{p. 473}
The Zuñi tribe numbered in 1928 approximately 1,900 individuals, settled in the desert of western New Mexico on land which the nation had already inhabited for many centuries prior to the advent of the Spaniards in 1540. The reservation which they now hold under Government protection is a strip of land roughly following the course of the Zuñi River from its headwaters near the Continental Divide southwest to a point some miles east of the Arizona border. The general conformation of the land is a high, broad valley dropping sharply from northeast to southwest. The upper end of the valley is hemmed in by rugged mountains of red and white sandstone, cut by deep canyons densely forested. Toward the west the country lies open. The average altitude of the valley is about 6,000 feet.
The Zuñi River which drains this country is a permanent stream, which, however, varies greatly in volume of water. For the greater part of the year it is a thin trickle threading its devious way through broad, glistening mud flats. During the summer season this trickle may be transformed within a few moments into a raging torrent that inundates the mud flats and frequently overflows the containing banks. These sudden floods, caused by cloud-bursts in the eastern mountains, generally subside within a few hours, although the stream frequently runs high for two or three days during the spring freshets, when the river is said to be impassable for days at a time. The valley is traversed also by numerous arroyos filled with rushing water in times of flood, but otherwise quite dry. In all the surrounding mountains are numerous permanent springs of sweet water.
The mountains and canyons of the east, well watered by virtue of their nearness to the divide, are covered with thick forests of conifers. The and plains of the west sustain only a meager covering of sage, greasewood, yucca, and small cacti, with occasional poplar and cottonwood trees near springs and along watercourses.
The high altitude and excessive aridity produce a healthy and invigorating climate. There are great seasonal and daily fluctuations in temperature. There are summers of blazing noons (110� F. is by no
{p. 474}
means unusual) and cool, almost, chilly, nights. In winter, especially in December, the nights are bitter cold, the days, for the most part, mild and sunny.
There are two periods of precipitation--in summer from July to September, and in winter from December to March. The summer rains begin early in July, increasing in intensity as the season advances. The rainy season ends about September 15. In summer the sun rises every day in an unclouded sky of brilliant blue. By noon this blue dome begins to fill with great puffs of white cumulus clouds, increasing in density, with heavy black clouds along the southern horizon. The late afternoon is generally marked by sudden and violent showers of short duration. These showers, which are very local, can literally be seen stalking out of the southeast just before sunset. The storms increase in frequency, intensity, and duration toward the close of the rainy season. The most destructive rains occur in September.
The winter precipitation starts with light snowfalls early in December. December is a month of low temperatures and frequent snow falls. After the New Year the temperature moderates, but the weather continues very inclement, snow and rain alternating. There is a great deal of fog and continuous downpours of cold rain.
The spring months are marked by high winds of prevailing westerly direction. These winds from the open desert are laden with fine sand and cause untold discomfort. The sand storms of May, striking the young corn, are especially destructive.
The Zuñis have been agriculturists for many centuries. Since very early prehistoric time they have raised maize, beans, and squash by a system of dry cultivation.[1] From the first Spanish settlers they obtained the seeds of wheat. This, however, could be grown only specially favored localities which could be irrigated by hand from large, permanently flowing springs. Recently, in 1909, the waters one fork of the Zuñi River have been impounded behind a dam built by the United States Government. From this reservoir sufficient water is drawn to irrigate a strip of land on the north bank of river, immediately adjacent to the village. This strip, approximately 1 mile wide and 6 miles long, is well suited for the cultivation of wheat and alfalfa. Maize is still raised by old methods of dry farming on sandy fields lying at a considerable distance from the village, mainly situated on the south bank.
From the Spaniards, also, the Zuñis got their first sheep. They now own large and profitable herds. These are kept in remote parts
A characterization intended to convey the highest praise was the following: "Yes, ------ is a nice polite man. No one ever hears anything from him. He never gets into trouble. He's Badger clan and Muhekwe kiva and be always dances in the summer dances." The informant could be eloquent enough when she wished to detract.
No single fact gives a better index to Zuñi temperament than that suicide is absolutely unknown among them, and the very idea is so remote from their habits of thought that it arouses only laughter.
In so far as the culture of any people is an integrated and harmonious whole, it shows in all its phases the same character and individuality. At Zuñi the same ceremonious collectivism that characterizes social activities is the essence also of all religious participation. The relation between man and the supernatural is as free of tragic intensity as the relation of man to man. The supernatural, conceived always as a collectivity, a multiple manifestation of the divine essence, is approached by the collective force of the people in a series of great public and esoteric rituals whose richness, variety, and beauty have attracted the attention of poets and artists of all countries. Nowhere in the New World, except in the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Yucatan, has ceremonialism been more highly developed, and nowhere, including these civilizations, has it gone so far toward taming man's frenzy. In Zuñi, as in all the pueblos, religion spreads wide. It pervades all activities, and its very pervasiveness and the rich and harmonious forms in which it is externalized compensate the student of religion for the lack of intensity of that feeling. For although the Zuñi may be called one of the most thoroughly religious peoples of the world, in all the enormous mass of rituals there is no single bit of religious feeling equal in intensity and exaltation to the usual vision quest of the North American Indian.
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According to Zuñi belief, man has a spiritual substance, a soul (tse?makwin, thoughts, from tse?ma, to think, ponder). This is associated with the head, the heart, and the breath. The head is the seat of skill and intelligence, but the heart is the seat of the emotions and of profound thought. "I shall take it to my heart" means I shall ponder it carefully, and remember it long. The word for life is t?ek?ohanan:e, literally daylight. The breath is the symbol of life. It also is the means by which spiritual substances communicate and the seat of power or mana. Inhaling is an act of ritual blessing. One inhales from all sacred objects to derive benefit from their mana. At the end of any prayer or chant all present inhale; holding their folded hand before their nostrils, in order to partake of the sacred essence of prayer.[3] The feather is the pictorial representation of the breath. Death occurs when "the heart wears out." When a person is very sick his heart is wearing out. "Medicine men can fix it up when they come to cure, and it will go for a while, but sooner or later you will have to get a new one." Getting a new heart is the first rite in society initiations.[4]
Dreams are believed to be of supernatural causation, and foretell the future if one can properly interpret them. Certain persons in particular are believed to "dream true." Dreams of the dead are believed to be visitations of the dead, and are always portents of death. Visual and auditory hallucinations are believed to be similarly caused. "Bad dreams," a term which includes hallucinations, is a disease of supernatural origin, as opposed to bodily disease, which is caused by witchcraft. There are special rituals for curing "bad dreams," to which we shall allude frequently in the following pages.
In rare instances the soul can leave the body and return to it again. This occurs during sickness and is a matter of great seriousness. A friend has reported such an experience as follows:
"When I was sick of the measles I was very sick. On the third day I didn't know anything. Maybe I fainted or maybe I really died[5] and came back. I never believed that could happen, but it really did, because when I came back the room was going round and round and there was a little light coming through the window, although there was a bright light in the room. While I was dead I dreamed I was going toward the west." The narrative goes on to describe her encounter with her dead grandfather and unknown dead women, her "aunts."
Visual and auditory hallucinations are caused by supernaturals. They are regarded as omens of death. The most common hallucinations of this type are the apparent movement of sacred objects on an altar--especially masks.
Death is usually caused by witchcraft. The usual method of the sorcerer is to shoot foreign bodies into his victim. But other more indirect methods may be used. Sorcery, however, is never practiced openly as in Oceania. No one admits having sorcery, and everyone suspects others very vaguely. Suspicion of sorcery subjects a person to social ostracism, but a death caused by sorcery is an occasion for formal interference on the part of the authorities. There is considerable internal and comparative evidence in the body of witchcraft belief and practice to indicate that their present great development is post-Hispanic, and that the belief in less specific supernatural causation is earlier and more aboriginal.
Considerable confusion exists in the Zuñi mind concerning the fate of the soul after death. General folk belief has it that for four days after death it remains in Zuñi, causing great inconvenience, and, indeed, danger, to survivors, and on the fourth day departs for Katcina Village (kolhuwala:wa)[7] in the west. However, various cult groups hold beliefs at variance with this. Dead medicine men, probably not all members of medicine societies, but those who possess the ultimate powers of "calling the bear," join the beast priests at Cipapolima in the east.[8] The name Cipapolima is undoubtedly related to the Keresan shipapu, the place of emergence and the destination of the dead. The word shipapu is not known at Zuñi, but wenima (Keresan wenimatse) is sometimes used esoterically in songs for Kolhuwala:wa. When the priests invoke the uwanami in prayer they also call by name deceased members of their order,[9] indicating that deceased priests join the uwanami at the four oceans of the world.
Corpses are prepared for burial according to the ceremonial affiliations of the deceased. All are clothed in everyday clothing, men in white cotton shirts and trousers, women in calico dresses and black woolen blanket dresses. In addition, each wears the characteristic garment of his group: male members of societies the hand-woven
The rôle of the dead in the religious life is described below (p. 509). At this point it need only be said that they are the bestowers of all blessings, and are identified especially with rain. If rain falls the fourth day following the death of a noted man it is usually thought of as his rain, and is a source of consolation to the bereaved. The worship of the dead is the foundation of all Zuñi ritual. The dead form part of the great spiritual essence of the universe, but they are the part which is nearest and most intimate.
To the Zuñi the whole world appears animate. Not only are night and day, wind, clouds, and trees possessed of personality, but even articles of human manufacture, such as houses, pots, and clothing, are alive and sentient. All matter has its inseparable spiritual essence. For the most part this spiritual aspect of things is vague and impersonal. Although all objects are called ho?i, "living person, " in a figurative sense, they are not definitely anthropomorphic; they have consciousness but they do not possess human faculties. To all these beings is applied the term k^?äpin ho?i "raw person"; man, on the other hand, is a "cooked" person.
Prayers are full of description of natural phenomena in anthropomorphic guise. I quote some of the most striking:
When our sun father
Goes in to sit down at his ancient place,
And our night fathers,
Our mothers,
Night priests,
Raise their dark curtain over their ancient place......
That our earth mother may wrap herself
In a fourfold robe of white meal;
That she may be covered with frost flowers;
That yonder on all the mossy mountains,
The forests may huddle together with the cold;
The sense of conflict as the basic principle of life does not dominate, man's relation to the universe any more than it dominates man's relation to man. The Promethean theme--man's tragic and heroic struggle against the gods--has no place in Zuñi philosophic speculation. Nor have any of the other concepts of cosmic conflicts which have always absorbed the interest of Asiatic and European philosophers and mystics, the antithesis between good and evil, or between matter and spirit. There is no Satan in Zuñi ideology, and no Christ.
The world, then, is as it is, and man's plan in it is what it is. Day follows night and the cycles of the years complete themselves. In the spring the corn is planted, and if all goes well the young stalks grow to maturity and fulfill themselves. They are cut down to serve man for food, but their seeds remain against another planting. So man, too, has his days and his destined place in life. His road may be long or short, but in time it is fulfilled and be passes on to fill another rôle in the cosmic scheme. He, too, leaves his seed behind him. Man dies but mankind remains. This is the way of life; the whole literature of prayer shows no questioning of these fundamental premises. This is not resignation, the subordination of desire to a stronger force, but the sense of man's oneness with the universe. The conditions controlling human affairs are no more moral issues than those, like the blueness of the sky, to which we may well be indifferent. It is a remarkably realistic view of the universe. It is an attitude singularly free from terror, guilt, and mystery. The
{p. 487}
Zuñi feels great awe of the supernatural, and definitely fears certain beings in his pantheon-the recently dead, the Koyemci, certain "dangerous" katcinas, but this is quite different from the cosmic terror that crushes many primitive and civilized peoples.
