510 INTRODUCTION TO ZUNI CEREMONIALISM [eth. ann.47 



conspicuous part of all public ceremonies, and no prayer omits to 

 mention them. So pervasive is this cult of the ancestors that other 

 classes of beings (the katcinas, for instance) tend to merge their 

 identity in them. 



The a-'lacmawe are, in Zuiii terminology, a''wona-wi'lona, "the 

 keepers of the roads"; that is, beings who guide, protect, nourish 

 human life. They are, therefore, as a group, beneficent beings. 

 They are identified with the greatest of all blessings in this arid land, 

 the clouds and the rain. In prayers they are referred to as "those 

 who have attained the blessed place of waters," and when they return 

 they come clothed in the rain. When, on summer afternoons, the 

 great cumulus clouds pile up along the southern horizon, a Zuni 

 mother will point them out to her children, saying, "Look, there the 

 grandfathers are coming!" However, this identification with the 

 rain is not restricted to the a-'lacina'we, but appears also in beliefs 

 concerning other supernaturals, especially the U'wanam-i, the so-called 

 rain makers, and the koko or masked gods or katcinas. Even the 

 A'hayuta and the We-'ma'we walk in the rain. Rain is an attribute 

 of divinity, and aU the divine ones come clothed in waters. The dead 

 are, in general, the bestowers of all blessings for which the Zunis ask — 

 life, old age, rain, seeds, wealth, power, fecundity, health, and general 

 happiness.'^ Despite their prevailingly beneficent character, toward 

 individual dead persons, and especially toward the recently dead, 

 the attitude is strongly ambivalent, mingled of tender reverence and 

 fear. This fear is not due to the evil nature of the dead, but to the 

 fact that so long as they remember human Ufe they will long for their 

 dear ones left behind in this world. Therefore they come to trouble 

 them in dreams and day dreams, until the living man sickens of grief 

 and dies. Therefore the recent dead must be cut oft'. Their road is 

 darkened with black corn meal, and they are implored, with oft'erings 

 of corn meal and prayer sticks, not to trouble the living. 



There is nothing esoteric in the worship of the ancestors. In this 

 all individuals are on an equal footing and have direct access to the 

 supernaturals without the mediation of priests. There are no fetishes 

 or other permanently held paraphernalia used in their worship, nor 

 are there special places sacred to them, unless perhaps the river 

 bank, especially the point called Wide River, where offerings of food 

 are customarily made. No man stands in any special relationship 

 toward them. It is quite clear that there is no ancestor worship in 

 the restricted meaning of the word. A man prays to the ancestors, 

 not to his own ancestors. Certain groups of men have special rela- 

 tions to certain groups among the dead — priests invoke deceased 

 priests, medicine men deceased medicine men, impersonators of the 

 katcinas their predecessors in office, but never their progenitors as 



'• See texts, p. 641. 



