188 THE PIMA INDIANS [kth. ann. i;6 



trol for the purpose; this procedure must have caused trouble very 

 soon had the ceremony been wholly unknown to tlie natives." 



BAPTISM 



Before a child is a year old it is named by friends of the parents in 

 the followiuf; manner: The friends, or godparents, accompanied by 

 other \4sitors, come for four successive mormngs and seat themselves 

 just before sunrise on the ground before the house in which the child 

 lives. First one and then another of the company holds the child for 

 a moment, but if it is a boy the kompalt, godfather, repeats a cere- 

 monial speech, passes his hands across the hmbs of the infant and 

 holds it aloft to receive the first rays of the rising sun ; then he bestows 

 upon the boy the name by wliich he shall be known throughout life — 

 though nicknames are common and often supplant the baptismal 

 name to some extent. If it is a girl, the kamvilt, godmother, delivers , 

 the speech and gives the name. Beads were formerly held up to 

 receive the first rays of sunlight, and were then placed about the 

 child's neck. Gifts of clothing, food, baskets, and the like were also 

 made by the godparents, who "tliink as much of tlie child afterwards 

 as its own father and mother," said one of our informants. The 

 parents in their turn reciprocate by naming the children of the couple 

 that acts as godparents to their own.'' 



The names assumed by the men during later life are very frequently 

 derived from the sexual organs, particularly those of the female, but 

 such names are never bestowed at the time of baptism. Any unusual 

 event or physical pecuharity may impose a name upon an indi\ndual. 

 For example, a man wlio worked several weeks for the missionary 

 was so well fed that he began to lay on flesh. Ever afterwards he was 

 known as Preacher's Fat. One is known as Uvaatuka, Spread Leg, 

 from his peculiar gait. 



From the age of 10 until about the time of marriage neither boys nor 

 girls are allowed to speak their ovvaa names. The penalty is bad luck 

 in losing arrows in the case of the l)oys, in losing the rsa'lika, or kiiiha 

 stick in the case of the girls. The name of a deceaseii person is not 

 used; he is alluded to as the brother of So-and-so. The word or 

 words in the name, however, are not dropped from the language. 



aWhipple, Ewbank, and Turner in the Pacific Railroad Reports, in. ;^, mention tiie occurrence of 

 the custom of baptism among the Cherolcees when the infants arc 3 days old. "They believe that 

 without this rite the child can not live. They have a custom of sacrifices and burnt offerings." 



''"Cada nino tiene un peri, que es unaespecie de padrino, que convidan sus padres. Este.despues de 

 habcrle hecho un largo discurso al recien nacido sobre las obligaciones propias de su se.xo. le va tentando 

 por todo el cuerpo, estir^ndole los brazes y piemas, y lucgo le impone un apeliido 6 nombre de su lengiia, 

 no sigmficativo. Despues de la ceremonia, el peri y l1 niiio sc rcputan en lo civil como una misma persona, 

 y tienen con sus respectivos parientes la misma relacion. Lo mismo hacen las mugeres en su proporcion 

 con las mtias." .\legre, Historia de la Compaiiia de Jesus en Nueva-Espaiia, II, 217. 