The cosmology of the Zuñis is extremely fragmentary. The earth is circular in shape and is surrounded on all sides by ocean. Under the earth is a system of covered waterways all connecting ultimately with the surrounding oceans. Springs and lakes, which are always regarded as sacred, are the openings to this system. On the shores of the encircling ocean live the Uwanami or rain makers.[13] They have villages in the four world quarters. The underground waters are the home of Kolowisi, the horned serpent.
Within the earth are the four enclosed caves which the people occupied before coming out into this world-the four wombs of earth mother. The sky (a?po?yan:e, stone cover), solid in substance, rests upon the earth like an inverted bowl. The sun has two houses, in the earth and in the sky. In the morning he "comes out standing to his sacred place"; in the evening he "goes in to sit down at his other sacred place." The sun also travels north and south, reaching his "left hand" (i.e., southernmost) sacred place at the winter solsticial rising. The change in the length of days passes unnoticed.[14]
The moon is reborn each month and in 14 days reaches maturity; after that her life wanes. These are, in general, inauspicious days. Children born while the moon is waning are unlikely to live long.
The stars are fixed in the sky cover. The most prominent feature of the night heavens is the milky way, frequently mentioned in myth and song and figuring prominently in religious art. Some of the stars and constellations are named and recognized--the morning star (Venus or Jupiter) (moyatcunlhana, great star), Ursa Major (kwililekä, the seven), Orion's belt (ipi?lakä, the row), the Pleiades (k?upa:kwe, seed stars). No observations are made of the positions of the stars and movements of the planets. All calendrical computations are made on the basis of the movements of the sun and the moon.
Clouds and rain are the attributes of all the supernaturals, especially the Uwanami and the katcinas. Wind and snow are associated with the War Gods. Windstorms during ceremonies are due to incontinence or other malfeasance on the part of participants or to sorcery on the part of some jealous or envious outsider. The whirlwind appears in folklore, but not in ritual. All natural phenomena are personalized, and tales are told of them. But they are not therefore necessarily a:wona:wi'lona.
There was, however, a mythic age, "when the earth was soft," during which things now impossible took place. During this time animals could become human, and humans could change into animals. During this period also the katcinas came in person to the villages. It was at this time that customs originated and took form. Then the earth hardened; things assumed their permanent form and have since remained unchanged.[18]
Man is not lord of the universe. The forests and fields have not been given him to despoil. He is equal in the world with the rabbit and the deer and the young corn plant. They must be approached circumspectly if they are to be persuaded to lay down their lives for man's pleasure or necessity. Therefore the deer is stalked ritualistically; he is enticed with sacred esoteric songs, he is killed in a prescribed manner, and when brought to the house is received as an
17. Text in ritualistic form, p. 549.
18. Many tales open, "Long ago when the earth was soft."]
{p. 489}
honored guest and sent away with rich gifts to tell others of his tribe that he was well treated in his father's house.
So, too, the great divinity, the sun, and all the lesser divinities, the katcinas, the rain makers, the beast gods, the war gods, and the ancients, must be reminded that man is dependent upon their generosity; and that they, in turn, derive sustenance and joy from man's companionship. The myth of man's beginnings opens as follows: "Indeed, it has come to pass. In this world was no one. Each day the sun came out. Each day he went in. In the morning no one gave him prayer meal. No one gave him prayer sticks. It was a lonely place. He said to his two children, 'You will go into the fourth womb. Your fathers, your mothers... you will bring out into the daylight of your sun father. . . .'"
For all techniques for coping with the spiritual essence of things the Zuñi have the general term t?ewusu, "religion." This concept embraces all rituals from the casual gesture of offering meal to a dead bird to the most highly elaborated ceremony, any sanctified custom, any urgent request. The basic element seems to be a request, explicitly stated or merely implied, for aid or succor, bolstered by an action or complex of actions that is automatically effectual. Practically all the techniques employed by primitive or civilized man to influence the supernatural are known at Zuñi--fetishism imitative magic, incantation, and formulæ figure largely in ritual while the more personal approaches of prayer (which in Zuñi, however, is largely formulistic), purification, abstinence, and sacrifice are also conspicuous. The weighting is on the side of the mechanistic techniques which are highly developed. The personal techniques appear always in their milder and more ritualized forms. Prayer is but slightly removed from formula and incantation, only very moderate forms of abstinence are practiced, and these are rigidly circumscribed; sacrifice is never more than the offering of a pinch of corn meal and a prayer stick. One of the important means of achieving rapport with the spirit world, intoxication, is unknown in Zuñi or the other pueblos. Intoxication has been important in the religions of Mexico, and the peyote cult has recently spread to all tribes of the plains and the plateau, but it has never been adopted in the pueblos, except at Taos. On the plains early Indian tribes without drugs produced the same sense of heightened and unearthly experience by means of self-torture and the most rigorous abstinence. The Zuñis use narcotic and vision-producing drugs, the Jamestown weed (datura) and the mysterious tenatsali, but for such prosaic purposes as to discover lost property or the author of sorcery. Although they employ many of the ritualistic forms used throughout North America, such as fasting and purging
{p. 490}
before ceremonies, these are used for an entirely different purpose and with different effects.
A large part of Zuñi ceremony centers about the veneration of sacred objects. Some of these, like the fetishes of the rain priests, are of indescribable sanctity, and in them rests the whole welfare of the people. At the other end of the scale are little pebbles, of which almost every man possesses several, which he may have found in the mountains and to which, because of their peculiar form and color, he imputes magical properties. To all such objects are made periodic offerings of corn meal, and at stated times they are removed from their usual resting places and honored. Zuñi fetishes are themselves powerful, and offerings are made to them directly, but they are also the means of reaching still more powerful supernaturals. The important objects of this type are the fetishes (eto:we) of the priests, and their accompanying objects; masks, both tribal and personal; the altars of the medicine societies; stone images of the Beast Gods, whether owned by groups or individuals; the feathered ears of corn (mi:we) given to members of higher orders of societies at their initiation; personal fetishes or amulets of all sorts. Medicine, paint, feathers, and all other items in the regalia of the katcinas, are more or less sacred.
The eto:we of the priests correspond to the medicine bundles of other North American tribes. They consist of the eto:we proper, bundles of plugged reeds filled with seeds or water containing miniature frogs, according to Stevenson (Zuñi Indians, p. 163), pots of sacred black paint, and a miscellaneous assortment of obsidian knives and arrow points, "thunder stones," polished round stones that are rolled over the floor during their ceremonies, rattles of olivella shells and sometimes mi:we like those of society members. These objects are believed to have been brought by the Zuñi from the lowest of the four worlds where they had their origin and are called tcimi-k^?äpkoa, "the ones that were at the first beginning." They are kept in sealed jars in houses where they are believed to have rested since the settlement of the village. They are "fed" regularly at each meal by some woman of the house where they are kept, and are removed only for the retreats held in their honor. (See below, cult of the Unawami, for brief account of these ceremonies. For the location of these eto:we, the membership of the priesthoods and the order of retreats, see Stevenson, Zuñi Indians, p. 163 ff., and Kroeber, Zuñi Kin and Clan, p. 165 ff.) All altars are called teckwin:e, a name derived from the stem teckwi- meaning sacred or taboo.
Masks are with few exceptions connected with the katcina cult. Some are, like the fetishes of the rain priests, "from the beginning"
{p. 491}
and are tribal property administered in trust by self-perpetuating cult groups. Other masks are individual property which are destroyed at the death of the owner. Like eto:we, masks are regularly fed.
The altars of the medicine societies consist of painted slat altars, a sort of reredos erected at certain of their ceremonies, stone images of the Beast Priests, tutelary gods of the medicine societies, and the same sort of miscellaneous collection of objects as are used on priests' altars. Furthermore, each member of the higher or curing orders of the medicine societies possesses a mi?le (plural miwe), an ear of corn wrapped in feathers which is his personal amulet, and is destroyed at his death. The miwe of members are placed on society altars during all ceremonies.
Some men always carry with them pieces of medicine roots or packages of red paint as amulets. Others possess collections of pebbles and sticks of black paint, from which they seek help in special emergencies, and which are honored with prayers and songs. Perfect ears of corn and ears with flattened ends are believed to have protective powers. One man sold to the writer a personal fetish, a "teckwin:e," together with the ritual and prayers connected with its use. The fetish consisted of four stones, two slender uprights about 2 inches long, one brown and one white, male and female, respectively, a curiously colored triangular stone about an inch long called the "heart" and another round stone called the "head." There was a ritual for setting them up, and prayers. The ritual was used at the winter solstice "or any time."
There also is the "Santu," a small St. Francis, inherited from early Franciscan padres, whom the Zuñis consider a Virgin, and who is besought at a special festival held in her honor, for the blessing of fertility.
The possession of a major fetish, such as eto:we or a mask, protects the house where it is kept; "it gives you something to pray for and makes the house valuable." But its possession may also be a source of danger, for if neglected or desecrated it may cause harm to its keeper. That is one of the reasons why priests endeavor to be exemplary in their conduct.
About each sacred object clusters a body of fixed ritual of magical purport. A large number of these magical practices might be classed as imitative magic. During the retreats of priests polished round stones are rolled across the floor to "call the thunder," for thunder is caused by the rain makers rolling the thunderstone in their ceremonial room. At many points in ceremonies tobacco smoke is blown to the six cardinal points "that the rain makers may not withhold their misty breath." There are innumerable rites of this kind. Among the most conspicuous are the presence on every altar of water
{p. 492}
from a sacred spring, "that the springs may always be full"; the sprinkling of water to induce rainfall; the blowing of smoke to produce clouds; the mixing of great bowls of yucca seeds to produce clouds; the rolling of the thunderstones (the Hopi device of stamping on boards, and the use of the "lightning stick" seem not to be employed at Zuñi); the planting of seeds in the floor of new houses to produce fertility; the conservation of ashes and sweepings in the house during the winter solstice ceremony and finally throwing them out with the prayer, "May you return as corn; may you return as meal"; the placing on winter solstice altars of ears of corn for plentiful crops; and of clay images of peaches, domestic animals, jewelry, and even money to secure increase; the presentation of dolls to pregnant women for safe delivery; the use of bear paws in medicine ceremonies "to call the bear"; and finally, the whole practice of masking in order to compel the presence of the supernaturals in their other bodies, i. e., as rain. The list might be greatly amplified. Many of these practices have been analyzed by Doctor Parsons, Increase by Magic, American Anthropologist, vol. 21, p. 203. There is a certain elasticity in these practices and new ones based on this principle may be readily introduced.
These techniques, despite their mechanistic character, belong distinctly to the realm of religion, since they require a special setting to be effective. The Zuñis use yucca root for washing the hair, and great bowls of the suds are mixed in much the same way they are on the priests' altars. But a woman does not bring rain every time she washes her hair, nor a man every time he smokes a cigarette. These everyday arts become magical techniques only when performed by special persons at stated times and places, in the presence of certain powerful fetishes and to the accompaniment of set prayers, songs, and other ritual acts. Sorcery consists largely in using these and other magical techniques outside of their legitimate settings.[19]
This brings us to another type of magical compulsion which is less apparent but perhaps more fundamental in the development of Pueblo ritual, which might be called, for lack of a better term, formulistic magic. This is the use of apparently irrelevant formulæ or actions to produce a desired result. The efficacy of the formula depends upon its absolutely correct repetition. Every word, gesture, bit of regalia is part of the charm. Hence, the great perturbation in Zuñi if a dancer appears wearing a feather from the shoulders instead of the breast of the eagle, if a single gesture before an altar is omitted, or if the words of a prayer are inverted. A very large part of Zuñi ritual is of this type; in fact all imitative magic has its secret formula
Prayer in Zuñi is not a spontaneous outpouring of the heart. It is rather the repetition of a fixed formula. Only in such prayers as those accompanying individual offerings of corn meal and food is a certain amount of individual variation possible, and even here variation is restricted to the matter of abridgment or inclusiveness. The general form of the prayer, the phraseology and the nature of the request, conform strictly to types for other prayers. All more important prayers are fixed in content and form, and great importance is attached to their correct rendition. The rigidity increases in proportion to the importance of the occasion. The words of these prayers, like the fetishes themselves, are tcimik?^änapkoa, "according to the first beginning." That the desired undeviating repetition claimed for prayers is not always achieved is illustrated by a study of variants to be published in the Journal of American Folklore, which shows also the very narrow margin of variability. That a long prayer should have changed so little in the 50 agitated years since Cushing's time is really remarkable.
