STEVENSON] OKIGIN OF THE FRATERNITIES 415 



this foreign object in the body must be extracted, and the method 

 usuall}^ adopted is curious. Extravaganza before the altar and the 

 animal fetishes induces the spirit of the animal to enter the l)ody of 

 the theurgist, giving him the power to discover the afflicted part, which 

 is often done by holding a quartz crystal before the patient; the lips 

 are then applied to the flesh, and the disease is drawn out l)y suck- 

 ing/' A theurgist may be of either sex, but must l)e a person regu- 

 larly initiated into the order of Mystery medicine. Though young 

 children of both sexes enter this order, they do not practice healing 

 until, in the opinion of elder theurgists, they have reached years of 

 discretion, when they become members of the first degree. A dry 

 painting is one of the prominent features at the ceremony of initiation. 

 A ground color in sand is laid on the floor before the tablet altar and 

 made perfectly smooth, and upon this tigures are delineated by sprink- 

 ling powdered pigment with the thumb and index linger. These paint- 

 ings, of more or less elaborateness, are common among all the pueblo 

 Indians, the Navahos, the Mission Indians of California, and ti'ibes of 

 the north, and are all used in connection with medicine practices.^ 



The mode of joining the different esoteric fraternities in which the 

 sick are healed through Mystery medicine is substantially the same. 

 Although those restored to health usually join the fraternity to which 

 the theurgist called upon belongs, to do so is not obligatory. The aim 

 of the one restored to health is to become a member of the ^Mystery 

 medicine order, but the expense of the necessary gift to the fraternity 

 father often deprives the person of his heart's desire, and so another 

 order is joined until such time as the requisite gift is secured. When 

 a restored patient desires to join the order, a small cjuantity of sacred 

 meal, composed of white corn, turquoise, and micaceous hematite, 

 coarsely ground, the last being specially acceptabl(> to the Beast (lods, 

 is deposited in a corn husk. It is then folded in rectangular form, 

 tied with the greatest care, and carried in the right hand of the restored 

 invalid to the theurgist who etfected the cure. In case the patient is a 

 young child the otiering is carried by a parent. A similar ottering 

 is made when the theurgist is called upon to visit the sick. It is also 

 made by those desiring to join the Sword and Fire orders of a frater- 

 nity. The theurgist carries the package at night to one of the points 

 of the compass, makes an excavation, and sprinkles the contents of the 

 husk into it as an offering to the Beast Gods. 



«This process of sucking to cure disease is not confined to the Zunis, hut is common among the 

 aboriginal peoples of the world, differing only in minor details. 



hThe writer can not sav how widespread is the observance of sand painting, but the low-caste peo- 

 ple of India design their gods in sand on the groun.l by sprinkling in the manner described, and they 

 also have sprinkling cups for this purpose. Dr Fewkes has several interesting specimens of sprink- 

 ling cups, supposed to have been used in the dry paintings, in his collection of ancient ceramics 

 from Arizona. The writer has never observed the use of the cups among the Indians of the Southwest. 

 Unlike our Indians, the natives of India do not have a ground color of sand, but spread the surface 

 with diluted chips of the sacred cow. The high castes have greatly elaborated the «ind panitings, 

 which are used bv them purelv for decoration. This same feature is to be found in the Renaiss,u.ce, 

 when the tables of the French were bordered in elaborate designs with powdered marble. 



