SWANTON] THE PISHOFA CEREMONY 261 
one group [or moiety] to be present at the Picdéfa of the other group, as his 
presence would nullify the good effect of the ceremony.” 
The vigorous actions of the dancers were supposed to communi- 
cate strength to their kinsman, and every effort was made to have 
him sit up so as to receive the full benefit of it and assist it by the 
exertion of his own powers. When the dancers scattered at the end 
of the ceremony it was believed that the disease would tend to become 
scattered also, each participant taking a part of it with him. It is 
furthermore said that the doctor sometimes transferred the disease 
to a piece of meat in the stew served to the feasters, this meat being 
taken from the bird whose feathers were used on the wands, and 
that whoever got that piece would carry the disease off with him. 
When the dance broke up, or, according to some, after the fourth 
dance, the doctor’s waiters (tishu) ran to the wands or other sacred 
objects about the fire and seized them. They then ran with them to 
the ceremonial fire, jumped over it, and carried them 20 or 30 paces 
beyond it or as much farther as the doctor had directed, and there 
threw them away. This action was also supposed to remove the 
disease from the patient. For three days after this dance the sick 
man must not expose himself to the public gaze. : 
Evidently the doctors had regard to possible fatal consequences 
for themselves should the patient die, for it is said that if he were 
very low no one could be gotten to treat him. 
Some say that the Choctaw formerly had dances like these, but I 
think their own ancient ceremonies differed, though they may some- 
times have imitated Chickasaw rites. 
Adair thus records a dance supposed to be efficacious in keeping 
away evil spirits and wizards: 
In the summer season of the year 1746 I chanced to see the Indians playing 
at a house of the former Missisippi-Nachee, on one of their old sacred musical 
instruments. It pretty much resembled the Negroe-Banger in shape but far 
exceeded it in dimensions, for it was about five feet long and a foot wide on 
the head-part of the board, with eight strings made out of the sinews of a 
large buffalo. But they were so unskillful in acting the part of the Lyrick 
that the Loache, or prophet, who held the instrument between his feet and 
alongside of his chin, took one end of the bow, whilst a lusty fellow held the 
other; by sweating labour they scraped out such harsh, jarring sounds as 
might have been reasonably expected by a soft ear to have been sufficient to 
drive out the devil if he lay anywhere hid in the house. When I afterward 
asked him the name and the reason of such a strange method of diversion, he 
told me the dance was called Keetla Ishto Hoollo, “a dance to or before the 
great holy one”;*” that it kept off evil spirits, witches, and wizards from the 
red people and enabled them to ordain elderly men to officiate in holy things, 
as the exigency of the times required. 
“4 Speck, op. cit., pp. 55-56. 
16 Hita ishto holo, “ dance of the spirit or spirits’; hita, ‘“‘dance’’; ishto, ‘* big”; holo, 
what is “ holy,” “sacred,” or “ supernatural.” 