There are definite fixed rituals and prayers for every ceremonial occasion, and any moderately well-informed Zuñi can identify any of them even when removed from its proper setting. As a check upon informants I read all the prayers I had collected to another informant, a young woman who herself was not actively associated with any major cult, but who was generally well informed through her family connections. In every case she could identify the prayer after about five lines had been read. "It belongs to A:'ciwani--to P?ekwin. This is what he says when he first goes in in summer"; or "It is the prayer for planting prayer sticks. Anyone can use it." The same woman, however, asked me to copy down for her the prayers for offering the monthly prayer sticks, and for offering corn meal, so that she could learn them, for she knew no prayers for these occasions: "I never learned any prayer for the prayer sticks, and so I just put them down and sprinkle corn meal without saying anything. My husband belongs to a society and knows these prayers but he would not teach me his prayers. I would have to go to my 'father' (the man who initiated her) to learn them and I would have to give him a present for teaching me." This same woman could repeat long prayers when they occurred in tales, so it was not lack of knowledge.
This brings us to another important point, namely, that not only must a prayer be repeated verbatim to be effectual, but it must have
{p. 494}
been acquired by legitimate means. It must be learned according to definite technique from someone who has the right to use it, and it must be paid for. Otherwise "maybe you can say it but it won't mean anything, or maybe you'll forget it when the time comes to say it." Hence the confusion concerning just what is and what is not "esoteric" in Pueblo ritual. Knowledge of the details of "esoteric" ceremonies is widely diffused, but the power to perform any ceremony effectively is restricted. And since there is an indefined feeling that in teaching prayers, "giving them away," as the Zuñis say, the teacher loses some of the power over them, men are "stingy" with their religion.[20] Therefore a man who win tell readily enough a long difficult prayer that he has learned out of curiosity, or as an investment against the time when the present owner dies, will balk at telling a simple common little prayer for offering corn meal to the sun, which everyone knows, but which nevertheless "belongs" to him in a way that the other does not. Hence the paradoxical situation that the very last person to ask for an a:ciwani prayer is one of that group. This, incidentally, is one of the reasons why Christian missionaries are ludicrous in the eyes of Zuñis. "They throwaway their religion as if it weren't worth anything and expect us to believe it." Such conduct is not only ridiculous but irreverent.
There are other formulæ at Zuñi besides prayers and songs. Many ritualistic acts, such as offering corn meal or prayer sticks, are of this character. Once the writer caused considerable perturbation by sprinkling corn meal upon a Zuñi altar. "Because sprinkling corn meal is like a prayer; even if you don't say anything you are asking for good luck, and because you are strong when you go away you will take all our good luck with you to your country." Similarly no one at Zuñi would make me a prayer stick to offer with the offerings of my family at the solstice, although many connived at my acquiring prayer sticks for scientific purposes.
Singing and dancing by large groups hold an important place in public and secret rituals. Many ritual acts are accompanied by song. There are special song sequences for setting up and taking down altars, for mixing medicine water or soapsuds, for bathing the head at initiations, to accompany various acts of curing. These are all special songs of the curing societies. like prayers, they must be
{p. 495}
learned ritualistically. They are in the nature of incantations; many of them are in foreign languages or have no intelligible words. In addition to these songs of the medicine societies, there are many individually owned songs of magical power, especially songs for planting, for "dancing the corn":[21] individual medicine songs, or songs associated with personal amulets. Certain women also have grinding songs in addition to the well-known songs of the men. These esoteric songs, especially those connected with curing, are very valuable. One man paid a pair of moccasins, a blanket, and a saddle for a song to be used as a love charm. The Great Fire Society has a song for delayed parturition but only two old men of the society know it and they are "stingy" with it. It is the knowledge of songs of this kind which makes the great medicine men of the tribe.
The more patent musical literature of the tribe is the large body of dance songs. These are of many kinds, the songs of the katcinas, the songs sung by the medicine societies for such katcinas as do not sing for themselves, the songs of the medicine societies for the general winter curing ceremonies, for initiations, and for special dances. Katcina songs differ rhythmically and melodically among themselves, those, say, of Kok?Okci are quite different from those of Hemucikwe, or the still more divergent Kumance, and all katcina songs are sharply differentiated from medicine songs. The songs of the various societies differ, and a man can usually classify any song he hears. With the exception of a few secret songs, all songs are songs of sequence, sung by groups, the leader holding the sequence.
Katcina songs are made new for each dance. Song making probably is usually the setting of new words to traditional melodies, according to fairly fixed patterns of structure. The dance step is a simple beating of time with the foot, the body movements being synchronized with the song rhythm. Rhythms are simple, but the melodic structure is subtle and complex. A fuller account of katcina dancing is given on page 896. Most katcinas use only rattles to accompany the song. One group uses a bundle drum, the Koyemci use a barrel drum, and one set uses the pottery drum of the medicine societies.
The dance songs of the societies are more vigorous in rhythm than those of the katcinas, and almost always employ the drum in addition to rattles. A chorus surrounding the drum sings for the dancers. The dance step also is more energetic. Sometimes choirs from the medicine societies sing for certain katcinas, and in that case the rhythm and dance step are those associated with society rather than katcina songs. The societies have song sequences for each of their ceremonies. Most of these are traditional in tune and words, but
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innovations in words are introduced in specified places. These innovations, as well as those of the katcina songs, are frequently social comment. The society choirs are led by the drummer who holds the sequence. He is a permanent officer of the society, although his office is not sacred like that of the medicine chief or fire maker.
The following partial list of the song cycles of the Great Fire Society is some index of the wealth of musical endowment at Zuñi:
Chief song cycle.[22] Dance songs used in general curing ceremonies in December. This contains 6 sequences containing, respectively, 29, 15, 16, 17, 14, and 31 songs.
Thunder songs. Twenty songs for the first dancing of katcinas at New Year.
Dancing songs (for the dancing of katcinas at the New Year). Seven sequences, the number of songs not known.
Katcina songs. For dancing of katcinas at winter dance series and at Ca?lako. Number of songs not known.
Medicine water songs. Eight songs for making medicine water; no drum.
Fire-making songs. Four songs used for making New Year fire; no drum.
Purificatory songs. Four songs for purification sung at the conclusion of dancing; no drum.
Storm-cloud songs. Twenty-two songs without drum sung for rain on first night of winter solstice. Very esoteric.
Songs of blessing. Sung for increase on eleventh night of winter solstice. Number not known, "a big bunch." Esoteric.
Dawn songs. "Two big bunches" sung at closing of meetings during solstice. Very esoteric. No drum; slow rhythm.
Prayer-stick songs. Four songs for blessing prayer stick bundle before planting. Very esoteric.
A number of special songs sung at the new year meeting: a "going out song, " a "coming-in song," a song calling by name the appointees to sacred offices, a song welcoming the New Year.
This does not include the songs of the special meetings of the society used at their public dance in January and February, individual curing ceremonies, and initiations. The informant died before the list was completed. Some of these songs are used only once a year or, like initiation songs, at intervals of several years, and their content and sequence must be kept by the drummer.
With the exception of a few lullabies and children's play songs, there is no secular music at Zuñi. The only work songs, those for the grinding of corn, are sacred, since everything connected with the handling of corn is sacred activity. There are two sequences of songs for ceremonial grinding; the most popular are the Flute songs,
The principal occasions for dancing are the series of summer and winter katcinas, the culminating ceremonies of the Ca?lako, the retreats of the medicine societies during the solstices, initiations, and the Scalp dance. Certain societies hold special ceremonies in which dancing by members and outsiders figures prominently, the winter ceremonies of the Wood Society and Big Fire Society; the Yaya, the dance of the Shuma?akwe. The so-called Corn dance and the Santu dance are other ceremonies in which dancing is conspicuous. In all these cases dancing accompanies less spectacular rites, usually extending over a longer period than the dance itself. Frequently the dance is subsidiary to these secret and potent rites. Usually it is the younger and less responsible members of the group who dance, the priests and leaders meanwhile remaining in retreat or sitting quietly behind
In order for any rite to be efficacious the protagonist must "have a good heart," or, to use more familiar phraseology, he must be in a state of grace. Joy and freedom from care are the chief requirements of a state of grace, second only to physical purity. Therefore the custom of dancing for the priests while they are in retreat, and of various groups visiting to dance in one another's house during synchronous periods of retreat. During a katcina dance that lasted for several days a group of "little dancers"[24] came one night to dance in the kiva. "Because the dancers could not go home to their wives, and were lonely in the kiva. Therefore these others came to dance for them so that they should not be sad."
Connected psychologically as well as ceremonially with public dancing is the practice of clowning. There are organized groups of clowns who assist at all katcina dances and amuse the populace by obscene or satirical or childish pranks. There are masked and unmasked clowns; the masked clowns, the Koyemci,[25] are the most feared of all the katcinas. The Ne?we:kwe society also are clowns, and are regarded as the most powerful medicine men, and potential witches. They are famous for love magic.
Offerings of various kinds are included in all Zuñi rituals. The principal offerings to the supernaturals are food, tobacco, prayer meal (coarse cornmeal containing ground white shell and turquoise), and prayer sticks. The usual food offering consists of a bit of food from each dish that is set out, thrown into the fire or merely dropped on the floor with a brief, perfunctory prayer. The supernaturals nourish themselves on the spiritual essence of the food. All priests and the wives of priests make such an offering before eating of any dish. Also women in houses where fetishes are kept offer food in the fire before serving a meal. These offerings are more formal at quasi-ceremonial feasts, such as the feasts accompanying house building, harvest, etc. Men during participation in ceremonies also make offerings of food in the river, where it is readily accessible to the gods. Food offerings are made especially to the ancestors (a:lhacina:we) and the katcinas. On the day of the dead large quantities of food are sacrificed in the river and the fire (see p. 621).
25 For fuller accounts see p. 946, and Parsons, p. 229.]
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Meal is offered to the sun each morning by all men who hold any permanent or temporary sacerdotal position and by many other individuals, both men and women. Meal is sprinkled on prayer sticks when they are planted, and on masks, fetishes, and other sacred objects when they are taken out for use and when they are returned to their places. It is sprinkled upon katcinas by onlookers, and their leader sprinkles meal before them "to make their road." Handfuls of meal are thrown into the air through the kiva hatchway to welcome the new year. A bowl of corn meal stands on every society altar and everyone who enters the room to participate in the ceremony sprinkles corn meal on the altar before taking his place. In addition to the use of meal as an offering it is also used for delineation of sacred symbols. Every altar is set up upon a painting of white meal representing clouds, and from the center of this a line runs out toward the door of the room, or the foot of the ladder. This is the road of life and along it persons entering the room walk up to the altar. It is also the road by which the supernaturals enter. Colored sand paintings, similar in technique to those of the Navaho, are used in initiation ceremonies. A cross of corn meal marks the place prepared to receive a sacred object, corn meal is used to mark the walls of a house at its dedication, and marks of corn meal are made on the hatchway of the kivas to indicate the duration of a ceremony. Corn meal is rubbed on the head and face of the newborn and on the body of the dead. In short, there is no ceremonial occasion on which it is not used.
The most important and valuable gift to the gods is the prayer stick. This is a small stick, carefully smoothed and painted, to which various feathers are attached with cotton cord. The length and form of the stick, the wood of which it is made, the color of the pigment, and the feathers are all definitive of the character of the offering, and vary according to the beings to whom it is offered, the sacerdotal position of the giver, and the occasion upon which it is given.
