STEVENSON] MA'^KE '^HL AN 'n A. K WE 491 



the cups to serve as the base for the mi'waehi" to be given to the ini- 

 tiates, and making a dry or sand painting. Four artists decorate the 

 altar while others grind the paints. The grinding is done on stone slabs 

 12 by 18 inches, slightly hollowed. The blue-green paint is nrade from 

 copper ore, the red from red ocher, the yellow from yellow ocher, and 

 the ))lack from a black clay combined with a conserve of fruit of vucca 

 baccata. All the members of Mystery medicine prepare prayer plumes. 

 By sunset the altar is erected and the animal and other fetishes are 

 placed before it, and the sand painting is completed. The painting is 

 made as follows: Four lines of white powder form a square, and 

 segments of a circle are drawn with black on the inner side of the 

 lines; the square, excepting the segments, w^hich symbolize black rain- 

 clouds, is covered with white pigment, and cones of white are formed 

 over the square. Plate cxvi shows the altar previous to placing all 

 the objects l)elonging with it and to the making of the sand painting. 



A meal is now served to those present, but before the members 

 indulge, a quantit}^ of the food is collected and deposited before the 

 altar. After eating, the members leave the ceremonial chamber, and 

 later in the evening, about 8 o'clock, they return one after another 

 until the room is well filled. The male members of the Mystery 

 medicine order bring rolls of sheepskin on their backs, to serve as 

 beds during their hours of sleep the next three nights. The women, 

 except the novices, return to their homes to sleep. 



First night. Each member of the order of Mystery medicine brings 

 his mi'li, which is handed to the deputy director, who places it by the 

 altar. As the men of the order gather, they group on the south side 

 of the room and toward the west end, where they chat and smoke. 

 The female members and the women invited to dance take seats on the 

 north ledge, until it is quite full; then they sit on the floor in front of 

 those on the ledge. 



The women to be healed sit on the floor at the east end of the room. 

 They wear ordinar}^ dress, with lim})s and feet bare; many have tiieir 

 infants with them. The male invalids, who are nude except a cotton 

 breechcloth, gather on the south side of the room and near the east 

 end. Both sexes remove their moccasins on entering the ciM-emonial 

 chamber. By 9 o'clock both men and women of the order aie busy 

 with their personal adornment. The feet and lower portions of the 

 legs, and the hands and arms to the elbow, are painted white. The 

 men wear black-wool breechcloths; the women wear ordinary dress, 

 with neck and limbs bare. The novices — a woman, a girl of 10 years, 

 and a girl of not more than 4 years, each with a fraternity parent by 

 her side — sit on the north ledge near the altar, the woman being at the 

 west end of the line^ and the youngest girl at the east end. The flutist 

 sits immediately behind the altar and to the north side. Three officers 

 of the fraternity sit behind the altar and south of it. The a'kwamosi 



a Sec p. 416. 



