Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution . nded above the altar (see description of plate , page 245). On entering the chamber the writer observed at once an objectwhich in their surprise at her entrance had for the moment been for-gotten by the fraternity. It was the large stone animal. This fetishstood before the altar on the north and was partly covered with alynx skin. But a few moments elapsed before they remembered withconsternation that the sacred object was exposed to the eye of thevisitor, who, appreciating the situation,
Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution . nded above the altar (see description of plate , page 245). On entering the chamber the writer observed at once an objectwhich in their surprise at her entrance had for the moment been for-gotten by the fraternity. It was the large stone animal. This fetishstood before the altar on the north and was partly covered with alynx skin. But a few moments elapsed before they remembered withconsternation that the sacred object was exposed to the eye of thevisitor, who, appreciating the situation, appeared unconscious of anyobjects beyond the group of men about the food. Expressions ofrelief escaped their lips and on the instant several large blankets werethrown over it. Those whom the writer afterward questioned regard-ing the fetish at first denied all knowledge of it, but finally theyadmitted it to be their great father of Mystery medicine, and statedthat the animal was converted into stone at the time when the greatfire spread over the earth (see Origin of animal fetishes). After the. STEVENSON] NE WEKWE ?433 meal the men formed into groups and prepared plume offerings, whichare quite ditierent from those made by other fraternities, spears ofgrass being combined with the plumes. Figure 29 shows the metliodof combining plumes and grass. As there was to be an initiation, aparallelogram was outlined iu white meal oa the floor near the altar.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectindians, bookyear1895
