'9°2.] Kroeber, The Arapaho. 31 



The food had been placed southwest, northwest, northeast, and 

 southeast of the fire (the tent always faces east, the fire being 

 in the centre) . The food towards the southwest was taken up , 

 carried around the tent, and set down in the same place as 

 before, in front of one of the old women. This woman then 

 carried the other food around the tent in the same way, re- 

 placing it all. Then she took hajawaanaxu, chewed it, and 

 rubbed it over her body (a very frequent act in rituals). Then 

 she took food from four dishes and placed it on her hand in 

 five spots. Two of these pieces or heaps of food she placed 

 on the ground, southwest and northwest of the fire ; two she 

 raised and laid on the ground, northeast and southeast of the 

 fire; and the fifth she put into the fire. Then she took (a 

 dish of) blood-soup or pudding (baak"). She touched it with 

 a finger, touched this finger on the palm of her hand, and 

 rubbed her hands together. Then she moved her hands 

 downward four times towards the southeast of the tent, repre- 

 senting the planting in the ground of a tent-pole there. Then 

 she touched the pudding in three other places, after each 

 time rubbing her hands, and successively motioning towards 

 the southwest, northwest, and northeast. The fifth time she 

 made a scoop in the middle of the pudding; this she followed 

 by motioning lower down, towards the pegs holding the edge 

 of the tent. While she was doing this, the others looked 

 down, holding their left hand on the top of the head, the 

 right hand on the ground. A small dog had been cooked 

 whole. Backward took the dog by the head, and I took its 

 hind-end, and we walked around the tent. We walked around 

 again, stopping on the southeast side and making a turn there, 

 and then the same successively at the southwest, northwest, 

 and northeast {i. e., going in a circle with the sun). Then we 

 made a turn before the door (inside the tent), and held the 

 dog outside the door, moving its head, and telling it to look 

 about at the people, the clothing, the food, the water, and so 

 on. Then we took pieces of meat from its four paws, its nose, 

 the top of its head, and its tail, and put them on the ground 

 four times, and a fifth time into the fire. Then Backward ' 



' Possibly it was not Backward, but the narrator herself, who performed this 

 action. 



