Although it snows in winter, the Rocky Mountains block Canadian air masses, and the presence of moisture trapping mountains can make this region drier than the desert in winter. When rains come with thunder, lightning and wind, they are male rains. The steady, quiet rain is female rain Within one storm, both kinds of rain may fall. Water sprinkler, a deity of celestial waters, makes rain and is the water carrier in the Nightway Ceremony, which lasts for nine days and includes Yeii Bicheii Dances to which the public may come. It is a late autumn ceremony, done for healing, after the thunder and lightning stop, at the end of the growing season.
Rain is a part of the ceremony because it is a fundamental part of life's balance.
In the Nightway Ceremony, Water Sprinkler recreates and depicts the forces of rain in nature. His role in the ceremony is also that of a clown, one who makes people happy and who, by extension, represents the rain itself, a phenomenon that makes people happy. Expressions of Rain Expressions of rain in ceremony are reconstruction of nature and of the universe. They provide a foundation for the ceremony. Ceramic water drums are also a part of the rain imagery of ceremony, as are shell beads on necklaces and bandoliers.