The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-04
NAVAJO RAIN-GODS SEEN
 BY A HARVARD SCIENTIST

paration of yet another divinity This was a young man whose body was first painted with white earth and then adorn- ed with stockings, moccasins. necklaces, a black velvet loin cloth, and the mask that transformed him into god for the purpose of the forthcoming ceremony. When he was dressed for his part and had wrapped himself in his blanket and retired, the medicine man took basket of corn and, standing at the eastern side of the picture, sprinkled each of the pie ures, taking great care not to drop any of the corn into the eyes of the recum- bent divinities The sprnkling, like the making Of the picture was no haphazzard affair but matter of established pre- cedent. and the medicine man finished this part of the ceremony by making lit- tie piles of corn in certain long prescribed places of the drawings
 The patients were then admitted, each bearing basket filled with ground corn. They took their places at the southeast of the picture, which certain other cere- monies had protected from evil influence, and were followed by several mothers with children who had paid one or two sheep for the privilege of being present and getting such general good as they might out of the ceremony. Gourds of medicine" chiefly of ground cedar and Ol corn DOiitn InlAeQ NllH WdleTb were placed in different parts of the figure. The two patients scattered their corn as the medicine man had done before them. after period of singing by the medicine man and his assistants.
 The pseudo-god then entered the hut backward sprinlSled each god with cedar from one of the medicine gourds and thus sanctified the little piles of corn that the chief medicine man had placed on various parts of the gods bodies The two pa- tients seated themselves respectively on the blue god of the south and the yell low god of the west, and in this position received the medicine gourd from the as sistant medicine man, who permitted them to drink and then placed the gourd on the ground between them. so that they could proceed to rub the contents upon their bodies. What was left in the bowl was given to the mothers who carefully used it to wash the bodies of their babies.
 Up to this point the picture, save where the patients were sitting on it, was prac- tically uninjured. Now the assistant medicine man began rubbing portions of the gods, and then transferring the soil to corresponding parts of the patients bodies each time uttering a piercing yell in the ear of the patient. Finally he yell ed twice in succession and left the hut backward, as he had entered it. The pa tients inhaled the smoke arising from powdered feathers burnt over two hot coals that the medicine man placed be- fore them, and the ceremony was over The sand picture, which had taken six hours to make, was practically obliterat- ed in less than an hour, and it's ruin was completed by the efforts of the rest of the audience to avail themselves of the benefcent properties of such sand as re- mained.
 How much these sand pictures may have changed from year to year Is, of course, a question: Twenty years ago, however. sand painting was carefully reproduced by a scientist who was pres ent at a similar ceremony, and this draw ing is practically identical with the repro duction recently made for the Harvard museum. The places where the drawings were made were over 100 miles apart, and the theory is therefore at least plausible that the retentive Indian memory is still handing down an almost exact reproduce tion of a very early piece of Indian art work. even in such perishable form as a sand picture.