418 THE MOUNTAIN CHANT. 
THE CEREMONIES OF DSILYIDJE QACAL, 
81. It has been my lot to see portions of these ceremonies at various 
times. The most complete view I had of them was during a visit made 
to a place called Nigotlizi (Hard Earth), some twenty miles northwest 
from Fort Wingate, New Mexico, and just within the southern bound- 
ary of the Navajo Reservation. This was the only occasion when I 
obtained full access to the medicine lodge on the later days of the cer- 
emonies and had an opportunity of observing the wonderful pictures 
on sand which are illustrated in color in the accompanying plates. 
82. On October 21, 1884, when I arrived at this place, the patient, 
for whose benefit the rites were celebrated and a few of her immediate 
relations were the only people encamped here. They occupied a single 
temporary shelter of brushwood, within a few paces of which I hada 
rude shelter erected for my own accommodation. The patient was a 
middleaged woman, who apparently suffered from no ailment whatever; 
she was stout, ruddy, cheerful, and did her full share of the household 
work every day; yet she was about to give away for these ceremonies 
sheep, horses, and other goods to the value of perhaps two hundred 
dollars. No ceremonies whatever were in progress when I came, Hy- 
erything, so the Indians said, was waiting for the qagali. (Paragraph 2.) 
Some men were engaged in building a corral for the sheep that were 
to be slaughtered for the guests, and some old women were grinding 
corn to feast the men who were to work in the medicine lodge, which 
had been completed six days before. 
83. This lodge was a simple conical structure of large, partly hewed 
pinon logs, set on end and inclined at an angle of about forty-five de- 
grees, So as to join one another on top, where they formed the apex of 
the lodge. The circle of logs was incomplete in the east, where the 
openings for the door and the smoke hole were. A passage, or entry, 
about five feet high and three feet wide, led from the body of the lodge 
to the outer doorway, where some blankets hung as portiéres. The 
frame of logs was covered with sods and loose earth to keep out wind 
and rain. Internally, the lodge was eight feet in height under the apex 
of the cone and on an average twenty-five feet in diameter at the base. 
The diameter was increased at the east (to allow for the entry) and at 
the north. The irregularity in the circumference in the north was at 
first conjectured to be a mere accident; but in the ceremonies of the 
first night its use became apparent as affording a hiding place for the 
man dressed in evergreens. (Paragraph 96.) 
84, THE FIRST FOUR DAYS’ ceremonies in this case had been per- 
formed during the previous year. Such a division of the work is some- 
times made, if more convenient for the patient and his friends, but usu- 
ally all is done in nine consecutive days. These first days have less of 
interest than the others. Early each morning, before eating, all who 
desire, men and women, enter the medicine lodge, where, in a stifling 
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