n yumari, though the latter, of course, has its own special value;
for instance, it expresses a prayer that the shaman may have strength
to cure. In yumari, all sing and dance, and very frequently all the
performers are drunk, while during the former dance absolute decorum
is observed. Both dances are for the sun and the moon--rutuburi,
in order to call them down; yumari, to despatch them. Therefore, the
usual dancing-feasts commence with rutuburi. When the function is about
to be concluded, an hour or two before sunrise, yumari is commenced,
and leads over to the second part of the festival, the eating and
drinking. After this, yumari may be continued throughout the day,
while the Indians get drunk. Rutuburi is also danced at thanksgiving
for the harvest, while on such occasions yumari asks for a good year
to come. Then, again, rutuburi may be danced throughout the day, and
yumari at night; but generally the former dance commences soon after
sunset. On one occasion, while I was waiting for the performance
to begin, the son of the house, in answer to my query, pointed to
the sky, and told me that the dance would not commence until the
Pleiades reached a certain spot in the heavens, which I calculated
to mean about eleven o'clock. This indicated that the stars have some
connection with the dancing.

At the break of dawn busy hands begin to get everything ready for the
great ceremony of the sacrifice. For several days the women of the
household and their friends have been making tortillas and boiling
beans and _tamales_ (small quantities of unsalted ground corn, wrapped
and boiled in corn-husks). An animal was killed on the preceding day,
and the meat has been boiling (without salt) in large jars all day
and all night. Tata Dios does not like bones, therefore no bones
are cooked with this meat. Several of the women have been dividing
their time between dancing and watching the food-supply, to guard
it against mishap from any source: A blanket is spread underneath,
just to the west of the cross, or the three crosses, as the case may
be, and on it in a line they place the jars of tesvino; behind these
are set three small earthenware bowls filled with the stringy mass
of the meat; then come three baskets of tortillas; and finally three
little jars with wooden spoons in each are brought on and put in their
proper places, behind the rest of the food. The latter vessels contain
medicines to be taken, for the welfare of the peop