FOLKWAYS 



Birth Customs 



When a woman of Picuris bears a child whoever cuts the child's 

 navel cord names the child. While the child is being named, a string 

 is tied to its wrist. ^Vnd then it is laid where its mother is lying. 

 An ear of yellow corn is laid beside the child. This ear of corn 

 becomes the child's mother for 30 days. The woman does not get 

 up for 30 days after she gives buth to the child, but lies along with 

 her child. And during this time she drinks only warm water, and 

 food is made for her apart. 



At the end of the 30 days the woman gets up from her lymg and 

 dresses up nicely and makes an excursion to the top of Thapiapittha. 

 She takes along sacred meal to give to the fetishes there, and arriving 

 there she prays for her child. If the child is a gui, the mother prays 

 that she may grind, cook, and do well the other kinds of work that 

 women do. And if the child is a boy, she prays that he maj^ be 

 brave, a himter, a runner, and do well the other kinds of work that 

 men do. Then the mother goes back to her house. And then the 

 ear of corn which lay as a mother by the side of the child is taken out 

 of there and thrown away. From then on the ear of corn is no longer 

 the child's mother; from then on the woman who bore the child is 

 the real mother. 



Thus the Picurfs women bear children. 



Death Customs 



When the people of the Pueblo are sick they are doctored by 



native medicine men. Nowadays the Indian medicme men are 



not as active as they used to be long ago, since the white doctors 



have come more among the people. But at times the Indian 



medicine men still perfonn then- ceremonies. Since the people of 



the Pueblo are all Christians, if they should get very sick and think 



that they are going to die, they usualh' send for the priest at Penasco; 



and when the priest arrives at the home of the sick person, the sick 



person confesses to the priest. But still some of the Indians sing 



their medicine songs to a sick person for his recovery. When a 



])erson is dying, or even already dead, or whenever they can get 



around to it, the people make a plumero for hmi, giving it into his 



hands, and put a strip of black mica on his face, and then a death 



song is sung to him. It is called "making the road song." This 



song is sung to him so that the road will lead him southwest toward 



where the sun sets. 



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