260 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [PTH. ANN. 44 
A treatment was given early in the morning and it was repeated 
later in the forenoon and twice in the afternoon. Four is the magic 
number throughout most of the Southeast and therefore there were 
probably but four treatments in all, though one of my informants 
thought there might be six. Four treatments were also given on the 
second day and four on the third. 
At noon on the last day of the ceremony those who were to take 
part in the dance—according to Speck, those who belonged to the 
clan, or rather the house group, of the patient’s moiety—assembled 
and feasted until night. The food was usually prepared by two 
women, especially appointed for the purpose, at a second fire near 
the southeast corner of the yard and directly south of the ceremonial 
fire. The feasters sat in two rows, one on each side of the line be- 
tween the fire and the door, the women on one side and the men on the 
other. A split log was laid down for each and the food was placed 
on the ground in front of them. At sundown the fire was built up 
higher and the dance began, continuing all night. The fire was not 
maintained all night, however, unless the weather was cold; other- 
wise they let it die out and continued dancing by the light of the 
moon. In the middle of the open space or by the fire sat a man with 
a drum made of a keg with a deerskin stretched over the open end. 
The women seldom sang but they wore on their calves rattles made 
of terrapin shells containing pebbles and covered with bison hide. 
The dance leader was called tikba héka. Some doctors specified 
that the dance must begin in the middle of the open space; others 
had it start at the door, the women coming round from one side 
and the men from the other. Dancing was confined for the most part 
to the space between the house and the fire, but as the night wore on 
the participants would vary it by completely encircling the fire and 
even the house, as in the bean dance. 
Speck has the following to say regarding these dances: 
The order is single file, with the leader at the head, all the rest stepping in 
unison with their bodies inclined forward. The leader wears a feather or 
some symbol to indicate the animal to which the dance is addressed. He sings 
the song of that dance, for the most part composed of meaningless syllables, a 
sort of chorus being taken up by the other dancers in response to the first 
trophy. The dances are propitiatory and are also performed as prayers to the 
various animal deities and totems for the relief of the afflicted person. The 
first dance of the Picéfa is named from the animal that is believed to be 
responsible for the patient’s trouble. This is to strengthen the medicine... . 
Dancers paint their cheeks and forehead red; the chief shaman, however, is 
usually unadorned. 
The dancing is continued until sunrise, then the shaman’s assistant and 
three or four others take an emetic, but must have finished with it before the 
sun appears. They then take a bath, and the ceremony is concluded. It is 
considered a grave offense, frequently punishable by death, for a member of 
