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Upon completion of the painting the song-priest, who stood to the east of it holding in his hand a bag of sacred meal, stepped carefully between the figures, sprinkling pollen upon the feet and heart of each. He then sprinkled a thread of pollen up each cheek and down the middle of the face of the figures, afterwards extending his right hand toward the east.
The husks were closed and held by the song-priest to the soles of the feet, palms, knees, breast, shoulders, back, and top of head of the invalid, who repeated a long prayer after the theurgist, and the parcels were given to an attendant, who carried them some distance from the lodge to the north and placed them in a secluded shady spot upon the ground.
The five beads were strung on the string, the turquoise being the first put on; these were slipped up the cord and two under tail-feathers and a hair from the beard of the turkey were fastened to the end of the string with a loop similar to that which attached it to the tube. This was offered that the song-priest might have his prayers passed straight over the line of song.
After these attentions he took his accustomed seat in the lodge and joined in conversation with his attendants. Two sheepskins, a blanket, and cotton cloth were spread one upon the other in front of the song-priest; and from the long reeds that had been first rubbed with a polishing stone, then with tobacco, were cut ten pieces an inch and a quarter long and two pieces 2 inches long.
After they were completed they were placed in position by a second attendant; and while the tubes were being filled the song-priest and choir sang "See, fathers! We fill these with tobacco; it is good; smoke it!" A message was received from the fathers that they would smoke, and, puffing the smoke from their mouths, they would invoke the watering of the earth.
After the invalid entered the sweat house, buckskin blankets, etc., were drawn over the entrance. The song-priest, accompanied by two attendants, sat a little to the south. The song-priest holding the rattle joined the choir in a chant. To his right were two Navajo jugs filled with water and an Apache basket partly filled with corn meal.
After refreshment the song-priest lifted each mask with his left hand beginning with Hasjelti, and first extending his right hand, which held a fine large crystal, toward the heavens, he touched the under part of each mask with the crystal; four times he passed over the masks. The choir sang but no rattle was used. The crystal was afterward placed on the rug opposite the basket of feathers.
All those who were to participate were immediate friends and relatives of the invalid excepting the theurgist or song-priest, he being the only one who received direct compensation for his professional services. The cost of such a ceremony is no inconsiderable item.
Buckskin over the entrance to an eastern sweat house denotes dawn; over a southern, denotes red of morning; over a western, sunset; over a northern, night. Before noon two sheepskins were spread one upon the other before the song-priest. Upon these was laid a blanket, and on the blanket pieces of cotton. These rugs extended north and south.
After the chant the song-priest placed meal on the soles of the invalid’s feet, knees, palms, breast, back, shoulders, and head, and then put some in the cavity, after which the cavity was filled with earth. Two coals were laid in front of the invalid, and upon these the song priest placed finely broken herbs; an attendant sprinkled water on the herbs, and the invalid inhaled the fumes.
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