240 THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. ank. 23 



last rays of the setting sun sink behind the mountain the grinders 

 and the dancers simultaneously stop and a prayer to the setting sun is 

 offered. 



The party is how invited by the hostess of the bouse and her 

 daughter into the great room, where a feast is spread, bowls of mutton 

 stew, stewed peaches, and baskets of bread being placed along the 

 center of the floor. On each side skins and blankets are spread for 

 the guests to sit upon, and the youths and maidens have a merry time. 

 The vessels are never allowed to become empty; they are speedily 

 replenished by the hostess and her young daughter, who stand by the 

 fireplace, where the large pots are balanced on stones. As each female 

 guest prepares to depart after finishing the meal a large bowl of 

 steaming stew is handed her to carry home. The young men are not 

 so favored. Before leaving the house each guest takes a pinch of 

 ashes from the fireplace in the mill room and passes it three times 

 round the head of the newborn babe, and on leaving the house throws 

 the ashes out with a prayer for the health and long life of the wee one. 



When the day of the great festival has arrived Zufii is astir with 

 anxious expectancy. The streets are carefully swept — an unusual 

 occurrence" — and six excavations about 12 inches square and 15 inches 

 deep are made in difl'erent sections of the town and one under the lad- 

 der way of each house that is to be consecrated. The loose earth is 

 made into a mound beside the opening, and a stone slab large enough 

 to coyer it is placed to the west of each excavation. Fires are blazing 

 in every house, which denotes an occasion of importance, these peo- 

 ple being most economical of firewood. As the afternoon wanes the 

 house tops become crowded with g^ily dressed men and women, not 

 onl}^ the Zunis, but those from other pueblos near and far, for nothing 

 seems to be of such general interest to the Indians, not even the snake 

 ceremonial of the Hopi, as the Sha'liiko festival of the Zunis. Many 

 Navahos, most of them unwelcome guests, but treated nevertheless 

 with courtesy, are scattered about the south front of the village in 

 groups on horseback, all anxious to have the first glimpse of the gods. 



The personators of the Council of the Gods and the Sha'lako, with 

 their fellows, leave Zufii at the rising of the morning star for A'ko- 

 hanna ti'nawki, where a fire is lighted. They spend the day there and 

 at the Sha'lako house at the base of the knoll, rehearsing prayers and 

 songs. They cross the plain later in the da}^ to the cabin used as the 

 dressing room, to which place the masks and paraphernalia are con- 

 veyed under cover of blankets. Masks, when not in use, are strip- 

 ped of their plumes, and, as the Zunis have not the art of appl3ing 

 paint so as to make it permanent, they are repainted previous to being 

 worn. The preparation of masks is attended with great solemnit}', and 

 only the initiated are present at such times. If anyone chances to 



« The streets and houses of Zufii are kept in much better condition at the present time. 



