BOURKE. ] SACRED MEAL. 511 
figure avec celle que l’on Ote, en accompagnant cette ablution de plu- 
sieurs cérémonies superstitieuses.” ! 
The tribes seen on the Rio Colorado in 1540 by Alarcon * carry also 
certaine little long bagges about an hand broade tyed to their left arme, 
which serve them also instead of brasers for their bowes, full of the 
powder of a certaine herbe, whereof they make a certaine beverage.? 
We are at a loss to know what this powder was, unless hoddentin. The 
Indians came down to receive the son of the sun, as Alarcon led them to 
believe him to be, in full gala attire, and no doubt neglected nothing 
that would add to their safety. 
“Tls mirent dans leur bouche du mais et d’autres semences, et les 
lancérent vers moi en disant que c’était la maniére dont ils faisaient les 
sacrifices au soleil.” * 
Kohl speaks of seeing inside the medicine wigwam, during the great 
medicine ceremonies of the Ojibwa, ‘‘a snow-white powder.”* In an 
address delivered by Dr. W. J. Hoffman betore the Anthropological 
Society of Washington, D. C., May 2, 1888, upon the symbolism of the 
Midé’, Jes/sakkid, and Wabeno of the Ojibwa of Minnesota, he stated 
in reply to a question from me that he had not been able to find any of 
the *‘snow-white powder” alluded to by Kohl in Kitchi-gami.° 
In Yueatan, when children were baptized, one of the ceremonies 
was that the chac, or priest in charge, should give the youngster a 
pinch of corn meal, which the boy threw in the fire. These chacs were 
priests of the god who presided over baptism and over hunting.® 
At the coronation of their kings the Aztecs had a sacred unction, 
and a holy water, drawn from a sacred spring, and ‘‘about his neck is 
tied a small gourd, containing a certain powder, which is esteemed a 
strong preservative against disease, sorcery, and treason.” 7 
“At the entrance to one of the narrow defiles of the Cordilleras 
. . . a large mass of rock with small cavities upon its surface, into 
which the Indians, when about to enter the pass, generally deposit a 
few glass beads, a handful of meal, or some other propitiatory offering to 
the ‘genius’ supposed to preside over the spot and rule the storm.” 
Again, ‘on receiving a plate of broth, an Indian, before eating, spills 
a little upon the ground; he scatters broadcast a few pinches of the 
meal that is given him, and pours out a libation before raising the 
wine cup to his lips, as acts of thanksgiving for the blessings he 
receives.”® 
When Capt. John Smith was captured by the Pamunkey tribe of Vir- 
'Montesinos, pp. 161, 162, in Ternaux-Compans, vol. 17, Mémoires sur l’ancien Pérou. 
? Relation of the voyage of Don Fernando Alarcon, in Hakluyt Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508. 
3 Alarcon in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 9, p. 330. See also in Hakluyt Voyages, vol. 3, p. 516. 
4 Kitehi-gami. London, 1860, p. 51. 
5 See also on the subject Acosta, Hist. Naturelle des Indes, lib. 5, cap. 19. p. 241. 
® Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, Paris, 1864, page 148. 
7 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 2, p. 145. See also Clavigero, Hist. of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 
2, p. 128. 
§8Smith, Araucanians, 1855, pp. 274-275. 
