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significance is “ Mother Breathing Forth Life.” The deep rev- 
erence in which Mother Corn is held by the Pawnee may best be 
expressed in their own words: 
“Mother Corn, breathing forth life, came from Mother Earth, who knows 
all places and all that happens among men, so she knows all places and all 
men, and can direct us where to go when we carry the sacred articles which 
give plenty and peace.” 
The Pawnee have a sacred feast of corn: When all the company 
have been seated the fathers ladle out the food into the bowls. 
The priest takes up a little of the food on the tip of a spoon, offers 
it toward the east, flipping a particle toward the horizon line. He 
then passes to the north, drops a bit on the rim of the fireplace, 
and goes to the west, where, facing the east, he lifts the spoon 
toward the zenith, pauses, waves it to the four quarters and slowly 
lowers it to the earth and drops a bit on the rim of the fireplace. 
After this ceremony of offering thanks the filled bowls are placed 
before the people. Two or more persons take a few spoonsful 
from the same bowl, then, hanging the spoons on its edge, they 
pass the bowl on to the next group at the left. In this way all 
the people partake of a common feast. 
Cultivation and Harvest 
Among the Zufis, after planting, every man, woman, and child 
of the tribe deposits in the family field a feathered prayer-stick 
and offers a prayer to the Rain Gods that the crop may be abun- 
dant. During the period of growth the plants are tended with 
religious care that weeds may not choke them, nor crows nor stray 
donkeys inflict their ravages. Harvest time comes, and again men, 
women, and children garner the priceless crop. No, it is not a 
“golden harvest,” for Pueblo maize is of every imaginable hue. 
The Pueblo housewife justly regards her store of corn as the 
most beautiful, colorful thing in the world. 
A quaint description of a Virginia Indian cornfield was written 
by Thomas Hariot (who was appointed geographer by Sir Walter 
Raleigh to his second Virginia expedition) to describe a drawing 
by John White which appears in Hariot’s report published in 1588 
and which we reproduce here (Tig. 
