| Ha! | é-lah-kwá, | hom | tä-tchú | (hom | tsi-tá), | lú-k'ia | yät-ton-né | o-né | yäthl | ëh-kwé | ta-pan | hâ | té-u-su | a-k'iá, | o-né | yäthl | kwaí-k'ia-ná. |
| Ah! | Thanks, | my | father, | (my | mother), | this | day | trails | over | ahead | taking | I | prayer | with | trails | over | go out shall. |
FREE TRANSLATION.
Ah! Thanks, my father (or, my mother), this day I shall follow (thee) forth over the trails. Prayerfully over the trails I shall go out.
Should a party be going to the hunt together, all repair to the House of the Deer Medicine, repeating, one by one, the above prayers and ceremonial as the fetiches are drawn.
The fetich is then placed in a little crescent-shaped bag of buckskin which the hunter wears suspended over the left breast (or heart) by a buckskin thong, which is tied above the right shoulder. With it he returns home, where he hangs it up in his room and awaits a favorable rain or snow storm, meanwhile, if but a few days elapse, retaining the fetich in his own house. If a hunter be not a member of the orders above mentioned, while he must ask a member to secure a fetich for him, in the manner described, still he is quite as privileged to use it as is the member himself, although his chances for success are not supposed to be so good as those of the proper owner.
During his journey out the hunter picks from the heart of the yucca, or Spanish bayonet, a few thin leaves, and, on reaching the point where an animal which he wishes to capture has rested, or whence it has newly taken flight, he deposits, together with sacrifices hereinafter to be mentioned, a spider knot (hó-tsa-na mu kwí-ton-ne), made of four strands of these yucca leaves. This knot must be tied like the ordinary cat-knot, but invariably from right to left, so that the ends of the four strands shall spread out from the center as the legs of a spider from its body. The knot is further characterized by being tied quite awkwardly, as if by a mere child. It is deposited on the spot over which the heart of the animal is supposed to have rested or passed. Then a forked twig of cedar is cut and stuck very obliquely into the ground, so that the prongs stand in a direction opposite to that of the course taken by the animal, and immediately in front, as it were, of the fore part of its heart, which is represented as entangled in the knot.
This process, in conjunction with the roar of the animal, which the fetich represents, and which is imitated by the hunter on the conclusion of these various ceremonials, is supposed to limit the power of flight of the animal sought, to confine him within a narrow circle, and, together with an additional ceremonial which is invariably performed, even without the other, is supposed to render it a sure prey. This is performed only after the track has been followed until either the animal is in sight, or a place is discovered where it has lain down. Then, in exactly the spot over which the heart of the animal is supposed to have rested, he deposits a sacrifice of corn pollen (tâ-ón-ia), sacred black war paint (tsú-ha-pa)—a kind of plumbago, containing shining particles, and procured by barter from the Ha-va-su-paí (Coçoninos), and from sacred mines toward the west—and prayer or sacred meal, made from white seed-corn (emblematic of terrestrial life or of the foods of mankind), fragments of shell, sand from the ocean, and sometimes turkois or green-stone, ground very fine, and invariably carried in pouches by all members of the sacred societies of Zuñi. To this mixture sacred shell beads or coral are sometimes added. Then, taking out the fetich, he breathes on it and from it, and exclaims "Si!", which signifies "the time has come," or that everything is in readiness. The exact meaning may, perhaps, be made clearer by an example. When all preparations have been made complete for a ceremonial, the word "Si!", uttered by the master priest of the occasion, is a signal for the commencement of the ceremonials. It is therefore substituted for "Ma!", used in the foregoing prayer, whenever any preparations, like sacrifices and ceremonials, precede the prayer.
With this introduction he utters the accompanying prayer:
| Lú-k'ia | yät ton-né, | hom | tä-tchú | k'ia-pin | hâ-í, | to-pin-té | yät-ton-né, | to-pin-té | teh-thli-na-né, | tom | an | o-né | yäthl | u-lap-nap-té. | Hothl |
| This | day | my | father | game, raw | being, | one | day | one | night | thy | own | trail | over | round about (even) though. | However |
| yam | á-wi-te-lin | tsi-tau-án | to-pin-té | i-te-tchu-ná | hom | tâ | an-k'o-ha-ti-ná. | Tom | an | k'iah-kwïn | an-ti-shi-ma-ná, | tom | an |
| to me your | earth | mother (with) | one | step | to me | thou | shalt grant (favor). | Thy | own | blood life-fluid | wanting, | thy | own |