I refer the paho to the second group of sacrifices mentioned by Tylor,[163] that of homage, "a doctrine that the gist of sacrifice is rather in the worshiper giving something precious to himself than in the deity receiving benefit. This may be called the abnegation theory, and its origin may be fairly explained by considering it as derived from the original gift theory." While it is probably true that the Hopi barters his paho with the idea of receiving in return some desired gift, the main element is probably homage, but there is involved in it the third and highest element of sacrifice, abnegation. It is a sacrifice by symbolism, a part for the whole. On this theory the query naturally is, what does a paho represent? While it is difficult to answer this question, I think a plausible suggestion can be made. It is a sacrifice by symbolic methods of that which the Hopi most prize, corn or its meal. [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXIV PAHOS OR PRAYER-STICKS FROM SIKYATKI] [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXV PAHOS OR PRAYER-STICKS FROM SIKYATKI] In a simple prayer the sacrifice is a pinch of meal thrown on the fetish or toward it. This is an individual method of prayer, and the pinch of meal, his prayer bearer, the sacrifice. When a society made its prayers this meal, symbolic of a gift of corn, is tied in a packet and attached to two sticks, one male, the other female, with prescribed herbs and feathers. Here we have the ordinary prayer-stick, varying in details but essentially the same, a sacrifice to the gods appropriately designated by prescribed accessories. Frequently this packet of meal may be replaced by a picture of an ear of corn drawn on a flat slat, the so-called "corn paho" of the Flute maidens,[164] or we may have an ear of corn tied to the wooden slat. In the _Mamzrau_ ceremony the women carry these painted slats in their hands, as I have elsewhere described.[165] It appears as if, in all these instances, there exists a sacrificial object, a symbolic offering of corn or meal. The constant appearance of the feather on the paho has suggested an interpretation of the prayer-plumes as symbolic sacrifices of birds on the theory of a part for the whole; we know that among the Nahua sacrifices of birds were common in many ceremonials. The idea of animal sacrifice, and, if we judge from legends, of human sacrifice, was not an unknown conception among the Pueblos. While it is possible that the omnipresence of the feather on the prayer-sticks may admit of that interpretation, to which it must be confessed the male and the female components in double pahos lend some evidence,[166] I believe the main object was, as above stated, an offering of meal, which constituted the special wealth of an agricultural people. MARINE SHELLS AND OTHER OBJECTS