312 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
sprinkled with stcamu:na (a black, sparkling powder; see “Glossary’’). 
The rest of the shaft is painted with red ocher (fig. 49). 
The tube, above the segment near the bottom, is filled with wild 
tobacco (BAits); it is tamped in until the tube is filled from the seg- 
ment almost to the top. Then two créwakai (magpie, Pica pica) tail 
feathers are inserted into the tube, into the tobacco, on the side where 
the highest point of the beveled end is: this is the ‘‘back”’ of the wicsi. 
One could use the feathers of the djack’* (road runner, Geococcyz cali- 
fornianus) if magpie feathers are not available. The top of the tube 
is then filled with Dyami cpaik’® (short, fluffy eagle feathers). Finally, 
one tail-, or wing-, feather of the cuti (rock wren, Salpinctes obsoletus) 
is inserted at the lowest point of the beveled end; this is the ‘face’ of 
the wicBi. 
Then the medicinemen ‘‘dress” the wicni. They make a blanket 
of unspun, native-grown cotton, about 20 inches long, 16 inches wide, 
and 2 inches thick. This is the wicsi’s timi, or clothing. The cotton 
blanket is laid on the floor and the wicsi is stood erect upon it, butt 
end down, in the middle of the blanket. Food, shells, beads, even a 
host from the Catholic church, or money, in very small pieces, are 
placed on the blanket near the wicsi. ‘Then one grasps the edge of 
the blanket at midpoint between the corners at each end and each side, 
one at a time, and brings the blanket to the wicsi as high as it will 
reach, leaving the corners of the blanket hanging down. The blanket 
is then tied firmly to the wicsi with a long string of beads. Feathers 
are stuck into the openings at each of the four corners. Itisnow ready 
to be taken out. 
The wicsi are taken out and buried at one or another of two sacred 
spots (tsapacroma): Cuwim: (‘Turquoise’) Tsinaotice (‘Point’) or Tsizi 
(see ‘Sacred Places’’). The Flint society always buries its wicBi at 
Turquoise Point; the other societies may choose either place. 
The medicinemen leave their house with the wicsi early in the morn- 
ing just before sunrise and bury it just as the sun shows itself above 
the horizon. They must sing ceremonial songs from the time they 
leave their house until they return. 
My informants were loath to discuss the meaning of this ceremonial: 
‘‘you’ve got to be tcaiyanyi [medicineman] to know that.” 
ACTITCO’M 
This is the so-called “‘pole”’ carried in the dance for the Blessed Vir- 
gin on August 15. It is used in all the Keresan pueblos, in Jemez, and 
among the Tewa as well. It is unquestionably one of the most con- 
spicuous items of Keresan paraphernalia, but very little indeed is 
known about it; informants are loath to discuss it and it has been dif- 
ficult even to ascertain its name (White, 1942 a, p. 344; Lange, 1959, 
