804 



ZUNI RITUAL POETRY 



[eth. 



With sheUs, 



With rich clothing 



We held one another fast. 



Taking my child's prayer meal, 



His shells, 



His rich clothing, 



Yonder toward the east, 



With prayers I made my road go 



forth." 

 Where the life-giving road of my fathers 



comes in, 

 I passed them on their road. 

 With my child's prayer meal, 

 With his shells. 

 With his rich clothing 

 For my child 

 I asked for life. 



Then I returned to my own house. 

 As the sacred words of the divine ones 



circulated,** 

 We in the daylight, 

 Letting one another know. 

 Anxiously waiting we came to evening. 

 Following after those whom our 



thoughts embrace,'* 

 The ones who were to have their days, 

 Male willow. 

 Female willow. 



Breaking off straight young shoots. 

 Of whichever ones were lucky. 

 And drawing them toward us. 

 With our warm human hands 

 We held them fast. 

 With the massed cloud robe of our 



grandfather, 

 Male turkey. 



With eagle's mist garment, 

 With the striped cloud wings 

 And massed cloud tails 

 Of all the birds of summer. 

 Four times with these wrapping the 



plume wands 

 We gave them human form; 

 With our mother. 

 Cotton woman. 

 Even a roughly spun cotton thread. 



Four times encircling them and tying it 



around. 

 With a rain-bringing hair feather. 

 We gave them human form; 

 With the flesh of our two mothers. 

 Black paint woman. 

 Clay woman. 

 Clothing their plume wands with their 



flesh, 

 We gave them human form; 

 With the mucous of our fathers,*' 

 Life-giving priests. 

 We gave them human form. 

 Saying, "Let it be now," 

 And taking our plume wands, 

 The divine ones leading. 

 We following at their backs, 

 Hither with prayers 

 We brought our roads. 

 Into the rain-filled rooms 

 Of our daylight children *8 

 The divine ones entered; 

 With their hands 

 They removed the source of sickness 



from our child. 

 The one who had been suffering from 



some evil sickness. 

 Then our child 

 With his spittle 

 Finished their plume wands. 

 Taking the plume wand. 

 After having removed the sickness 



from our child. 

 The one who had been suffering with 



some evil sickness. 

 Taking the plume wand. 

 We made our road go forth. 

 Saying, "Let it be here," 

 I met those who are our fathers, 

 Life-giving priests, 

 Life-giving pekwins, 

 Life-giving bow priests; 

 And furthermore our ancestors, 

 Those who here belonged to societies. 

 Those who were society chiefs. 

 Those who were society pekwins. 



** He goe^ out to the east a second time, " to take out the sickness." 



« He notifies important members of the society that the society has been summoned to cure, while at the 

 same time the supernaturals assemble. 



« Heads of the society go after willow sticks of which to make prayer sticks. In the text of the following 

 passage all pronouns are omitted, implying a third person subject. They have been restored in the trans- 

 lation in the interest of intelligibility. Such changes of person are characteristic. 



*' Medicine roots which are used on prayer sticks for special occasions. The use of these medicines, the 

 way of making these prayer sticks, and the prayers which give them power are some of the most carefully 

 guarded secrets in Zuiii ritual. 



" The second visit to the patient. The physician rubs his body with the medicated prayer stick. The 

 patient expectorates on it. The physician takes it out immediately. 