The whole matter of the varieties and manufacture of prayer sticks is too complex to go into here. A few outstanding points can be mentioned. The wood most commonly used is the red willow. For certain occasions other shrubs are required. When wood for prayer sticks is gathered corn meal is offered to the shrub from which the twigs are cut. Only perfectly straight shoots are taken. Generally the bark is removed. There are four common prayer stick measures; from the tip of the middle finger to the base of the finger, to the center of the palm, to the wrist, to the inside of the elbow. Frequently faces are indicated by notching one side of the stick. The feathers are attached to the back of the stick and are thought of as constituting its clothing. The two upper feathers are the most
{p. 500}
important and characteristic. Usually they are from the turkey and eagle, respectively; or they may both be from the eagle. Feathers from the breast or back of the turkey are used on sticks for the ancestors and the katcinas, tail feathers of the turkey on certain sticks made by the a`ciwanii. Sticks for the sun, moon, and the Uwanami have a downy eagle feather in this position and the use of this feather entails particularly stringent taboos upon the giver. Sticks for the war gods, and for the katcina priests (the Ca?lako sticks) have an eagle tail feather in this position. The second feather is almost always one from the shoulders or back of the eagle. After this comes a duck feather, and feathers of the "summer birds," all the brightly colored birds: jay, red hawk, oriole, bluebird, humming bird, road runner, etc. Birds are snared or shot for their feathers, and the feathers are carefully kept, wrapped separately in paper and laid away in native wooden boxes with sliding covers. The feathers are attached with commercial cotton cord. The sticks are painted after the feathers are attached. The character and manufacture of the pigments are described in another place (p. 859). Most sticks are painted black, but those for the sun and moon are painted blue and yellow, respectively, and these colors have sex associations. Paired blue and yellow sticks are symbolic of fecundity.
The principal occasions upon which prayer sticks are offered by large groups of people are at the solstices. On these occasions persons of both sexes and all ages offer to the ancestors and to the sun (if male), or to the moon (if female). Furthermore, at the winter solstice all members of the katcina society make a second offering to the katcina and members of the medicine societies to the tutelary gods of their societies. At each full moon all members of societies offer to the ancestors, to the katcinas (if males) and to the tutelary gods of their societies. At the winter dances and at the end of Ca?lako each man makes a prayer stick for the katcinas, but does not himself plant it. Furthermore, a large part of the ritual of every ceremony concerns the making and offering of special types of prayer sticks by those participating. Prayer sticks are sometimes offered individually and sometimes the offerings of many persons are bundled together into a k^?ä-atcin:e which is deposited by someone delegated to plant it. Prayer sticks axe buried or deposited in corn fields, in the river mud, in shrines in the mountains, in springs, in excavations in or near the village.
Prayer sticks provide the clothing of the supernaturals. Just as the supernaturals nourish themselves on the spiritual essence of food offered in the fire or the river, they clothe themselves in the feathers of prayer sticks. This is especially true of the katcinas, whose beautiful feathers form their most conspicuous ornaments. (For a treatment of this idea in folklore, see the tale of Hetsitulu, p. 1048.)
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The offering of prayer sticks is one of the most important acts of Zuñi ritual and four days after making any offering of prayer sticks the giver must refrain from sexual intercourse, and from quarreling. There are additional restrictions connected with special offerings after the offering to the sun at the winter solstice one must eat no meat or anything cooked with grease for four days.[26] The same restriction applies to the a:ciwan:i after offerings to the uwanam:i, and to p?ekwin after his various offerings to the sun. Also to all novices, including boys initiated into the katcina society, after their initiation. (They plant prayer sticks as the final rite in the initiation.) [27] After the plantings of the Ca?lako party the members and their households must refrain from trade for four days. There is no restriction on work for wages. No one trades during the first four days of the winter solstice--many people do not trade for 10 days--and the households of priests do not trade while these priests are in retreat. The feeling about trading at these seasons seems to be that since these are periods of magical power, during which forthcoming events are preordained, if property passed out of one's hands during this time all one's wealth would soon melt away. Therefore, during these periods, necessities are purchased at the store on credit, but no payments are made.
Prayer sticks are especially male offerings. Although women frequently offer prayer sticks they never make them. Their male relatives (actual or ceremonial) make them for them. So also, although men offer food and corn meal, it is always prepared for them by the women. This division in ritual is a reflection of the general economic pattern, in which the females supply food and the males the clothing of the household. So also women furnish the food of the gods and men their clothing.
The special restrictions which follow the planting of prayer sticks is part of a general feeling of taboo directed toward all things sacred. The Zuñi word for taboo is teckwi. An altar is called teckwin:e (sacred thing); a person upon whom there is any ceremonial restraint also is teckwi. It is almost impossible to reduce the list of Zuñi taboos to any sort of system. Some of them seem even more fortuitous than their magical formulæ. Some prohibitions are dictated by fear or repulsion, some are designed to preserve the power and sanctity of rituals and objects, others are rites of purification, one at least is designed to provoke the pity of the gods, the vigil of the priests
Foods.--Members of the ci:wana:kwe society must not eat jack rabbit, nor a common purple-flowered herb. This is felt so strongly that a member of this society will not even touch a jack rabbit nor permit it to be brought into the house in which he lives. No Zuñi eats or touches meat or grease during the first four days of the winter Solstice;[28] priests refrain from eating meat and grease for 10 days, find during the periods of their retreat; p?ekwin does not eat meat and grease after offering prayer sticks to the sun; initiates do not eat meat for four days after their initiation; warriors who have taken a scalp do not eat meat, grease, salt, or any hot food for one year; mourners (especially widows and widowers) do not eat meat, salt, or hot foods for four days following a death.
Objects.--All sacred objects are taboo to all people who do not "belong" to them. The strength of this feeling varies according to the power of the fetish. No one would dare to touch one of the priest's fetishes except the chief of the priesthood, and no one will enter the room where it is kept except the chief priest and the female head of the house. This is true also of the permanent masks and society altars. When the people who keep one of the Ca?lako masks moved to a now house they called the head of the kiva whose mask they kept to transfer it, "because they were afraid to touch it." Corn fetishes, prayer sticks, ceremonial garments are all handled with great respect, and no more than necessary.[29]
Places.--The rooms where sacred things are kept are taboo to outsiders. All shrines are taboo except when visited officially. There is one War God shrine (co?lhuwayällakwi) which may be visited by those who wish to pray for good luck in war or gambling. Otherwise it is not permitted for individuals to visit shrines even for purposes of prayer.[30] Rooms where retreats or ceremonies are being hold, unless the ceremony is specifically public, are taboo to those not belonging to the ceremony. If any one crosses the threshold he is "caught," and must be initiated into the group, or where this is impossible (like meetings of the katcina priests), must be ceremonially whipped and make certain payments to his "father." Altars are always erected on the side of the room away from the door, "the valuable place." Strangers are always seated near the door, by the fireplace and away from the "valuable place." Mourners and warriors who have taken scalps sit "away from the fire."
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k^?aetcin:e (see p. 500) and planted somewhere outside the village. When the emissaries return, the group "goes in" in the house where their sacred possessions are kept. The men have brought their bedding to this house, for they are to sleep there during the period of the retreat. Usually the sacred things are taken out and an altar is set up. During the retreat the room containing the sacred objects is taboo to all outsiders. The men do not leave the room (except in the case of the medicine societies, where men may go out in the day time and eat at their homes). They sleep in the house of their retreat, and their meals are served by a woman of that house, the wives of the men contributing cooked food. There are frequent sessions of song, prayer, and meditation, especially at night. Retreats usually last four or eight days. The Koyemci (see p. 946) "go in" for 14 days, and brief retreats of one night are held by priests at the solstices and at other times. Retreats frequently end with a second prayer stick planting, with the usual restrictions on conduct for the four following days, which make of this period a modified form of retreat. The main priesthoods open their summer retreats with a period of strictest retreat. In addition to the usual restrictions they forego all animal food. On the fourth day they make a second offering of prayer sticks, and, although they remain in seclusion for four days longer, the food restriction is lifted. They do not plant prayer sticks again on coming out. The minor priesthoods disband on the fourth day, although they are still under restrictions. The bow priests, although they plant prayer sticks and are "in," do not remain in their house. The "poor man" who has planted prayer sticks is in much the same position as the bow priest. Although not confined to his house he is somewhat withdrawn from life and is "sacred."
Priests live always under certain restraints, and in this restriction of activity of certain individuals may be seen the germs of a monastic life. However, it is not the sexual prohibitions that are made lifelong for the holy men of Zuñi. Celibacy as a way of life is regarded with extreme disfavor by the community. Mrs. Stevenson states (Zuñi Indians) that p?ekwin although married is expected not to cohabit with his wife, but I could find no evidence that this is the case. He is expected to observe rigidly the long periods of sexual continence, which his elaborate ceremonies require, but continence at other times is not considered necessary or desirable.
There is, moreover, a marked difference in attitude between the Zuñi priest and the Christian or Buddhist monk. Zuñi ideology does not oppose matter and spirit as conflicting or mutually exclusive principles. The priest, therefore, does not renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil because the world and the flesh are evil. Rather he strips his life of trivial, irrelevant, and distracting matters in order
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to leave his mind free for his great work--the material and spiritual welfare of his people.[34]
In addition to these taboos and restrictions which may be regarded as secondarily purificatory there are also certain positive rites of purification. Among these bathing, especially bathing of the head, holds first place. Bathing of the head is obligatory before participation in any ceremony and usually at the conclusion of the ceremony. For important festivals everyone in the village bathes his head. The head of the newborn infant is bathed before he is presented to the sun. In most pueblos a name is given at this time, but not at Zuñi. Bathing of the head with name-giving forms the culminating rite of initiations; after important participations in masked ceremonies the head and body are bathed by paternal aunts. The purpose of ritual bathing after ceremonies is to make the participants safe for human contact. The ceremony at which the Koyemci are paid for their year's work by their paternal clan is called "washing." At this the head is bathed symbolically with water and corn meal. Curiously enough, the sweat bath is never used ritualistically at Zuñi, although it is used therapeutically and forms an important part of rituals of all surrounding tribes, including the Navaho and the ancient and modern peoples of Mexico. One ceremonial group (lhewe'kwe) bathes in the frozen river during its ceremonies. As in other North American tribes, purges and emetics. are used for ceremonial purification.
Ashes are used for purification after childbirth and at points in the ceremonies of medicine societies. Piñon gum is burned and the smoke inhaled as a rite of purification after a death in the household or as a protection against witches, whenever sorcery is suspected.
There is a special form of purification called "wiping off " (cuwaha) used in connection with war and healing. This consists of expectorating into cedar bark or corn husk (on a prayer stick in some cases of cures), waving the packet four times over the head in counterclockwise circuits and throwing it down, or, in the case of healing, taking it out toward the east to be buried.
During the initiations of boys into the katcina society property is destroyed for purification. Katcinas visit all the housetops in the village, and from each a bowl or basket is thrown down and destroyed. This also is called cuwaha.
Whipping, never used as a means of punishment, is reserved for purposes of purification. During initiations katcinas go about the village whipping everyone they meet unless they carry corn or water, "to take away the bad luck." People call upon the katcinas at other
A full ceremony at Zuñi utilizes all of the foregoing techniques. The usual ceremonial pattern is a retreat followed by a dance. Frequently the dance is public, the retreat, of course, always being secret. Sometimes, also, the dance is not performed by the same group that hold the core of the rite, but by some cooperating group or by an organized group of laymen (e. g., the dances by girls and youths during the scalp dance). The relative importance attached to the esoteric and the spectacular approaches varies among the different cults. The ceremonies of the katcina society are weighted on the side of the spectacular. In the summer katcina dances only the leaders offer prayer sticks and observe continence, and even for them there is no formal retreat. The priesthoods, on the other hand, concentrate on secret rites and dispense entirely with public dancing, unless some katcina group chooses to honor one of the priesthoods by dancing on its "middle day."
