BUNZEL] THE INITIATION 975 



everywhere some one was ready to come with me. I did not want 

 anyone to stay back, so they have all come with me here. They will 

 bring my people long life, and so I did not want any one of them to 

 stay behind. We have all come. We are all here, bringing you good 

 fortune. I want you to be happy. I wish you to be well and to have 

 strong hearts. I have brought you seeds to plant with your crops 

 next spring. I want your houses to be full of seeds and I have prayed 

 that you may be fortunate with your babies, and that no one in this 

 house may drop down. Yes, I have worked hard and prayed for all 

 my people. I do not want any of the roots to rot. I do not want 

 anyone to sicken and die, but I want everyone to stand up firmly on 

 his feet all year. This is how I have prayed for you. 



" 'I was poor when I was a little boj^, but my fathers, the priests, 

 have thought of me. Someone wise has picked me out. It was in 

 their minds to pick me out and here I am. I was poor, but they have 

 thought of me in their prayers and wanted me to come. So I have 

 come up that you may all be happy tonight.' 



"So he finishes, and they set down meat for him to eat. Then they 

 take some of the meat in paper bread, and they go out with the wo'le 

 to Wide River and feed it to the people of the Sacred Lake. 



" WTien Ca'lako comes he brings in aU different kinds of seeds, wild 

 tilings, and peaches and pumpkins and beans and corn. Then when 

 spring comes, the man who has had Ca'lako house plants these seeds 

 in his fields." 



THE INITIATION 



This rite, through which all boys pass between the ages of 5 and 9 

 (the age may be delayed now, due to the irregular celebration of the 

 ceremony) is called i-'pu'anaka — initiation, the same word that is 

 used for initiation of adults into esoteric societies. It is not an initia- 

 tion in our sense of admitting the novice into esoteric mysteries. The 

 children learn nothing of the mysteries of the cult at this time and 

 are not yet entitled to participate in its rituals. This final admission 

 is deferred to a later date, when youth is beUeved to have reached 

 years of imderstanding (10 to 14, depending on the boy's natural dis- 

 cretion). However, it partakes of the essence of Zuni initiation, 

 which is the formation of a bond between the individual and powerful 

 supernatural forces. Initiations into special cults are always "to 

 save one's life," from witches, fi'om one's victim in war, from super- 

 natural pursuit. In the case of children, they are initiated also "to 

 save them; to make them valuable.""* Before this they have no cere- 

 monial status. If they should die they could not enter Koluwala" wa.*" 

 The rite, therefore, is similar in purpose to the Christian baptism, 



** A'tehyaEana, the word has a double meaning. 



*<* There is some confusion in regard to this point, but the most orthodox opinion seems to be that only 

 the initiated may enter the dance house of the gods. There seems to be a modem softening of this doctrine. 



