316 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bul. 184 
MEDICINE BOWLS 
Each society, with the exception of the Opi, has one or more pot- 
tery medicine bowls. ‘They are placed upon the meal or sandpaint- 
ings during ceremonies, and ‘‘medicines” (wawa) are mixed in them. 
The medicines consist, in the main, I believe, of plant materials, but 
I am not sure that minerals are not used. In curing ceremonies 
patients and their relatives are given the medicine to drink; in the 
rain ceremonies, suds are produced in the bowls to simulate clouds 
(Stevenson has vivid descriptions of uses of medicine bowls in her eye- 
witness accounts of curing and rain ceremonies). 
Figure 51 illustrates a medicine bowl of the Shima society. The 
slip is an “‘off white’’; the designs have been painted on in black; the 
bottom is brick red. The three faces represent clouds; they are 
surmounted by a rainbow and lightning. The horned snakes (tscts, 
water; cro-wi, snakes) have lightning tongues and clouds on their 
bodies. The insect is a dragonfly. Frogs or tadpoles might be shown 
on the other side of the bowl. 
Ficure 52.—Medicine bowl of Koshairi society. 
