Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/154

 present; they go at night-fall—one or two at a time, not to attract attention—to some house in an unfrequented spot, not to be surprised by the police or annoyed by outsiders.

About nine o'clock the visitors, never less than fifteen or twenty, must be at the place indicated. They are recommended to be very circumspect, to have much faith in all they see and hear, and to sing with each spirit certain verses that correspond to them. The doors are well closed, and no one can leave till the meeting adjourns, except with the master's permission. Sometimes they are closeted till early dawn.

The medicine man first occupies himself for about an hour in slowly making ten or twelve cigars, very thick, and nine inches long, mixing with the tobacco a small quantity of pulverized incense, and wrapping it in very thin bark. There are two bottles of fire-water on hand for the libations of "the spirits." They also have a small hollow globe made of wood, perforated with many holes; inside there are pebbles to rattle. This primitive kind of sistrum is secured to a handle, and the medicine man uses it to call the master of the spirits; they say that he gave it to them for that purpose, as well as another instrument made of buzzard feathers.