All seated, the leader places the father peyote on the sage sprigs, orienting it by the thorn or mark made when he cut it.[98] After this the ceremony is considered begun, all informal talking and joking ceases, and others entering are late-comers. Everyone begins to stare at the fetish peyote and the flickering fire.[99] Then the leader leans his eagle-humerus whistle against the west outside of the moon, mouth end up, takes out his cedar incense bag, gourd, tobacco, etc., and arranges them conveniently near him. The first ceremony is smoking or praying together. The leader makes himself a cigarette of Bull Durham with corn husk “papers” dried and cut to shape, and passes the makings clockwise to the rest, including women.[100] His own made, the fireman presents the smokestick to the leader (who may first offer it courteously to his drummer) and this too is passed to the left. While all smoke, the leader prays: “beha´be sęį´ᴅɔki (smoke, peyote power). Be with us when we pray tonight. Tell your father to look at us and listen to our prayers.” He holds his cigarette mouth end toward the peyote and motions upward that it may smoke as he prays: We are just beginning our prayer meeting. We want you to be with us tonight and help us. We want no one to be sick at this meeting from eating peyote. I will pause again at midnight to pray to you. I will pause again in the morning to pray to you. [Then he prays for the person who is sick or whose birthday the meeting celebrates or for relatives and participants.] If there are any rules connected with you, peyote, that we don’t know of, forgive us if we should break them, as we are ignorant. All pray silently to ᴅómᴅɔki, “earth-creator” or “earth-lord,” and older men may add their prayers aloud after the leader. Then, following the leader, all snuff their cigarettes in the ground and place them on the west curve of the altar, outside, or at either horn; the fireman may gather those of women, old people or visitors. The incense-blessing ceremony immediately follows. The leader (or his “cedar-man”) sprinkles some dried and rubbed cedar on the fire; then he makes four clockwise motions of the peyote bag toward the fire, takes out four buttons and passes the bag. Kneeling on both knees, he reaches down beneath the hides or blankets of the seat, and bruises a tuft of sage between his palms, and smelling it with deep inhalations, rubs his hands over and down his head, breast, shoulders and arms, with outward downward movements, ending with the thighs. Though the peyote may not yet have reached them, the others follow suit, reaching out their palms to absorb the blessing of the incense and rubbing themselves. [Illustration: Fig. 3. Peyote drum with lashing around bosses.]