500 THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. ann. 23 



the other pointing inward. The noviee.s are led to seats on the north 

 ledge near the altar by their fraternit}^ parents, the younger girl 

 sitting on her mother's lap. 



The return of the novices is the occasion for reopening the song, 

 and in a few minutes the dancing begins, the director of the fraternity 

 being the first to appear on the floor. He dances before the altar, 

 bending and twisting his body and growling animal -like, every little 

 while dashing up to an invalid and "drawing disease" from the body. 

 During the fifteen minutes that he practices a warrior stands to the 

 south side of the altar, holding his eagle plumes in each hand, con- 

 stantly extending first one hand and then the other. When the director 

 retires behind the altar the novices form in line and dance (the young- 

 child ))eing held on the back of a woman b}^ means of cotton cloth). 

 Theurgists from time to time cease their healing to join in the dance. 

 The noise of the choir increases in volume until the close of the medi- 

 cine practice previous to the closing ceremony of initiation, except 

 for five minutes allowed to all for rest. Occasionally the woman 

 holding the child is relieved and sits for a while, but this is not often. 



Five male and two female theurgists are soon at work upon the 

 patients. Gradually others come to the floor until about twenty are 

 dashing about madh' among the sick. Sometimes four theurgists are 

 sucking at one man. As the night wanes and the floor becomes more 

 crowded the scene grows more and more wild and weird and the excite- 

 ment is intense. The women appear even more excited than the men, 

 though they are far from graceful, and their attempts at legerdemain 

 are very poor. The Great Mother, however, is one of the experts. 



Among the vast number suflering from real or imaginary ills a 

 few are seriously afflicted. Though several theurgists pretend to 

 extract from the writer's forehead (she is suffering from headache) 

 material "shot" in by witches, it is impossible for her to discover 

 the clever tricks. Large pebbles and yards of yarn seem to be drawn 

 from her forehead. A Sia guest apparently extracts a large stone. 

 Occasionall}' some one is caught nodding, and is at once wakened b}' a 

 neighbor in no very kind tone. Sleeping at such times is regarded as 

 most disrespectful to the Beast Gods, only j^oung infants being accorded 

 the privilege. At times the theurgists dance in groups; then again 

 the men and women form into several parallel lines, facing first the 

 south and then the north, as they dance back and forth from west 

 to east. Usually there are more men than women on the floor. A 

 theurgist from the Little Fire fraternity, followed by three of his 

 fellows, who appear to be charmed by their leader, enters the chamber 

 in semici'awling position, and after holding a crystal for a moment 

 to the In-east of an invalid— the crystal showing the seat of the dis- 

 ease — he touches the spot with his two eagle plumes with a trem- 

 bling motion, and while one of the part}^ sucks the spot he continues 



