258 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
hunters come out with deer rifles, take aim at an animal, sometimes 
dropping on one knee to do so, and ‘‘shoot” it. The animal drops to 
the ground, the hunter runs up, puts the animal on his shoulder, and 
carries it to his, the hunter’s, house. There he lays the animal on the 
floor and treats it as he would a real deer brought home from the 
mountains. I entered the house of a friend once during such an oc- 
casion. There, lying on an old bear skin on the floor, was an 
‘“‘antelope”’, i.e., a small boy dancer. Bending over him, in a kneeling 
position, was the man of the house who had just “‘shot’’ the antelope 
and brought him to his house. The man had his back to me and I 
could not see clearly what he was doing, but he was occupied with the 
neck or head of the antelope-boy. After a time the antelope rose to 
his feet. At this point the wife came into the room from the kitchen 
bearing an Indian basket full of food: bread, a few tin cans of food, and 
so on, which she handed to her husband. He in turn placed it into the 
antelope-boy’s hands, continuing, however, to hold the basket him- 
self. Then the man began to talk: perhaps he was praying, or perhaps 
he was addressing the antelope, thanking him for coming to Sia. 
The wife and a small child stood by, facing the antelope and the man. 
Everyone was solemn and serious; no one paid the slightest attention 
to me. The man talked for 3 or4 minutes. When he had finished, 
he and the antelope left the house together, the latter carrying the 
basket of food. Only after they had left did the wife relax and speak 
tome. But no mention was made of the ritual I had just witnessed. 
The buffalo and the woman dancer, too, may be hunted, but they 
are merely led to the house, not carried. Dancing is resumed after 
the hunt. 
When the ceremony is over the dancers go to their house, where 
they are dismissed by Masewi and the head of the society which 
painted them. ‘Then they go down to the river and bathe; one inform- 
ant said that they could bathe in their own homes. 
The costumes of the dancers, with the exception of the buffalo 
heads, belong to individuals; the heads belong to the pueblo. In 
1941 Sia had four buffalo heads, one of which had been acquired from 
San Felipe in 1934. ‘They used to have buffalo heads made of bear 
skin and fur, but they had real buffalo horns.’”’ The Fire society has 
four pairs of bison horns; Koshairi has two pairs. 
These animal dances are, of course, associated with hunting: “They 
give the hunters power over the game.” Also, they bring moisture in 
the form of snow. At Cochiti, “the buffalo is considered to have un- 
usual curative powers’”’ (Lange, 1959, p. 328). 
Game animal dances are performed in all the Keresan pueblos and 
among the Tewa villages as well. There is an account of the cere- 
mony at Santa Ana in White (1942 a, pp. 296-302), illustrated with 
