STEVENSON. ] SACRED REEDS AND PRAYER STICKS. 243 
himself the reed-cutter deposited a bit of finely broken tobacco. In cut- 
ting the reeds occasionally a bit splintered off; these scraps were placed 
by the side of the tobacco on the northeast end of the rug. 
The attendant who colored the reeds sat facing west; and as each 
reed was colored it was placed on the rug, the yucca end being laid on 
a slender stick which ran horizontally. The first reed painted was laid 
to the north. Three dots were put upon each blue reed to represent 
eyes and mouth; two lines encircled the black reeds. Four bits of soiled 
cotton cloth were deposited in line on the east of the rng. The three 
attendants under the direction of the song-priest took from the medi- 
cine bag, first two feathers from the Arctic blue bird (Sialia arctica), 
which he placed west of the bit of cloth that lay at the north end of the 
rug; he placed two more of the same feathers below the second piece of 
cloth; two under the third, and two below the fourth, their tips pointing 
east. Then upon each of these feathers he placed an under tail-feather 
of the eagle. The first one was laid on the two feathers at the north 
end of the rug; again an under tail-feather of the turkey was placed on 
each pile, beginning with that of the north. Then upon each of these 
was placed a hair from the beard of the turkey, and to each was added 
a thread of cotton yarn. During the arrangement of the feathers the 
tube decorator first selected four bits of black archaic beads, placing a 
piece on each bit of cloth; then four tiny pieces of white shell beads 
were laid on the cloths; next four pieces of abalone shell and four pieces 
of turquois. 
In placing the beads he also began at the north end of the rug. An 
aged attendant, under the direction of the song-priest, plucked downy 
feathers from several humming-birds and mixed them together into four 
little balls one-fourth of an inch in diameter and placed them in line 
running north and south, and south of the line of plume piles. He 
sprinkled a bit of corn pollen upon each ball; he then placed what the 
Nayajo term a night-owl feather under the balls with its tip pointing to 
the northeast. (See Pl. cxm1). The young man facing west then filled 
the colored reeds, beginning with the one on the north end. He put 
into the hollow reed, first, one of the feather balls, forcing it into the 
reed with the quill end of the night-owl feather. (A night-owl feather 
is always used for filling the reeds after the corn is ripe to insure a warm 
winter; in the spring a plume from the chaparral cock, Geococcyx cali- 
fornianus, is used instead to bring rain). Then a bit of native tobacco 
was put in. When the reed was thus far completed it was passed to 
the decorator, who had before him a tiny earthen bowl of water, a crys- 
tal, and a small pouch of corn pollen. Holding the erystal in the sun- 
beam which penetrated through the fire opening in the roof, he thus 
lighted the cigarettes which were to be offered to the gods. The fore- 
finger was dipped into the bowl of water and then into the corn pollen, 
and the pollen that adhered to the finger was placed to the top of the 
tube. After the four tubes were finished they were placed on the 
