THE TUSAYAN RITUAL. 695 



their mythology with a time or place when the surface of the earth 

 was muddy, and as they say the black tip of the feather was colored 

 by the turkey dragging his tail iu the black mud. To this prayer 

 bearer is likewise attached two herbs — one male, the other female — 

 plants which love the water. There are many other prescribed details 

 in the manufacture of this prayer stick with which I will not weary 

 you, but there is one point which may be of interest. The prayer 

 bearers or prayer sticks of the tirst day are made as long as the longest 

 finger of the left hand, and are carried to four shrines of the cardinal 

 points, each of which is about 7 miles from the pueblo. The length of 

 these prayer sticks diminish each day, and in the same ratio the dis- 

 tance of the shrines decreases. On the last of the seven days the 

 prayer stick is the length of the ultimate joint of the middle finger, and 

 the shrines in which they are placed are just outside the town. The 

 intent of the prayers and songs intrusted to these prayer sticks is for 

 rain. The courier who carries them each clay is an important priest, 

 and his explanation of why he proceeds in certain ways in his duty may 

 interest you. 



He runs swiftly through the whole circuit except when kneeling at 

 the shrines, and is barefooted and naked, that the rain gods may notice 

 him and respond with equal haste to the prayers which he bears. He 

 loosens his hair and lets it hang down his back, symbolic of the way in 

 which he believes the rain gods carry the falling rain which his hair 

 symbolizes. He makes the far circuit on the first day because rain gods 

 dwell far away beyond all cultivated fields. He runs in a circle that 

 all the rain gods may see him. The priests hope the rain deities may 

 notice their courier who bears their offerings to the shrines, and that 

 each day they may come nearer. Hence, on each succeeding day the 

 courier travels on a shorter circumference. It is thus they wish the 

 rain clouds to approach nearer and nearer and pour down their con- 

 tents on their houses and fields, that the dry river beds may be swollen 

 with water and all farmers hear the pattering rain. 



Consider one of the many episodes about the altar in the consecration 

 of the prayer offering. Smoking, as is well known, was in Precolumbian 

 times a ceremonial custom among the aborigines of the Southwest, 

 and in the ritual of the present pueblos every great rite opens and 

 closes with a formal smoke. The pipe lighter is an important function- 

 ary, next in rank to the chief, and in passing the pipe certain prescribed 

 usages are always followed and terms of relationship exchanged. The 

 sixteen songs of which I have spoken are divided into two groups of 

 eight each by a unicp:ie observance — the smoking of the great cloud pipe. 

 In this ceremony four different kinds of herbs are loaded into a conical 

 pipe, and at a signal the pipe lighter passes a live coal to the chief, 

 who places it in the larger end, kneels down behind the altar, places 

 the larger end of the bowl in his mouth and blows four long whiffs 

 through the pipe upon the sand picture of the altar. The smoke thus 



