24 



SCmNCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 179 



TKE PLANTING AND EXHUMING OF A 

 PRAYER. 



It may not be known to all the readers of 

 Science that Mrs. Colonel Stevenson brought with 

 her from New Mexico last autumn, Wa-Wah, a 

 Zuni woman, the most expert weaver and potter 

 in her pueblo, and one of the five priestesses of 

 the order of Ko-Ko. 



For six months this woman has taught her 

 patroness the language, myths, and arts of the 

 Zunis, — now explaining some intricate ceremony, 

 at another time weaving belt or blanket under the 

 eye of the camera, or with wonderful dignity and 

 self-possession moving among the most enligh- 

 tened society of the metropolis. 



As the season of the summer solstice, or, more 

 correctly, the summer moon, approached, Wa- 

 Wah expressed the greatest anxiety to join with 

 her distant people in the semi-annual plume- 

 planting, the other festival occurring at the time 

 of the winter moon. Letters were written to 

 New Mexico, and the very day ascertained upon 

 which the ceremony would take place in Zuiii 

 (see accompanying plate, fig. 1). 



Wa-Wah was all excitement to raake her prep- 

 aration of meal, sticks, paint, and feathers. All 

 of these were abundant enough in the stores, but 

 nothing of that kind would suffice. Various 

 dif)lomatic schemes were tried, but her heart was 

 fixed. The prayer must be right to infinitesimal 

 particulars, or she would have nought to do 

 with it. 



Meal must be mixed with powdered shells and 

 turquoise ; the treasures of the national museum 

 had to be opened ; and the very pieces of yellow, 

 blue, and black pigment collected in former years 

 by the Bureau of ethnology must be laid under 

 contribution for the stems of the sacred prayer- 

 sticks. Mr. Eidgway's department of ornithology 

 was invoked to supply feathers of the golden 

 eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), the wild turkey 

 (Meleagris mexicana), the mallard (Anas boschas), 

 and the bluebird (Scialia' arctica). 



Fresh twigs from the cotton wood-trees were 

 gathered for stems to the plumes. In the national 

 museum are many boxes, said by the collectors to 

 have been Zuni plume-boxes (fig. 2), in which such 

 treasures are kept. The plumes, which form the 

 material instrument or accompaniment of the 

 prayer we are describing, are made as follows : 

 Take a straight piece of wood about the size of a 

 lead-pencil and as long as the distance from the 

 crease in the palm of the hand to the end of the 

 middle finger. Make a slight incision around the 

 stick near one end. Take a short stiff feather of 

 the eagle, the turkey, the duck, and the bluebird, 

 and one or two downy feathers of the eagle.' 



Lay them together so that all the under sides wiU 

 be toward the stick, and wrap their quill ends and 

 the stick securely together with a cord made of 

 native cotton, sufficiently long to leave free ends 

 five or six inches in length after the tying. To 

 these free ends tie another bunch of smaller 

 feathers from the four kinds of birds (fig. 3). 

 The upright feathers indicate the prayer as ad- 

 dressed to the sun, moon, and Ko-Ko ; the trailing 

 feathers, that the suppliant asks for help to walk 

 in the straight path of Zuiii morality. 



Ten plumes were thus finished on Friday, June 

 18, and dedicated to the several spiritual powers 

 by painting the stems as follows : — 



1. Sun-plume. — Blue stem ; feathers of eagle, 

 duck, and bluebird on stem and streamer ; 3. 

 Moon-plume. — Yellow stem ; feathers of eagle, 

 duck, and bluebird on stem and streamer ; 3 - 6. 

 Ko-Ko plumes. — Black stems ; feathers of eagle, 

 turkey, duck, and bluebird on stem or streamer ; 

 7-10. Ancestral plumes. — Black stems ; feathers 

 of eagle, turkey, duck, and bluebird on stem or 

 streamer. 



On Saturday, June 19, at two o'clock in the 

 afternoon, in a retired garden in Washington, 

 Wa-Wah performed the ceremony of planting the 

 plumes. Her time was arranged so as to act 

 simultaneously with her people at Zuni. 



A hole was dug six inches square and fourteen 

 inches deep, three inches of loose earth being- 

 left in the bottom. Around the top for a foot or 

 more the surface dirt was smoothed like a garden- 

 bed. Meal mixed with powdered shells and tur- 

 quoise was sprmkled freely about and in the hole. 

 Wa-Wah, arranged in her best attire, holding all 

 of her plumes in her left hand, kneeled by the 

 excavation (fig. 4). Taking the sun-ijlume in her 

 right hand, she prayed for the good influences of 

 the sun upon herself, her people, the crops, and 

 her friends, and then forced the blue stem into 

 the loose dirt of the cavity on the extreme west 

 side, the inner sides of the feathers toward the 

 east. The prayer continuing, the moon-plume, 

 then the four Ko-Ko plumes, and lastly the four 

 ancestral plumes, were planted in order, all with 

 feathers inclining eastward. 



Wa-Wah then arose, drew forth her little bag of 

 sacred meal, poured a small quantity into her 

 own hand and that of each of her two friends, 

 who were watching with the deepest interest. 

 Each, in turn, sprinkled the meal over the shrine, 

 blowing gently with the breath (fig 5). 



The utmost sincerity manifested itself in every 

 portion of this ceremony. It seemed to those 

 who gazed in rapt silence at this simple devotion, 

 that they were witnesses to the surviving worship 

 of the primeval world. 



