248 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



tance,^' only for good or harmless ends. A white arrow point and 

 some pollen are all that they need. 



In ritual clairvoyance or prediction the root called hfiew^a, pre- 

 sumably a narcotic, is commonly used. 



Any grain of corn you saw dropped outside you would pick up and 

 bring into the house. It wdll bring corn to the house. If you leave 

 it lying, you will not grow good corn, or the corn you grow will not 

 last long. 



If your eye twitches, you will get news. The left eye of my friend 

 had bacn twitching one day and he opined that he was going to receive 

 shortly a letter from his daughter. The day following he did receive 

 the letter, to his twofold satisfaction. A big fly in the house means 

 company. "Let's clean up," the woman will say. On hiccoughing, 

 Lucinda says, "Somebody thinking of me." A crow cawing is calling 

 cold weather. 



In some curing ceremonies, with a special feather the doctor will 

 make a circle around the patient, and then circle the patient himself 

 with the feather, five times. After this the feather flies up into the 

 roof. When it drops, if it fall within the circle, the patient will 

 recover, if without the cii'cle, he will die.'^ 



Tuesday is an ill-omened day — mala suerte, say the Mexicans. 

 People would not get married on Tuesday, or hold meetings, or start 

 on a trading journey, or hunt. For the ominousness of a deer whistle 

 see p. 439. 



Funerary Practices 



A kinsman, the son of the deceased, or other relative, goes to the 

 chief of the Corn group of the deceased, who will send an assistant 

 to the house to sprinkle meal from the feet of the corpse to the door. 

 (There is no orientation of the corpse. Formerly the head was placed 

 on a block of adobe.^^) The aunt (ky'uu) ^^ of the deceased is also 

 summoned. (If the deceased have no kyunin the Corn chief will 

 appoint a woman assistant to perform the proper functions.) With 

 her she brings a bowl of water and cotton and a twig brush. She 

 brushes the hau- of the deceased, washes''' and dries the face. The 

 water she has used may not be thrown outside the door. She thi-ows 

 it within the threshold where she also breaks the bowl, leaving the 

 pieces, that the people coming in may step on them.^* The hands of 



'' See pp. iR2 and 285, 340, 458. 



3< For other omens in ritual see pp. 313 and 448, 449. 



3* Mexican custom. 



M The father's sister, as at Laguna (Parsons. 12: 196) and elsewhere. 



3" When I referred to this function of the aunt, Lucinda, the secretive one, was startled, and covered 

 her mouth with her hand, the Pueblo motion to conceal emotion. Recovering, she said that the aunt 

 had to *' clean every corner" of the room " to start a new life." 



'» This practice seems strangely non-Pueblo. Cp. a Uke funerary practice among the Tarahumare. 

 (Lumhollz, I, 36.) 



