BOTJZELl BELIGIOUS LIFE 501 



The offering: of prayer sticks is one of the most important acts of 

 Zuiii ritual and four days after making any oflering of prayer sticks 

 the giver must refrain from sexual intercourse, and from quarreling. 

 There are additional restrictions connected with special offerings — 

 after the offering to the sun at the winter solstice one must eat no 

 meat or anything cooked \vith grease for four days.^^ The same 

 restriction applies to the a'ciwan'i after offerings to the uwananri, 

 and to pekwin after his various offerings to the sun. Also to aU 

 novices, including boys initiated into the katcLna society, after their 

 initiation. (They plant prayer sticks as the final rite in the initia- 

 tion.) '^'' After the plantings of the Ca'lako party the members and 

 their households must refrain from trade for four days. There is no 

 restriction on work for w-ages. No one trades during the first four 

 days of the winter solstice — many people do not trade for 10 days — 

 and the households of priests do not trade while these priests are in 

 retreat. The feelmg about trading at these seasons seems to be that 

 since these are periods of magical power, during which forthcoming 

 events are preordained, if property passed out of one's hands during 

 this time all one's wealth would soon melt away. Therefore, during 

 these periods, necessities are purchased at the store on credit, but 

 no payments are made. 



Prayer sticks are especially male offerings. Although women fre- 

 quently offer prayer sticks they never make them. Their male rela- 

 tives (actual or ceremonial) make them for them. So also, although 

 men offer food and com meal, it is always prepared for them by the 

 women. This division in ritual is a reflection of the general economic 

 pattern, in which the females supply food and the males the clothing 

 of the household. So also women furnish the food of the gods and 

 men their clothing. 



TABOO AND ABSTINENCE 



The special restrictions which follow the planting of prayer sticks 

 is part of a general feeling of taboo directed toward aU things sacred. 

 The Zuiii word for taboo is teckwi. An altar is called teckwin^e 

 (sacred thing); a person upon w'hom there is any ceremonial restraint 

 also is teckwi. It is almost impossible to reduce the hst of Zufii 

 taboos to any sort of system. Some of them seem even more for- 

 tuitous than their magical formulae. Some proliibitions are dictated 

 by fear or repulsion, some are designed to preserve the power and 

 sanctity of rituals and objects, others are rites of purification, one at 

 least is designed to provoke the pity of the gods, the vigil of the priests 



" Except members of the ci'wana'kwe, 



" The restrictions on meat and grease, as well as salt and sugar, are observed after all prayer-stick plant- 

 ings in other pueblos. 



