During the ceremony of opening the bundle, the outside articles were removed first. And for this the four principals, Mad Wolf, White Calf and their wives, Gives-to-the-Sun and Catches-Two-Horses, chanted in unison, while the two women untied the strings and loosened the smudge sticks. The four together placed their hands upon the sacred sticks and held them in the sweet smoke. Then, each held a stick in imitation of beavers carrying branches of trees. They extended their arms together, with hands raised and parallel—the Indian sign for beaver den—and prayed in unison to the spirit of the beaver: “Pity us! Give us your wisdom and cunning. May we live to be old. May we always have plenty of food.” Buffalo hides were next unrolled and spread upon the ground in front of the beaver men during the chant: “The buffalo bull stays in the mountains. He comes down to the plains. The mountains are his medicine.” In this chant the four principals held their hands with two index fingers curved towards each other, the other fingers being closed, in imitation of buffalo horns—the Indian sign for buffalo. The two women raised the Beaver Bundle, while the men sang the chant: “The buffalo bull came down from the mountains. He lies upon the ground.” They moved the sacred bundle slowly and reverently and placed it on a buffalo robe, beside the burning sweet grass. Mad Wolf took some rattles from a woven Nez Percé bag and distributed them among the beaver men. He handed two of them to me and said: “You are now my son and should join with me in this ceremony.” These rattles, which were made of buffalo hide and contained small pebbles, were used by the beaver men to beat time on the buffalo hides during the chants and dances, in imitation of beavers striking the water with their flat tails. Then, with the beaver men, I joined in the Raven Song: “We fly high in the air. Our power is very strong. The wind is our medicine.” We cawed four times in imitation of ravens, and held our rattles vertically on the hides. After another raven song, we beat with our rattles, shook them in the air, and ended with four caws. I watched closely Mad Wolf’s movements, and imitated his motions with the rattles, giving forward sweeps to the beats, as he did. This did not escape his keen eyes, for he said to me so that all could hear: “I like the way you swing your rattles. I am proud of my white son.” For the Antelope Song, the beaver men chanted in unison, holding their hands closed, one above the other, changing their positions by quick, sharp movements, in imitation of the quick and dainty rise and fall of the antelope’s feet in walking.