PARSONS] PERSONAL LIFE 215 



On the fourth morning the mother steps across fire which is then 

 taken out of the house, to take away the sickness. Then they bathe 

 the mother. Again the aimt tal^es the infant outdoors, this time 

 announcing its name to the family. Relatives of both parents come 

 and bring presents. . . . The mother may not go outdoors for 12 



The name received at tliis time is the same name that is given when 

 the child is taken for adoption into one of the seven Corn gi'oups, at 

 the solstice ceremony which is subsequent to the birth. Isabel 

 Abeita, for example, who was born in April, had her name confirmed, 

 so to speak, at the following June solstice ceremony. Had she been 

 bom in July she would have been taken to the December or winter 

 solstice ceremony. Isabel was carried to the house of the Corn 

 group's chief wliile he was conducting liis 4-day retreat by the same 

 aunt who gave her her name, this aunt happening to be a woman 

 assistant in the Corn group of Isabel's mother to which Isabel also 

 was to belong. Ordinarily the woman assistant, an imrelated woman, 

 fetches the infant. 



The woman assistant throws meal on the gromid altar. Wlule she 

 is announcing the infant's name the chief sprinkles the infant from 

 the medicine bowl with two duck feathers, also giving the infant a 

 taste of the medicine water off the tips of the feathers. Then he 

 gives the woman an ear of corn from those stacked on or near the 

 altar, com of the same color as the Com group is associated with. 

 The woman breathes out on it three times. The chief cUps the ear 

 in the medicine water, drips the ear into the child's mouth and him- 

 self n^entions the name. Again he dips the ear into the medicine 

 water and with the ear crosses the infant on the forehead, each pabn, 

 each sole. In both hands he holds the ear, breatliing on the near end, 

 and then passes the ear over the body of the child — this tlu-ee times. 

 In conclusion he gives a diink of the medicine water from the shell to 

 the woman, who says aka'a (? father), and he also pours some of the 

 water into the little bowl she has brought to take home with her. 

 During these various rites the male assistants, sitting as usual beliind 

 the altar, sing the songs associated wdth the rites, e. g., the palore 

 song which belongs to the medicine water when the chief is sprinkling 

 it, or the song appropriate for giving medicine water to drink. 



With similar ritual, except that corn is not used, the cliild receives 

 his moiety name, another name, the day the ditch is opened, a day of 

 moiety ceremonial. Again the naming ritual is confirmatory, for the 

 moiety "father" had already named the cliild, coming fom* days after 

 the birth and spitting into the child's mouth. It is this "father" 

 who carries the child to the moiety kiva when the name is confirmed.*' 



" Compare Hopi, Parsons, 10: 104. 



