THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
487
After the pole is hoisted all hands gather about it for a time; then the crowd disperses to take the evening meal. Later, the populace again encircle the pole and dance throughout the night. This dance is repeated twelve nights, under the very shadow of the old church erected by the Spanish invaders nearly three hundred years since, with the hope of bringing these people to the Christian faith. None are too aged and few too young to participate in this dance of rejoicing and song for the destruction of the enemy.
The members of the Society of the Bow and the two scalp kickers adjourn to the ceremonial chamber of the bow where a feast is served. The first four nights are spent by the two scalp kickers, the victor and elder brother in the ceremonial house of the warriors, when the men sit apart from the women and do not speak to them. On the fifth day the scalp custodian removes the scalps from the pole and they are carried by the scalp washers to a secluded spot on the river bank and washed. A bit of the scalp is eaten by each man for courage in destroying the enemy.
At midnight on the twelfth night, idols of the war gods, Ahaüita and Määsewe, and objects to be deposited with them are carried by their makers to the ceremonial chamber of warriors. An all-night ceremonial is held, and at sunrise the custodian removes the scalps from the pole and attaches them to a pole some six feet high, planting it in the northwestern corner of the plaza. By 9 o’clock the six rain priests and all the warriors have collected in the ceremonial chamber. After entering the ceremonial chamber, each has a large white buckskin doubled and tied at the throat, hanging over the shoulders and caught at the waist by an embroidered Tusayan sash. The priest of the bow applies to their faces an ointment made of the fat of the animals of the cardinal points, and the water-sprinklers rub on the faces of the warriors a red pigment and afterward galena. The victor takes his seat, extending his legs and leaning back in his chair with an air of making himself as comfortable as possible. The priest of the bow places a cloth around him, barber fashion, and stands behind the chair pressing both hands on the victor’s forehead, while the sun priest prepares to paint the face. He has a small black and highly polished archaic pottery vase and an old medicine bag; the vase is supposed to contain a black paint brought from the under-world, and the bag contains corn pollen. The sun priest dips a stick of yucca into the paint and proceeds to paint the lower portion of the face. He then applies corn pollen to the upper portion by stippling with a mop of raw cotton, a corn husk being laid over the black during this process to protect if from the pollen. The warrior of the Ant Society covers the chin, upper lip, end of nose and forehead with eagle down, and a wreath of the same is fashioned around the crown of the head, the down being held in place by a paste of kaolin. The sun priest then places an arrow point in the mouth of the victor and elder brother with a prayer. The arrows are not removed from the mouth until sunset. The warclub, pouch, quiver and bow complete the toilet.
The priest of the bow whirls the buzzer which calls for the rains to come. This instrument is commonly called a bull-roarer, and is extensively known among savage peoples. It is said by writers to be used to work savage warriors into frenzy, though such is not the case with the Pueblo tribes by whom the instrument is used to create enthusiasm among the rain-makers.
If the nightly dancing around the scalp pole arouses these people, the dances on the closing day of the ceremonial fires them to the extreme.
The epic songs of the Society of the Bow during this prolonged ceremonial are histrionic. They are inspiring and are devoid of any exhibition w r hich could stir a single brute element within the breast of man. These warriors honor the gods with the song and dance that they may have rain in plenty, for in this arid land the highest gift of the gods is from the clouds.