546 RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE ZUNI CHILD. 
the infant, at the same time repeating a prayer of thanks for the life 
that has been given them and praying for the future of the child. She 
then rubs the entire body of the child, except the head, with warm 
ashes held in the palm of the hand and moistened with water. This 
process is repeated every morning during infancy and the same paste 
is put upon the face of the child until it is several years old. I would 
remark that this paste is seldom noticed upon the older children be- 
cause if is put on in the morning and drying soon is brushed off by 
the child. It is asserted by the Zuni that in four days after the birth 
of a child the first skin is removed by exfoliation and is supplanted by 
anew one. After applying the ashes, the paternal grandmother places ~ 
the infant in the arms of the maternal grandparent, who performs other 
offices for the little one and wraps it in a piece of cotton cloth. The 
paternal grandmother prepares a bed of warm sand by the right side 
of the mother (leaving a cool spot for the child’s head); she then receives 
the infant and lays it upon its bed, and over it she arranges the little 
blanket which she brought; she then places upon the sand and at the 
right side of the child an ear of white corn; if the child be a girl, the 
mother, or a three-plumule, corn is selected; if a boy, the father, or single 
ear, corn. The fourth day after the birth the child is again bathed in 
the yucca root suds by the same grandmother, who again repeats a long 
prayer. During the first ten days of the child’s life the paternal grand 
mother remains in the daughter in-law’s house, looking after the mother 
and helping in the preparation of the feast that is to occur. On the 
morning of the tenth day the child is taken from its bed of sand, to 
which it is never to return, and upon the left arm of the paternal 
grandmother it is carried for the first time into the presence of the 
rising sun. To the breast of the child the grandmother carrying it 
presses the ear of corn which lay by its side during the ten days; to 
her left the mother of the infant walks, carrying in her left hand the 
ear of corn which lay by her side. Both women sprinkle a line of 
sacred meal, emblematic of the straight road which the child must 
follow to win the favor of its gods. Thus the first object which the 
child is made to behold at the very dawn of its existence is the sun, 
the great object of their worship; and long ere the little lips can lisp 
a prayer it is repeated for it by the grandmother. 
The Zuni are polytheists; yet, while they have a plurality of gods, 
many of whom are the spirits of their ancestors, these gods are but 
mediums through which to reach their one great father of ail—the Sun. 
Returning to the house, the paternal grandmother again bathes the 
child in yueca suds; then, for the first time, the little one is put into 
the cradle. The baby’s arms are placed straight by its sides, and in 
this position it is so strapped in its cradle that it cannot even move a 
hand. These cradles have hood-shaped tops, and over the whole thick 
coverings are placed, so that the wonder is the child does not smother. 
The cradle is usually deposited in some safe corner, and the baby is left 
