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the entrance, the preceptor on one side, and the head priest on the other, 
moved up to support the candidate, and the procession marched four times 
around the outside of the enclosure, sunwise, to the sound of the drum- 
beats within. After the fourth circuit they halted near the entrance, the 
candidate deposited his gifts on the ground, and the head priest chanted 
a prayer to the Great Spirit announcing the opening of the initiation. 
Then the preceptor gathered up the presents and led the candidate inside. 
The medes all rose to their feet and marched in line behind him as he led 
them four times round the inside of the lodge, accompanied by the beat- 
ing of a drum and the chanting of the head priest. Then they retired to 
their seats along the walls, all except the candidate and his preceptor, for 
whom places had been reserved on the central mat. Each member retained 
the same seat throughout the entire proceedings, that of the head priest 
being nearest the entrance. 
After a brief interval four priests — the head priest and three others 
who had been chosen to officiate at the ceremony— marched sunwise round 
the lodge and stood behind the four posts facing the west. The preceptor 
led the candidate out to face them, and stationed himself on one side of 
his pupil while an assistant priest stationed himself on the other. The 
head priest opened the ceremony by beating a small water-drum and 
chanting a song. As soon as it ended the candidate knelt in front of him, 
and the last priest in the line, gripping his medicine-bag in both hands 
and crying hwa hwa hwa hwa hwa, pretended to thrust it into the youth’s 
breast. He quivered violently, shaken by the hands of the preceptor and 
assistant. Then the second priest “ shot ” him, and the third. Last of all 
the head priest “ shot” him, and he fell forward as if dead; but when the 
six priests laid their medicine-bags on his back a sacred shell ( migis ) 
dropped from his mouth and he showed signs of reviving. The head priest 
danced with the shell round the lodge, displaying it to each ?nede , and 
inserted it again in the initiate’s mouth; and again he fell forward as if 
dead. Then the four priests marched round him and touched him with 
their medicine-bags. Instantly he revived, and, at a command from the 
head priest, rose to his feet. 
Now the initiate took the drum from the head priest and chanted a 
song celebrating his acceptance into the society. Prompted by his pre- 
ceptor, he requested a song from the head priest, who sang one, receiving 
the young man’s thanks. All then sat down in their proper places and 
smoked to the 7nanidos of the four cardinal points, the sky, and the earth, 
while the young man distributed presents to the officers who had initiated 
him. In return, the head priest presented him with a medicine-bag of 
weasel, mink, muskrat, or other skin that had belonged to some former 
member of the society, and the initiate, walking sunwise around the lodge, 
expressed his thanks individually to every man and woman. 
The initiation ceremony proper was now over, and the ex-candidate 
a fully graduated member. Yet while the day was still young it was 
only natural that he should play with his newly acquired medicine-bag, 
and that the other medes also should celebrate their reunion. Prompted 
by his preceptor, therefore, or by some other priest who walked behind 
him, the youth placed his sacred shell in his medicine-bag and started out 
