KARSTEN] BLOOD REVENGE, WAR, AND VICTORY FEASTS 73 



his house siirronnded by large and flourishing plantations of manioc 

 and bananas; they will see his domestic animals, his swine, and his 

 chickens, numerous and fat, etc. But at the same time the persons who 

 have drunk the sacred drink will be benefited for their own part 

 Jilso, being purified from impure and disease-bringing matters, and 

 gaining strength and ability for their respective works and occu- 

 pations. 



The drinking of the natema in the morning is as usual followed 

 by a general drinking bout — in which, however, those persons who 

 have drunk natema do not take part — as well as by a general ban- 

 quet, at which the flesh of the swine and chickens cooked during the 

 night is eaten. ^ With this banquet the official part of the morning's 

 program is finished, and hosts and guests may pass the rest of the 

 day until darkness as they like. 



At about 6 o'clock in the evening the preparations for the night's 

 dance commence, the host (i. e., the slayer) again going round in 

 the house and inviting the guests to take part in it. All having 

 properly dressed themselves, arranged their ornaments, and painted 

 their faces, the hantsemata begins and is continued through the whole 

 night exactly in the same way as on the previous night. Even the 

 wrestling of the boys takes place for a while. The dance is continued 

 until about half past 5 in the morning, being as usual finished off by 

 a general bath in the river. 



The Third Day of the Fj:ast : Nihantsa Nihartinyu, " The Wash- 

 ing OF THE TsANTSA " 



Like all ceremonies at the tsantsa feast, the " washing of the 

 tsantsa " commences about 8 o'clock in the morning, or about two 

 hours after the dance of the last night has been finished. The priest 

 {whuea) has previously been engaged in preparing juice of tobacco 

 mixed with saliva, by carefully chewing the leaves and spitting out 

 the juice into the small clay pot {nattipya) . from which he will ap- 

 portion it out to the persons who play the principal parts in the 

 ceremonies. A small clay pot filled with water has, by means of 

 some strips of bast, been tied to one of the chonta pillars in the 

 middle of the house. From this pot the priest now and then takes 

 a little water in his mouth while chewing the tobacco leaves. The 

 priest having in this way provided a sufficient quantity of tobacco 

 juice in his nattipya, the preparations for the ceremony, "the wash- 

 ing of the tsantsa^^'' begin. 



The principal persons of the feast, the slayer, his wife and daugh- 

 ter, the priest, and a medicine man, assemble at a spot in the middle of 

 the house. The women arrange themselves around them, forming 

 a ring or semicircle, all having their rattles around their waists and 

 2119°— 23 6 



