242 NAVAJO CEREMONIAL OF HASJELTI DAILJIS. 
were removed. The invalid upon entering the lodge took his seat on 
the west side facing east. The song priest continued his chant. He 
took from the meal bag some sacred meal and placed it to the soles of 
the feet of the invalid and on his palms, knees, breast, back, shoulders, 
and head. At the conclusion of this ceremony all indulged in a rest 
for an hour or more. The bark eups which contained the colored sands 
for decorating were placed in the medicine lodge north of the door, 
SWEAT HOUSES AND MASKS. 
The deer skins which hang over the entrance of the sweat houses (a 
different skin being used for each sweat house) must be from animals 
which have been killed by being smothered. The deer is run down and 
secured by ropes or otherwise. Corn pollen is then put into the mouth 
of the deer and the hands are held over the mouth and nostrils until life 
is extinet. The animal now being placed upon his back, a line is drawn 
with corn pollen over the mouth, down the breast and belly to the tail. 
The line is then drawn from the right hoof to the right foreleg to the 
breast line. The same is done on the left fore leg and the two hind legs. 
The knife is then passed over this line and the deer is flayed. Skins pro- 
cured in this way are worth, among the Navajo, $50 each. Masks are 
made of skins prepared in the same manner. If made of skins of deer 
that have been shot the wearer would die of fever. 
Buckskin over the entrance to an eastern sweat house denotes dawn; 
over a southern, denotes red of morning; over a western, sunset; over a 
northern, night. 
PREPARATION OF THE SACRED REEDS (CIGARETTE) AND PRAYER 
STICKS. 
Before noon two sheepskins were spread one upon the other before 
the song-priest. Upon these was laid a blanket, and on the blanket 
pieces of cotton. These rugs extended north and south. The theurgist 
then produced a large medicine bag, from which a reed was selected. 
The reed was rubbed with a polishing stone, or, more accurately speak- 
ing, the polishing stone was rubbed with the reed, as the reed was held 
in the right hand and rubbed against the stone, which was held in the 
left. It was then rubbed with finely broken native tobacco, and after- 
wards was divided into four pieces, the length of each piece being equal 
to the width of the first three fingers. The reeds were cut with a stone 
knife some 34 inches long. An attendant then colored the tubes. The 
first reed was painted blue, the second black, the third blue, and the 
fourth black. Through all these, slender sticks of yucca had been run 
to serve as handles while painting the tubes and also to support the 
tubes while the paint was drying. The attendant who cut the reeds sat 
left of the song-priest, facing east; a stone containing the paints was 
placed to the north of the rug; and upon the end of the stone next to 
