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 3-1/2 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[pg 243] 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.
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 laid on a slender stick which ran horizontally. The first reed painted was laid to the north. Three dots were put upon each blue reed to represent eyes and mouth; two lines encircled the black reeds. Four bits of soiled cotton cloth were deposited in line on the east of the rug. The three attendants under the direction of the song-priest took from the medicine bag, first two feathers from the Arctic blue bird (Sialia arctica), which he placed west of the bit of cloth that lay at the north end of the rug; he placed two more of the same feathers below the second piece of cloth; two under the third, and two below the fourth, their tips pointing east. Then upon each of these feathers he placed an under tail-feather of the eagle. The first one was laid on the two feathers at the north end of the rug; again an under tail-feather of the turkey was placed on each pile, beginning with that of the north. Then upon each of these was placed a hair from the beard of the turkey, and to each was added a thread of cotton yarn. During the arrangement of the feathers the tube decorator first selected four bits of black archaic beads, placing a piece on each bit of cloth; then four tiny pieces of white shell beads were laid on the cloths; next four pieces of abalone shell and four pieces of turquois.
In placing the beads he also began at the north end of the rug. An aged attendant, under the direction of the song-priest, plucked downy feathers from several humming-birds and mixed them together into four little balls one-fourth of an inch in diameter and placed them in line running north and south, and south of the line of plume piles. He sprinkled a bit of corn pollen upon each ball; he then placed what the Navajo term a night-owl feather under the balls with its tip pointing to the northeast. (See Pl. CXIII). The young man facing west then filled the colored reeds, beginning with the one on the north end. He put into the hollow reed, first, one of the feather balls, forcing it into the reed with the quill end of the night-owl feather. (A night-owl feather is always used for filling the reeds after the corn is ripe to insure a warm winter; in the spring a plume from the chaparral cock, Geococcyx californianus, is used instead to bring rain). Then a bit of native tobacco was put in. When the reed was thus far completed it was passed to the decorator, who had before him a tiny earthen bowl of water, a crystal, and a small pouch of corn pollen. Holding the crystal in the sunbeam which penetrated through the fire opening in the roof, he thus lighted the cigarettes which were to be offered to the gods. The forefinger was dipped into the bowl of water and then into the corn pollen, and the pollen that adhered to the finger was placed to the top of the tube. After the four tubes were finished they were placed on the[pg 244] pieces of cloth, not, however, until a bit of pollen had been sprinkled on the beads which lay on the cloth. The pollen end of the tube pointed to the east. The four bunches of feathers were then laid on the tubes. The song-priest rolled up each cloth and holding the four parcels with both hands he placed them horizontally across the soles of the feet, knees, palms, breast, back, shoulders, head, and across the mouth of the invalid, and the invalid drew a breath as the parcel touched his lips. He sat to the north of the rug facing east. The sick man then received the parcels from the song-priest and held them so that the ends projected from between the thumbs and forefingers, and repeated a prayer after the theurgist, who sat facing the invalid. The prayer ran thus:
People of the mountains and rocks, I hear you wish to be paid. I give to you food of corn pollen and humming-bird feathers, and I send to you precious stones and tobacco which you must smoke; it has been lighted by the sun's rays and for this I beg you to give me a good dance; be with me. Earth, I beg you to give me a good dance, and I offer to you food of humming-birds' plumes and precious stones, and tobacco to smoke lighted by the sun's rays, to pay for using you for the dance; make a good solid ground for me, that the gods who come to see the dance may be pleased at the ground their people dance upon; make my people healthy and strong of mind and body.
The prayer being offered, the parcels were given by the theurgist to an attendant, who deposited them in line three feet apart along the side of the dancing ground in front of the lodge. Their proper place is immediately on the ground that is to be danced upon, but to prevent them from being trampled on they are laid to one side. The black tubes are offerings to the gods and the blue to the goddesses of the mountains and to the earth.