286 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



Continence; Fasting 



Continence is required before engaging in a ceremony, for four 

 days, whether staying at home or in retreat. One informant refers 

 also to four days of continence after the ceremony. "We have four 

 days inside getting ready; on the fourth night we perform the cere- 

 mony; then we have four outside days, during wliich we may not 

 touch a woman or kill anything, not even an insect, or hurt anybody's 

 feelings." This abstinence at home is associated with a daily emetic 

 and is referred to as ibewaeyue, outside fasting (fasting from sexual 

 intercourse, not from food). Such abstinence may be practiced not 

 only by sacerdotalists but by lay members who want "to help," i. e., 

 increase the efficiency of the ceremonial.'^* 



Were a man to break his continence taboo he might turn into a rock 

 or log or into an animal. (See pp. 374, 448.) In the folk tale about 

 the Corn girls and the kick stick player " who is "vv^orking" for the 

 sun, to aid his daily progress, we find a most interesting expression of 

 the familiar idea that breaking taboo precludes ritual efficiency. 



In retreat, i. e., segregation in ceremonial room, there is fasting 

 from food (naw'seyim), and our informant was very insistent that the 

 fast consisted of total abstention from food and drink, for the usual 

 four days. With tliis fasting is associated also the taboo on killing 

 anything, "even a spider or fly." 



The initiate into the medicine societies fasts from wheaten ^ 

 dishes. Dishes eaten during retreat *' are round cakes of blue corn 

 meal (shekoyl, she, tied; koyl, round); a mush called w'fe'opaku made 

 of a wild water plant; and corn meal tamale (nata' mare). 



The padre would have the people fast from wine and meat in holy 

 week (semana santa) and two days each week for seven weeks before. 

 Some fast, some do not. In holy week the padre would also have the 

 people "keep still," p^^wae, not chopping wood or making use of 

 wiigons, just as in the "keeping still" time at Taos, remarked my 

 informant. 



Hair Washing and Ritual Bath 



The hair is washed in connection wdth ceremonial conducted both 

 by the medicine societies and the Corn groups. As elsewhere, yucca 

 root (pala) suds are used. 



Funerary attendants have their hair washed, on the third day; on 

 the fourth they take a ritual bath in the river. In the solstice cere- 

 monies hands and face are washed in the river. The k'apyo wash 

 off their face and body paint in the river. A woman sick of tonsillitis 



'" Compare pp. 290, 367. 



'• Pp. 369, 371. 



8* Whereas for "dances" cakes of sprouted wheat (nadeka') are made. 



" During the 12-day fast of the medicine men. 



