White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 317 
Figure 52 shows a medicine bowl of the Koshairi society. A frog 
and two lizards are modeled on the sides in high relief; a horned toad 
might be on the other side. The designs are painted in black; the 
faces represent clouds, as does the terraced rim. Beneath the frog 
is a butterfly; on either side is a dragonfly. 
ALTARS 
The word ‘altars’ has been used extensively by ethnographers 
among the Pueblos to designate two quite different things: (1) a 
structure made of wooden slats, arranged both horizontally and ver- 
tically, carved and painted, which is erected at the rear of a sand, or 
meal, painting; and (2) a design made of cornmeal, pollen, or colored 
sands, minerals, or earth pigments, or a combination of these mate- 
rials, on the floor of a ceremonial chamber; the designs often rep- 
resent clouds and lightning; sometimes horned snakes, animals, bird 
tracks, Indians, and mythological beings are depicted. My inform- 
ants were quite willing to use the English word “altar” to designate 
either the wooden device or the floor design. 
The wooden slat altar is called a-tce.nc; I was told at Santa Ana that 
this is the ceremonial word for house (White, 1942 a, p. 330, n. 3). 
Many sketches, drawn by informants (sometimes redrawn by White 
artists), of these altars are to be found in other monographs on the 
Keres as well as in this one; Stevenson photographed several of them, 
publishing either the photographs themselves or drawings made from 
them. There is much specific variation among them, but also a 
marked generic likeness, The slat altar is never used, I believe, with- 
out the accompanying sand or meal painting, upon which medicine 
bowls, iarikos, and fetishes are placed. These altars are kept and 
used from year to year until they wear out; I believe they may be re- 
painted from time to time. 
The sand (or mineral pigment) or meal or pollen painting is called 
h‘a-atsi (‘earth’; mother earth is called naiya, ‘mother,’ h‘a-atsi). At 
Santo Domingo (White, 1935, p. 11) and at Santa Ana (White, 1942 a, 
p. 21) I learned to call sand and meal paintings yaBicinyr. A good 
Sia informant explained that a yasdcmy: is “‘a h‘a-atsi upon which 
iarikos and other paraphernalia have been placed” (at San Felipe, 
however, “this lay-out of paraphernalia—particularly the meal paint- 
ing and the fetishes—is known as ya-Baiciun.” (White, 1932 b, p. 44). 
Sand or meal paintings always accompany the use of the wooden slat 
altar, as we have just seen, but they may be used independently of 
the slat altar on certain occasions. 
A common pattern in many ceremonies is to have the slat altar 
erected, behind which the medicinemen sit and sing; in front of the 
atcinyi is the meal or sand painting with the iarikos, fetishes, and 
medicine bowls placed upon it; a “‘road’’ of meal, over which spirits 
