BUNZEL) RELIGIOUS LIFE 493 



to give it validity. These formulae comprise the great mass of 

 esoteric practice. To this category belong rituals for setting up and 

 removing altars, prayer-stick making, all songs and dances, and most 

 important of all, practically all of the so-called prayers. 



Prayer in Zuiii is not a spontaneous outpouring of the heart. It is 

 rather the repetition of a fixed formula. Only in such prayers as 

 those accompanying individual offerings of corn meal and food is a 

 certain amoimt of individual variation possible, and even here 

 variation is restricted to the matter of abridgment or inclusiveness. 

 The general form of the prayer, the phraseology and the natui'e of the 

 request, conform strictly to types for other prayers. All more impor- 

 tant prayers are fixed in content and form, and great importance is 

 attached to their correct rendition. The rigidity increases in pro- 

 portion to the importance of the occasion. The words of these 

 prayers, like the fetishes themselves, are tcimikanapkoa, "according 

 to the first beginning." That the desired undeviating repetition 

 claimed for prayers is not always achieved is illustrated by a study 

 of variants to be published in the Journal of American Folklore, 

 which shows also the very narrow margin of variability. That a long 

 prayer should have changed so little in the 50 agitated years since 

 Cushing's time is really remarkable. 



There are definite fixed rituals and prayers for every ceremonial 

 occasion, and any moderately well-informed Zuiii can identify any of 

 them even when removed from its proper setting. As a check upon 

 informants I read all the prayers I had collected to another informant, 

 a yomig woman who herself was not actively associated with any 

 major cult, but who was generally well informed through her family 

 connections. In every case she could identify the prayer after about 

 five lines had been read. " It belongs to A''ciwani — to Pekwin. This 

 is what he says when he first goes in in summer" ; or "It is the prayer 

 for planting prayer sticks. Anyone can use it." The same woman, 

 however, asked me to copy down for her the prayers for offering the 

 monthly prayer sticks, and for offering corn meal, so that she could 

 learn them, for she knew no prayers for these occasions: "I never 

 learned any prayer for the prayer sticks, and so I just put them 

 down and sprinkle corn meal without saying anything. My husband 

 belongs to a society and knows these prayers but he would not teach 

 me his prayers. I would have to go to my 'father' (the man who 

 initiated her) to learn them and I would have to give him a present 

 for teaching me." This same woman could repeat long prayers when 

 they occurred in tales, so it was not lack of Icnowledge. 



This brings us to another important point, namely, that not only 

 must a prayer be repeated verbatim to be effectual, but it must have 



