bunzel] 



INTRODUCTION 617 



greatly. A certain old man in one of the priesthoods Icnew a particidar 

 prayer and the order of events in a rarely perfonned ceremony. He 

 refused to teach these things to anyone. Wlien he was veiy old and 

 his death was expected his colleagues ■wished to learn this prayer from 

 him. He was finally persuaded to teach them for a consideration. 

 The woman member of the priesthood contributed a woman's shawl, 

 the men things of greater value, to liis fee. He taught the prayer 

 but withheld the other infoi-mation, and finally died without com- 

 municating it. Sometimes a man who is apt and curious and wealthy 

 may collect prayers, the way men in other societies accumulate oil 

 paintings or other works of art, and eventually turn them to profit. 

 The cost of most information is not so excessive that a poor man can 

 not, with the practice of a little thrift, acquire whatever he wishes to 

 know.' He can, if he wishes, and if he has friends, learn the prayers 

 of the Ne'we'kwe without actually joining their society. His cere- 

 monial affiliations restrict his right to use these prayers, but many 

 men go to expense to learn prayers they have no intention of using. 

 The Saiyataca texts recorded in the following pages and many others 

 were given me by a man who had never impersonated Saiyataca and 

 never expected to. They were verified after the informant's death 

 by the Saiyataca wo'le, who wondered how and why the informant 

 had learned them. I myseLf heard the actual chant twice after 

 recording the text and Icnow it to be correct. 



ZuNi Poetic Style 



As might be expected, prayers are higlily formalized in content and 

 mode of expression. Nearly all prayers are requests accompanying 

 offerings. They have three sections, wliich always appear in the 

 same order : A statement of the occasion, a description of the offering, 

 and the request. In long and important prayers the statement of the 

 occasion is a synoptic rexaew of ritual acts leading up to the present 

 moment of a ceremony. Thus, Saiyataca's chant begins with a de- 

 scription of the winter solstice ceremony when the appointment was 

 made and follows the Saiyataca party through all the minor cere- 

 monies of the year, even enumerating the various shrines at which 

 prayer sticks were offered. The prayers over novices at their initia- 

 tion ceremony begin with a formal description of their Ubiess and cure. 

 In prayers which do not mark the culmination of long ceremonies the 

 statement of the occasion maybe no more than a statement of the 

 time of day or the season of the year, and some veiled allusion to the 

 special deities who are being invoked. 



1 In Zuni a "poor man" is one who has no special l^nowledge or position in the ceremonial system. A 

 ''valuable" man has knowledge and prestige. "Knowledge" (anikwanan'e) is the word for supernatm-al 

 power. 



6066°— 32 40 



