The songs the third night were addressed to the badger of the south and on the fourth to the wolf of the east.
RAIN CEREMONIAL OF THE KNIFE SOCIETY.
While the ho´naaite and his vicar sat during the morning making hä´chamoni they rehearsed in undertones the songs of their cult. The membership of this society consists at the present time of five men and two boys, and two novitiates, a man and a boy.
The sun was far to the west when the members came straggling in and the ho´naaite proceeded to set up the slat altar ([Pl. xxii]a). Then each man took from the wall a soiled buckskin sack. The well-wrapped ya´ya was first taken out and then other fetiches. After the ho´naaite had unwrapped his ya´ya he prepared the sand painting in front of the altar ([Pl. xxii]b). The five ya´ya were stood on the line specially made for them and a miniature bow and arrow laid before each ya´ya. The ho´naaite then grouped fetiches of human and animal forms, then the medicine bowl containing water and a basket of sacred meal. He then drew a line of meal which extended from the slat altar to a distance of 3 feet beyond the group of fetiches, his vicar afterwards assisting him with the additional fetiches. Two stone cougars 2 feet in length each were stood up on either side of the group. A cougar 12 inches long, with lightning cut in relief on either side, and a concretion, were then deposited before the group. Bear-leg skins were piled high on either side of the altar. The cloud bowl and reed were added, the two flat baskets of hä´chamoni and plume offerings shown in the sketch were afterwards deposited upon the backs of the cougars. While this arrangement was in progress the minor members returned the powdered kaolin and black pigment to the ancient pottery vases, from which they had been taken to prepare the sand-painting.
Fig. 17.—Sand painting as indicated in Pl. xxv.
The ho´naaite consecrated the bowl of water by a prayer, and dropping in the six fetiches he dipped his eagle plumes into the water and striking them on the top with his rattle, sprinkled the altar; holding the plumes in the left hand and the rattle in the right, he sprinkled the cardinal points. The vicar formed a circle of meal, then sprinkled meal upon the circle and placed a cincture pad of yucca upon it, and holding the cloud bowl high above his head, he invoked the cloud people of the north, west, south, east, zenith, and nadir, and of the whole world, to water the earth. The bowl was then set upon the pad and a reed 8 inches long laid across it from northeast to southwest. The vice ho´naaite spread a small cloth and upon it reduced the bit of root which was to produce the suds to a powder, which he placed in a little heap in front of the cloud bowl. The ho´naaite, who had left the chamber, now returned with a parrot and a white stone bear 12 inches long; the bear was wrapped in a large fine white buckskin and the parrot was under the ho´naaite’s blanket. These were deposited before the altar ([Pl. xxiii]).
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XXIV
