74 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVIII, 



tent.) Cedar- Woman took out from her bag a root which 

 looked like that called niaata", and sliced pieces from it. The 

 owner of the tent now took two forked sticks and with them 

 picked up two live coals from the heap which she had brought 

 in; she laid them on the bare ground before Cedar- Woman, 

 and kneeled before her. With her arm guided by Cedar- 

 Woman, she slowly took a small amount of the finely-cut 

 root from Cedar-Woman's other, outspread hand. Still 

 guided by Cedar- Woman, she moved her arm up and down 

 four times, then four times made a motion as if dropping 

 the root on the two coals, and with the last of these motions 

 dropped it. Then she returned to her seat by the door. 

 Cedar- Woman put the remainder of the finely-cut root on the 

 two coals, and, as the smoke rose, began to pray. She prayed 

 a long time. All the women in the tent bowed their heads, 

 and some covered their eyes. Most of them wept a little. 

 The owner of the tent then replaced the two coals in the 

 fireplace: 



This done, she brought in the cover of her tent. It was 

 laid on the ground, to the south of the fireplace, folded so that 

 it was about a foot wide and perhaps twelve feet long. The 

 head was next to Cedar- Woman, the other end near the door. 

 Cedar- Woman rose, and, followed closely by the owner of the 

 tent, walked around the fire, touching the canvas with the 

 two forked sticks that had been used to pick up the coals. 

 Again she circled around the fire, followed by the woman 

 owning the tent, who carried the ornaments that were to be 

 attached. This time, in walking around the fire, they stepped 

 over the tent four times (see Fig. 18). Then the top of the 

 tent was spread out. The owner of the tent stood up, mo- 

 tioned four times with the bundle of ornaments, and threw 

 them on the canvas. Cedar- Woman gathered them together, 

 and holding them up, spoke a short prayer. Then she 

 handed the four smaller circular ornaments to four women. 

 All now gathered around the canvas, which was rolled out 

 somewhat, though not fully spread. All the participants 

 were now on the south side of the fire, where the canvas lay, 

 except Cedar- Woman, who kept her place at the middle of 



