well may they be made (to increase).

When a hogan is built for a woman who has no husband, or if the husband
is absent at the time, the wife performs all these ceremonies. In the
absence of white cornmeal, yellow cornmeal is sometimes used, but never
the _cqac[)i]ci[ng] cocl[)i]'j_, the sacred blue pollen of certain
flowers, which is reserved exclusively for the rites of the shaman.

By the time these forms have been observed night will have fallen.
During the day, while the house building was in progress, the women were
busily engaged in preparing food; all now gather inside the hogan, a
blanket is suspended over the door frame, all the possessions of the
family are bought in, sheepskins are spread on the floor, the fire is
brightened and the men all squat around it. The women bring in food in
earthen cooking pots and basins, and, having set them down among the
men, they huddle together by themselves to enjoy the occasion as
spectators. Every one helps himself from the pots by dipping in with
his fingers, the meat is broken into pieces, and the bones are gnawed
upon and sociably passed from hand to hand. When the feast is finished
tobacco and corn husks are produced, cigarettes are made, everyone
smokes, and convivial gossipy talk prevails. This continues for two or
three hours, when the people who live near by get up their horses and
ride home. Those from a long distance either find places to sleep in the
hogan or wrap themselves in their blankets and sleep at the foot of a
tree. This ceremony is known as the _qo[.g]an aiila_, a kind of
salutation to the house.

But the _qo[.g]an b[)i]g[)i]'n_, the house devotions, have not yet
been observed. Occasionally these take place as soon as the house is
finished, but usually there is an interval of several days to permit the
house builders to invite all their friends and to provide the necessary
food for their entertainment. Although analogous to the Anglo-Saxon
"house warming," the _qo[.g]an b[)i]g[)i]'n_, besides being a
merrymaking for the young people, has a much more solemn significance
for the elders. If it be not observed soon after the house is built bad
dreams will plague the dwellers therein, toothache (dreaded for mystic
reasons) will torture them, and the evil influence from the north will
cause them all kinds of bodily ill; the flocks will dwindle, ill luck
will come, ghosts will haunt the place, and the house will become
_bats[)i]c_, tabooed.

A few days