Beginning on December 16, the church bell is rung every morning at nine o’clock, and mass is said by the _sextana_. Everyone counts the days until the 22nd when there is a grand rehearsal of the dances at night in the clan house of the Sun. From then until the 30th there are continual dances and exchanges of gifts. On Christmas day the so-called “Comanche dance,” in which costumes like those of that once-dreaded enemy are worn, takes place in the church at the foot of the altar. This dance must be of Spanish origin, for a similar ceremony takes place in Seville cathedral before the altar on December 8 for the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, and again at the Feast of Corpus Christi. The open plaza called _Kakati_, where a cross-street runs from North Row to Middle Row, supplies the stage for all outdoor dances. No whites are allowed to see the masked dances at Ácoma or Laguna, although these take place in the open plaza. The dance Dr. Parsons did see was maskless, to celebrate the installation of officers, and was called “unfinished.”[244] From the 26th to the 29th, Comanche dances in which children may take part are frequent in the plaza. The _Kachale_ come out, and there is the _pasku_, or butterfly dance. Meanwhile, the _Kasik_ and his “brothers” and “uncles,” that is, the younger and older members of the Antelope clan, meet in their house a group of ten, probably the _principales_. (This house was back of the _estufas_, and Dr. Parsons did not ascertain whether it was the clan house or a ceremonial house.) Here was held the discussion about the men eligible for election on the following day, when all the men meet in the _Komanina_ (a long house near the church, where the officers hold court).[245] So anxious was Dr. Parsons’s host to have her leave town at a certain time, before the dances were finished, that she felt sure there was some ritual too sacred for her profane eyes. This merely suggestive sketch of the ceremonials which are to the Indian the most intimately important occupation of his life may be closed with a summary by Mrs. Stevenson, who says: Their sociology and religion are so intricately woven together that the study of one can not be pursued without the other, the ritual beginning at birth and closing at death. Their religion is not one mainly of propitiation but rather of supplication for favor and payment of the same, and to do the will of the beings to whom they pray. This is the paramount occupation of their life. All other desirable things come through its practice.[246] [Illustration: PROCESSION OF THE DANCERS, ÁCOMA _Fr. O’Sullivan_]