We have very little to contribute about myths peculiar to Ácoma, but Dr. Parsons[193] has discovered much concerning those that relate to maternity-beliefs and practices there and at Laguna, and to her articles the interested reader is referred. It must suffice here to mention only a bare outline of the birth myth about which undoubtedly clusters, as is true at Sía, much that is especially sacred and secret. All Ácoma clans are maternal and exogamous, and many are the “beliefs of sympathetic magic in connection with conception, pregnancy, and growth.” At Ácoma the ritual for the increase of children is especially associated with the Santu cult,[194] which, contrary to the case in most tribes, is both at Ácoma and Laguna a male deity. “The Santu is regarded as a source of light, in the same sense of life, and also a specific for rain,” and therefore a power directly able to further fertility, whether in plants or in animals. As such his favor is besought at the winter solstice ceremonial by particular offerings at his altar. To it women desiring children bring clay figures of a baby (_wiha_), and other prenatal practices are arranged. The Santu then is supposed to lie in for four days after the winter solstice, and all about him are placed images of domestic animals, rings, bracelets, and so forth. When the birth is close at hand, the human mother is carefully watched by her grandmother, and for four days after the child has come into the world she also lies in, with an ear of corn close beside her baby. “On the fourth morning the ‘Medicine Man’ and his wife arrive sometime before dawn. He prays and sings four or five songs, after which he takes the child out to the east side of the mesa to show it at sunrise to the Sun God. The child’s mother goes along, and during the ceremonial sprinkles sacred meal.” The child’s forehead, body, and legs are anointed with ashes in the form of a cross, “because witches do not like ashes.”