The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
History
The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))
Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
Zia Indians
further ceremony, though the wailing and weeping is kept up in the
house for a considerable time.
If a husband dies the wife is bathed after the burial by a female
member of her clan. This is done that the one remaining may be cleansed
of much of her sorrow and be only a little sad. When a wife dies the
husband is bathed by a female member of his clan. The bathing of the
remaining husband or wife in Zuñi is done for a very different reason.
When a child dies both the paternal and maternal parents are bathed;
but children are not bathed when a parent dies.
The fourth day after death, when the spirit starts on its journey to
the lower world, after hovering around the pueblo in the meantime, a
ceremonial is held by the society to which deceased belonged. If the
person was not a member of one of the cult societies the family select
the ho´naaite they wish to have perform the ceremony. A hä´chamoni
which was made on the third day by the theurgist is deposited on the
north road for the spirit to carry to its future home. A vase of food
is deposited at this time to feed the spirit on its journey, and if
any other pieces of clothing have been found they are cut and thrown
over the north road. The clothing must never be deposited whole as the
spirit of the clothing could not leave the body if it was in perfect
condition.
The road to the lower world, which is to the north (the dead returning
to the world whence they came), is so crowded that the spirits are
often in each other’s way, for not only the spirits of the Sia pass
over this road but the spirits of all Indians. The spirits of the dead
are traveling to their first home and the unborn spirits are passing to
the villages in which, after a time, they are to be born.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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