Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution . attle. The mili and rattle are placed on the blanket, a Koyemshibrings two other men, and the performance is repeated. Naiuchinow calls a member of the fraternity and hands him the mili, and aKoyemshi takes the rattle. AU dance and sing to the accompanimentof the rattles. As soon as the man with the mili begins tapping it. with his eagle plumes, grains of wheat pour out from the plumes untilfully a quart is deposited on the blanket, much to the delight of a largenumber of spectators. This trick,
Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution . attle. The mili and rattle are placed on the blanket, a Koyemshibrings two other men, and the performance is repeated. Naiuchinow calls a member of the fraternity and hands him the mili, and aKoyemshi takes the rattle. AU dance and sing to the accompanimentof the rattles. As soon as the man with the mili begins tapping it. with his eagle plumes, grains of wheat pour out from the plumes untilfully a quart is deposited on the blanket, much to the delight of a largenumber of spectators. This trick, which the writer has observed onseveral occasions, is a clever one. After dancing a short time thefraternity, followed by the Koyemshi, leave the ]ilaza. Personators of the gods from different kiwisiwe appear in the Siaatewita five consecutive days in full ceremonial attire, including at times the wind blows like a hui-ricane, carrying so muchdust that one not accustomed to these storms finds it almost impossibleto exist, the dances go on. The thermometer is never too low or the. STEVENSON] RETIREMENT OF KOYEMSHI 273 ?winds too j^iercing for devotees to take part in tlie outdoorceremonial. Such windstorms are not considered favorable, and forthis reason the dance is all the more vio-orously performed and thesongs the more fervently sung, the singers hoping in this way to appeasethe wrath of the gods. A rain priest gave the following as a reasonfor the contiiuied windstorms in 1891: The Kokko Awan (Councilof the Gods) are angry, and send the winds because the Koyemshi arepersonated this year by the Newekwe (Galaxy) fraternity, who do notspeak the old languasre. Some years ago, when the Newekwe repre-sented the Koyemshi, similar hard winds came, and the Kiakwemosi,who has since died, declared that the Koyemshi must never again bepersonated by this fraternity; but his successor, being a member of theNewekwe, this fraternitj continues to take its turn in repr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectindians, bookyear1895
