BULL. 30] 



PUBUGNA PUEBLITO 



315 



fishing implements were removed from 

 the house, at least temporarily, when the 

 girl had occasion to come from behind 

 her screen. Armed with tlie blood of a 

 menstruant woman a man would attack 

 and destroy hostile supernatural powers 

 or put to flight any by which he was 

 himself assailed. If a menstruant girl 

 scratched any place where one felt pain, 

 the pain would stop. The whole period 

 of isolation and fast usually ended with 

 a feast and public ceremonies as a sign 

 that the girl was now marriageable and 

 that the family was open to offers for her 

 hand. Although Hopi girls ajjpear to 

 have been spared the multifarious taboos 

 imposed upon their sisters elsewhere, the 

 attainment of puberty was marked by a 

 change in the arrangement of their hair, 

 which was then gathered into two whorls, 

 one on each ear, symbolizingthe flower of 

 the squash; after marriage it was worn in 

 simple braids (see Hair dressing). Among 

 the Diegueiios, girls were laid down upon 

 green herbs caused to steam by means of 

 a fire underneath. They were then cov- 

 ered with blankets and left for four days 

 and nights, while dancing and feasting 

 went on about them to drive away the evil 

 spirits. Symbolic acts were also per- 

 formed, such as throwing seeds over them 

 that they might be prolific, and scatter- 

 ing property among the onlookers that 

 they might be generous. According to 

 VVissler, the Teton Dakota still perform a 

 ceremony for girls called "sinmng over 

 girls that bleed." It is rather long, and 

 is based on the buffalo, one of the dances 

 representing the mating of the buffalo. 



Although not so definitely connected 

 with the period of pul^erty, certain or- 

 deals (q. V. ) were undergone by a boy 

 at about that jieriod which were sup- 

 posed to have a deep influence on his 

 future career. Among these are especially 

 to be noted isolation and fasts among the 

 mountains and woods, sweat bathing and 

 plunging into cold water, abstinence fi-om 

 animal food, the swallowing of medicines 

 sometimes of intoxicating quality, and 

 the rubbing of tlie body Avith fish sj^ines 

 and with herbs. As in the case of the 

 girl, numbers of regulations were observed 

 which were supposed to affect the boy's 

 future health, happiness, and success in 

 hunting, fishing, and war. Like the girls, 

 Ntlakyapamuk youths made paintings 

 upon rocks during this period in order to 

 insure long life, and all except tho.se who 

 desired to become successful warriors, 

 who addressed the Sun, also directed their 

 prayers to the Dawn. The regulations of 

 a boy were frequently undergone in con- 

 nection with ceremonies introducing him 

 into the mysteries of the tribe or of some 

 secret society. They were not as wide- 



spread in North America as the regula- 

 tions imposed upon girls, and varied more 

 from tribe to tribe. It has also been no- 

 ticed that they break down sooner before 

 contact with whites. 



The most detailed account of puberty 

 customs among North American tribes is 

 given by Teit in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist. , II, Anthrop. i, pt 4, 1900. An in- 

 teresting account of a puberty ceremony 

 for girls among the Dieguenos is given by 

 Rust in Am. Anthrop., n. s., viii, no. 1, 

 1906. See also Boas in Reps, on N. W. 

 Tribes Canada, 1889-98; Dixon in Bull. 

 Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xvii, pt. 3, 1905; 

 Goddardin Pub. Univ. CaL, Am. Archajol. 

 and Ethnol., i, no. 1, 1903; Grinnell in 

 Am. Anthrop., n. s., iv, no. 1, 1902; 

 Hearne, Travels, 1795; Hill-Tout (1) in 

 Reps. Ethnol. Surv. Can., 1898-1903, (2) 

 in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. G. B., xxxiv, 1904; 

 Loskiel, Missions United Brethren, 1794; 

 Nelson in 18th Rep. B. A. E., 1899; Owen, 

 Musquakie Folk-lore, 1904; Sapirin Am. 

 Anthrop., ix, no. 2, 1907; Speck in Mem, 

 Am. Anthrop. Ass'n, ii, no. 2, 1907; Swan- 

 ton in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., v, ptl, 

 1905. _ (j. R. s. ) 



Pubugna. A former Gabrieleno ranch- 

 eria in Los Angeles co., Cal., at a place 

 later called Alamitos. — Ried (1852) 

 quoted by Taylor in Cal. Farmer, June 

 8, 1860. 



Puccoon. Any one of various plants 

 whose juice was used by the Indians for 

 staining and dyeing; also any one of 

 some others to which the term has been 

 transferred by the whites. The chief 

 ones are: 1. Lithospermum vulgare, the 

 puccoon of the Virginia Indians. 2. The 

 bloodroot ( Sanguhiaria canadeuMs ) , called 

 red puccoon. 3. The yellow root (i^H/dros- 

 iis canadtmsis), or yellow puccoon. The 

 word puccoon, spelled earlier puccon, 

 poccon, pocon, pocoan, pocones, etc., is 

 derived, as the "poccons, a red dye," in 

 Strachey'sand Smith's vocabularies indi- 

 cates, from one of the Virginian dialects 

 of Algonquian. In s. av. Virginia puccoon 

 is locally a))breviated 'coon.' Accord- 

 ing to Trumbull and Gerard the word is 

 from, or from the same root as, the name 

 for blood. (a. f. c. ) 



Puchkohu (Putc-l-o-hu). The Rabbit- 

 stick clanof the Asaphratry of the Ilopi. — 

 Stephen in 8th Rep. B. A. E., 39, 1891. 



Puckna. A former village of the Upper 

 Creeks in the s. w. part of Clay co., Ala. — 

 Royce in 18th Rep. B. A. E., Ala. map, 

 1899. 



Pueblito (Span.: 'little village'). A 

 small settlement of the Tewa of San Juan 

 pueblo, opposite the latter, on the w. 

 bank of the Rio Grande in Rio Arriba co., 

 N. Mex. — Bandelier in Arch. Inst. Papers, 

 IV, 63, 1892. 



