114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 43

 The feast day being fixed, the necessary arrangements for this ceremony are
 made sole days before. The cabin of the great chief is built opposite the
 granary and that of the great war chief at the side of this granary. That of
 the sovereign is on an elevation of earth about 2 feet high, which has been
 brought hither. 11 is made by the warriors of grass and leaves. At the same
 lime the warriors of each family come to make a cabin for all their relations.
 The feast day having at last arrived, the entire nation begins to prepare
 itself at daybreak. The old men, the young people, the women, and the chil-
 dren leave at sunrise. Each one brings the utensils necessary for preparing
 the grain, and as soon as they arrive they collect wood to make a fire at the
 proper time. The old warriors prepare the litter on which the great Sun is
 going to bie brought (pl. 3. a). This litter is composed of four red bars which
 cross each other at the four corners of the seat, which has a depth of about
 11 feet. The entire seat is garnished inside with common deerskins, because
 it is not seen. Those which hang outside are painted with designs according
 to their taste and of different colors. They conceal the seat so well that the
 substance of which it is composed can not be seen. The back part of this
 seat is covered like tie equilpnges we call chaises (NiifflJh'ts). It is covered out-
 side and in wilh leaves of tlhe tulil laurel. The outside border is garnished
 with three strings (cordonN) of flowers. That which extends the farthest out-
 side is red. It is accompanied on each side by a string of white flowers.
 Those who prepare this conveyance are the first and the oldest warriors of
 the nation. They place it on the shoulders of the S who are the only ones to
 take it out of the village. In this way there remain only 16 of them there,
 because all of the others have gone, a little after sunrise, with their great
 chief [of war] and those who command the warriors under his orders. IIe
 disperses them a hundred paces apart and places 8 in each relay. For this
 purpose he chooses those of his warriors who are the strongest and the most
 vigorous. Tile others wait at the open space with him to receive tie great Sun.
 These dispositions made and the warriors' post having been reddened and
 planted by themselves in the middle of the space, with ceremony (for the
 great war chief has to hold it while the warriors make it firm), the great Sun,
 when the sun is a quarter of the way up, goes forth from his cabin adorned with
 his diadem and tile other ornaments which indicate his dignity. On the
 instant, the warriors who have remained to carry him utter many redoubled
 cries in succession and with so much strength that those who hear them may
 be assured that these men are not consumptives. As the warriors of the relays
 ,are not more than a hundred paces apart, they hear the first cries and repeat
 them on the spot. so that in a minute they are informed at the open space,
 although it is half a league distant.
 Thle great Sun seats himself in the litter, adorned with the ornaments suit-
 able to the supreme rank, for good sense alone has enabled these people to
 know tIhat these (orllanents are tile llmarks of sovereignty, and in tile ceremonies
 their princes always wear them, if not all, at least a part. Then the S oldest
 warriors place him in this state on till shoulders of those who are going to
 carry Ilim. The cries are continued from his departure from his cabin until
 he is beyond the village. At most this is a matter of two minutes. Those who
 carry himi and those who receive him do it with so much quickness and skill
that a good horse would be able to follow them only at a canter, for those
who await him at each relay lift him from the shoulders of those who arrive
with so much agility that he does not stop at all and does not cease to go with
the same rapidity, so that that journey, I believe, lasts only six or seven min-
utes at most.