Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/264

] slipped from the long coils of hair at the operator's shoulders and shown to the awe-stricken spectators as a fully developed plant.

A favorite trick was to have young men chew mesquite leaves, which on being ejected from the mouth were seen to be wheat or corn.

During the rain ceremonies, when the Makai were at the height of their glory, one of their most impressive acts was to pour dry earth out of a reed until it was half empty and then it would be seen that the remainder was filled with water. "Then it rained right away." If the Makai put one of the magic slates in a cup of water at the time the rain songs were being sung and also dug a shallow trench to show the rivulets how they should cut their way, it would rain in four days.

Another device of the Makai was to conceal reeds filled with water and then while standing on a house top to direct the singers to stand in a close circle around below him. Exhibiting a handful of eagle down or eagle tail feathers and throwing dust on them to show how dry they were, he would then sweep his hand about and scatter water over the spectators and singers, apparently from feathers but in reality from the reeds.

During the season when rain is especially needed any one may petition for it by means of the small gray fly that has a large head. Rubbing soot from the roof or chimney in the fly's eyes the person must say, "Go quickly, little fly, tell your grandmother to send the rain."

Some Siʼatcokam arouse the wonder and admiration of their fellows by placing hot coals in their mouths (where they hold them between the teeth), or by holding them in their hands (taking care to have a thin layer of ash or mud beneath them).

When the exigencies of the case demand it, the Siʼatcokam sink small pointed pieces of wood, an inch in length and flat at the larger end, into the flesh of their patients. The bits of wood are "twisted back and forth between the thumb and forefinger as one would twist a thread until the wood disappears." The great grandmother of Jacob L. Roberts, a young man of Apache-Maricopa and Pima-Kwahadkʼ lineage, thus treated him during a temporary attack of sickness in his infancy. She sank two pieces of creosote bush into his breast and predicted that he would not be ill as would other children. She also said that she would die within the year—and she did. Strange to say, Jacob also escaped the epidemic diseases that afflicted his playmates.

The Siʼatcokam prize certain crystals very highly and claim to obtain them in the following manner: The person possessing the necessary power may be going along in some quiet place when all of a sudden a man will be seen approaching. The stranger never reaches him but will be seen to disappear; then if the Siʼatcokam searches about