A retreat usually opens and closes with offerings of prayer sticks. Sometimes there is a public announcement of the opening of the ceremony such as the announcements by p?ekwin of the solstices, of the opening of the scalp dance, and the beginning of the Ca?lako festival. There is some kind of set-up of sacred objects--a formal altar, fetishes, masks, medicine water, etc.--and much of the ritual of the retreat is concerned with the manipulation of these objects. Those participating in the retreat practice various forms of abstinence. Sexual continence is always required. Sometimes there are taboos on certain foods or, rarely, on all food. There is a variable amount of seclusion. At intervals throughout the retreat there are recitals of prayers and songs. The rest of the time is spent preparing paraphernalia for the final dance, if there is to be one, rehearsing, and telling tales, especially the origin myths in the ritualistic forms appropriate to the particular ceremony. A great deal of instruction in ritualistic affairs is given during these retreats.
The form which the concluding ceremonies takes is subject to unlimited variation. Each ceremony has its characteristic features, of which the most conspicuous is always group dancing. Dancing always continues with brief intervals for many hours; the emotional effect is cumulative, although there is no definite climax. The dancing itself is always reduced to its barest essentials-the rhythmic repetitions of a single body movement. Although impersonation is common there is no dramatic representation. Whenever myth is suggested it is in a highly stylized and symbolic form. Great importance is attached to correctness and uniformity in costume and
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regalia, which are definitive for each dance. Dancing may be continuous, like the initiation dancing of the societies, or may be broken by intervals filled with clowning, jugglery, or other rituals, like the summer katcinas, or two or more groups may dance in turn.
Dancing is always semipublic. Sometimes, for example, the last right of the winter ceremony of the medicine societies, specially privileged outsiders (that is, outside the active group) may attend. Other dances are performed in lay houses or outdoors and are free to all who wish to come, including whites.
Despite the enormous complexity of Zuñi ceremonialism the elements of which it is built and the underlying patterns are comparatively simple. The ideology is difficult of comprehension because it is monistic, abstract, and impersonal where we tend to be dualistic, concrete, and personal, but the philosophical ideas in themselves are neither abstruse nor involved. So also the complexity of ritual is more apparent than real. All ceremonies have five principal aspects--the manipulation and veneration of sacrosanct objects; offerings; purification, abstinence, and seclusion; recitation of sacred formulæ; public celebration. Each of the five approaches is itself subject to little variation. The texts recorded in the following pages illustrate how little complexity has been introduced into prayer. Prayers may be long or short, condensed or expanded, but the content, outline, and phraseology are always the same. So, too, with other techniques. The complexity of Zuñi ritual is a complexity of organization rather than content. The baffling intricacy of ceremonies like the winter dance of the Wood Society and associated groups, and the initiation of boys into the Katcina society are due chiefly to two processes in organization: The diversification of function and the piling up and telescoping of distinct ceremonies. It is characteristic of Zuñi rituals that their different parts are not necessarily performed by the same individuals or the same groups. The group that makes offerings and goes into retreat may have no control of the sacred object in whose honor the retreat is being held. Everything connected with the handling of fetishistic objects may belong to a second group, while a third group holds the sacred words of the chants, and yet a fourth group manages the public ceremonies. Each of these groups has its own organization, mode of succession, and minor rituals, so that the complete picture of any major ceremony, such as the Ca?lako, with all its ramifications, gives an impression of bewildering and baffling complexity.
It is more difficult to uncover the ceremonial pattern in ceremonies which are the products of coalescence. The winter solstice ceremonies, thought of at Zuñi as a unit, are clearly a synchronization of independent cults. In other cases the essential separateness of parts of a ceremony is somewhat obscured. The dance of the Wood Society
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and other groups is undoubtedly an amalgamation of at least two factors: A snow-making ceremony comprising a retreat of the keepers of the "winter fetishes," with a dance in their honor, the muaiye, combined with a war ceremony of the bow priesthood in conjunction with the warlike societies. We are here not necessarily dealing with a historical process. The ceremony is certainly now conceived as a unit and may always have been as it is at present, although in view of the complex history of Zuñi as shown archaeologically there is no reason to doubt that any ceremony may have been derived from several diverse sources. But however diverse the sources, the resulting product has been well pruned to fit the Zuñi pattern.
The public rituals constitute the most important esthetic expression of the people. Not only are they "artistic" in the superficial sense, in that they embrace the types of behavior which we arbitrarily lump together as "the arts"--ornament, poetry, music, the dance--but they provide the satisfaction of the deeper esthetic drive. Zuñi children do not mind being whipped by the Sälimop?iya "because they are such pretty dancers." I have heard women say of the mourning ceremonies of the Ca?lako, "We all cry. It is so beautiful that our hearts hurt." I have watched the faces of old men as I read to them the texts of their prayers. Zuñi rituals have a style of their own that belongs to ritual as an art. They are ordered and formal; they are well designed; they begin in quietness and end in serenity. Their quality is gracious and benign. They have moments of splendor, but they are not gorgeous or "barbaric" or frenzied. All of Zuñi life is oriented about religious observance, and ritual has become the formal expression of Zuñi civilization. If Zuñi civilization can be said to have a style, that style is essentially the style of its rituals.
The basis upon which all Zuñi ceremonialism rests is the cult of a:'lhacina:we, the ancients or the ancestors. In their worship all participate, regardless of age, sex, or affiliation with special cults. Nor are the a:'lhacina:we ever omitted from the ceremonies devoted primarily to the worship of other beings. The special and characteristic offering to the a:'lhacina:we is food. At the great public ceremony devoted to them exclusively, Grandmothers' Day[35] (Catholic All Souls Day), the outstanding feature is the sacrifice of great quantities of food in the fire and the river. They receive other offerings, too-prayer meal, smoke, and, of course, prayer sticks. The prayer stick for a:'lhacina:we is a small stick painted black, the principal feather being from the back of the turkey. Offerings of food to a:'lhacina:we form a
There is nothing esoteric in the worship of the ancestors. In this all individuals are on an equal footing and have direct access to the supernaturals without the mediation of priests. There are no fetishes or other permanently held paraphernalia used in their worship, nor are there special places sacred to them, unless perhaps the river bank, especially the point called Wide River, where offerings of food are customarily made. No man stands in any special relationship toward them. It is quite clear that there is no ancestor worship in the restricted meaning of the word. A man prays to the ancestors, not to his own ancestors. Certain groups of men have special relations to certain groups among the dead-priests invoke deceased priests, medicine men deceased medicine men, impersonators of the katcinas their predecessors in office, but never their progenitors as
The sun is the source of all life. Indeed the word for life is t?ek?ohanan:e, daylight (t?e, time or space; k?ohana, white; n:e, nominal suffix). The sun is therefore "our father,"[18] in a very special sense, but not in the sense of progenitor. He is associated in worship with the moon, who is "our mother." However, life is not thought of as springing from the union of these two. The moon is "mother" by courtesy only. The animating female principle of the universe is the earth mother, but there is no cult of the earth.[39]
Each morning as the sun sends his first level beams striking across the houses his people come out to meet him with prayers and offerings. Men and women stand before their doors, facing the east,
39. The phallic element is not absent from the worship of the sun and moon. At the solstices adult males plant blue sticks to the sun, females yellow ones to the moon. The sticks planted in the Ca?lako homes, which are specifically for fecundity, are double; one stick is painted blue, the other yellow, and they are male and female, respectively. Like the sun prayer sticks, they are made with downy feathers of the eagle.]
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their hands full of corn meal which is offered to the sun, with prayers for long life. Every priest or appointee to ceremonial office and every man during the time he is engaged in any ceremony must observe this morning ritual. But many others, "poor people," never omit it, even on the most bitterly cold winter mornings.
But the great ceremonies at which the sun father is honored are in the keeping of his special priest, whose title, p?ekwin, means, literally, speaking place. The p?ekwin is the most revered and the most holy man in Zuñi. Even in this society which diffuses power and responsibility until both become so tenuous as to be almost indiscernible, the p?ekwin is ultimately held responsible for the welfare of the community. He holds his power directly from the Sun Father, with whom he has a very special and intimate relationship. The p?ekwin performs many duties in no way connected with his office as priest of the sun. He is the active member of the priestly hierarchy and the officiating priest at all ceremonies at which the priests function jointly. It is he who sets up the altars for these ceremonies and even the altar for the scalp dance; it is he who meets the priests of the katcinas when they visit Zuñi and "makes their road"; it is he who installs new priests, including bow priests, and formally appoints to office the impersonators of the katcinas.
As priest of the sun he is the keeper of the calendar. He sets the dates for the solstices, from which all other ceremonies are dated. His calculations are based on observation of the sunrise in winter and the sunset in summer. These observations are made at shrines outside of the village. When the sun rises (or sets) behind certain landmarks, the date for the solstice is at hand. However, the calendar is disarranged by the desire to have the celebration of the solstice coincide with the full moon, and the p?ekwin is the subject of bitter criticism when the sun fails to oblige in this matter. It is at the solstices that the sun is celebrated with great public ceremonies. For some period before the p?ekwin observes fasts and continence and makes frequent offerings of prayer sticks to the sun and moon and the ancients. In winter the public ceremonies are opened by the p?ekwin's announcement made from the housetop at dawn. At this time he orders the people to make prayer sticks for their sun father and their moon mother.[40] For 10 days the p?ekwin "counts days" for his sun father. Then on the tenth day all people offer their prayer sticks to the sun or moon, along with others for the ancients, and special society offerings. The solstice ceremonies continue for 10 days longer, but the part of the sun in them is finished on the tenth day.
In summer the announcement by the p?ekwin takes place eight days before the planting, and the whole celebration is less elaborate.
The p?ekwin has, furthermore, a great public ceremony, the lha:hewe or Corn Dance, which should be performed every fourth year in midsummer. It has not been performed for many years. This ceremony commemorates the departure of the corn maids and celebrates their return. It follows the usual ceremonial pattern of periods of retreat spent in preparation for the public ceremony of the last day. On this occasion the e'tone of the priests are exposed in public and there is dancing alternately by two groups of girls.
The writer has not seen this ceremony. It has not been held for many years, and very little is known about it save that "it belongs to p?ekwin." Since it is so peculiarly his dance we may assume that it is connected in some way with the worship of the sun, but what this connection is, toward what blessing it is directed, and what techniques it employs are by no means clear from the only description we have, and further information is lacking.
The U'wanami, a term generally translated rain makers,[42] are water spirits. They live in all the waters of the earth, the four encircling oceans and the underground waters to which springs are gateways. Cumulus clouds are their houses; mist is their breath. The frogs that sing from every puddle after the drenching summer rains are their children. The ripple marks along the edge of ditches washed out by heavy rains are their footprints.
The worship of the U'wanami is enormously elaborated and is in the hands of the priesthoods, of which there are 12.[43] Each priesthood contains from two to six members. Several have women associates. Membership, in the main, is hereditary within matrilineal family groups the family in whose house the fetish of the group is guarded. Each group operates with a fetish. These fetishes, the e'to:we, are the most sacrosanct objects of Zuñi worship. They were brought from the innermost depths of the earth at the time of the emergence and are kept in sealed jars, from which they are removed only for the few secret rites in which they are employed. In these e'to:we rest the power of the priests. (For description of e'to:we see Stevenson, p. 163 ff.) Besides the e'to:we various other objects are
In addition to the objects on the altar of their retreat, the chief priesthood is said to maintain a permanent altar in the fourth underground room of their house. In addition to the usual objects on priestly altars, this altar contains two columns of rock, one of crystal and one of turquoise, a heart-shaped rock which is "the heart of the world," with arteries reaching to the four cardinal points, and various prayer sticks, including two, male and female, which are "the life of the people." All objects on the altar, including the e'to:we, are, said to be petrified. This altar is the center of the world, the spot beneath the heart of k^?änastep?a when he stretched out his arms. Only the high priest himself has access to this chamber.[44]
The priests, as such, hold no public ceremonies, although their presence is necessary at many ceremonies of other groups. Their own ceremonies for the Uwanami are held in secret in the houses where their fetishes are kept.
