STEVENSON] DANCE OF THE KIA'nAKWE 217 



b}" the police, who are ever alert to preserve order when there are a 

 number of Navahos in the town. 



The dancing- girls who accompany the warriors dance on, apparently 

 unconscious of the hilarity around them. As each set of warriors 

 appears in the plaza, the women of their families and women of their 

 clans and their wives' clans bring baskets laden with various articles 

 of food and deposit them on the ground at the back of the warriors, 

 whom they sprinkle with sacred meal. As soon as each couple of 

 warriors are through with the sacred ceremonies in the plaza, tho^- 

 don the ordinary clothing and throw the contents of their respective 

 baskets to the crowd. The number and quality of the gifts of each 

 warrior depends upon the wealth and extravagance of his family and 

 clan connections, many of them throwing quantities of calico and 

 ribbon. Nai'uchi, elder brother Bow priest, is lavish with his gifts. 

 After throwing yards of calico, ribbon, and quantities of food, he 

 leaves the plaza, to return in a short time clad in new black cloth 

 trousers and vest, with a fine long silk scarf wound round his head. 

 All of these are removed and thrown to the crowd. He is fnily 

 attired under this suit, Nai'uchi's gifts are eagerh^ sought. 



The girls continue their dancing until the evening shadows fall over 

 the plaza, when two warriors, with the choir of the Up"sannawa ki'wi^- 

 sine, leave the plaza, going toward the east, and two warriors, with the 

 choir of the Chu'pawa ki' wi*sine, going to the west. The writer follows 

 the latter and sees the party divide in the street before the Chu'pawa 

 ki'wi'sine, forming into vis-a-vis lines. Rows of men and women, 

 each holding a bit of cedar bark, stand on the roofs of the houses 

 near by. A theurgist of the Ne'wekwe (Galax)') fraternity walks 

 back and forth between the two lines of warriors, passing down the 

 body of each, to carry off disease, two eagle-wing feathers, while 

 he repeats an inaudible prayer. At intervals during this ceremony 

 those on the house tops expectorate three times upon the cedar bark 

 and carry it in the hands from left to right around the head,simu!t;i- 

 neously repeating a prayer. Then all separate, each havin-;- his head 

 washed in yucca suds by the appropriate woman." The writer accom- 

 panies one of the warriors, whose head is bathed by th(> wife of llie 

 elder brother Bow priest. The woman afterward bathos tli{> head of 

 the warrior's mother, and then all the members of tiu' family hav(^ 

 their heads washed. 



QUADRENNIAL DAXCP: OF THE KIA'NAKWE 



The dance of the Kok'ko ko'han (white gods) is so called from the 

 Kia'nak've^ having been clothed in white and having slept under white 



aThe top of the head is slightly washed, and then a forelock is vigorously bathed, t'le one doing 

 the washing repeating a prayer for health, prosperity, nnd ■! trood heart. Kacli hand iiml arm to the 

 elbow is also thoroughly bathed. 



''See Destruction of the Kla'nakwe, and songs of it'iuii<\.:.v ng. 



