I ARSONS] CALEN DAR 339 



woman.") '^ " Bear is a person, men would not kill one," said another. 

 This much a white might be told and could understand. But of the 

 supernatural powers from the animal helpers, not a whisper! Neither 

 the eagle dance nor the deer dance of the Pueblos to the north are 

 given at Isleta. "We can't imagine having them!" exclaimed 

 Lucinda, "since we have them in our ceremonies," she might have 

 added. 



TYPE CEREMONY OF CURING (NATOI) ''^ 



Were sickness general in town, epidemic, the war chief would call a 

 meeting of all the chiefs and "ask their thoughts" (ask for their 

 opinion), then he would ask for the power "^of the Town Fathere and 

 the Lagima Fathers. These woidd go into their two respective houses 

 to stay four days, taking an emetic each morning and fasting from 

 food completely. On the fourth morning in the same house the two 

 groups set their ground altars, the Town Fathers setting theirs first. 

 Each chief has chewed the root Hfiew'a, which gives power. Moved 

 by this, with his power, the chief " calls in from all the directions the 

 ke'chu (fetish anhnals). Over the bowl of water from the river the 

 chief makes a cross with his eagle-wing feathers, Stirling the water. 

 Soimds of bear, mountain lion, co^^ote, snake, eagle, come from the 

 bowl. When the iridescent feathers of the duck are put into the 

 bowl, after the cross is made over the water, sounds of ducks playing 

 and flapping their wmgs also come from the bowl. Meanwhile, the 

 assistants are sitting in line behind the altar, behind the Mothers 

 (figs. 16, 17), shaldng their gourd rattles and singing. For each ritual 

 incident there is, as usual, a special song. Power has been given the 

 assistants through the line of meal sprinkled from the door by the 

 chief to the altar. . . . With his stone point in his right hand, in his 

 left Ms whistle, the chief now wliistles into the bowl to call all the 

 powerful animals — mountain Hon, bear, rattlesnake, eagle, badger. 



Now the chief will call lightning and thunder. He tells the people 

 present to cover their heads lest they be frightened. Thunder is 

 heard and flashes of lightning may be seen. . . . The chief now 

 takes his seat in the middle of the line of assistants, and the war chief 

 gives him a lighted cigarette to smoke in all five directions and on 

 the line of the Mothers. . . . With his power the chief calls the 

 moon and the morning star. . . . All the assistants circulate among 

 those present and with his two eagle feathers each brushes out from 

 everj'body whatever no.xious thing may be inside his body — stick, 

 rag, stone. . . . The chief stands in front of the large altar blade 



" There lay on the floor of ray room a bearskin. "When I step on it," said Lucinda, "I ask the bear to 

 excuse me. I keep asking it." Compare T.ummis 2:61. 



^* Any ceremony of the medicine societies might be so called or culled lifietoynin (root-medicine men) 

 from the root they use. See below. 



'" Nate or nashau. 



'^ From here on the reference is to one chief only. Is the ceremony really a joint one ? 



