Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/609

 Giving Thanks: A Pawnee Ceremony. 261

��GIVING THANKS: A PAWNEE CEREMONY. 1

During my recent visit to the Pawnee tribe I was so fortunate as to be present at a ceremony which, I was told, had never before been observed by one of my race. I am not sure that this statement is correct, but, as far as my own reading goes, I do not recall any account of such a ceremony.

As I was driven up to the lodge of Ti-hi'-roos-sa-wi-chi, the old priest with whom I was to hold a conference concerning a rite I was studying, I noticed that he was naked save for the breech-cloth and his black moccasins of buffalo hide. Knowing his careful ob- servance of all ritualistic forms, I concluded that his attire indicated a preparation for some ceremony, and so it proved to be.

After greeting me, he said : " I am about to thank Ti-ra'-wa for the power granted to the medicine I gave the wife and child of that young man [pointing to a gayly dressed Indian who stood not far off]. He has just brought to me the two ponies which you see under that tree. If you wish, you can go into the lodge with us."

Thanking him for his invitation, and looking toward the doorway of the earth lodge, I could just discern, in the dim light of the inte- rior, the wife of the priest sweeping the floor and making ready for the ceremony. When she came out, she went to the tree under which the ponies were standing, unfastened their lariats, and led them to the entrance of the lodge, where she tied one to each side of the doorway. Then she carried three mats into the lodge, and spread one at the west, one at the north, and one at the south of the fire- place. The priest now entered with a bundle in his arms, and soon after came to the door, and called me. Carrying my little camp, stool, I followed him down the long projecting passageway into the circular room. As we entered, he signified where on the right I was to sit. I placed my stool against one of the large posts, and awaited the ceremony.

I observed at the west side of the lodge, facing the entrance, be- tween two of the larger posts which formed the inner circle about the fire, the sacred buffalo skull, symbolically decorated, lying upon a gayly colored blanket, folded to make a pillow, in front of which stood a wand with eagle feathers attached. Between this wand and the fireplace lay the bundle which I had seen the priest carry into the lodge. This he now proceeded to open and to spread the vari- ous articles it contained upon the skin of a buffalo calf upon which the hoofs were intact. This skin seems to have been the inner wrapping of the bundle.

1 Paper read before Section H, Anthropology, at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at New York, N. Y., June 27, 1900.

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