STEVENSON] '^HLE'wEKWE 451 



keeps one composed of two feathers for himself. These plumes are 

 worn attached to the hair from this time to the close of the *nie'- 

 wekwe ceremonial as an insignia of their office. The remainder of the 

 la'showawe are afterwards distributed by the a'mosi among- those who 

 are to form the choir for the Mu'waiye, the ki'wi'sine, which is to 

 furnish the singers having been selected b^' the Kia'kwemosi, and 

 among such members of the Bow priesthood as are chosen to make 

 the tehl'nawe. The pe'kwin also gives la'showawe of the *hlai'aluko, 

 made by the first body of the A'shiwanni in the house of the Shi'wa- 

 no""kia (Priestess of fecundity) to the 'Hlem'mosona as a notification 

 that the swords of the fraternity shall be removed from his house to 

 the ceremonial chamber in six daj^s.'' At the same time the Kia'kwe- 

 mosi gives two la'showawe to the 'Hlem'mosona for two women of the 

 fraternity whom he chooses to hold the two et'towc of the 'Hle'wekwe 

 in the plaza on the fifth day of the ceremonial. These la'showawe are 

 handed to the women with the words: " In ten days j'ou shall bear the 

 mother et'tone." 



A ceremony in 1892, initiating a youth and maiden, is here described. 



When the first day of the real ceremony arrives, each male member 

 brings a burro's pack of wood, which is deposited in the street before 

 the house and carried to the roof of the ceremonial chamber, where it 

 is carefully stacked, principally by the female members of the fra- 

 ternit}" and the women of the house. This is quite a merrymaking 

 time, when the girls and women are at liberty to play practical jokes 

 on their elders. 



The medicine to be used in the ceremonial is secured by one of the 

 wood-gatherers, the fraternity father of the female novice being the 

 collector on the occasion described, who secretes it near the village 

 when he brings his load of wood, returning for it on the following 

 morning. It cab not be brought to the pueblo until the room is 

 prepared to receive it on account of its infectious qualities, which are 

 transmitted not only directly from the plant, but through anyone who 

 has been near or has inhaled its fumes after it has been uprooted. 

 By midnight the room is empty and the floor washed, the walls are 

 whitened, and the doors and windows opening into the adjoining 

 rooms are carefuU}" plastered over so that not a crevice is left through 

 which the fumes of the medicine to be prepared by the fraternity on 



elbow to the tip of the thumb and 1 inch in diameter, colored red, with a single buzzard feather, is 

 attached to the upper end of each tehl'nanO, the lower end having seeds bound on in corn husks. 

 The tehl'nanC carried by the elder brother Bow priest is supposed to have belonged to the Gods of 

 War. It is white, being freshly decorated whenever it is brought into use, and is tipped with a fine 

 spearhead 4 inches long. A fringe of goat's wool, 5 inches deep, dyed a purplish red, with four eagle 

 feathers attached at equal distances, hangs from the upper portion of the staff. This tehl'nan? is 

 kept in the house of the younger brother Bow priest. 



nXhe blades only are left in charge of the 'HlOui'mosona, who keeps them, when not in u.se, in an 

 old cougar skin with not a vestige of hair on it. They are made of juniper, the length from the tip 

 of the middle finger to the elbow, three-fourths of an inch wide, slightly curved, and rounded at the 

 end. They are rubbed with cougar or bear grease and red hematite (see pi. cix). The elaborate 

 feathered handles are stored away in the ceremonial house. 



