stkvenson] 



FINDING OF THE MEDDLE PLACE 45 



grandchildren, boy and girl, were discovered sitting by a meal symbol 

 of clouds upon the tloor. Their ears and nostrils were closed with 

 raw cotton, and they were bending over a hc'pikia tehl'i (urinal) in 

 which the old man had deposited sunflower and other medicine, the 

 fumes of which they were inhaling to save them from the killing odors 

 of the A'shiwi. Some of the A'shiwi exclaimed: ''These people are 

 dead." The old man replied: "Weare not dead; we were the Yellow 

 Corn people; you have destroyed or driven off all but ourselves; we 

 are saved by inhaling my medicine, but it has made our corn, which 

 Ave hold in our belts, black, and we are now the Black Corn people." 

 Since that time they and their descendants have been called the Black 

 Corn people. 



Some of the A'shiwi wished to kill these people, ])ut the Kia'kwe- 

 mosi said: ''No, they may have an et'tone.'' The Kia'kwemosi, 

 endeavoring to learn more from the aged man, said: "We will cause 

 your death if you remain here." " No, you can not do that; I possess 

 o-reat things," replied the old shi'wanni, pointing to his et'tone, which 

 was immediately before him and over which he leaned to inhale the 

 medicine from the bowl. 



The Kia'kwemosi was pleased to find that the old man possessed an 

 et'tone, and said to him, ''You must remain with us; you will remain 

 in your house four days and sing your songs for rain, and we will see 

 what you can do with your et'tone (there were many houses in He'sho- 

 tayalla, ])ut all the others had been deserted, for the people fled from 

 their houses before they died); then I will bring out my et'tone and 

 sing my songs for rain." "No," said the old man, '"you shall sing 

 your songs iirst; you are perhaps greater than I." "No,"' replied the 

 kia'kwemosi, ''you were here first, and you shall sing first." After 

 much talking, the Black Corn shi'wanni went into retreat for four 

 days and sang his songs for rain, and much fell; after the fourth 

 day the Kia'kwemosi placed his et'tone in a room and sat four days 

 and sang, and his songs brought much rain. The two became fast 

 friends, and the old priest and his family were adopted into the A'shiwi 

 tribe. Since his death his et'tone has been in the possession of the 

 old priest's descendants, the Kwin'nakwe (Black Corn people)." 



Through the friendship of the shi'wanni having this fetish in his 

 keeping the writer was ena])led to photograph by flashlight the cham- 

 ber in which this et'tone is kept. (The et'tone is not in view in the 

 picture.) This old priest was the keeper of the fetish Ko'loowi'si 

 (Plumed Serpent), and had the privilege of painting an elaborate ser- 

 pent on the wall of the chamber. Other et'towe rooms do not have 

 this decoration (see plate xxxvi). 



aXhe Ot'toni^, said to have come from the Shi'wanni of He'shotiyiil'la, was the fetish of an aged 

 shi'wanni. the last of the Black Corn chin, supposed to 1)6 the direct descendant of the people of this 

 village. Since his death in 1902 the Ot'tonC (invariable bringer of good) has remained permanently 

 in its resting place, as no other priest is privileged to bring it out. 



