in proportion to their potations. Sometimes only the shaman and
his assistants indulge in the drinking; on other occasions all the
people partake of the liquor.

Song to the Hikuli.

Hi-ku-li o-ku-li-va-va Ta-mi-sae-li-va re-ga
Hikuli, uncle! Our authority thus!

A-go-na wi-li si-nae Na-na-ja re-ga we-la
Yonder standing upright, see! The ancients thus placed him.

The secondary effect of the plant, depression and drowsiness, shows
itself more plainly on the company when they sit down between the
dancing, than on the well-trained shaman, who, besides, is kept awake
by his occupation. As one or the other of his assistants succumbs to
sleepiness, he has to ask permission of Hikuli, through the shaman,
to go off and rest for a while, and must properly notify Hikuli of
his leaving and returning to duty. Toward morning all the assistants
are struggling hard to overcome somnolence, while the shaman sings
and rasps as conscientiously and enthusiastically as ever.

But all rouse themselves for the important acts of curing the people
by rasping and of despatching Hikuli. Just at daybreak, as the fire is
dying out, the shaman gives the welcome signal that the dance is over,
by the three final raps on his notched stick. Then the people gather
at the eastern end of the dancing-place, near the cross. The shaman
rises from his seat, carrying in his hands his rasping implements, and,
followed by a boy who carries a gourd with water, he proceeds to confer
upon everybody present the benediction. Stopping in front of each
one, he solemnly dips the point of the rasping-stick into the water,
and after touching the notched stick lightly with the wetted end,
first in the middle, then on the lower end, and finally on the top,
he daubs the head of the person three times with it. Then he rests
the end of the notched stick against the man's head and rasps three
long strokes from end to end, throwing out his hand far into the air
after each stroke. The dust produced by the rasping, infinitesimal
though it be, is powerful in giving health and life. Now he turns
toward the rising Sun, holding out his implements to him; and, quickly
rubbing up and down a few times at the lower end of the notched stick,
he makes a long stroke from end to end, passing the hand far out from
the stick toward the Sun. By this act, three times performed, he waves
Hikuli home. In the early morning, Hikuli had come from San Ignacio