632 



ZUNI RITUAL POETRY 



Prayers to Dead Wife, with Offerings of Prayer Meal and 

 Prayer Sticks 



When a man's wife dies for four days he observes the most stringent 

 taboos. He remains continent; he abstains from eating meat, grease, 

 and salt. He sits alone, away from the fire, and must not be touched. 

 He should not speak or be spoken to. Each morning at dawn he 

 drinks an emetic and goes out on the eastern road to ofi^er black corn 

 meal to the dead spouse. He holds the black meal in the left hand, 

 passes it fom* times over his head, and throws it away as rite of exor- 

 cism. Then, using the right hand, he scatters white meal, and prays. 

 These taboos are the same as those offered by a warrior who has taken 

 a scalp, and are directed to the same ends, the removal of contamina- 

 tion and the propitiation of the ghost. The ghost, who is lonely, will 

 try to visit her husband in dreams. To prevent this he uses black 

 corn meal, "to make the road dark" or "to forget." 



After the four days he plants prayer sticks and resumes normal life. 

 For 12 months he should remain continent, lest the dead wife become 

 jealous. Dm'ing this period he is "dangerous." At the end of this 

 period he has intercourse with a stranger to whom he gives a gift, the 

 instrument for removing the contamination. She throws this away. 

 Next day both plant prayer sticks. If he desires to shorten the period, 

 he gets some man with esoteric knowledge to make him especially 

 potent prayer sticks — two or four sets — planted at intervals of four 

 days, which are offered to the dead wife with the following prayer. 

 These same rites are observed also by a widow and a warrior who 

 has taken a scalp. 



Tliis is the only example which has come to my loiowledge of any 

 oft'ering made to an individual, and even in this the ancestors are 

 included. This prayer is also used with ofleiings of prayer sticks to 

 the dead, on the fourth day after death, the day in which the spirit 

 is believed to reach the land of the dead.'' 



My fathers, 

 Our sun father, 

 Our mothers, 

 Dawn 

 5 As you arise and come out 

 your sacred place, 

 I pass you on your road. 

 The source of our flesh, 

 White corn, 



hom a''tatcu 



ho"na'wan ya'tolja ta'tcu 

 ho'na'wan a'tsita 

 le'luwaiaka 

 5 hoi yam le'Jaci'nakwi 

 i'Juwakna kwai"ina 

 ho' ?o'n o'na-e'latena 

 yam a'^a ci"na ya''na 

 to'wa Eo'hana 



'1 Two versions follow, one dictated by a man, the other taken from the autobiography of a woman, 

 the account of the death of her first husband. 



