BULL. 30] 



CEREMONY 



227 



Indians are regarded as ceremonies, such 

 as the rites which pertain to birtli, pu- 

 berty, marriage, death, war, etc., but in 

 the arbitrarily restricted sense in which 

 the term is here used a ceremony is un- 

 derstood to be a rehgious performance 

 of at least one day's duration. These 

 ceremonies generally refer to one or 

 the other of the solstices, to the germi- 

 nation or ripening of a crop, or to the 

 most important food supply. There are 

 ceremonies of less importance that are 

 connected with the practices of medicine- 

 men or are the property of cult societies. 

 Ceremonies may be divided into those in 

 which the whole tribe participates and 

 those which are the exclusive property of 

 a society, generally a secret one, or of a 

 group of men of special rank, such as 

 chiefs or medicine-men, or of an individ- 

 ual. Practically all ceremonies of ex- 

 tended duration contain many rites in 

 common. An examination of these rites, 

 as they are successively performed, reveals 

 the fact that they follow one another in 

 prescribed order, as do the events or epi- 

 ' Bodes of the ritual. 



The ritual, or that part of the cere- 

 mony W'hich is spoken or sung, predom- 

 inates among some tribes, as the Pawnee; 

 among others, as the Hopi, it is greatly 

 subordinated to the drama. 



In enumerating the rites of the cere- 

 monies it may be noted, first, that they 

 may be divided into secret and public, 

 the secret rites being proprietary, and, as 

 a rule, occupying the major part of the 

 time of the ceremony. The rites of the 

 public performance may be considered as 

 the actual play or drama. The secret 

 rites are almost invariably performed 

 in a specially constructed lodge, room, 

 or chamber, into which none but the 

 priests or initiated may enter, and which 

 is generally indicated in such a man- 

 ner that the public may not mistake 

 it. Early in point of time in the secret 

 rites is the procession of the priests for 

 objects or raw material to be used in 

 the preparation of an altar, which may 

 be either secret or public, or to be 

 used for paraphernalia or otherwise in 

 the public performance. This proces- 

 sion of priests is generally symbolic, 

 and the uninitiated may not accompany 

 them. The remaining secret perform- 

 ances include such rites as smoking, 

 which may be either fraternal or direct 

 offerings in the nature of a sacrifice to the 

 gods; thurification, similar in origin to 

 the rite of smoking, in which the smoke 

 of some sweet-smelling herb is offered 

 direct to the deity, or the priest bathes 

 his body, or some object of a special cere- 

 monial nature, in the smoke of the in- 

 cense; sweat-lodge purification; a cere- 

 monial feast, preceded or followed by a 



sacrifice of food; the offering of prayers' 

 which may be in the form of a direct 

 appeal to the gods or through the instru- 

 mentality of material prayer offerings, 

 upon which, or into which, the prayer 

 has been breathed; and the manufacture 

 or redecoration of ceremonial masks and 

 garments to be worn during the public 

 performance, either by the priests exclu- 

 sively or by all those taking part in the 

 ceremony. 



Occupying in point of time a period 

 between the exclusively secret perform- 

 ances and the public i:)resentation of the 

 drama may be certain semi-public per- 

 formances, which take place in the open 

 but which are undertaken by priests ex- 

 clusively. Such is the preparation of 

 the site of the public performance, or the 

 erection of a bower or lodge within which 

 it is to take place. Either within this 

 inclosure, or lodge, or within the secret 

 lodge of preparation, an altar may be 

 erected. This is especiallj^ the case with 

 the ceremonies of the Pueblos and of the 

 Plains tribes (see Altari<), among which 

 it is always symbolic, and its explana- 

 tion must generally be sought in the 

 ritual. It often symbolizes, as a whole, 

 the earth or the heavens, or some god or 

 the home of a god or the gods. The 

 most prominent feature of the altar is a 

 palladium, which may consist of a buffalo 

 skull, an ear of corn, a flint knife, or some 

 other object of supposed efficacious na- 

 ture, within which is 8ui:)posed to reside 

 or which is typical or symbolic of the 

 spirit or deity. On the altar, also, is gen- 

 erally found a recognition in one form 

 or another of the gods of the four or six 

 world-quarters, of the rainl)Ow, of the 

 lightning, of vegetation, etc. Falling 

 within this semi-public period is often a 

 contest, generally a foot race, the winner 

 being favored by the gods or receiving 

 some tangible object which possesses 

 magic potency. 



The public performance is usually 

 ushered in by a stately procession of 

 priests, the singing of traditional songs, 

 rites of smoking, sacrifice of food, ancl 

 offerings of prayer. The most prominent 

 feature is the dance, which, as a rule, is of 

 a dignified and stately nature, the dancers 

 being appropriately costumed and other- 

 wise adorned. The costume worn in pub- 

 lic is often supplemented with paint upon 

 the body or by masks over the face. The 

 dancer, thus arrayed, generally represents 

 a minor deity, or he places himself, by 

 virtue of the character of his costume, in 

 an attitude of defiance to the deity and 

 thus opposes his magic power to that of 

 the supernatural. Following the dance, 

 which may vary in duration from a few 

 minutes to several days, is generally a 

 ceremonial removal of the costume, 



