304 



PRAYEK STICKS 



[B. A. E. 



tribes, Eskimo, and N.W. coast Indians. 

 The custom of expressing prayers by 

 means of symbolic objects is found princi- 

 pally among the Southwestern tribes (see 

 Prayer sticks) . Prayers are often preceded 

 by ceremonial purification, fasting, the 

 use of emetics and purgatives, which are 

 intended to make the person pray ing agree- 

 able to the powers. Among the North 

 American Indians the prayer cannot be 

 considered as necessarily connected with 

 sacrifice orasasubstitute for sacrifice, since 

 inagreat many cases prayers forgoodluck, 

 for success, for protection, or for the bless- 

 ing of the powers, are offered quite inde- 

 pendently of the idea of sacrifice. While 

 naturally material benefits are the object 

 of prayer in by far the majority of cases, 

 prayers for an abstract blessing and for 

 ideal objects are not by any means ab- 

 sent. Among the northern Californian 

 tribes and among the Eskimo the prayer 

 is often pronounced in a set form, the 

 effectiveness of which is not due to the 

 willingness of the supernatural i)Owers to 

 take pity on the mortal, but to the set 

 form in which the prayer is delivered, 

 the prayer formula or the incantation 

 being a charm by means of which the 

 fulfillment of the prayer can be secured. 

 The incantation may be effective through 

 its power to coerce the supernatural 

 powers to comply with the wish of the 

 person praying, or it may act as a charm 

 which gives fulfillment by its own inher- 

 ent power. The Indians pray not only to 

 those supernatural powers which are con- 

 sidered the protectors of man — like the 

 personal guardians or the powers of na- 

 ture—but also to the hostile powers that 

 must be appeased. See Ceremonies, My- 

 thologn, Religion, Sacrifice. (f. b. ) 



Prayer sticks. Sticks to which feath- 

 ers are attached, used as ceremonial 

 supplicatory offerings. The most familiar 

 prayer sticks are those made by the 

 Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Ari- 

 zona, who use them extensively for a 

 definite purpose, but analogous objects 

 representing the same idea are employed 

 in the ceremonies of nearly all American 

 tribes. A great variety of prayer sticks 

 of different sizes are employed by the 

 Pueblos, though perhaps the greatest 

 number measure the length of the hand 

 with fingers extended, differing in form, 

 number, painting, and carving, and hav- 

 ing different kinds of feathers and objects 

 attached to them, according to their des- 

 tination and the person or persons offer- 

 ing them. 



Tlie making of prayer sticks among the 

 Pueblos is a complicated ceremony, hav- 

 ing a multitude of minute details to be 

 observed. Cord of native cotton is used 

 to attach the feathers, herbs, meal, etc., 

 to the sticks, which, as a rule, are made 



of Cottonwood shoots. The feathers are 

 those of particular birds, and they must 

 be perfect and come from particular parts 

 of the plumage. The paints used must 

 be ceremonially gathered, prepared, 

 and applied. In paho-making even the 

 refuse — chips of wood, ends of cord, 

 etc. — is disposed of in a prescribed man- 

 ner. Prayer sticks are often consecrated 

 by being moistened with medicine, 

 sprinkled with sacred meal, and fumi- 

 gated with tobacco, and by other rites; 

 and after prayers have been breathed 

 into them they are sent out in the hands 

 of messengers to be deposited in shrines, 

 springs, or fields. Prayer sticks for 

 family offerings are made on the occa- 

 sion of ceremonies and are deposited also 

 by authorized persons. Individual offer- 

 ings of prayer sticks are also made. 



The sticks to which the plumes are 

 attached indicate the gods to whom the 

 prayers are offered, and the feathers con- 

 vey to the gods the prayers which are 

 breathed into the spiritual essence of 

 the plumes. This conception is material- 

 ized in the "breath feather," generally 

 the downy plume of the eagle. Prayers 

 are also breathed into sacred meal, pol- 

 len, and other objects offered. 



The idea of feeding the gods is ex- 

 pressed by one form of the Hopi prayer 

 stick, the paho, ' water prayer,' to which 

 a small packet of sacred meal is tied. 

 The prayer stick may be regarded as a 

 symbolic substitute for human sacrifice 

 (Fewkes in 16th Rep. B. A. E., 297, 

 1897). Prayer sticks, nearly always 

 painted green or blue, are frequently 

 found with the dead in ancient Pueblo 

 cemeteries, and great deposits of them 

 occur in ceremonial caves in s. Arizona. 

 Navaho and Apache prayer sticks are 

 similar to those of the Pueblos. The 

 ornamented wands placed in the sod of 

 the Pawnee Hako altar, and the feath- 

 ered wands planted round the skull of 

 the buffalo in the Cheyenne sun dance 

 are examples of prayer sticks, and the 

 Eskimo make use of similar wands. The 

 so-called prayer stick of the Kickapoo 

 was a mnemonic device for Christian 

 prayer. 



Consult Fewkes, Tusayan Snake Cere- 

 monies, 1897; Fletcher, The Hako: A 

 Pawnee Ceremony, 1904; G. A. Dorsey, 

 Arapaho Sun Dance, 190.3; Dorsey arid 

 Voth in Field Columb. Mus. Pubs., An- 

 throp. ser. ; Mason in Science, viii, no. 

 179, 1886; Matthews, (1) Mountain Chant, 

 1887, (2) Night Chant, 1902; Mooney, 

 Ghost Dance Religion, 1896; Nelson in 

 18th Rep. -B. A., E., 414, 415, 1897; Sol- 

 berg, tJber die Bahos der Hopi, in Archiv 

 fiir Anthropologic, iv, 48-74, 1905; M. C. 

 Stevenson, (1) The Sia, 1893, (2) The 

 Zunl Indians, 1905. (w. h.) 



