STEVENSON] MA "^KE '^HLAN NAKWE 495 



a draft of medicine water fioin the a'kwaniotii. The women return to 

 their homes two hours after midnight, but the men remain and sleep 

 in the ceremonial chamber. The second mornino- finds the men occu- 

 pied making prayer plumes and mi'wachi for the novices. 



Second night. Most of the men have their bodies zigzagged in 

 white, symbolic of lightning, and each tnan wears a wreath of yucca 

 ribbon. The female theurgists wear their conventional dress and red- 

 colored, fluffy eagle plumes attached to the forelock; their feet and 

 legs halfway to the knee, and hands and arms midway to the elbow, 

 are painted Avhite. The altar and the llooi' before it are white with 

 meal, sprinkled by the members of the fraternity, and a line of nunil 

 crossed four times extends from the altar to the ladder. Th(> Beast 

 Gods pass over this line to be present, for the time ))eing, in th(^ bodies 

 of the theurgists. The animal fetishes h\ the altar influence the 

 spiritual presence of the Beast Gods. 



The ceremonial opens with the consecration of water, according to the 

 ritual previously described. At 10 o'clock a warrior dances before the 

 altar, not moving from the spot upon which he first stands. He holds 

 an eagle- wing plume in each hand, which he extends alternately toward 

 the altar. After a time he dips the plumes in the medicine water and 

 sprinkles the altar, afterward sprinkling to the six regions. Two 

 theurgists now leave the choir and dance wildly before the altar, after- 

 ward dashing madh^ about, growling like the l)easts the}' represent. 

 They are soon joined by two female theurgists. The warrior whirls the 

 cloud cluster surmounted by A'chiyala'topa())eing with wings and tail 

 of knives), which is suspended above the altar, by touching it with his 

 eagle plumes held in the right hand, that the clouds of the world may 

 gather over Zuni. He also sprinkles the altar and choir at intervals, 

 and sprinkles the women twice by dipping his plumes into the medicine 

 water. After the theurgists who are now on the floor form in two files, 

 three in each, and face first north and then south, the warrior gradually 

 becomes wilder in his gesticulations before the altar, bending until he 

 almost kneels before it, which he leaves every now and then to join the 

 dancers or to heal the sick. A guest from the pueblo of Sia, who 

 belongs to the Fire fraternity of that pueblo, goes to the fireplace and 

 stamps in the fire and litei-ally bathes himself in the live coals. He 

 then takes a large coal in his right hand, and after ru])bing his throat 

 and breast with it he places it in his mouth. Others of the Fir(> fra- 

 ternity also play with the coals, rul)V)ing them over one another's backs. 

 As the night wanes, the cries of the theurgists l)ecome louder and 

 wilder, and the time of the dance grows faster. The women are as wild 

 as the men. Mothers move their infants' tiny fists in time with tlie 

 rattle, drum, and song. The men keep their upper arms rather close to 

 their sides as they raise their hands up and down. The lines of dan- 

 cers often break into a promiscuous mass. Now and then a man drags 