At the winter solstice the priesthoods observe a one-night retreat. Following the planting of the prayer sticks to the sun is a taboo period of 10 days, during which many rites are celebrated. On the fifth or sixth night (depending on the phase of the moon) each priesthood goes into retreat in its ceremonial house. During the day the priests make prayer sticks for the U'wanami of the different directions. Before sunset these are deposited at a distant spring. When the messengers return from the spring the various sacred objects are removed from their jars and placed on a meal painting, along with cars of corn, clay models of peach trees, animals, even money, upon which the blessing of increase is invoked. All night prayers are chanted and songs sung. The ceremony ends at sunrise. This ceremony is repeated by all the priests in their respective houses at the two full moons following.
The great ceremonies of the priests occur after the summer solstice. At this time rain is urgently needed for the young corn plants just rising out of the ground. The rainy season starts about July 1. Should the rains be delayed beyond that date great hardship is suffered.
Four days following the summer planting of prayer sticks the priesthoods begin their great series of summer retreats which last from
The purpose of these retreats is to secure rain--immediate rain for the thirsting young plants. Should the days of any group fail to be blessed with rain it receives the censure of the community, and one of its members will surely be suspected of laxness in the observance of his duties.
The rain priests are, like the p?ekwin, holy men. They are expected to keep themselves aloof from worldly affairs. In former times they did no manual labor, but lived on contributions from the people, but this is no longer the case. The priest should be gentle, humble, and kind. Above all, he is supposed to eschew quarrels.
Associated in worship with the Uwanami is Kolowisi, the horned water serpent who inhabits springs and underground waters. With the characteristic Zuñi elasticity he is variously conceived as individual and multiple. One folk tale collected by the writer describes Kolowisi's village with all the serpents engaged in masked dances as at Kolhuwala:wa.
Kolowisi is the guardian of sacred springs and punishes trespassers, especially women. In an unpublished song recorded by Cushing,
During their search for the middle the Zuñis had to ford a stream.[49] The first group of women to cross, seeing their children transformed in midstream into frogs and water snakes, became frightened and dropped them, and they escaped into the water. The bereaved mothers mourned for their lost children, so the twin heroes were sent to see what bad become of them. They found them in a house beneath the surface of Whispering Waters (hatin k^?ai'akwi). They had been transformed into the katcinas, beautiful with valuable beads and feathers and rich clothing. Here they spent their days singing and dancing in untroubled joyousness. The twin heroes reported what they had seen, and further decreed that thereafter the dead should come to this place to join the lost children.
The identification of the dead with the katcinas is not complete. When men offer prayer sticks, they offer to the ancients and to the
The katcina society has a set of officers, the katcina chief (ko'mosona), his p?ekwin (ko'p?ekwin), and two bow priests, who act as hosts when the gods come to dance. They receive them, lead them into the plazas for their performances, sprinkling corn meal before them. They are the arbiters in all matters pertaining to masked rituals. The society is organized into six divisions (upa:we), associated loosely with the six directions. Each group has a house of special construction set aside for the use of the katcinas-the so-called kivas.[52] In early days these were men's clubhouses, but their use is now being abandoned, even in ceremonies, in favor of more modern and spacious dwelling houses. Membership in one or another of these six groups is determined by the choice of a ceremonial father at a boy's birth or, at the latest, at the time of the preliminary initiation. His association is lifelong, unless he is expelled for sexual transgression or severs his connection because of disagreement with the leaders. In either case he will be received gladly into another group. Each group has a number of officers--from two to six or more--who run its affairs. They decide upon the dates for dances and the particular dance to be performed; they compose new songs, decorate the masks, assemble the costumes, and rehearse with the participants. Upon them also falls the more vital task of performing the secret rituals that will insure success. They prepare and plant prayer sticks and observe
51. See p. 521.
52. Kiva is a word which has been adopted into southwest literature to denote the subterranean or semi-subterranean chambers found in all modern and prehistoric pueblos, The word is of Hopi provenience. The Zuñi term kiwitsin:e is probably derived from it.]
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all the ritual requirements attendant thereon. They consecrate new masks and bless all the dancers before they leave for the plaza.
The dances themselves are large group dances, performed by one or of dancers in formation, frequently with solo performers. The costumes, including masks, are brilliant, picturesque, often of workmanship; the songs are varied and striking. The performances proceed with the spirit and precision of a well-trained orchestra. The dance groups in summer frequently number over 60 As many as 90 have been observed.
Each kiva group is required to dance at least three times during the year--once in the winter, once in the summer, and once in the fall, during the five days following the departure of the Ca?lako gods.[58] In addition to this they may dance at any other time they choose, except the 4 days following the close of the Ca?lako festival and the 10 days of the winter solstice. The dances of the winter series are performed indoors at night but may be repeated outdoors on the following day. The summer dances are performed outdoors and in the daytime.[54]
Eight days after the close of the winter solstice the kiva which is to inaugurate the winter series sends in two katcinas to announce the dance on the fourth night following.[55] On the appointed night society altars are set up in the six houses which fill the rôle of kivas, and society choirs are summoned to provide music for the dancers. The various groups of dancers make the rounds of these six houses. The kiva presenting the dance will perform one of about six traditional dances. This group brings seeds to be distributed among the populace. On the same night any other kiva that wishes to participate will prepare dances which may be in the traditional style or some new variant, fanciful, grotesque, or amusing. The hilarity of the occasion is increased by the presence of isolated groups of dancers, especially the "little dancers," the mischievous children of katcina village, and dance of masked or unmasked clowns. At the indoor dances not all participants need be masked, and where no mask is used the same magical power resides in the face and body paint. If the dance is repeated outdoors where it can be viewed by the uninitiated masks are obligatory.
In contrast to the light-hearted gaiety of the winter dances, those of summer are marked by great solemnity and intense religious devotion. At this time rain is urgently needed, and the whole religious mechanism strains to the task of compelling it.
Eight days after the summer solstice and on the "middle (i. e., fourth day" of the retreat of the first priesthood, the gods, accompanied
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by the Koyemci[56] and officers of the katcina society, appear at sunset, marching across the plain. They come from the village of the katcinas.[57] From now on until they are sent home in November, the katcinas are believed to be present in the village, lurking in the kivas. After dancing in all the plazas the dancers retire to the home of the Katcina Chief where an altar has been set up. After all-night ceremonies they dance throughout the day in the four plazas while society choirs continue to sing in the house of their retreat and the house of the Koyemci. This first dance is a most solemn occasion. Until rain falls the participants may touch neither food nor drink, nor engage in any unnecessary conversation. They must, of course, observe sexual continence. At later dances continence is required only of the leaders who have offered prayer sticks and of the Koyemci.
After this first dance other kivas follow as they can get ready. It is considered desirable to perform these dances as rapidly as possible while rain is needed. But with characteristic Zuñi procrastination they are put off and finally performed in rapid succession in September, and the resulting deluges play havoc with the crops already ripe for the harvest.
The gods remain in the village until they are sent home in the fall. In November, after the regular series of dances is over, and it is evident that no more extra dances are to be interpolated, the gods are sent home. The Koyemci are generally the first to go. One night they will be heard singing in the yard before their house. After making the rounds of the plazas they go out toward the west, and whoever dares stick his head outdoors while they are about will surely be drawn along with them (i. e., he will die). After the Koyemci have gone the others follow within a few days.
They all return again to Zuñi with the Katcina Priests when they come for the Ca?lako ceremonies. After the Katcina Priests depart for their home the others remain to dance for five nights in the houses they have dedicated and in the plazas of the town. Certain dances are regularly performed during this time and others may be introduced. On the fifth day they depart for the east to visit the supernaturals who dwell in that quarter. On that day every man who owns a mask takes it out to the east of the village. Here he offers prayer sticks and food in one of the six holes dug by the kiva heads. Setting down the mask and making a road of meal toward the east, he sends him out. For four days the masked gods are visiting in the east, and consequently no masked dances may be performed. They return after four days, and from that time on until the beginning of
Intimately associated with the foregoing activities are those rites and ceremonies which form the cult of the katcina priests. This cult also employs, as its principal technique for controlling the supernatural, impersonation by means of masks. But the beings impersonated are of a different order. The masks are differently treated and the character of the rites in which they function, arid the personnel and calendrical cycle are quite independent. Like all supernaturals, they are bringers of rain, but the special blessing which lies within their power to bestow is fecundity. The katcina priests also live at Ko'lhuwala:wa (katcina village) and form, indeed, the priestly hierarchy that rules that village. But they are definite individuals, with personal names and distinct personalities. There are, for instance, the Koyemci--they are the fruit of an incestuous union between brother and sister, and display the stain of their birth in their grotesque appearance and uncouth behavior. They are the sacred clowns, privileged to mock at anything, and to indulge in any obscenity.[59] On them fall the most exacting sexual restrictions. They are the most feared and the most beloved of all Zuñi impersonations. They are possessed of black magic; in their drum the have the wings of black butterflies that can make girls "crazy."[60] In the knobs of their masks is soil from the footprints of townspeople.[61] One who begrudges them anything will meet swift and terrible retribution. But everyone goes in hushed reverence and near to tears to watch them on their last night when they are under strict taboo. At this time, from sundown until midnight the following day, they touch neither food nor drink. They neither sleep nor speak, and in all that time they do not remove their masks. This truly heroic self-denial earns them the sympathetic affection of the people, an affection manifested in the generous gifts that are given them on this their last day in office.[62]
P?autiwa, chief of the masked gods at Ko'lhuwala:wa, is a truly magnificent person. His prestige is enormous. He possesses in unlimited measure the three most admired qualities-beauty, dignity, and
The Koyemci masks are kept in the house of the West priesthood. Their cult is in the keeping of four groups of men who themselves impersonate the gods. Each group holds office for a year and returns again after four years. The head of the group, who impersonates the father, is appointed by the priests and he chooses his associates, filling any vacancies which may have occurred since the last incumbency.
The six Ca?lako masks, associated with the six kivas, are kept in six different houses and each has a permanent group of wo:we,[64] who instruct the impersonators in the duties of their offices. The impersonators are chosen by the officers of the kivas and hold office for a year.
The mask of K^ä'klo is kept in the house of the p?ekwin of the Katcina Society. His rites are known to a group of four men, who take turns in impersonating the god. The head of this group receives from the priests a crook summoning him to appear.
The 12 Sälimop?ia masks, two of each color, are kept in six different houses, along with other masks associated with them in the principal ceremony in which they appear, the preliminary whipping of little boys. Each kiva has a Sälimop?ia wo?le who is trustee of their ritual.
At the new year ceremony which terminates the celebration of the solstice P?autiwa comes to give his orders for the coming year. He leaves with the priests or on the roofs of the kivas the feathered sticks with which are appointed those who impersonate the gods at the great fertility ceremony of November, the so-called Ca?lako. He leaves one stick for the father of the Koyemci, one for each of Sa'yataca group, one for each of the six Ca?lako. There is also a stick for Bitsitsi, who is not a katcina, but who plays an important rôle in the ceremony of the Corn Maids which follows the Ca?lako. In this P?autiwa himself appears.
The impersonators are chosen immediately--the impersonators of the Koyemci and the Sayataca group by the priests, two impersonators for each of the six Ca?lako by the officers of their respective kivas. Each month at the full moon they plant prayer sticks at distant shrines, visiting them in a body in fixed order. After October the plantings take place every 10 days, and as the time for the ceremony approaches, each group goes into retreat like priests, in its ceremonial house. The great public ceremony is held in the houses of prominent citizens who volunteer to provide this costly service. There should be eight houses, but in recent years the expense involved has become so great that not enough men volunteer. In that case the groups double up at the last moment. The house is newly built or completely renovated for the occasion, and the visit of the gods is the
The war cult of the Pueblos, as in other tribes, is greatly in abeyance at the present time due to enforced peaceableness. Although the Pueblos probably were never aggressive warriors, intertribal warfare was once an important part of life, and was accompanied by elaborate ceremonies.
