438 THE MOUNTAIN CHANT. 
(whom I will call No. 1) arose, advanced to the man who knelt opposite to 
him (No. 2) with rapid, shuffling steps, and amid a chorus of “Thohay ! 
Thohay !” placed his are with caution upon the head of the latter. Although 
it was held in position by the friction of the pinon tufts at each ear and 
by the pressure of the ends of the arc, now drawn closer by the sub- 
tending string, it had the appearance of standing on the head without 
material support, and it is probable that many of the uninitiated believed 
that only the magic influence of the oft-repeated word ‘“Thohay” kept it 
in position. When the are was secured in its piace, No. 1 retreated with 
shuffling steps to his former position and fell on his knees again. Im- 
mediately No. 2 advanced and placed the are which he held in his hand 
on the head of No.1. Thus each in turn placed his are on the head of 
the one who knelt opposite to him until all wore their beautiful halo-like 
headdresses. Then, holding their heads rigidly erect, lest their ares 
should fall, the eight kneeling figures began a splendid, well timed 
chant, whieh was accentuated by the clapping of hands and joined in by 
the chorus. When the chant was done the rattler addressed the are 
bearers, warning them to be careful; so they cautiously arose from their 
knees and shuffled with stiffened spines out of the corral, preceded by 
the choristers. This dance was repeated after the second performance 
of the fifth dance. 
141. Seventh dance. The are bearers had scarcely disappeared when 
another troupe entered the circle, the buffalo horn announcing their 
coming. A man with a whizzer led the procession. The choristers, in 
ordinary dress, were thirteen in number. The principal dancers were 
but two; they wore the usual sash and belt; the uncovered skin was 
painted white; they had on long blue woolen stockings of Navajo make 
and moccasins. Each bore a slender wand of two triangles of reeds, 
adorned at the corners with pendant plumes. They saluted the fire as 
they danced around it. They halted in the west, where the choristers 
sat down, and the two wand bearers danced for three minutes in a lively 
and graceful manner, to the music of the whizzer, the rattle, the chor- 
isters, and the drum of the orchestra. These returned twice more, mak- 
ing some variation in their performance each time. In the second act 
the rattler brought in under his arm a basket containing yucea leaves, 
and a prayer was said to the sun. It is possible that this dance was 
but a preliminary part of the eighth dance, but it must be described as 
a separate alili. 
142. Highth dance. In this there were sixteen performers, in ordinary 
Navajo dress. One of these bore the whizzer and led the procession; 
another, who came in the center of the line, carried a hewn plank, or 
puncheon, about 12 feet long and 4 inches broad, painted with spots and 
decorated with tufts of piton branchlets and with eagle plumes; imme- 
diately behind the bearer of the plank walked a man who had in a bas- 
ket an effigy of the sun, formed of a small round mirror and a number 
of radiating scarlet plumes. Having walked around the fire as usual, 

