1 62 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



a puff of the sacred incense. Then comes an interval of rest in which 

 the members smoke sacred tobacco and discuss lodge matters. 

 The medicine is covered before the lights are turned up. 



With a chug of his resonant gourd rattle the leader calls the 

 people together for the second song which is wilder and more 

 savage in character. The whip-poor-will's call is heard at inter- 

 vals and again the call of the crows who tell of a feast to come. 

 The whip-poor-will song is one that is most beautiful but it is 

 played on the flute only at rare intervals and then it is so short 

 that it excites an almost painful yearning to hear it again but 

 there is art in this savage opera and its performers never tire of it 

 because it is wonderful even to them. During the singing every 

 person in the circle must sing and shake his rattle, to pause is con- 

 sidered an evil thing. It is no small physical effort to shake a 

 long-necked gourd a hundred and fifty times a minute for sixty 

 minutes without cessation. This I soon discovered when as a 

 novitiate of the society I was placed between a medicine woman 

 and man and given an extra heavy rattle. Every now and then 

 a hand from one or the other side would stretch forth from the 

 inky blackness and touch my arm to see if I were faithful and 

 sometimes a moist ear would press against my face to discover if 

 I were singing and, listening a moment to my attempts, would 

 draw back. The song in parts is pitched very high and it is a 

 marvel that male voices can reach it. At times the chief singers 

 seem to employ ventriloquism for they throw their voices about 

 the room in a manner that is startling to the novice. At the close 

 of the song lights are turned up and the berry water and calumet 

 are passed again and a longer period of rest is allowed. There 

 are two other sections of the song ritual with rest intervals that 

 bring the finale of the song close to daybreak. The feast makers 

 pass the berry water and pipe again and then imitating the cries 

 of the crow the Ho-non-di-ont pass the bear or boar's head on a 

 platter and members tear off a mouthful each with their teeth 

 imitating the caw of a crow as they do so. After the head is eaten 

 each member brings forth his pail and places it before the fire- 

 place for the feast maker to fill with the alloted portion of o-no-kwa 

 or hulled corn soup. When the pails are filled, one by one the 

 company disperses into the gray light of dawn and the medicine 

 ceremony is over. At the close of the last song each one takes 

 his packet of medicine and secretes it about his person. 



The medicine song according to the ritual of the society is neces- 

 sary to preserve the virtue of the medicine. It is an appreciation 



