STEVENSON] MINOR CEREMONIES OF THE SHA'lAKO 239 



As there are eight mills in this house, there are sixteen grinders. 

 An aged woman, said to be the only one living" who knows the two 

 original grinding songs* by heart, sits before the mills and leads 

 the grinders in the song; that is, teaches them the song. While one 

 set of maidens grind, the others dance in the same room to the music 

 of a choir formed of eight young men, one of whom beats on a drum 

 while the others use rattles in accompaniment to the song. The 

 dancers are led by a young man standing in the middle of the line. 

 His dress of cotton trousers and shirt is embellished by a leather belt 

 that has many tiny bells attached. The girls wear their ordinary 

 dress. A crone places in each hand of a dancer as she leaves her seat 

 an ear of corn, which she takes from a basket beside her. She 

 also gives two ears to the male dancer. She repeats a short prayer 

 with each presentation. The dancers form in tile up and down the 

 room, the maidens keeping their feet close together and balancing 

 themselves on their toes as they raise their heels. They partly 

 turn their bodies from left to right, moving in a sort of shuffle as 

 they proceed in an ellipse to the starting point, where the}^ reverse 

 the movement from right to left. The song, in which they join, is a 

 supplication for much rain and bountiful crops. At the close of the 

 dance each maiden returns her corn to the crone, who draws from it a 

 breath and presents it to the lips of the dancers, who also draw the 

 sacred breath from the corn. The grinders, resigning their places at 

 the mills to these girls, repeat the dance, which in this wa}' continues 

 until sunset. 



Two aged women are busy before the fireplace in the same room 

 toasting the corn after it has been passed through the first mill, the 

 meal, which is in two bowls, being stirred with bunches of slender 

 sticks. After it is slightly toasted it passes through two more mills, 

 or perhaps three, until it reaches the required fineness, when it is as 

 impalpable as wheat fiour. Two women in an adjoining room are l)usy 

 baking he'we (wafer bread), while in another room stews of nmtton, 

 hominy, and chili are simmering in great caldrons. A j^oung mother, 

 with an infant born the night ])eforc by her side, sits near the fireplace 

 in the room with the grinders and dancers. All day she stays in the 

 deafening noise of the rattle, the drum, and the song, and must not 

 leave until the close of the feast that follows the dance, by whicli time 

 she seems thoroughly exhausted and glad to retire to an adjoining 

 room for rest. There is a cessation at midday, when coffee is served, 

 a luxury to be found in such quantity only in a rich man's house. 

 Before sunset the western door of the house is opened, and just as the 



a Since deceased. 



&The Zufii priests and others versed in their lore dechire there are but two original grinding songs. 

 These were given to the Zuiii when the Corn maidens first danced at Shi'pololo. There are many 

 grinding songs borrowed by the Zin'ii from Acoma, Laguna.and other Pueblos at times when the 

 Zuflis 'vere driven to these places by failure of their crops. 



