500 INTRODUCTION TO ZUNI CEREMONIALISM [eth. ann. 47 



important and characteristic. Usually they are from the turkey and 

 eagle, respectively; or they may both be from the eagle. Feathers 

 from the breast or back of the turkey are used on sticks for the 

 ancestors and the katcinas, tail feathers of the tiu-key on certain 

 sticks made by the aViwanii. Sticks for the sun, moon, and the 

 Uwanami have a downy eagle feather in tliis position and the use 

 of this feather entails particularly stringent taboos upon the giver. 

 Sticks for the war gods, and for the katcina priests (the Ca'lako sticks) 

 have an eagle tail feather in this position. The second feather is 

 almost always one from the shoulders or back of the eagle. After 

 this comes a duck feather, and feathers of the "summer birds," all 

 the brightly colored birds: jay, red hawk, oriole, bluebii-d, humming 

 bu'd, road runner, etc. Birds are snared or shot for theii- feathers, 

 and the feathers are carefully kept, WTapped separately in paper and 

 laid away in native wooden boxes with sliding covers. The feathers 

 are attached with commercial cotton cord. The sticks are painted 

 after the feathers are attached. The character and manufacture of 

 the pigments are described in another place (p. 859). Most sticks 

 are painted black, but those for the sun and moon are painted blue 

 and yellow, respectively, and these colors have sex associations. 

 Paii'ed blue and yellow sticks are symbolic of fecundity. 



The principal occasions upon which prayer sticks are offered by 

 large groups of people are at the solstices. On these occasions per- 

 sons of both sexes and all ages offer to the ancestors and to the sun 

 (if male), or to the moon (if female). Furthermore, at the winter 

 solstice all members of the katcina society make a second offering 

 to the katcina and members of the medicine societies to the tutelary 

 gods of their societies. At each full moon all members of societies 

 offer to the ancestors, to the katcinas (if males) and to the tutelary 

 gods of their societies. At the winter dances and at the end of Ca'lako 

 each man makes a prayer stick for the katcinas, but does not himself 

 plant it. Fm'thermore, a large part of the ritual of every ceremony 

 concerns the making and offering of special types of prayer sticks bj'' 

 those participating. Prayer sticks are sometimes offered individually 

 and sometimes the offerings of many persons are bundled together 

 into a ka-atcin"e which is deposited by someone delegated to plant 

 it. Prayer sticks are bmied or deposited in corn fields, in the river 

 mud, in slnines in the mountains, in springs, in excavations in or 

 near the village. 



Prayer sticks provide the clothing of the supernatiu-als. Just as 

 the supernaturals nourish themselves on the spuitual essence of food 

 offered in the fire or the river, they clothe themselves in the feathers 

 of prayer sticks. This is especially true of the katcinas, whose 

 beautifid feathers form their most conspicuous ornaments. (For a 

 treatment of this idea in folklore, see the tale of Hetsilulu, p. 1048.) 



