dish of venison and corn
was set upon the ground below them and they were invited to eat.
The body of a flaxbird or scarlet tanager {Piranga rubra) was also
hung up with the feathers for the same purpose. The food thus given
to the feathers was disposed of after the dance, a- described in another
place.
The eagle being regarded as a great ada'wehl, only the greatest war-
riors and those versed in the sacred ordinances would dare to wear the
feathers or to carry them in the dance. Should any person in the settle-
ment dream of eagles or eagle feathers he must arrange for an Eagle
dance, with the usual vigil and fasting, at the first opportunity; other-
wise some one of his family will die. Should the insect parasites
which infest the feathers of the birdwounds, the medicine is
blown into the wound through a tube cut from a buzzard quill and
some of the buzzard's down is afterwards laid over the spot.
There is very little concerning hawks, excepting as regards the
great mythic hawk, the Tla'nmvct'. The tl&'nuwti! usdi', or '"little
tla'nuwa," is described as a bird about as large as a turkey and of a
grayish blue color, which used to follow the flocks of wild pigeons. Hy-
ing overhead and darting down occasionally upon a victim, which it
struck and killed with its sharp breast and ate upon the wing, without
alighting. It is probably the goshawk (Astur atricapUkis).
The common swamp gallinule. locally known as mudhen or didapper
(G-ailwadagaleata), is called diga'gwwil' (lame or crippled), on account
of its habit of flying only for a very short distance at a