336 THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. ann. 23 



mention of the game. These songs belong- especiallA^ to the rain priests, 

 all of whom have the same songs, which are purely for rain and fructi- 

 fication of the earth. The rain priest praj^s again over the basket 

 tray, raising it to his face, and repeats the ceremony of placing the 

 te'nas'sali, mixed with water, in the ears and across the faces of the four 

 players, who stoop before him; thc}^ then receive the wafer bread, husk 

 packages, and cigarette from the rain priest in their blankets over 

 the left arm. The gaming ball, which remains in place in the inner 

 room, is not seen at this time b}" any of the players. The pla^'ers 

 leave the house of the rain priest at midnight without speaking a word 

 and go to the old church, built by the Spaniards and now a ruin, where 

 the leader makes an excavation the depth of the lower arm and deposits 

 the otierings to the deceased players of i'3'ankolo'we. After deposit- 

 ing the oti'erings with prayers within the walls of the church, they pass 

 to the south of the cross in the center of the graveyard. The leader of 

 the players removes several handfuls of earth and places it in a cloth. 

 He carries it to the rain priest's house and deposits the earth outside the 

 door, when they return to the leader's house, where a rain priest (not 

 the one, however, whom the leader has visited) says to the leader: "Your 

 great ' ]Moon Mother ' and stars who are out saw you come from the 

 dead. What have j^ou to say? What do 3'ou know about your Moon 

 Mother or the stars or A'wonawil'ona? What have they told you? 

 If you know nothing it makes no difference," The leader tells the 

 rain priest what he heard while visiting the dead in the graveyard 

 and the rain priest replies, "That is well. I hope 3'ou will have a 

 good time and win, that we shall have much rain and many crops." 

 If one is touched by the dead he is sure to win the game. 



All sit down, and with a slender rod of cottonwood root that has been 

 lighted in the tire the shi'wanni lights a corn-husk cigarette of nativ^e 

 tobacco. A match must not be used to light this cigarette. Puffing 

 it, he blows the smoke and motions the cigarette to the six regions, 

 forming a circle symbolic of the whole world. He then hands the ciga- 

 rette to the leader, who repeats the form and hands it to the next man, 

 who does the same. The cigarette is then passed to some of the friends 

 present who are going to bet on the game. When only a bit of the 

 cigarette remains, it is placed in a basket tray for the night (the play- 

 ers and watchers sleep in the house of the head player) and in the 

 morning it is cast into the river, to go the abiding place of the ('ouncil 

 of the Gods. 



After the cigarette is laid in the basket tray, the leader of players 

 and his associates put on their moccasins, and the rain priest, still sit- 

 ting, lifts the basket tra}" and prays again for rain, food, etc. After 

 this prayer the four men go to the summit of Corn mountain. When 

 they all return they crush ko'hakwa, turquoise, a'hoko (a red stone said 



