82 THE SIA. 



gathered before the altar, and each, taking a pinch of meal from the 

 meal bowl, .sprinkled the altar and returned to their seats. The ya'ni- 

 *siwittaniii lifted the shell of pollen from before the altar, and, passing 

 to the entrance and opening the door, waved his rattle along the line of 

 meal and out of the door. After repeating the waving of the rattle 

 he passed his hand over the line and threw out the pollen from his 

 fingers, as offering to the Snake ho'naaite. Returning to the altar, he 

 stood while the ho'naaite dipped his plumes into the medicine water 

 and sprinkled the altar by striking the plumes with the rattle. After 

 the ya'ni'siwittaniii and ho'naaite had returned to the line, the cloud- 

 maker (a member of the Spider Society), who sat at the north end, 

 crossed the line of meal, and, holding his eagle plumes and rattle in his 

 left hand, lifted with his right the reed wluch lay across the cloud 

 bowl, and, transferring it to his left, he held it and the plumes vertically 

 while he prayed. . The vice ho'naaite dipped ashes fiom the fire-place 

 with his eagle plumes, holding one in either hand, sprinkled the cloud- 

 mak*r for purification, and threw the remainder of the ashes toward 

 the choir. During his prayer, which continued for eight minutes, the 

 cloud-maker appeared like a statue. At the close of the prayer he 

 dropped into the cloud bowl a quantity of to'chainitiwa (a certain 

 root used by the cult societies to produce suds, symbolic of the clouds), 

 and .sprinkled with corn polleu the surface of the water, which was 

 already quite covered with it; then, taking the reed in his right hand 

 and still holding it vertically, he began a regular and rapid movement 

 with the reed, in a short time producing a .snowy-white froth, which, 

 under his dextrous manipulation, rapidly rose high above the bowl, and 

 fell from it in cascades to the floor. The bowl stood on a cincture pad 

 of yucca, a circle of meal symbolic of the heart or life of the water having 

 been first made. The reed was never raised from the bowl during the 

 stirring of the water. When the clouds wei-e perfected the song ceased, 

 and the cloud-maker stood the reed in the center of the .suds, which 

 now wholly concealed the bowl. He then rose, and, after holding 

 his two eagle ijlumes in his left hand for a moment, he changed one 

 to the right hand and began dancing before the altar; presently he 

 dipped a quantity of suds from the ba.se of the bowl with his two eagle 

 plumes, and threw tliem to the north of the altar; again dipping the 

 suds, he threw them to the south; continuing to dance to the music of 

 the rattle and the song, he dipped the suds and threw them to the fire- 

 place; dipping them again, he threw them to the earth, each time witli 

 an invocation to the cloud ijeo^jle. As he threw the suds to the earth 

 two of the choir dipped their plumes into the bowl of medicine water 

 and sprinkled the altar by striking the upper sides of the plumes with 

 their rattles. The cloud-maker again dipped up the suds, and, facing 

 east, threw them toward the zenith ; he then dipped the suds and de- 

 posited them in the center of the basket containing the phrme offer- 

 ings; then waving his eagle plumes from north to south, he continued 



