his father, on his left. The medicinemen sing a 
song. When the song is ended, the head of the Fire society leaves 
his place behind the altar, goes to the end of the line of medicinemen 
and women who are seated behind the altar and takes a bunch of 
sticks from a basket which is held by one of the female members. 
These sticks are about 16 inches long and about one-tenth of an inch 
in diameter. They are split twigs of juniper (kanyi). Nawai dances, 
or marches, around the sand painting twice, going from west to 
north to east and to south. This is the reverse of the customary 
ceremonial circuit, and is a characteristic of the Fire society. He 
then goes to the fireplace and ignites his sticks. Then he goes around 
the sand painting twice more. The sticks are aflame by now. He 
stands on the south side of the ha’atsi, facing it. He thrusts the 
flaming sticks into his mouth. The flames are extinguished. He 
