590 THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. anx. 23 



two lines, fifty in oach line, afterward dancing- sidewise across the 

 plaza. This party is hilarious, and the song is quite different from 

 that of the previous dance. Men, women, and children of both sexes 

 and all ages form the motley crowd. All the men carry either bows 

 and arrows, guns, or pistols, and there is an incessant firing, which 

 seems to delight even the youngest dancers, who never flinch at the 

 report of the firearms. After crossing the plaza they pass around the 

 scalp pole, forming two broken opposing circles (the drummer keeping 

 within the inrier circle), and dance around the pole. The firearms 

 and clubs are l)randished, and the drumming and singing never cease 

 during the dance. A number of dancers leave the plaza by the west- 

 ern covered way for the west side of the village, where one of their 

 number fires a gun and all run up the street they have just passed 

 down, fleeing, as they say. from the fire of the Navaho; and they are 

 derided by the spectators for being cowards. When this dance is over 

 a crier calls to the populace to come close around the pole and dance, 

 and there is a scramble for places, the young children being as eager 

 as their elders to be first at the pole. The circle soon grows to be 

 very large, and the dance continues until dawn. 



The first body of A'shiwanni prepare prayer plumes on the eleventh 

 day in the ceremonial chamber of the Kia'kwemosi, each making- 

 four. The Shi'wanni of the Nadir, as elder brother Bow priest, makes 

 four additional offerings to the Gods of War, and the younger brother 

 Bow priest also makes four to these gods. The sticks of all these 

 prayer plumes are the length from the metacarpus to the tip of the 

 second finger and taper at the upper end. The first feather is attached 

 about 2 inches from the top. When the plumes are to project abruptly 

 from the side of the plume stick, the quill ends are softened by placing 

 them in the mouth. The cotton cord which binds the plumes to the sticks 

 is fastened in a buttonhole loop. The lilack paint used to color the 

 sticks offered to the Gods of War is taken from an archaic cup hol- 

 lowed out of a piece of wood. After the prayer plumes to be offered 

 t)y the elder and younger brother Bow priests to the Gods of W^ar are 

 completed, the younger brother Bow priest rubs the lower portion of 

 the feathers on a red paint stone, the dry color adhering to the plumes. 

 The la'showawe (plumes attached to cotton cord) are also rubbed with 

 the dry color, after which the elder brother Bow priest removes an 

 olive shell from his war bracelet and hands it to the younger brother, 

 who strings it on his la'showanne; the elder brother, removing a 

 second shell, attaches it to the cord of his own la'showanne, and each 

 ties his la'showanne to the topmost plume (an eagle tail feather) of a 

 prayer plume. All the plumes used are from male birds. 



Upon completion of the prayer plumes, each shi'wanni wraps his 

 own in a corn husk, tying it with a thread of yucca. The pe'kwin (sun 



