BCNZEL] RELIGIOUS LIFE 529 



Each society in addition to practicing general medicine has a spe- 

 cialty — one cures sore throat, another epilepsy, another has efficacious 

 medicine for delayed parturition, yet another cures bullet wounds, 

 and so forth. 



Initiation into the societies is a precaution taken to save one's life. 

 If a person is desperately ill he is given by his relatives to one of the 

 medicine societies." The officials of the society come in a body to 

 cure him. They bring with them all their ceremonial paraphernalia 

 and lend the whole force of their ritual toward defeating the disease. 

 If the patient recovers he is not necessaiily cured. He has been 

 granted a respite, and until he fidfills his pledge and receives a new 

 heart and places liimself imder the direct protection of the Beast Gods 

 tlu'ough joining the society which cured Mm, liis life is in jeopardy. 

 Since initiation involves one in great expense, frequently many years 

 elapse before it is completed. 



The societies have, perhaps, the most highly developed ritual of 

 all the cult groups. They possess elaborate altars which are kept in 

 the houses in which they habitually meet. These consist of carved 

 wooden tablets, stone fetishes, and various other sacred objects. 

 These altars are set up on a meal painting at all ceremonies in which 

 the society takes part. On the altar are also placed feathered ears 

 of corn, the personal fetishes of members of the medicine order of 

 the society. This fetish (mi'le) is made for the novice by his father 

 at the time of his initiation; it remains his personal fetish until he dies, 

 when it is dismantled and biu-ied by members of the society. If 

 a man is compelled to be absent from any meeting of his society he 

 or some member of his household takes his mi'le to the society room 

 to be placed upon the altar. 



All members of medicine societies plant prayer sticks each month 

 at the full moon. The oflering includes, besides the usual sticks for 

 the ancients and for the katcinas, sticks for the Beast Gods, made 

 in each society according to difl'erent specifications. These sticks are 

 planted either in cornfields or at Red Bank, a point on the river bank 

 east '* of to\vn. These are offered separately by each individual. 



The collective ceremonies of the medicine societies are held in the 

 fall and winter. During the smnmer the cult of the Beast Gods is in 

 abeyance. As a symbol of tliis, the drums of the societies must not 

 be touched during this tune, not even to beat out the rhythm for grind- 

 ing songs. At the full moon in October (in some societies November), 

 the members are summoned to their ceremonial house. They make 



" In less serious cases an individual medicine man is called. He removes the cause of sickness and is 

 paid for his trouble. At the winter ceremony the recovered patient has his head bathed in the society 

 room and exchanges gifts with his "father." 



^s The Beast Gods live in the east. Therefore all ceremonies of the curing societies are oriented toward 

 the east, in contrast to ceremonies for the ancients and the katcinas, which are oriented toward the 

 south and west. It is interesting to note that historically the medicine cult is undoubtedly of Keresan, 

 i. e.. Eastern origin. 



