PARSONS] RITUAL 285 



should share, opined somebody. . . . Conforming with Pueblo prac- 

 tice is the use of 12, as a count for ritual days, etc7^ 



Crystal Gazing 



A crystal (poshiko) belongs to each medicine society chief and he 

 uses it repeatedly in his ritual, to determine who are sick and in need 

 of attention, what the w itches are doing abroad or have already done 

 in the v^zj of sending obnoxious things into the persons '* of those 

 present at the ceremonial, or in case of an epidemic, in the town at 

 large. (See pp. 339, 340.) Other immoralities or improprieties are 

 learned of in the same way. Perhaps a runner has got power from a 

 medicine man to win his race against a fellow townsman, by causing 

 cramps, or perhaps strings have been sent into a runner's legs by a 

 witch. Injurious things on the race track are seen through the 

 crystal, also who will win the race. Weather — winds, rain, or a hail 

 storm — is predicted similarly through a crystal. 



The crystal hangs as a pendant from the neck of the curing chief. 



It is firmly believed that medicine men, whether or not through 

 their crystal, are possessed of second sight. A recent curious develop- 

 ment of this belief in second sight finds expression through a certain 

 townsman who has boldly set himself to find veins of gold and ruins '* 

 which may yield old pottery for trade. As a blind he takes digging 

 tools along, but he makes his discoveries, he believes, through his 

 ritual work at night. 



Medicine 



There is a notable use of the root medicine which is called Hfiewah. 

 It is spat over the altar,'" over or toward attendants at a ceremony, 

 and by the thief-finder who goes into trance. That this medicine is 

 thought of as very powerful,'' as an Isletan would say, is evidenced by 

 the fact, among others, that only the chief (in the Corn group) may 

 swallow it. 



There are, of course, medicines other than Hfiewah, but of them we 

 have no particulars, except a reference to wolf root (karh) and to bear 

 root, an association between the animals and disease through roots 

 similar to that observed at Zufii. 



Curing at a distance or performing anything magical at a distance 

 is very much of a criterion of magical power. One of the observa- 

 tions on the kachina cult of a much-traveled Isletan woman was that 

 the kachina had no power as they did nothing at a distance. 



" As at Taos (Parsons, 22) and Picuris (narrington and Roberts passim.). 



" Compare Laguna practice (ParsonsS: 119). 



" Looliing for gold and ruins is said in Isleta to induce blindness. May there not have been some cultural 

 clash between the Mexican tradition or practice of seeking buried treasure which is ghost guarded (see Par- 

 sons, 20) and the Indian aversion to disturbing the ancients? 



'• At Zimi a root medicine is spat over certain prayer sticks (Ruth L. Buuzel, personal communication). 



" See p. 449. 



