384 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
husband, or cither a relative, they would not eat corn which had been 
sowed by the deceased or corn from land which he or she had been 
wont to sow, but would give it to some one else or have the crop 
destroyed. After attending a burial a person bathed and abstained 
for some time from eating fish. Before tilling a field an ancient 
ceremony was recited to the shaman (i. e., probably under his leader- 
ship). Prayer was offered — that is, a formula was repeated — over 
the first corn, and when the corncrib was opened a formula was 
recited over the first flour. A ceremony accompanied with formulas 
was performed with laurel when chestnuts (?) and palmetto berries 
were gathered, nor were wild fruits eaten until formulas had been 
repeated over them. Perhaps this applied only to the first wild 
fruits of the season. Corn from a newly broken field was not sup- 
posed to be eaten, apparently, though it is hard to believe that this 
regulation was absolute. Unless prayers had been offered to the 
"spirit" by a shaman, no one was allowed to approach or open the 
corncrib. Some ceremony is mentioned which took place early in the 
sowing season, in which six old men ate a pot of ' 'fritters. " 
When a party was to go out hunting the chief had formulas repeated 
over tobacco, and when the hunting ground was reached all of the 
arrows were laid together and the shaman repeated other formulas 
over them. It was usual to give the shaman the first deer that was 
killed. Before fishing on a lake formulas were also recited, and after 
the fish were caught the shaman prayed over them and was given 
half. The first fish caught, however, was, after the usual formulae, 
placed in the storehouse. Pareja also mentions a kind of hunting 
ceremony performed by kicking with the feet, probably some form of 
sympathetic magic, and it appears that not a great deal of flesh was 
eaten immediately after hunting for fear that no more animals would 
be killed. It was also thought that no more game would be killed if 
the lungs and liver of an animal were thrown into cold water for 
cooking. If a hunter pierced an animal with an arrow without kill- 
ing it he repeated a formula over his next arrow, believing that it was 
then sure to inflict a mortal wound. If the grease of partridges or other 
small game which had been caught with a snare or lasso was spilled it 
was thought that the snare would catch nothing more. Formulas 
were uttered to enable hunters to find turtles. Bones of animals 
caught in a snare or trap were not thrown away but were hung up 
or placed on the roof of the house. If this ceremony were omitted 
it was thought that the animals would not enter the snare or trap 
again. When they went to hunt deer they took the antlers of another 
deer and repeated formulas over them. If a man went to his fishweir 
immediately after having had intercourse with his wife he thought 
that no more fish or eels would enter it. 
