He was the Hishtanyi Chayan, the principal medicine-man of the tribe.

Next to him was the Shkuy Chayan, or great shaman for the hunt, equally tall, slender, and with a thin face and quick, unsteady glance.

The third, or Shikama Chayan, was an individual of ordinary looks and coarse features, who was decorated by a single upright feather.

The leaders of the societies of the Koshare and Cuirana had squatted among the central group, while a projection that ran around the whole room served as a bench, or settee, for the representatives of the clans.
This arrangement corresponded closely to the degree of importance of the various officers, or rather to their assumed proximity to the higher powers under whose protection the tribe believed itself to be placed.
The tapop, as chairman of the meeting, occupied the middle, together with the principal religious functionaries,--the yaya, or mothers of the tribe.

On the outer circumference were placed the nashtio, or fathers, the delegates of the clans.