Arrived at the Big House, the attendants begin at once to prepare the building for use after its year of idleness. The first act of the men is to make mortar of mud, in the old style, and stop the cracks between the logs of the house. Then they cut two forked saplings, and set them in the ground about ten feet apart, some distance in front of the Big House (see pl. VII); upon these is laid a pole, running east and west, to support the twenty-gallon kettle used in preparing hominy for the feast. After this they gather about a cord of wood for the fires inside the Big House and the cooking fire outside. Then the first night, a fire pure and undefined by the white man and his matches, is made with a fire-drill (fig. 8). This is operated on the principal of a pump-drill, like the ceremonial fire-drills of the Iroquois. This fire, and this only, may be used in the temple, and no one is permitted to take it outside for any purpose. [Illustration: PL. VI LENAPE ANNUAL CEREMONY IN PROGRESS Native Painting by Earnest Spybuck, a Shawnee] CEREMONY COMMENCED Two of the attendants, a man and a woman, then build the two fires in the temple, so that there may be plenty of light, and sweep the floor with turkey-wings for brushes. The men attendants take turns so that one of them, at least, is always on guard outside the building. When the temple is clean, the fires are burning bright, and the _aʹckas_ have called the people in and all are assembled, the chief arises and delivers a speech. CHIEF’S SPEECH First he states the rules of the meeting, then he speaks along some such line as the following, which was dictated by Chief Elkhair, who frequently made these speeches: “We are thankful that so many of us are alive to meet together here once more, and that we are ready to hold our ceremonies in good faith. Now we shall meet here twelve nights in succession to pray to Gicelĕmû‛ʹkaong, who has directed us to worship in this way. And these twelve Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ faces [carved on the posts of the house] are here to watch and to carry our prayers to Gicelĕmû‛ʹkaong in the highest heaven. The reason why we dance at this time is to raise our prayers to him. Our attendants here, three women and three men, have the task of keeping everything about our Temple in good order, and of trying to keep peace, if there is trouble. They must haul wood and build fires, cook and sweep out the Big House. “When they sweep, they must sweep both sides of the fire twelve times, which sweeps a road to Heaven, just as they say that it takes twelve years to reach it. Women in their menses must not enter this house.