During the song the theurgist mixed various herbs in a gourd over which he
poured water. After chanting some twenty minutes he advanced to the
entrance of the house, taking the medicine gourd with him, and, after
pouring some of its contents on the heated stones, took his seat and
joined in the chanting. After another twenty minutes Hasjelti and
Hostjoghon appeared. A Navajo blanket had previously been placed on the
ground at the south side of the entrance. Hasjelti lifted the coverings
from the entrance, and the patient, having first donned his breech cloth,
came out and sat on the blanket. Hasjelti rubbed the invalid with the horn
of a mountain sheep held in the left hand, and in the right hand a piece
of hide, about 10 inches long and 4 wide, from between the eyes of the
sheep. The hide was held flatly against the palm of the hand, and in this
way the god rubbed the breast of the invalid, while he rubbed his back
with the horn, occasionally alternating his hands. Hostjoghon put the
invalid through the same manipulation. The gods then gave him drink four
times from the gourd containing medicine water composed of finely-chopped
herbs and water, they having first taken a draught of the mixture. The
soles of the feet, palms, breast, back, shoulders, and top of the head of
the invalid were touched with medicine water, and the gods suddenly
disappeared. The patient arose and bathed himself with the remainder of
the medicine water and put on his clothing. The coverings of the entrance,
which were gifts to the song priest from the invalid, were gathered
together by the song priest and carried by an attendant to the medicine
lodge. An attendant erased the rainbow by sweeping his hand from the feet
to the head, drawing the sands with him, which were gathered into a
blanket and carried to the north and deposited at the base of a piñon
tree. The song priest placed the wands in a basket, and thus, preceded by
the invalid, carried them in both hands to the medicine lodge singing a
low chant. The sweat house was not carelessly torn down, but was taken
down after a prescribed form. Four men commenced at the sides toward the
cardinal points, and with both hands scraped the sand from the boughs.
When this was all removed the boughs were carefully gathered and conveyed
to a piñon tree some 50 feet distant and fastened horizontally in its
branches about 2 feet above the ground. The heated stones from the
interior of the sweat house were laid on the boughs; the upright logs
which formed the frame work of the house were carried to a piñon tree, a
few feet from the tree in which the boughs and heated stones were placed,
and arranged crosswise in the tree, and on these logs corn meal was
sprinkled and on the meal a medicine tube (cigarette) was deposited. The
tube was about 2 inches long and one third of an inch in diameter, and it
contained a ball composed of down from several varieties of small birds,
sacred tobacco, and corn pollen. It was an offering to Hasjelti. Meal was
sprinkled on the tube. The ground on which the house had stood was
smoothed over, the ashes from the fire carefully swept away, and thus all
traces of the ceremony were removed. The invalid upon entering the lodge
took his seat on the west side facing east. The song priest continued his
chant. He took from the meal bag some sacred meal and placed it to the
soles of the feet of the invalid and on his palms, knees, breast, back,
shoulders, and head. At the conclusion of this ceremony all indulged in a
rest for an hour or more. The bark cups which contained the colored sands
for decorating were placed in the medicine lodge north of the door.