I. PRAYERS TO THE ANCIENTS 



An Offering of Food to the Ancestors 



The offering of food to the dead forms an important part of Zuni 

 household ritual. Gushing states that a bit of food is offered in 

 the fire at each meal by all partaking, and that no child is weaned 

 until he is able to make this offering with a suitable prayer. At 

 the present time the practice is by no means universal. It is made, 

 with very little ceremony, by priests and the female heads of their 

 houses. The female heads of houses holding ceremonial objects make 

 offerings to these objects before serving food. Each appointee to 

 ceremonial office makes offerings at nightfall in the river, about a 

 mile west of Zuiii. The food thus offered is carried by the river to 

 the supernaturals at the village of the masked gods. Offerings of food 

 are conspicuous at any ceremonial meal, and each man holding 

 ceremonial office receives a package to be offered later in the river. 

 With offerings in the house no pi'ayer is spoken — at most only a few 

 words are mumbled: "Eat; may our roads be fulfilled, " or "May we 

 be blessed with life. " With outdoor offerings, long prayers are 

 spoken. Offerings, whether of food, corn meal, or prayer sticks, are 

 never made specifically to one's own ancestors, but to the ancestors. 



After the crops are harvested in fall ghosts' day or grandmothers' 

 day is announced by the sakisti (sacristan of the ancient mission 

 church).^ On this day large quantities of food are prepared, onlj^ 

 products of that year's harvest bemg used, a lamb of that spring's 

 lambing, bread made of new wheat and corn, and anything else that 

 has been raised. The melons are gone by that time, but some are 

 always saved for the grandmothers. Before eating the evening meal 

 women make their offerings in the fire, a few ears of corn, a dish of 

 lamb stew, a loaf of bread, a roll of paper bread. After dark the men 

 take even greater quantities to the river. The following prayer is 

 used, probably, with this special offering. 



This day my children, 



For their fathers, 

 Their ancestors, 



lu'ljil yii'ton'e 

 hom tca'we 

 yam a''tatcii 

 yam a-'lacina-we 



' In 1927 it fell on November 9. For the probable Catholic origin of the feast in All Souls' Day, see 

 Parsons All Souls' Day at Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna; Joiu^al of American Folk Lore 30:495. 



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