White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 297 
at this time, but my informants said that they would be “getting 
their things ready: their medicines, paraphernalia, etc.”” Hach morn- 
ing they drink herb brew and vomit. Sexual continence is observed. 
The family of the sick one will be preparing for the ceremony, too. 
They vomit every morning and observe sexual continence. They 
spend considerable time getting food ready to feed the doctors and 
relatives on the night of the cure and to give to the doctors as pay- 
ment of their services: they grind corn and wheat, bake bread, kill 
~ a cow or a sheep, etc. 
On the evening of the fourth day the sick one is taken into the 
chamber of the curing society. The doctors have their sand painting 
made on the floor and their paraphernalia—animal and anthropo- 
morphic fetishes, flint knives, bear paws, medicine bowls, iarikos, 
etc.—laid on, or near it. A gaotcanyi, armed with bow and arrow, 
stands guard outside the door of the chamber to prevent witches from 
coming inside. The doctors are sitting behind the altar singing when 
the patient is brought in, walking, or being carried, over a road of 
meal. The patient is placed next to the wall on the side, but a little 
to the front, of the sand painting. Masewi sits on one side of the 
patient, Oyoyewi on the other. The close relatives of the sick one 
sit at the end of the room opposite the meal painting (see fig. 45). 
The doctors sing for a while in order to induce the spirits of the an- 
imal tcaianyi (mountain lion, bear, badger, wolf, eagle, shrew (Sorex 
personatus, maidyup'), etc., to enter the chamber, traveling over the 
road of meal, and enter the little images of themselves on the sand 
painting. Since the doctors work only with supernatural power 
received from these animal doctors, it is essential that their spirits 
be present. One of the women members of the society brings in a 
bowl of water. It is now time to mix the medicine. One of the doc- 
tors comes out from behind the altar and pours six dippers of water 
into the waicti, one for each of the six directions. Songs are sung to 
the spirits (especially to the animal doctors) of the cardinal points as 
this is done. Then the doctors put their medicines into the medicine 
bowl; each one takes some powdered herbs from his buckskin bag and 
puts them into the water. They return to their places behind the 
altar and sing again. After a few songs they request all the relatives 
of the patient to go outside for a while. 
After about half an hour the relatives return to the curing chamber. 
The medicinemen are beginning to cure the patient. They go to the 
fireplace, rub ashes on their hands, and then feel all over the sick one’s 
body: ‘‘They are looking for the sickness,”’ i.e., the objects which the 
witches have ‘‘shot’’ into him. Whenever they find anything, they 
suck it out. Sticks, pebbles, thorns, rags, etc., are removed in this 
way. After a doctor sucks something out of the patient’s body, he 
