BUNZELj RELIGIOUS LIFE 513 



As in the winter, there are other ceremonies at this time but in dif- 

 ferent forms. ^' 



The pekwin has, furthermore, a g-roat j)ubhc ceremony, the hi'hewe 

 or Corn Dance, which shoukl be performed every fourth j'car in mid- 

 summer. It has not been performed for many years. This ceremony 

 commemorates the departure of the corn maids and celebrates their 

 return. It follows the usual ceremonial pattern of periods of retreat 

 spent in preparation for the public ceremony of the last day. On 

 this occasion the e'tone of the priests are exposed in public and there 

 is dancing- alternately by two groups of girls. 



The writer has not seen this ceremony. It has not been held for 

 many years, and very little is known about it save that "it belongs 

 to pekwin." Since it is so peculiarly his dance we may assume that 

 it is connected in some way with the worship of the sun, but what 

 this connection is, toward what blessing it is directed, and what 

 techniques it employs are by no means clear from the only description 

 we have, and further information is lacking. 



THE CULT OF THE u'WANAM"! 



The U'wanami, a term generally translated rain makers,''^ are water 

 spirits. They live in all the waters of the earth, the four encircling 

 oceans and the underground waters to which springs are gateways. 

 Cumulus clouds are their houses; mist is their breath. The frogs 

 that sing from every puddle after the drenching summer rains are 

 their children. The ripple marks along the edge of ditches washed 

 out by heavy rains are their footprints. 



The worship of the U'wanami is enormously elaborated and is in 

 the hands of the priesthoods, of which there are 12.''^ Each priest- 

 hood contains from two to six members. Several have women asso- 

 ciates. Membership, in the main, is hereditary within matrilineal 

 family groups — the family in whose house the fetish of the group is 

 guarded. Each group operates with a fetish. These fetishes, the 

 e'tonve, are the most sacrosanct objects of Zuni worship. They were 

 brought from the innermost depths of the earth at the time of the 

 emergence and are kept in sealed jars, from which they are removed 

 only for the few secret rites in which they are employed. In these 

 e'to'we rest the power of the priests. (For description of e'to'we see 

 Stevenson, p. 163fT.) Besides the e'to'we various other objects are 



" See p. 637. 



" Tlie term rain maker is a very misleading one. In Zufii thought all supernatural are rain makers. 

 The Uwanami are definitely associated with the six regions and are probably the Zuni equivalent of the 

 Keresan shiwana, or storm clouds. The bow priests of the Uwanami, gtthiwani, Tsiljahaiya, Kopctaiya 

 are associated with thunderstorms and sudden tempests. (.See texts, p. 664.) 



" I have omitted the pekwin and thj bow priests who occupy the Hfth and sixth places in the order of 

 retreats, because they are not, strictly speaking, priests, but function merely ei officio. They do not 

 possess e'towe. (See pp. 691, 692, 660.) 



