STEVENSON.) 



THE KNIFE SOCIETY. 107 



the weird exhortation, his body being kept in motion by the bending of 

 his knees, his feet scarcely leaving the ground. The rattle was wayed 

 three times from the west to the east, and then waved toward the west 

 and toward the altar, the east and to the altar; then, raising the rattle 

 high above his head, he formed a circle. This waving of the rattle was 

 repeated sixteen times. Previous to each motion he held the rattle 

 perfectly still, resting it on the eagle plumes which he held in the left 

 hand. 



After the sixteenth repetition he waved the rattle over the altar. 

 The song during this time is an appeal to the cloud people of the north, 

 west, south, east, and all the cloud peoples of the world, to gather and 

 send rain to water the earth, that all mankind may have the fruits of 

 the earth. The vicar then stood to the right of the ho'naaite, and the 

 choir, rising, continued to sing. The ho'naaite, leaning over the altar, 

 took two of the central ya'ya, one in either hand, and alternately raised 

 them, keeping time with the song, now and then extending the ya'ya 

 over the tiltar. The young novitiate held neither rattle or plumes. 

 The boy at the east end of the line, having passed through two degrees, 

 held his rattle in the right hand and in his left a miniature crook. The 

 vicar who stood at the right of the ho'naaite and the man who stood 

 to his left moved their rattles and feathers in harmony with his motion, 

 the three swaying their bodies back and forth and extending their 

 arms outward and upward. ^Vbout this time it was noticed that the 

 boys at the east end of the line had fallen asleep, and it was more than 

 the man who sat next to them could do to keep them awake, although he 

 was constantly brushing their faces with his eagle plumes. This little 

 scene was something of a picture, as the boy whose shoulder acted as 

 a support for the head of the other is the son of one of the most promi- 

 nent and richest men iu the pueblo, the other boy being the pauper 

 referred to. The stanzas iu this song were much longer than any before 

 heard by the writer, and each closed with a quick shake of the rattle. 

 The song continued an hour and a quarter, when the singers took a few 

 moments' rest, and again sang for thirty minutes; another few minutes' 

 rest, and the song again continued. In this way it ran from half past 

 9 o'clock until midnight. At its close one of the boys brought a vase 

 of water and a gourd from the southwest corner of the room and 

 placed it near the altar and west of the line of meal. The ya'ni'siwit- 

 tauBi stood before the vase, and, lifting two gourdfuls of water, emi)tied 

 them into the medicine bowl ; emptying two gourdfuls, also, into the 

 cloud bowl, he danced for a time before the altar, waving his plumes 

 and rattle over it; he then emptied two more gourdfuls into the medi- 

 cine bowl and two more into the cloud bowl, and resumed his dance. 

 He did not sing while performing this part of the ceremony, but when 

 emptying the water into the bowls he gave bird-like trills, calling for 

 the cloud people to gather. Again he emptied two gourdfuls into the 

 medicine bowl aud two in the cloud bowl; and after dancing a moment 



