The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child | Page 5

mother's heart told her it was not a child really, and so she said to the daughter; but the daughter insisted that she would keep the baby for her own. She wrapped it carefully in cotton cloth and went to sleep with it in her arms. In the morning, the mother, wondering at her daughter's absence, sent a second daughter to call her. Upon entering the room where the girl had gone to sleep she was found with a great serpent coiled round and round her body. The parents were summoned, and they said, "This is some god, my daughter; you must take him back to his waters," and the maiden followed the serpent to the hot spring, sprinkling him all the while with sacred meal. Upon reaching the spring the serpent entered it, the maiden following, and she became the wife of the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si.
The K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si soon appeared with the two Soot-[=i]ke who had been dispatched for him. They did not travel upon the earth, but by the underground waters that pass from the spring to the spirit lake. Upon the arrival of the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si, the K?k-l[=o] issued to this assemblage his commands, for he is the great father of the K[=o]k-k[=o]. Those who were to go to the North, West, South, East, to the Heavens, and to the Earth to procure cereals for the [=A]h-shi-wi he designated as the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya. Previous to this time the [=A]h-shi-wi had subsisted on seeds of a grass. "When the seeds are gathered," he said, addressing the serpent, "you will carry them with water to the [=A]h-shi-wi and tell them what to do with the seeds. I will go in advance and prepare them for your coming." "But," said his people, "you are our father; you must not walk," and the ten K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi accompanied him, carrying him on their backs, relieving each other when fatigued. The K?k-l[=o] visited the [=A]h-shi-wi nine days in advance of the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya and K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si, instructing the people regarding the K[=o]k-k[=o], how they must represent them in the future and hold their ceremonials, and telling them that the boys must be made members of the K[=o]k-k[=o], and that this particular ceremony must occur but once in four years. He also gave to the people the history of himself, how the duck had befriended him and led him to the home of his people.

BIRTH CUSTOMS.
Having now briefly sketched the mythology relating to the ceremonials to be described, I invite your attention to the main subject of the present paper: the Religious Life of the Zu?i Child.
First we will notice the birth customs.
Zu?i child life may be divided into two parts. One I will call the practical or domestic; the other, the mythologic or religious. The former is fairly exemplified in the habits, customs, games, and experiences of our own domestic child life. The other is essentially different; in it are involved the ceremonials, legends, and myths which surround the Zu?i child from its birth.
Previous to the birth of a child, if a daughter be desired, the husband and wife proceed together to the "mother" rock, and at her feet make offerings and prayers, imploring her to intercede with the great father, the Sun, to give to them a daughter, and that this daughter may grow to be all that is good in woman; that she may be endowed with the power of weaving beautifully and may be skilled in the potter's art. Should a son be desired, the couple repair to the shrine above, and here, at the breast and heart of the "father" rock, prayers and plume sticks are offered that a son may be given them, and that he may have power to conquer his enemies, and that he may become distinguished in the K[=o]k-k[=o] and other orders, and have power over the field to produce abundant crops. In both cases the sacred meal is sprinkled, and, should the prayer not be answered, there is no doubt that the heart of one or the other was not earnest when the prayer was offered.
The Zu?i child is born amid ceremony. At its birth only the maternal grandmother and two female doctors are present. After the birth of the child, the paternal grandmother enters, bearing as offerings to the new born babe a large pottery bowl and inside of it a tiny blanket. She then prepares warm suds of yucca root in the bowl, in which she bathes 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