e rug opposite
the basket of feathers. The food vessels were removed and the song
continued for a time when the song-priest repeated a long low prayer,
after which the song was resumed, and thus the night was consumed in
prayer and song over the masks.

FIFTH DAY.

FIRST CEREMONY.

A basket of yucca suds was prepared by an attendant, who cleansed his
hands of the suds by pouring a gourd of clear water over them; he then
put a handful of the suds upon the head of a man who stood before him,
nude with the exception of a breech cloth, after which the man washed
his head from a water jug which was held over the head of the bather by
the attendant. The bather covered his body with the suds, and the
contents of the jug was emptied on the floor of the lodge by the
attendant. The man dressed himself in the ordinary cotton clothing with
rare beads around his neck, and a leather pouch held by a band of
mountain sheep skin over his shoulders; he knelt before a bowl of white
kaolin which he spread over his face; he then took his seat between two
attendants, the one to the right of him holding a pinch of native
tobacco and the one on the left holding corn meal in the palms of the
right hands.

At early dawn the buffalo robe at the entrance of the lodge was slightly
dropped from the doorway to admit the rays of approaching day. The masks
which had been sung and prayed over all night were laid away in the
niche behind the song-priest. The little girl who performed the previous
night returned to the lodge, but I could not see that she was there for
any purpose save to eat some of the remaining food, which had been
gathered into two large parcels and left by the old woman who removed
the vessels after the feast. A red blanket was laid and upon it a piece
of white cotton. A reed five inches in length and twice the diameter of
the others heretofore used was prepared. The reed was colored black in
the usual manner and filled with a feather ball and tobacco. It was
lighted with the crystal and touched with the pollen. Upon the
completion of the tube the invalid took his seat on the west side of the
rug, the attendant who prepared the tube sitting on the west side; he
took from one pouch four white shell beads and from another a turquoise
bead; he looped a cord of white cotton yarn some three feet long around
the pollen end of the tube and fastened to the loop two wing feathers of
the Arctic blue bird, one from the right wing an