282 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



We have noted "" that a sickly infant may be promised or given to 

 a ceremonial group moietj" or Corn group other than that it would 

 normally belong to. Membership in the medicine societies or in the 

 war society may also be the result of a vow in siclcness. 



A sick person or the parent of a sick child may promise San Agostin 

 "to take him out." On recoveiy, the image would be kept over- 

 night in the house of the vow taker (Mexican, belorio), and taken 

 around the plaza the next day.^' Vows are made also to San Escapula. 



Breathing Rites 



Meal that is to be sprinkled in offering is breathed on. The sacro- 

 sanct ear of com is breathed on (ham'bewe; the term for ordinary 

 breathing is haniwe). The clasped hands are breathed on or from 

 (wa'shihan'j washi, "give long hfe," *^ han>haniwe, breath), in 

 Zuni fashion, with the left hand folded over the right, the thumbs 

 parallel, when the sim materializes in the solstice ceremonies or when 

 other fetishes are exposed; or the clasped hands are breathed from, 

 when the hands have been passed over a dead deer. The eagle 

 feathers of the medicine men are breathed from."^ 



Lucinda breathed from her hands when she passed a church, or 

 when she received a present of any kind — iwasliihakura nakamu 

 'good luck) she called it. A present, by the way, said Lucinda, you 

 must never demur to taking. 



Song and Dance Step (Altar Ritual); Racing 



A considerable number of rites are mentioned specifically as having 

 songs attaching to them: "work on the prayer feathers"; i.e., grind- 

 ing ritual paint, painting the feathers or string, grouping and tying 

 the feathers; offering prayer meal in the directions; sprinkling the 

 altar with pollen; making medicine water; catling the sim; calling 

 deer. In general we get the impression that the ritual songs are a 

 very unportant part of ceremonial, as elsewhere. It is to be hoped 

 that opportunity to record the text of these songs may sometime be 

 given. 



Dance steps, more particidarly by the cliief, are performed with 

 some of the ritual songs. As when the Com group chief dances 

 during the sprinkling of the altar — the women assistants dancing 



«« See pp. 261-262 and 272 n. 10, 273 n. 13, 274 n. 17. 



61 Compare an account of curing through saints by Mexicans in Santa Fe in 1857. " Upon one occasion, 

 when visiting a family, a member of which was quite ill, a number of friends came in with a small image 

 of a favorite saint, altar, and other necessary apparatus. They were placed in the middle of the room, 

 when a few coals of fire were brought from the kitchen and put in the vessel that contained the incense 

 which ignited and filled the room with its odor, the whole party the while performing some ceremony 

 that I did not understand." (See Davis, 225, 226.) 



62 Children are told not to blow on food, such as rabbit or deer, to cool the meat, lest the animal come 

 alive again and get away. 



6^ See p. 444. 



