ldren as before. This performance is repeated four times at
the east of the circle, after which the basket is carried around to the
south and the girl runs around it four times again, then to the west, and
lastly to the north. When she returns from her fourth run at the north the
girl stops on the blanket as usual, where the basket of corn is emptied on
her head. A lively scramble for the corn follows on the part of all
present, for it is deemed good fortune to bear away a handful of the
consecrated kernels, which, if planted, are certain to be very prolific.

The act of running out and back, followed by children, symbolically
attests that the young woman will be strong and active throughout life,
beloved by her offspring, who will always follow and obey her. That of
pouring corn upon her head is an invocation to the gods that she may be
blessed with fruitfulness.

The girl wears her ceremonial raiment of whitened deerskin or new white
muslin, with a white feather, a stone bead, and a piece of shell in her
hair, for four days after the performance, abstaining during that time
from flesh and from food containing salt, being careful, too, not to
scratch herself with her fingers. At the end of this period she bathes,
dons her usual clothing, and partakes of the customary food.

DANCE OF THE GODS

The Gaun Bagudzitash, or Dance of the Gods, is the one ceremony of the
Apache that bears any material resemblance to the many Yebichai dances or
"chants" of the Navaho, and even then the only feature common to the two
is that the men, typifying gods, wear elaborate masks. The Apache are not
unfamiliar with the making and employment of dry-paintings for the
treatment of the sick, as has been seen. Originally the dry-paintings and
the _gaun_, or gods, always appeared together, but in recent years the
Gaun dance has been conducted preliminary to and as a part of medicine,
puberty, and war ceremonies. Captain Bourke, in his "Medicine-men of the
Apache" (Ninth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892), speaks of this as
the Spirit or Ghost dance. Though performed infrequently now, as compared
with other dances, on account of the expense and of disapproval by the
agents, the Gaun Bagudzitash is unquestionably the most popular ceremony
conducted by the Apache.

[Illustration: Apache _Gaun_]

Apache _Gaun_

_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_

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