STEVENSON] ^HLE'WEKWE 



457 



Comparatively little work is done by the grinders on the fifth day, as 

 all go in the afternoon to witness the dances of the 'Hio'wckwo and 

 Great Fire fraternities in Si'aa' te'wita. 



After sunset on the fourth evening the novices are accompanied 

 from their homes to the ceremonial chamber by their fraternity 

 fathers. Soon after their arrival an emetic is given them, the women 

 in charge of the medicine tilling with it as many bowls of goodly size as 

 there are candidates. Each fraternity father places a bowl of the medi- 

 cine before his child, who sits on a stool in the middle of the floor, facing 

 east. After the novices swallow the contents of the bowls the throat 

 is tickled with a feather, causing violent vomiting. Another bowl is 

 placed for the ejected matter. When the vomiting ceases, the frater- 

 nity father takes from the side of the 'hle'ettone the husk containhig 

 the eagle plume with the meal given him by the novice and, opening 

 the package, he picks the feather into bits, dropping them into the 

 bowl with a prayer for good health, a pure heart, and long life for 

 the novice. He then sprinkles in the meal from the husk and, lifting 

 the bowl with both hands, waves it to the six regions with a prayer 

 to the *Hle'wekwe rain-makers for snows and winter rains; then he 

 carries it from the chamber, depositing the contents in the river, that 

 the feather and the meal may go to Ko'thluwala'wa to be received by 

 the ^Hle'wekwe, who are constantly leaving the undermost world and 

 passing back and forth from their spring to Ko'thluwala'wa. 



The male members of the fraternity remain seated on the south side 

 and the female members on the north side of the room: the Uvo novices 

 take seats between three women on the north ledge. All remain seated 

 during the first song, for which rattles only are used, while the women 

 and the novices, with their lingers interlocked, keep time to the 

 music, with their hands held downward. After the song all present 

 stand in two lines, the men remaining on the south side, the women and 

 novices on the north. A fraternity father now requests the 'Hlem'mo- 

 sona to give him the ancient sword of the original ^Hl.Mn'mosona, at the 

 same time calling foracertain medicine." A young man belonging to the 

 Corn clan removes from the group of fetishes a .small sack from which 

 he takes a bit of root, which he places in the fraternity father's mouth, 

 who, holding the ancient sword in his left hand, approaches the novice 

 and, taking him bv the hand, says: "My child, come with me. ' He 

 leads the novice to the middle of the room, where they both face the 

 north, the novice standing at the right of the fraternity father. All 

 the members of the fraternity now sing. When the second stanza 

 of the song is begun, the fraternity father and the novice dance, and 

 soon the fraternitv father swallows the sword, having the root medicine 

 still in his mouth. After the sword has been passed down the throat 

 once he places his lips t o those of the novice, giving him the medicine 



a A plant not yet classified. 



