994. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
The doctors will be dressed like the Snake priest in figure 17, except 
that they do not wear the kilt; they wear only the breechcloth. When 
they are ready they notify the patient’s family that they wish to 
have their supper. Close female relatives of the sick one bring food 
in, and the doctors eat. One or two doctors wrap scraps of food in 
a piece of paper bread (m4-tsinyi) and take them outdoors ‘“some- 
where” and offer them, with prayers, to their spirit helpers. If any 
food remains it is distributed, first to the male, then to the female, 
members of the society. The women members are there merely as 
helpers, to bring water, and clean up afterward; they do not partici- 
pate in the curing ritual itself. 
After supper the medicinemen are ready for the patient, and either 
he is brought into the society’s chamber or the doctors go to his 
house, depending on which society is in charge. If the patient is to 
be brought to the curing chamber two or three medicinemen go to 
fetch him. They carry him if he is not able to walk. The curing 
MMMN MM 
! 
' 
i 
i 
‘ 
I 
| 
| 
/ 
MEMBERS OF 
PATIENTS CLAN 
SIT HERE 
Figure 45.—Diagram of a curing ceremony. M=medicinemen; N=nawai, or head of 
the society; I=iariko (corn-ear fetish); F= fetishes placed here and there; B=medicine 
bowl; A=a:sa, or water bowl; K=kohaiya (bear), or ma-ca’inyi (bear foreleg skins); 
Oy=Oyoyewi; P=patient; Ma=Masewi. The sand painting, upon which the corn 
ears and other fetishes are placed, is shown in figure 43. 
