BUNZEL] RELIGIOUS LIFE 509 



and other groups is undoubtedly an amalgamation of at least two 

 factors: A snow-making ceremony comprising a retreat of the keepers 

 of the "winter fetishes," with a dance in their honor, the muaiye, 

 combined with a war ceremony of the bow priesthood in conjunction 

 with tlie warlike societies. We are here not necessarily dealing with 

 a historical process. The ceremony is certainly now conceived as a 

 unit and may always have been as it is at present, although in view 

 of the complex history of Zuiii as shown archeclogicaUy there is no 

 reason to doubt that any ceremony may have been derived from 

 several diverse sources. But however diverse the sources, the result- 

 ing product has been well pruned to fit the Zuiii pattern. 



The public rituals constitute the most important esthetic expression 

 of the people. Not only are they "artistic" in the supei-ficial sense, 

 in that they embrace the types of behavior which we arbitrarily lump 

 together as "the arts" — ornament, poetiy, music, the dance — but 

 they provide the satisfaction of the deeper esthetic drive. Zuiii 

 children do not mind being whipped by the Salimopiya "because 

 they are such pretty dancers." I have heard women say of the 

 mourning ceremonies of the Ca'Jako, "We aU cry. It is so beautiful 

 that our hearts hurt." I have watched the faces of old men as I 

 read to them the texts of their prayers. Zuni rituals have a style 

 of their own that belongs to ritual as an art. They are ordered and 

 formal; they are well designed; they begin in quietness and end in 

 serenity. Their quality is gracious and benign. They have moments 

 of splendor, but they are not gorgeous or "barbaric" or frenzied. 

 All of Zuiii life is oriented about religious observance, and ritual has 

 become the formal expression of Zuiii civilization. If Zuiii civiliza- 

 tion can be said to have a style, that style is essentially the style of 

 its rituals. 



Cekemonial Organization 



The basis upon which all Zuiii ceremonialism rests is the cult of 

 a-'lacina-we, the ancients or the ancestors. In their worship all par- 

 ticipate, regardless of age, sex, or affiliation with special cults. Nor are 

 the a''Iaciiia"we ever omitted from the ceremonies devoted primarily 

 to the worship of other beings. The special and characteristic offering 

 to the a-'lacinaweisfood. At the great public ceremony devoted to 

 them exclusively, Grandmothers' Day ^° (Catholic All Souls Day), 

 the outstanding feature is the sacrifice of great quantities of food in 

 the fire and the river. They receive other offerings, too — prayer 

 meal, smoke, and, of course, prayer sticks. The prayer stick for 

 a-'lacina'we is a small stick painted black, the principal feather bemg 

 from the back of the turkey. Offerings of food to a-'lacina'weforma 



» See p. 621. 