The gods of war in Zuñi are the A'hayuta, twin children of the Sun begotten of a waterfall when the Zuñis, wandering in search of the middle, were in dire need of military leadership.[68] They led the people to victory and gave them the rites of war. They are the patrons of contests of all kinds, including foot races and games of chance. In folklore the A'hayuta appear as two dirty, uncouth, cruel, and disobedient children, masking their great powers behind obscene and ridiculous exteriors. They live on the mountain tops, they are lords of the high places, and their shrines are on all the prominent mountains about Zuñi.
The cult of the A'hayuta, the gods of war, and leadership of war parties, is delegated to the Bow Priests, and several less important groups, the priests who keep pa?eton:e, a war fetish, the priests of the great shell and the scalp chief, who takes care of the scalps in the scalp house, and the men who carve and decorate the idols of the war gods.
Membership in the bow priesthood is restricted to those who have killed an enemy. No matter what the circumstances of the killing, no escape is possible from the burden of membership, for the slayer
72. This ceremony has never been described. The writer has not witnessed it; merely knows that it takes place.
73. Or perhaps because of the association between A'hayuta and wind, snow, and cold weather.
74. p. 674.]
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dance and the O'winahaiye. The Wood society holds a ceremony in which the Bow Priesthood participates. The Great Fire society is privileged to wear the great feather, part of the war chief's regalia. The arrow order of this society uses the body paint of the war chiefs. The Hunters' society is also a war society. The members of this, as well as those of the Cactus society, can not be inducted into the bow priesthood, because they are already warriors. Members of the Cactus society offer prayer sticks to A'hayuta. The Hunters' and Cactus societies have male members only.
All these groups, however, are devoted primarily to the worship of the Beast Gods and receive from them their sanctions and power.
To the east at Cipapolima live the Beast Gods (we'ma:we or we'ma a:'ciwan:i). These are the beasts of prey and partake of their rapacious nature. They are the most dangerous and violent gods in the Zuñi pantheon. They are the priests of long life (onaya:nak^ä a:'ci'wan:i, literally road fulfilling priests). They are the givers of medicine, not only medicinal plants, but the magic power to make them effective. They are the source also of black magic or witchcraft. Their leaders are associated with the six directions, as follows: North, Mountain Lion; west, Bear; south, Badger; east, Wolf; above, Knife-wing;[75] below, Gopher. Of all, the most powerful is the Bear. He is compelled through impersonation at curing ceremonies. The symbol of his personality is the bear paws which are drawn over the hands and have the same properties as the masks of the gods. The worship of the beast gods is conducted by 12 societies or fraternities. Membership in these societies is voluntary and is open alike to males and females.[76] All offices are held by men, and only they have the ultimate magical powers--the powers of impersonating the bear, the use of the crystal, the power to remove sickness by sucking, and the use of magical songs. Some knowledge of therapeutic plants is hereditary in certain matrilineal families. Except for midwifery, which is practiced independently, all medical practice is in the hands of these societies. They are, in fact, medical guilds, closed corporations which guard their secrets jealously. The combined body of esoteric knowledge and ritual held by these groups is enormous, and this is genuinely esoteric. To collect it one would have to be on terms of utmost intimacy with all the officers in all the societies. No knowledge is more closely guarded than this.
78. The Beast Gods live in the east. Therefore all ceremonies of the curing societies are oriented toward the east, in contrast to ceremonies for the ancients and the katcinas, which are oriented toward the south and west. It is interesting to note that historically the medicine cult is undoubtedly of Keresan, i. e., Eastern origin.]
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their prayer sticks here during the day. At sundown the altar is set up. Female members, who do not attend this meeting, send food and leave their miwe for the altar. After dark the drum is taken out and songs of the Beast Gods are sung. The gods are present in the village at this time, much the way the katcinas are present throughout the summer.
The great meetings of the societies are held at the winter solstice. On the ninth day following the P?ekwin's announcement society members meet early in the morning at their ceremonial houses. The day is spent in prayer-stick making. The solstice prayer-stick bundles of the societies are the most elaborate and beautiful products of this highly developed art. They contain sticks for the ancients, for deceased members of the society, and for Paiyatamu[79] gods of music, poetry, flowers and butterflies. Included in the bundle are the crook, symbol of old age, and twigs of various medicinal plants. There are no offerings to the Beast Gods at this time.
At sundown the altar is set up. Women members, if they are not planning to attend the night meeting, come bringing food and their miwe and sprinkle corn meal on the altar. Late at night, about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, the Ne?we:kwe visit the kiva where the priests have been waiting in silence before the altar of the Gods of War. Here they perform a rite of exorcism, without which the ceremony can not proceed. When they have left the Bow Priests start their song. As soon as their drum is heard the society people, who have also been waiting in their own houses, start their own rites. The songs sung at this time are for the U'wanami. They are among the most beautiful and sacred of all Zuñi songs, and are known only to the most learned members of the societies. The ceremony ends at daybreak. The members come home, each bringing with him his mi?le, his bundle of prayer sticks, and a bundle of several ears of corn that have rested all night on the altar. The corn is kept for spring planting and the prayer sticks are buried that afternoon, along with each man's individual offerings to the sun and the ancients. After this planting all society members except the Sa'niakakwe and the Ci'wanakwe must abstain from all animal food for four days, in addition to the usual requirement of continence. The food taboo obligatory for society members is optional with others. For them, too, it used to be obligatory and is probably related to the offering to the sun.
This ceremony is for rain and fertility. It has nothing whatever to do with curing, and in it the Beast Gods play no rôle, it is quite
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distinct from the "going in" of the Beast Gods which immediately follows it, and is so regarded by the Zuñis themselves.
On the evening of the tenth day of the solstice, the day of the universal planting, the societies convene for their great retreat.[80] Female members sleep at home, and return in the daytime to attend to their household duties. Their attendance, even at the evening meetings, is not obligatory until the final night. Male members, however, are in retreat; they sleep and eat at their society houses, although they are permitted to visit their homes between times. This privilege is not accorded to officers of societies who observe as strict a retreat as priests. The altar is put up on the first evening, and remains in place until the conclusion of the ceremonies on the fourth morning following. The room is taboo to outsiders, with the exception of members of the household.
The days are spent making prayer sticks and preparing their costumes and regalia for the great ceremony of the last night. At night songs are sung for the Beast Gods. Each day at dawn the members go out in groups to offer corn meal and to present their miwe to the rising sun. During the evenings tales are told and instruction in the ritual is given.
On the last night all the society members, male and female, assemble in full ceremonial costume, including face and body paint. To the society house also come those who wish to be cured of chronic ailments, since curing during public ceremonies entails no obligation on the part of the patient.[81] About midnight a fresh altar is prepared. Sometimes there are demonstrations of fire eating and other tricks by qualified groups before the chief business, the invocation of the Beast Gods, is reached. The songs of the Beast Gods are sung with the accompaniment of rattle and drum, and society members dance. The dance is without formation, members rising to dance whenever they choose and leaving the floor when they are tired, usually after four or eight songs. The purpose of this dancing is to create a proper atmosphere in which to summon the Beast Gods. The participants gradually work themselves into a state of mental excitement bordering on hysteria. Finally those who are qualified to impersonate the bear,[82] draw over their hands the bear paws that lie on the altar, and
82 Only the oldest and most learned of the medicine men. They acquire power to summon the bear only after the expenditure of great effort and much property.]
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in so doing assume the personality of the bear, much as the wearer of a mask becomes a god. They utter the cries of animals and otherwise imitate beasts, especially the bear.
In this condition they are enabled by gazing into the crystal to see the hidden sickness in those present. When they see sickness in anyone they draw from his body the foreign substance that has caused it. Dust, stones, bits of calico, feathers, fur or the entrails of animals are extracted from the mouth and other parts of the bodies of patients. Each article as it is extracted is exhibited to the company and dropped into a bowl to be disposed of the following day. Both practitioner and patient are nude save for the breechcloth, which necessitates considerable skill in sleigh t-of-hand, even though clumsy tricks would pass in the prevailing state of hysterical excitement. It is general knowledge that these "cures" are accomplished by sleight-of-hand. However, such knowledge by no means decreases the respect in which these tricks are held. These practices have the sanction of powerful and greatly feared divinities and are performed directly under their control. The act itself is but a symbol of the relationship with the supernaturals. The efficacy lies not in the performance of the act itself but in the god-given power to perform it.
As the night advances the excitement increases. Groups of medicine men and women selected by the society chief visit other society houses in response to invitations previously delivered with the customary offering of corn meal. They dash through the streets simulating cries of animals. They are barefoot--practically nude, although the ground may be covered with snow or ice.[83] In the house of their hosts they give demonstrations of their curing powers.
The ceremony ends at dawn. The excitement suddenly subsides. The miwe are once more taken out to the sun. On returning to the ceremonial room there are brief concluding ceremonies in a quiet vein. Then the altar is dismantled and the members depart to eat breakfast at their homes. Meat is served for the first time in four days.
In the afternoon male members of societies offer prayer sticks to the Beast Gods.[84] For four days continence must be observed.
The Lhewekwe observe their great retreat for the Beast Gods after the winter solstice ceremonies are at an end. The stick-swallowing order of the Great Fire society also has a retreat at this time. The retreat terminates in a public dance by both societies with exhibitions of sword swallowing. In connection with this there is a retreat with a public dance on the last day for mu'etowe, a snow fetish. So that the whole ceremony combines functions of curing and weather control.
Between all of these independent cults is the binding element of calendrical observances. Each cult has ceremonies extending through an annual cycle, starting from the winter solstice, and returning again into the winter solstice. Their solstice ceremonies are all nicely synchronized. They are fitted into a period of 20 days, and so neatly arranged that there are no conflicts, even for a man with varied ceremonial affiliations.
The name by which the Zuñis refer to the period of the solstice is itiwana, the middle, the same name that they give, esoterically, to their village. Mrs. Stevenson and others interpret this as being a contraction of the sentence yätokä i'tiwanan te' ?tci "the sun reaches the middle." This is unquestionably correct, but the term has a more significant connotation. It is the middle of the year, the point common to all the different cults, and is indeed the center of their whole ceremonial life. There is no doubt that the Zuñis themselves think of their rituals as being organized about this focal point. Their application of the term "middle" to it is sufficient indication.[88] The linguistic identification of concepts of time and space is characteristically Zuñian. The solstice is, therefore, the center of time, just as Zuñi itself is the center of space.
The winter solstice ceremonies start when the p?ekwin announces from the housetop that all men shall make prayer sticks for the sun to be offered in 10 days. The date is calculated by observations of the sunrise from a petrified stump in a cornfield east of the village. When the sun rises at a particular point on the mesa to the southeast it is time for the p?ekwin to start his own plantings. If correctly calculated, then the general prayer-stick planting will take place on the day when the sunrise reaches its most southerly limit--that is, on the 22d of December. However, the Zuñis seem never to have been able to decide on the relative merits of solar and lunar calendar, and the desire to have the observation of the solstice occur at the full moon disarranges the calculations and naturally leads to dissention among the various priests. However, the date is definitely set by the p?ekwin and the others, whatever their views, fall into line.
