Note 96 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

The Kiowa moon is crescent-shaped, the Comanche horseshoe-shaped—a significant point in tracing provenience of altars in other tribes. Some Comanche garland the entire west side of the altar with sage, in which the fetish rests. In war the Comanche used a shield as an altar. A cement moon made by a Choctaw adopted by the Kiowa was an innovation much in disfavor, as was a Seminole altar made among the Caddo; the symbolical interior of the latter was removed to make a simple crescent. Indeed, many Caddo are moving away from the John Wilson symbolic cement moon.