PRAYERS TO THE ANCIENTS 



623 



45 Therefore I have added to your 

 hearts. 



To the end, my fathers, 



My children: 



You will protect us. 



All my ladder descending children * 

 50 Will finish their roads; 



They will grow old. 



You will bless us witli life. 



45 a'lf'ii 1;o'na ho' a''wHfe'na teliatfii. 



te'wuna' hom a''tatcu 

 horn tea' we 

 ho'na 1;on a''te'yan-a 

 le''wi le'tsilon pa'ni'nan hom tca'we 

 50 te'mia a-'wona-ya'"ana 

 a''lacina 



ho"na ton teEohanan ya'nik- 

 tcia'nawa. 



The Preparation of Prayer Sticks at the Winter Solstice 



Twice during the winter solstice ceremony each adult male makes 

 prayer sticks. The first time he makes for himself offerings to the 

 sun, and to the ancestors. For the grown women of the family he 

 makes offerings for the moon and the ancestors; children offer to the 

 ancestors. If he is a member of a society he makes the special offer- 

 ing appropriate to liis rank in the society. These solstice offerings 

 are quite different from monthly society offerings. 



The offerings of each family are deposited in an excavation in the 

 family field, generally the cornfield, despite the fact that these are at 

 greater distances from the village. After the offerings are made 

 everyone is supposed to abstain from animal food, in addition to the 

 usual requirement of sexual continence. Abstinence from meat is 

 required because of the offering to the sim, wliich employs only downy 

 feathers, which are especially potent and carry with them the pledge 

 of abstinence. Among the yoimger people only those who belong to 

 societies fast from meat. The others would consider it wrong to do 

 so. "While we were aw-ay at school we ate meat, and it is a bad 

 thing to break one's custom." 



On the fourth day each initiated male offers to the katcinas, and 

 each male society member offers to the beast gods. These offer- 

 ings are made in the cornfield or in the fields to the east of the \illage. 

 That night, after dark, special offerings are made in the corrals for 

 the increase of horses, cattle, and sheep, for clotliing and ornaments, 

 and for medicine. Each man uses a different land of stick and guards 

 this secret loiowledge jealously. 



There are prayers to be said at each stage of the process of prayer- 

 stick making. Prayers are always offered to the trees before cutting 

 the sticks. Corn meal is offered to the "lucky" tree. This is not 

 cut, but another is taken. The rest of the prayers are generally 



' That is, human, the inhabitants of Zuui, 



