STEVENSON] SOCIAL CUSTOMS 295 



not answered, it is believed that the heart of one or other of the 

 couple is not good. There is also another shrine most sacred to the 

 Zunis to which parents desiring sons resort. This shrine is on the 

 summit of a low mound in a narrow valley and consists of a stone slab 

 about 1 foot square, slightly raised from the ground by loose stones. 

 Three stones, two round and one several inches long, synit)()lizing the 

 male generative organs, are placed upon the slal). the long one point- 

 ing to the east. 



Another resort for women in this condition is a ((ueer-looking 

 inclosure by the side of the trail leading to the peach orchards of To'wa 

 yal'liinne. It is formed by a stone wall some 2^ feet high at the west 

 end, the space within being 2^ by 6 feet. Two of the largest stones 

 of the wall project into the interior. The wall slopes unevenly on 

 each side and is only a foot high at the east end. When a daughter 

 is desired, one or other of the couple or both visit this place and the 

 woman, passing- into the inclosure, breaks off a bit from each of the 

 projecting rocks. These bits are afterward powdered and put into 

 water and drunk b}' the woman. It is believed that a daughter i-^ sure 

 to be the result if the heart is good. 



A pregnant woman suffering from a cough and a i)ain in the right 

 side of her abdomen was relieved by the writer with simple remedies; 

 but the celebrated Nai'uchi, surgeon and doctor, had to be sent for. as 

 the family was sure the sufferer had been bewitched. Nai'uchi came 

 and appeared to draw from the abdomen two objects which he 

 claimed were the mother and child worms. One was about the 

 length of the second finger of the hand; the other was smaller. Of 

 course this showed that the woman had l)een bewitched and that it 

 was well that he was sent for in time, as these worms would have 

 eaten the child and caused its death. It was afterward reported that 

 when the woman was grinding at Nutria some weeks previou>. a 

 sister of a witch, who ground by her side, touched the pregnant 

 woman on the side of the abdomen, and it was then that the worms 

 were "cast*" in. 



A pregnant woman while at her farm at Ojo C'alicnte iHTanic 

 alarmed at the retarded action of the fetus, and she and h(>r husband 

 returned to Zuni to consult Nai'uchi. On h>arning that the woman had 

 been drinking-water from the sacred spring of the Ko'loowisi ( Plmned 

 serpent), he declared that she was not carrying a child but a ser|)ent. 

 The following day the husband came to the writer in gicat distress and 

 begged her to go to his wife, who was in such a wretcheil mental state 

 that he feared she would die. After examining the abdomen the writer 

 declared that Nai'uchi was mistaken: but his woi-ds had sunk into the 

 sufferer's mind, and hours were spent with the distracted woman before 

 she was convinced that her doctor was in error. After several days a 

 slight color took the i)lace of the death-like pallor of th(> woman, and she 



