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S.MITIISONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



through impressive ceremonies by a priest of the kiva. just after 

 birth, and is carried into the presence of the rising sun on the twelfth 

 (lay. As the tiny infant is held up facing the sun the following prayer 

 is ottered to the Sun father : " May the child grow to womanhood : 

 may she speak with one tongue, be gentle and kind to all, and may 

 all be gentle and kind to her. May her life be so full of love for 

 all the world, and may her acts be so pure that she may be blessed 

 with the love of the Sun father, so that her span of life may be com- 

 l)lete, that she mav not die, but live long, and become a child agaiiL 



Fn;. 75.— beaming to photnLirapli. A hue likeness of tlie rain priest of the 

 Ice People. The woman at the tub is his mother. Photooraph by Mrs. 

 Stevenson. 



and so slec]). not die, to awake in the world with the gods. May 

 .she ever inhale more of the sacred breath of life." 



in order that the rain priest may come into closer communion with 

 the gods be must mortify the flesh. Semi-annually, at the winter and 

 summer solstice, the rain priests of the Sun and Ice people retire, 

 each with his associates, into the kivas for a retreat of four days and 

 nights, to i)rav for rains. ol)serving strict fasts, taking only meal- 

 bread, and drinking ])oi)corn water. Here it is that the rain gods are 

 speciallv invoked. The rain j^riests do not pray with their hps — 

 " hearts speak to hearts." W bile the priests practice deceptions upon 

 the ])coi)le and even delude themselves, when they leave their retreat. 



