STEVENSON] "^hle'wekwe 473 



boxes around which the musicians sit durino^ the da}^ are reversed and 

 turned bottom up, which places the heads of the paintings on the boxes 

 in an upturned })()sition in accordance with a tradition tliat wlien tlie 

 beast god warriors who accompani(»d the 'Hle'wckwc to I'tiwanna sat 

 in the phiza they looked upward to the heavens while the people 

 passed around them. Next, two meml)ers of t\w fraternity who 

 belong to the Bear clan, each carrying an old bowl-shaped basket 

 about () inches in diameter, approach from the western street and 

 sprinkle meal upon the notched sticks and deer leg bones, which are now 

 inside the boxes. They are clad in white cotton shirts and trousers, 

 embroidered kilts stri|)ed with blue-green, the stripe decorated with 

 a conventional design of the game sho'liwe, a mi'ha over the shoul- 

 ders, and dance moccasins. Stooping before the meal crosses, each 

 takes a notched stick and a deer-leg bone, and facing northeast places 

 his basket, inverted, on a disk of meal. Then twelve male mem- 

 bers of the ^Hle'wekwe and the novices and catchers, who are fore- 

 most in the group, the novices carrying the ears of corn and praver 

 plumes given them in the cereiuonial chamber, stand back of the two 

 men, all facing northeast. Those who form the group wear blankets 

 wrapped around them and carry rattles in their right hands. The two 

 men of the Bear clan, resting the notched sticks on the baskets, run 

 the deer-leg bones outward over the sticks thirty-two times, then draw 

 the bones toward them over the sticks the same number of times. 

 This movement is repeated without variation until the cessation of the 

 music. 



As soon as the musicians rise the male members of the fraternity 

 present begin singing to the accompaniment of their rattles, and the 

 two men of the Bear clan take their position in front of the group, 

 holding the notched sticks and deer-leg bones and baskets in their 

 left hands, which they move to the time of the music. Their right 

 hands are not visible under the large blankets worn around them. 

 The warrior of the fraternity intones at intervals and the whole body 

 joins in the song. Almost immediately upon the opening of this song 

 the et'towe and ^hla'we bearers, with Mu'chailiha'nona," their leader, 

 appear from the eastern covered way. The leader is chosen by the 

 *Hlem'mosona from the fraternity and must be of the Dogwood clan, 

 or his paternal ])arent uuist be of this clan (the same man can not act in 

 the two ceremonials of January and February). The leader is clad in a 

 white cotton shirt with full gathered sleeves, and a white cotton eml)roid- 

 ered kilt, decorated like those worn by the men of the Bearclan, is fastened 

 at the right side; he also wears an embroidered sash and a whitt' fringed 

 sash looped at the right side, blue knit leggings, and dance moccasins. 

 A iine mi'ha tied at the upper ends hangs over the body, the long wavy 

 hair fallsover the back, and bangs cover the brows. A large white Huffy 

 eagle plume and a bunch of yellow parrot feathe rs are attached to the 



a See page 447. 



