Bt-NZEil RELIGIOUS LIFE 499 



Meal is offered to the sun each morning by all men who hold any 

 permanent or temporary sacerdotal position and by many other 

 individuals, both men and women. Meal is sprinkled on prayer 

 sticks when they are planted, and on masks, fetishes, and other 

 sacred objects when they are taken out for use and when they are 

 returned to their places. It is sprinkled upon katcinas by onlookers, 

 and their leader sprinkles meal before them "to make their road." 

 Handfids of meal are thrown into the air through the kiva hatchway 

 to welcome the new yeai . A bowl of corn meal stands on every society 

 altar and everyone who enters the room to participate in the cere- 

 niony sprinkles corn meal on the altar before taking his place. In 

 addition to the use of meal as an offering it is also used for delineation 

 of sacred symbols. Every altar is set up upon a painting of white 

 meal representing clouds, and from the center of this a line nms out 

 towaid the door of the room, or the foot of the ladder. This is the 

 road of hfe and along it pereons entering the room walk up to the 

 altar. It is also the road by which the supematurals enter. Colored 

 sand paintings, similar in technique to those of the Navaho, are used 

 in initiation ceremonies. A cross of corn meal marks the place pre- 

 pared to receive a sacred object, com meal is used to mark the walls 

 of a house at its dedication, and marks of com meal are made on the 

 hatchway of the kivas to indicate the duration of a ceremony. Corn 

 meal is rubbed on the head and face of the newborn and on the bodj^ 

 of the dead. In short, there is no ceremonial occasion on which it 

 is not used. 



The most important and valuable gift to the gods is the prayer 

 stick. This is a small stick, carefully smoothed and painted, to 

 which various feathers are attached with cotton cord. The length 

 and form of the stick, the wood of which it is made, the color of the 

 pigment, and the feathers are all definitive of the character of the 

 offering, and vaiy according to the beings to whom it is offered, the 

 sacerdotal position of the giver, and the occasion upon which it is 

 given. 



The whole matter of the varieties and manufacture of prayer sticks 

 is too complex to go into here. A few outstanding points can be 

 mentioned. The wood most commonly used is the red willow. For 

 certain occasions other shi'ubs are reqidi-ed. When wood for prayer 

 sticks is gathered corn meal is offered to the shrub from which the 

 twigs are cut. Only perfectly straight shoots are taken. Generally 

 the bark is removed. There are four common prayer stick measm-es; 

 from the tip of the middle finger to the base of the finger, to the 

 center of the palm, to the wTist, to the inside of the elbow. Fre- 

 cjuently faces are indicated by notching one side of the stick. The 

 feathers are attached to the back of the stick and are thought of as 

 constituting its clothing. The two upper feathers are the most 



