bt of their own conception, yet I
discovered that all their medicine tubes and offerings were similar to
those in use by the Zuni. Their presence among the Navajo can be readily
explained by the well known fact that it was the custom among Indians of
different tribes to barter and exchange medicine songs, ceremonies, and
the paraphernalia accompanying them. The Zuni and Tusayan claim that the
Navajo obtained the secrets of the Pueblo medicine by intruding upon
their ceremonials or capturing a pueblo, and that they appropriated
whatever suited their fancy.

[Illustration: Fig. 115. Exterior lodge.]

My explanation of the ceremonial described is by authority of the priest
doctor who managed the whole affair and who remained with me five days
after the ceremonial for this special purpose. Much persuasion was
required to induce him to stay, though he was most anxious that we
should make no mistake. He said:

My wife may suffer and I should be near her; a father's eyes
should be the first to look upon his child; it is like sunshine in
the father's heart; the father also watches his little one to see
the first signs of understanding, and observes the first steps of
his child, that too is a bright light in the father's heart, but
when the little one falls, it strikes the father's heart hard.

The features of this ceremonial which most surprise the white spectator
are its great elaborateness, the number of its participants and its
prolongation through many days for the purpose of restoring health to a
single member of the tribe.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MEDICINE LODGE.

A rectangular parallelogram was marked off on the ground, and at each
corner was firmly planted a forked post extending 10 feet above the
surface, and on these were laid 4 horizontal beams, against which rested
poles thickly set at an angle of about 20 deg., while other poles were
placed horizontally across the beams forming a support for the covering.
The poles around the sides were planted more in an oval than a circle
and formed an interior space of about 35 by 30 feet in diameter. On the
east side of the lodge was an entrance supported by stakes and closed
with a buffalo robe, and the whole structure was then thickly covered
first with boughs, then with sand, giving it the appearance of a small
earth mound.

[Illustration: Fig. 116. Interior lodge.]

FIRST DAY.

PERSONATORS OF THE GODS.

The theurgist or s