White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 217 
medicine society they will ask for three; if he were not they usually 
ask for only two. The head of the society does not need to officiate 
if he has someone who can take his place. The society is notified by 
having a member of the family of the deceased, usually a grand- 
father, take a handful of prayer meal (petana) to the head of the 
society who always accepts it and divides it among the members he 
wishes to have help him. 
During the 4 days between the occurrence of death and the soul- 
dispatching ceremony, the members of the deceased’s household will 
busy themselves preparing food for the mortuary ceremony. They 
prepare ‘‘the kinds of food that the deceased ate while he was here on 
this earth.” 
On the morning of the fourth day the medicinemen meet in their 
ceremonial house to make prayersticks for the dead and to make any 
other preparations that may be necessary. At about botsidyuye (1 or 
2 o’clock in the afternoon) they go to the house of the deceased. 
Each medicineman has his iariko (corn-ear fetish); they have a medi- 
cine bowl (waititcanyi) and one or two paiyatyamo (little stone fig- 
ures). They seat themselves with the sheepskin, corn ear, poker, and 
meal and pollen in front of them. The nawai talks: ‘‘We are here 
now and are about to send so-and-so’s breath away from his house, 
back to Shipap, etc.”” Then the medicinemen remove their clothes 
except for the breechcloth and put on their bear-claw necklaces. 
They remove the beads, the corn ear, and the poker and put them to 
one side. Then they make a little meal painting on the floor where 
these things had been (fig. 25). On this they place their medicine 
bowl and mix some medicine in it, the water for this purpose being 
brought by a woman of the household. A road is made from the 
ha’atsi (meal painting) to the door. It is a road drawn with two 
lines: one is made of cornmeal and begins where the corn ear had lain; 
the other is made with ashes and proceeds from the place where the 
poker had lain—again the symbolism of life and death. These roads 
go outside the door. 
Nawai asks the people if they have food which they wish to offer the 
soul before it is taken out of the house. They come forward with the 
food that they have prepared and offer it to the soul. Nawai begins 
to speak, saying that he ‘is feeding the tsats, etc.’”? While nawai 
talks, a medicineman arises, gets pieces of food, and places them on 
the left side of the meal painting as they face the door, making a little 
pile of them. Any kind of food is appropriate for this occasion, ‘‘even 
canned food or candy.’’? When the feeding of the soul is finished, the 
nawai orders all the food to be cleared away; any that remains is taken 
to the medicinemen’s house for their own use. The medicinemen 
sing three songs before the soul, with the food, is taken out of the 
