270 NAVAJO CEREMONIAL OF HASJELTI DAILJIS. 
A buffalo robe had been spread in front of the lodge. Just as the 
maskers returned, the invalid, wrapped in a fine red Navajo blanket and 
bearing a basket of sacred meal, stepped upon the robe; he had before 
stood in front of the lodge by the side of the song-priest. The many 
spectators on foot and horseback clad in their rich blankets formed a 
brilliant surrounding for this ceremony, which took place just at the 
setting of the sun. Naiyenesgony carried in his right hand a large lava 
celt which was painted white. Tobaidischinni followed next carrying 
in his right hand the black wood stick which had been prepared in the 
morning, and in his left hand the red stick. Ahsonnutli followed with 
bow and arrow in the left hand and an arrow in the right with a quiver 
thrown over the shoulder. 
Naiyenesgony drew so close to the invalid that their faces almost 
touched and pointed his celt toward the invalid. Tobaidischinni then 
approached and in the same manner pointed the sticks toward him, after 
which he was approached by Ahsonnutli with her bow and arrows. 
This was repeated on the south, west, and north sides of the invalid; 
each time the invalid partially turned his arm, shoulder, and back to 
sprinkle meal upon the gods. The gods then rushed to the entrance of 
the medicine lodge repeating the ceremony there, when they hurried to 
the south side of the lodge (the invalid having returned to the lodge; 
the buffalo robe was carried in by an attendant). The gods went from 
the south side of the lodge to the west and then to the north perform- 
ing the same ceremony. <As the invalid had spent many days in the 
lodge and the disease at each day’s ceremony exuded from his body, it 
was deemed necessary that these gods should go to the four points of 
the compass and draw the disease from the lodge. When they entered 
the lodge the buffalo robe had been spread in front of the song-priest 
with its head north. Upon this robe each god knelt on his left knee, 
Naiyenesgony on the north end of the robe, Ahsonnutli on the south 
end, and Tobaidischinni between them, all facing east. The song-priest, 
followed by the invalid, advanced to the front of the line carrying the 
basket contaiming the medicine tubes. He sprinkled Naiyenesgony 
with corn pollen, passing it up the right arm over the head and down 
the left arm to the hand. He placed the black tube in the palm of the 
left hand of the god, the priest chanting all the while a prayer. The 
red tube was given with the same ceremony to Tobaidischinni, and the 
blue tube with the same ceremony to Ahsonnutli. The quiver was 
removed from Ahsonnutli before she knelt. The song-priest, kneeling 
in front of Naiyenesgony, repeated a long litany with responses by the 
invalid, when the gods left the lodge led by Naiyenesgony who deposited 
his tube and stick in a pinon tree, Tobaidischinni depositing his in a 
cedar tree, and Ahsonnutli her’s in the heart of a shrub. 
SECOND CEREMONY. 
The scene was a brilliant one. Long before the time for the dance a 
line of four immense fires burned on each side of the avenue where the 
