of the council; the ho´naaite of the Snake society addressing him: “You have come to us a friend; we have learned to regard you as our brother, and we wish to do all we can for you; we are sorry we can not give you one of the vases; we talked about letting you have one, but we concluded it would not do; it would excite the anger of the snakes, and perhaps all of our women and little ones would be bitten and die; you will not be angry, for our hearts are yours.” The night previous to the departure of the party from Sia the vicar of the Snake Society made several visits to the camp, but finding other Indians present he did not tarry. At midnight when the last Indian guest had left the camp he again appeared and hurriedly said, “I will come again,” and an hour later he returned. “Now,” said he, “closely fasten the tent, and one of you listen attentively all the while and tell me when you hear the first footstep;” and he then took from the sack one of the vases, he being in the meanwhile much excited and also distressed. He would not allow a close examination to be made of the vase, but urged the packing of it at once; he deposited a plume offering in the vase, and sprinkled meal upon it and prayed while tears moistened his cheeks. The vase was brought to Washington and deposited in the National Museum. [Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate XVIII GAST LITH. CO. N.Y. ALTAR AND SAND PAINTING. GIANT SOCIETY.] RAIN CEREMONIAL OF THE GIANT SOCIETY. About noon the ho´naaite, who was nude except the breechcloth, left his seat by the fireside in the ceremonial chamber, where his vicar had been assisting him during the morning in cutting willows and preparing hä´chamoni, and proceeded to make a sand painting in the east end of the room, and when this was completed he erected the slat altar (Pl. XVIII _a_). During the preparation of the sand painting (_b_) the vicar remained at his post at work upon the hä´chamoni. When the two female members, a woman and a little girl some 8 years of age, arrived, the ho´naaite took from the wall nine shabby-looking sacks, handing one to each person present, reserving two for himself and laying the remaining four to one side to be claimed by the other members of the medicine order of the society. These sacks contained the ya´ya, one of which, it is claimed, was captured from the Navajo by a former ho´naaite of this society, and this fetich is as precious as the others for the reason that it also represents Ût´sĕt, the mother of all Indians.