On some night during the 10 days of the fire taboo, generally the night of the priests' retreats, each family that owns sacred possessions of any description employs them in rites of fertility magic.[91] Clay
91. Itsuma:wa, the ritualistic term for planting.]
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objects, similar to those used on the altars of the priests, are modeled by the women of the house. These are set out at night along with ears of corn and the sacred object, mask, rain fetish, sacred medicine, or personal fetishes such as pebbles to which are imputed magical properties. For one night the family are in retreat. They remain awake until day and repeat prayers and songs whose burden is a request for fertility of crops and flocks, and the fecundity of women. The ears of corn are set aside for spring seeding. The clay objects are later buried in the floor of the house, or thrown out on the twentieth day with the sweepings. They are the seed from which the real objects will grow.
On one of these days pregnant women, especially those who have been unfortunate with previous babies, visit the shrines at the base of the rock pillars on the west side of Corn Mountain. A woman undertaking this pilgrimage is accompanied by her husband and a priest. They deposit prayer sticks at the foot of the rock pillars and she scrapes a bit of dust from the rock and swallows it, from one side if she desires a boy, from the other if she wishes a girl. In addition to this, or instead of it, a pregnant woman may have made for her at this season a doll, similar to those sometimes given to children during the winter dances of the katcinas. The doll is made by anyone who "knows how," that is, who has the supernatural power to make it effective. It will ensure a safe delivery and a healthy child.
Meanwhile the impersonator of P?autiwa for the final day has been chosen. On the nineteenth day the priests of the council make the crooks of appointment to be given to the impersonators of the katcina priests. Just before sunset arrive Ci'tsukä and Kwe:lele, two masked gods from the east. They bring the new year from the east. Their masks belong to the Great Fire Society and appear, along with another mask, at certain curing ceremonies of that society. I can offer no explanation of the conspicuous part they play in the celebration of the New Year. They go to the chief kiva where are assembled the priests of the council and the impersonators of P?autiwa and the four Sai'yalhia. They dance all night in the kiva to the songs of the Great Fire Society. Late at night the Saiyalhia visit all the kivas "to send out the old year." It is a rite of exorcism. At dawn the new year fire is kindled. Before sunrise the katcinas, accompanied by the p?ekwin, the chief of the Katcina Society and the guardian of the sacred fire, go out to the east carrying fire brands and a lighted torch. After brief prayers they return. The sound of their rattles as they pass is a signal to the people. The great fire taboo is now ended and from each household the men and women emerge bearing live coals from the fire, and the accumulated ashes and sweepings. Soon the fields from which night has not yet
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departed blossom with a hundred piles of glowing embers. The masked gods return to the kiva where they dance until day. Anyone, man, woman, or child, who desires good luck, may go to the kiva at this time to receive the blessing of the presence of the gods.
The day is one of great festivity and rejoicing. All day the gods from the east dance on the roof of the kiva, throwing food and other articles to the populace. Meanwhile the bow priests summon to the kiva the men chosen to impersonate the gods during the coming year. When they have all arrived the wands of office are distributed by the p?ekwin.
The merrymaking continues in the plaza until sundown, when P?autiwa appears. He visits all the kivas. On the roof of each he lays down the crook of office for the Ca?lako god to be chosen from that kiva. The bar of the hatchway he marks with four lines of corn meal, to indicate that the masked gods will visit the village. Then using a twig to represent a scalp, he performs a brief ritual symbolizing the taking of an enemy scalp. Thus he brings the new year. After visiting all the kivas he departs for the, west, taking Ci'tsuk^ä, and Kwe'lele with him.
After dark each house in the village is visited by Tcakwenaok^ä, a female masked impersonation and the special guardian of women in childbirth.[92] She is accompanied by other masked gods. As the group reaches each door live coals are thrown out of the house as a rite of purification. Tcakwenaok^ä comes only once to bring the blessing of fecundity. The other gods return for four consecutive nights, in accordance with the promise of P?autiwa. In early days the first dance of the winter series took place four days after the departure of the exorcising divinities (Stevenson, p. 141). Now it takes place any time the leaders wish. This closes the celebration of the solstice, unless the retreat and dance of the lhewekwe which follow 10 days after the coming of P?autiwa be considered as part of the solstice ceremonies.
Theoretically the second half of the Zuñi year repeats the ceremonial calendar of the first six months. As in December, the summer solstice is marked by a ceremonial period called i'tiwana, the middle. As in the winter, this is a synchronization of independent cults. But here the resemblance ceases. The actual ceremonies, and above all the relative weight of various elements, are quite different.
Before the summer solstice the p?ekwin makes daily observations of the sunsets from a shrine at Ma'tsak^ä, a ruin a few miles east of Zuñi. When the sun sets behind a certain point on the mesa to the northwest the p?ekwin begins his plantings to the sun and to the ancestors. On the morning after his fourth planting he announces that in eight days everyone shall make prayer sticks for the sun, the moon, the ancients,
The vast wealth of ceremonial elaboration which we have been considering is notably weak on the side of what have been called "crisis rites." In contrast to the ceremonial recognition given to natural phenomena--the solstitial risings of the sun, the alternation of summer and winter, the perpetual dearth of rain--crises in personal life pass almost unnoticed. The ceremonies surrounding birth, puberty, marriage, and death are meager and unspectacular. There is sprinkling of ashes for purification of the newborn. On the eighth day of life the infant is presented to the sun with brief prayers, but the occasion is not one of any ceremonial importance. There are no ceremonies whatsoever at marriage, and mortuary rituals are simple and undramatic in comparison with calendrical ceremonies. Relatives are summoned at death. The body is dressed for burial, all present weep and sprinkle corn meal on the head of the deceased with brief prayers, and the corpse is interred at once. Four days later prayer sticks are planted, and the property of the deceased, including certain ceremonial possessions, is buried and additional prayer sticks may be offered to the dead after an interval of time. But there are no public demonstrations and no elaborate ceremonies of mourning.
On the other hand, initiations are always important occasions. The general initiation of all young males into the Katcina Society
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corresponds in some ways to puberty ceremonies of other tribes, even though it has very little relation to the physical fact of adolescence. The first "initiation" takes place at the age of from five to seven years. It corresponds to no physiological change and marks no change of status on the part of the child. The child who has been "initiated" in this preliminary ceremony has no more knowledge or responsibility than one who has not yet gone through the rite. The final ceremony at which knowledge is revealed takes place anywhere between the ages of 10 and 20, depending on the interference of schooling---in old days it probably took place between the ages of 10 and 14--and is unrelated either to physical maturity or the assumption of adult responsibilities. It is an initiation solely into the katcina cult and has nothing to do with the social status of the individual. Marriage, for instance, does not depend upon it, nor participation in other ceremonies. Although any initiated boy may, if he wishes, take part in masked dances, he does not feel any obligation to do so. It is usually many years before he assumes even the responsibility of making his own prayer sticks. Curiously enough, considering general North American custom, no notice whatever is taken of the advent of maturity in girls.
Initiations into medicine societies are more clearly ceremonial recognition of personal crises. The initiate is a patient who has been snatched from the jaws of death and his initiation into the group that saved him is the ceremonial assumption of his new status. At his initiation he gets a "new heart," and, as a symbol of the new life he has begun, receives a new name.[95] This name, however, is not usually used and does not ordinarily replace his childhood name or names. The ceremony may be delayed for years--sometimes as long as 20 years--after the cure which it affirms. Like initiation into the Katcina Society, it involves a minimum requirement of attendance, and the privilege of additional participation as the interests and ability of the individual may dictate. Children need not assume any responsibilities upon initiation.
Religious participation starts among children when, as infants on their mother's backs, they are taken to watch the katcinas dance. The summer dances outdoors are largely attended by small children of both sexes. During the morning and early afternoon they constitute the entire audience. Formerly children were not permitted to attend night dances of the katcinas where the katcinas dance unmasked, but this rule is broken among the more lax parts of the population.
Children learn early to share the interest of their elders in the more spectacular phases of religious life. They are keen observers of dances, they know songs, and give accurate and lively accounts of
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brother went with his uncle to the spring for water for their altar. He was dressed in his ciwan:i costume and looked very handsome. As he went out, light rain fell, and everyone was happy that they had been blessed with rain. But my heart hurt and my eyes were full of tears to see my younger brother. He is so young and yet he has his mind on these serious things."
Another and very different type of voluntary participation is to "take the crook" for the ca?lako, that is to volunteer to entertain the gods in one's house. This involves the host in very great expense, and can be undertaken only by a man who is wealthy in his own right or who has wealthy relatives who are willing to help him. This munificence brings to the house the blessing of fecundity but is primarily a social activity in that it merely provides the background for a great tribal festival. Its rewards (to the individual) are to be measured largely in terms of social prestige. If volunteers fail, the obligation to hold the ceremony falls upon members of the religious hierarchy.
The religious activities of women are less varied and picturesque than those of men. In early adolescence a girl's interest is diverted from religious affairs. About the time she assumes adult dress--or did before the days of the American school--she falls under a system of chaperonage that hampers her movements. Especially running around to public dances is regarded as unbecoming. So if she goes to dances at all she goes to watch discreetly from the houses of relatives who live on the plaza, or gets very much dressed up and stands and giggles on the corner of some housetop with a group of equally dressed up and equally self-conscious little girls. Furthermore, about this time she assumes adult responsibilities in the household, and beyond that all her interests are absorbed in mating activities. Adult economic status comes later to boys than to girls. In the years between initiation and marriage boys give much of their attention to dancing, while girls of the same age are cooking, grinding, and caring for their sisters' babies.
After marriage they become even more domestic, and remain so throughout the period of childbearing. Not only is their time filled with domestic duties, but it is displeasing to a man to have his wife gadding about, and Zuñi women, despite their economic and social security, are careful not to displease their men. Furthermore, their avenues of participation are restricted. They are not, except in very rare cases, initiated into the Katcina society, the only democratic religious organization. Some of the priesthoods have women members, but these positions are, it seems, even harder to fill than positions for men. One of the reasons is that husbands get very restive under the long periods of continence required of their wives. A man will remain continent during his own ceremonies but seems to think
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it is too much to expect him to remain continent during his wife's ceremonies also. Here, again, the problem is to catch the girl young enough. Women are initiated into medicine societies on an equal basis and as frequently as men. They participate in the dances of the society, but they are debarred from holding office. They frequently practice medicine and are "given" children for their society, but they must call upon male members for assistance in cures and to perform many of the initiation rites over their children. Women never possess the ultimate medical power, that of calling the bear, and do not usually possess esoteric songs. However, their knowledge of actual therapeutics is often greater than that of men. Most societies have "mothers" who brew their medicines and jealously guard the secrets of the treatment of medicinal herbs.
Some women who are well endowed mentally exert a good deal of influence indirectly upon religious affairs. Although their activities may be restricted, knowledge is not taboo to them. There are women who know prayers and rituals better than their men folks and some men customarily consult their wives, mothers or sisters on matters of sacerdotal procedure. In the Onawa priesthood the member with the best verbal memory is a young woman, not especially intelligent in other respects. However, she has an aggressive, managing mother who, although not herself a member of the priesthood, is the head of the priestly household, and contrives to run her brothers and children. Several other women have a reputation for their knowledge of esoteric lore. One, in particular, is reputed to be the only person who knows the prayers, songs and secret rituals of Anahoho, one of the katcinas coming at the initiation ceremony.
Women are less active in religion than men, but their activity is not essentially different in kind. The richness of ceremonial tends to mask the fact that in any but a superficial sense, religious activity is limited in scope.
The religious life of an individual is exclusively a series of participations in group rituals. No avenue is left open for individual approach to the supernatural. All over North America individual mystical experience is prized. On the plains such experience is valued since it provides one with a guardian in the supernatural world, or furnishes supernatural sanction for some special exploit. Among the Pima of the Southwest, the experience itself is regarded as the highest value in life. In Zuñi the religious life is a highly developed system of techniques for producing rain and furthering the growth of crops. Certain socially valuable attitudes and modes of behavior are regarded as more favorable to this purpose, and much esthetic joy and enhancement of life are achieved through them. But these subjective values are secondary and merely incidental to the primary purposes of religious participation, which is an objective social good.