540 INTRODUCTION TO ZUNI CEREMONIALISM 



[ETH. ANN. 47 



overwhelmingly on the side of raiii, the most conspicuous features 

 being the retreats of the priests and the dances of the katcinas. It 

 is tempting to attribute this pattern difference to practical considera- 

 tion. The first of Jidy is the appro.ximate date of the opening of the 

 rainy season in this semiarid land. At this time the corn plants are 

 about 10 inches high and desperately in need of rain. Two more 

 weeks of drought and blazmg heat will burn them beyond hope. 

 Upon prompt and plentiful rains in Jidy depends the welfare of the 

 tribe. It is, therefore, to this end that all the magical resources 

 of the tribe are bent. The Ahayuta, associated with wind and low 

 temperatures, are shumied. 



On the other hand, in December the conditions are reversed. 

 The crop is already harvested and whereas it is desirable to have 

 heavy snowfalls in the mountains to feed the spring freshets, mclem- 

 ent weather in the valley is a great hardsliip and works ruin among 

 the flocks that form so large a part of Zuni wealth. Therefore prayer 

 sticks are twice offered at the mountain shrines of the Ahayuta with 

 prayers for snow. The Uwanami and the katcinas receive but very 

 meager attention, and the efforts of the tribe are focused on rites 

 directed toward war, medicine and fecundity. At both solstices the 

 sun father is appealed to in similar fashion for his great blessing of life. 



Personal Religious Life 



The vast wealth of ceremonial elaboration which we have been 

 consideiing is notably weak on the side of what have been called 

 "crisis rites." In contrast to the ceremonial recognition given to 

 natural phenomena — the solstitial risings of the sun, the alternatioh of 

 summer and winter, the perpetual dearth of rain — crises in personal 

 life pass almost unnoticed. The ceremonies surrounding birth, 

 puberty, marriage, and death are meager and unspectacidar. There is 

 sprinkling of ashes for purification of the newborn. On the eighth 

 day of life the infant is presented to the sun with brief prayers, but 

 the occasion is not one of any ceremonial importance. There are no 

 ceremonies whatsoever at marriage, and mortuary rituals are simple 

 and imdramatic in comparison with calendrical ceremonies. Rela- 

 tives are summoned at death. The body is dressed for burial, all 

 present weep and sprinkle com meal on the head of the deceased 

 with brief prayers, and the corpse is interred at once. Four days 

 later prayer sticks are planted, and the property of the deceased, 

 including certain ceremonial possessions, is buried and additional 

 prayer sticks may be oft'ered to the dead after an interval of time. 

 But there are no public demonstrations and no elaborate ceremonies 

 of mourning. 



On the other hand, initiations are always important occasions. 

 The general initiation of all young males into the Katcina Society 



