736 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN i895 [ETH. ANN. 17 
Fig. 357—Mortuary prayer-stick 
(natural size) 
This may be a possible explanation’ of the 
scratches on the sides of the ancient tube pipes 
from Sikyatki. 
PRAYER-STICKS 
One of the most important objects made in 
the secret ceremonials of the modern Pueblos 
is sacrificial in nature, and is called a paho 
or “water wood,” which is used as an offer- 
ing to the gods (figure 357). These pahos 
are made of a prescribed wood, of length 
determined by tradition, and to them are tied 
appendages of symbolic meaning. They are 
consecrated by songs, about an altar, upon 
which they are laid, and afterward deposited 
in certain shrines by a special courier. 
In modern times the forms of these pahos 
differ very greatly, the shape depending on 
the society which makes them, the god ad- 
dressed, and the purpose for which they are 
used, as understood by the initiated. Among 
many other uses they are sometimes mortuary 
in character, and are deposited in the graves 
of chiefs, as offerings either to the God of 
Death, or to other deities, to whom they may 
be presented by the shade or breath body of 
the deceased. This use of pahos is of ancient 
origin in Tusayan, as shown by the excava- 
tions at Sikyatki, where they were found in 
mortuary bowls or vases deposited by the re- 
latives or surviving members of the sacerdotal 
societies to which the deceased had belonged. 
This pre-Spanish custom in Tusayan was 
discovered in my excavations at Awatobi, but 
the prayer-sticks from that place were frag- 
mentary as compared with the almost perfect 
pahos from Sikyatki. These pahos are of many 
forms;” some of them are of considerable size, 
and the majority are of distinctive forms 
(pilates CLXXIV-CLXXV). There are also 
many fragments, the former shapes of 
which could not be determined. When it is 
considered that these wooden objects with 
about them. 
1Ancient cigarette reeds, found in sacrificial caves, have a small fragment of woven fabric tied 
2 The so-called ‘‘implements of wood” figured by Nordenskiéld (‘‘ The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa 
Verde,” plate XLII) are identical with some of the pahos from Sikyatki, and are undoubtedly prayer- 
sticks. 
