STEVENSON] ma'^ke ^hlan nakvve 493 



the medicine bowl and sprinkle all present. The two who carrs- out 

 the food from before the altar return, and the three novices begin to 

 dance, keeping in line before their seats, facing first the east, and then 

 the west. The\' dance until the close of the practicing of the medi- 

 cine, which consumes an hour. The child of 4 years is one of the most 

 energetic and the best dancer in the line. As soon as the three dancers 

 are on the floor, two other men leave the choir and, skipping and hop- 

 ping about, gesticulate beast-like before the altar, and very soon their 

 bodies become the abiding places of the Beast Gods and they l)egin 

 practicing upon the patients. A woman deposits a large bowl south 

 of the center of the room beside an aged woman who sits on the floor. 

 During the healing the theurgists throw themselves almost prostrate 

 on the floor and suck at the exposed parts of the bodies of the invalids, 

 and then ejecting into their hands the material supposed to have been 

 removed, throw the hands up, or wave them, and profess to deposit 

 the material in the large bowl presided over by the old woman. As 

 each theurgist completes the drawing out of the disease, he gives a 

 kind of strangling cough and takes a gourdful of \yater which is 

 handed to him by the woman, and gargles his throat, expectorating 

 into the bowl. Several of the infants are supposed to be ill, but from 

 the way their bright eyes glisten as their mothers dance them on their 

 laps, keeping time with the choir, one can hardly ])elieve in their 

 suffering. The babies sleep little during these hours, and seem to 

 delight in all they see. As soon as the theurgists cease practicing, the 

 song changes, and all the women along the north ledge rise, ajul at the 

 same time the Great Mother gives a pinch of ashes to each oflicer and 

 member of the choir, and she and the two fraternity fathers, each hold- 

 ing two eagle- wing plumes in the right hand and ashes in the left, form 

 in line, facing north, and approach the novices. When near them they 

 turn, facing south, each fraternity parent being immediately before 

 his child, and at the same time they hold the eagle plumes over their 

 shoulders, each novice catching the tip ends of the plumes of her fra- 

 ternity parent. The 3'oungest novice has to he raised in order to 

 touch the plumes, the mother of the child securing her to the frater- 

 nity father's back by means of a piece of cotton cloth. The wife or 

 sister of the fraternity father stands back of the novice, with a hand on 

 each shoulder of the latter. In this way all advance toward the south 

 side of the chamber, in three files, the (ireat ^Mother's file being to the 

 west; then they turn, wheel fashion, and face the east, and the women 

 attendants take seats on the north ledge, while the fraternity parents 

 seat their children on the floor a short distance before the altar, 

 facing east and take their seats behind them. Each fraternity parent 

 extends the feet on each side of the child and draws her head back 

 until it rests on the bosom, the eyes of the novice being covered ))y 



