STEVENSON] u'huhukwe 527 



regions with pra\'ers for .snow, when it is again passed and the ])alls 

 are found to be as hard as stones. A tliird time the basket is passed, 

 after prayers have been offered, and the balls are in the same condition 

 as when first examined. The U'huhukwe and Hji'lo'kwo (Ant) are 

 considered the most expert jugglers in Zuni. 



On the closing evening an aged member with white hair appears 

 with a liaming brand at the house of one of the women of the fra- 

 ternity who is tardy, and entering without ceremony starts her out 

 before his liaming brand. Though this woman is hourly expecting to 

 become a mother, she is allowed no freedom of action; she must not 

 omit hei" duty to the fraternit}'. 



CEREMONIAL OVER A SICK 3IAN 



In connection with this fraternity the writer witnessed a ceremonial 

 over a sick man at his house. The patient was suffering from small- 

 pox. Many theurgists had been called in, but none had effected a 

 cure; accordingly the Kia'kwemosi, who is also a theurgist of the 

 U'huhuhwe, was appealed to. He was surprised at the beginning of 

 the ceremony by the presence of Mr Stevenson and the writer, who 

 had taken the guard at the door unawares while he was sleeping at his 

 post. One of the officiating theurgists even declared that the pres- 

 ence of the visitors would be fatal to the invalid, but Mr Stevenson 

 and the writer nevertheless remained. 



The room was dimly lighted by an old Zufii lamp resting on the 

 chimney place. The Kia'kwemosi sat upon a low stool in the center of 

 the large room, facing east. He was clothed in a suit of pure white cot- 

 ton and his black wavy locks were flowing. The head-kerchief so con- 

 stantl}' worn had been removed. A bowl of medicine water, two eagle 

 plumes, and a vessel of sacred meal were on the stone floor before him. 

 He looked haggard and seemed to have aged since the afternoon. The 

 patient, a young man, partially reclined upon a blanket spread upon 

 the floor on the north side of the room. His body was supported by 

 his mother. Two theurgists acted under the direction of the Kia'kwe- 

 mosi, one standing in front of the sick man. holding an eao-le-wiup- 

 plume in each hand, the other holding two eagle-wing i)lumes in his 

 right hand and a bowl of medicine water in his left, from which he 

 filled his mouth and sprinkled the man's nude body, waving the plumes 

 in the right hand over him. The mouth being emptied of the Avater, 

 he joined the other theurgist in incantations over the sick. Dui-ing 

 the sprinkling of the medicine water and the passing of the eugli* 

 plumes over the body, which was done with a graceful waving ges- 

 ture, the Kia'kwemosi, with the sacred meal basket in hand, rose and 

 stood before the patient and placed pinches of sacred meal in spots over 

 the bod}^ calling upon the Beast Gods to give him power to call the 

 disease to one of the meal spots, that it might be drawn from the 



