then put into the mouth of
the deer and the hands are held over the mouth and nostrils until life
is extinct. The animal now being placed upon his back, a line is drawn
with corn pollen, over the mouth, down the breast and belly to the tail.
The line is then drawn from the right hoof to the right foreleg to the
breast line. The same is done on the left fore leg and the two hind
legs. The knife is then passed over this line and the deer is flayed.
Skins procured in this way are worth, among the Navajo, $50 each. Masks
are made of skins prepared in the same manner. If made of skins of deer
that have been shot the wearer would die of fever.

Buckskin over the entrance to an eastern sweat house denotes dawn; over
a southern, denotes red of morning; over a western, sunset; over a
northern, night.

PREPARATION OF THE SACRED REEDS (CIGARETTE) AND PRAYER STICKS.

Before noon two sheepskins were spread one upon the other before the
song-priest. Upon these was laid a blanket, and on the blanket pieces of
cotton. These rugs extended north and south. The theurgist then produced
a large medicine bag, from which a reed was selected. The reed was
rubbed with a polishing stone, or, more accurately speaking, the
polishing stone was rubbed with the reed, as the reed was held in the
right hand and rubbed against the stone, which was held in the left. It
was then rubbed with finely broken native tobacco, and afterwards was
divided into four pieces, the length of each piece being equal to the
width of the first three fingers. The reeds were cut with a stone knife
some 31/2 inches long. An attendant then colored the tubes. The first reed
was painted blue, the second black, the third blue, and the fourth
black. Through all these, slender sticks of yucca had been run to serve
as handles while painting the tubes and also to support the tubes while
the paint was drying. The attendant who cut the reeds sat left of the
song-priest, facing east; a stone containing the paints was placed to
the north of the rug; and upon the end of the stone next to himself the
reed-cutter deposited a bit of finely broken tobacco. In cutting the
reeds occasionally a bit splintered off; these scraps were placed by the
side of the tobacco on the northeast end of the rug.

[Illustration: Plate CXIII. BLANKET RUG AND MEDICINE TUBES.]

The attendant who colored the reeds sat facing west; and as each reed
was colored it was placed on the rug, the yucca end being la