ning to discard unripe corn, fruit, and melons as
baby food, the infant mortality, once very high, is decreasing.
Natal ceremonies are considered important. Goddard[33] gives us a brief
picture of the usual proceedings: "The Hopi baby is first washed and
dressed by its paternal grandmother or by one of her sisters. On the day
of its birth she makes four marks with corn meal on the four walls of
the room. She erases one of these on the fifth, tenth, fifteenth, and
twentieth day of the child's life. On each of these days the baby and
its mother have their heads washed with yucca suds. On the twentieth
day, which marks the end of the lying-in period, the grandmother comes
early, bathes the baby and puts some corn meal to its lips. She utters a
prayer in which she requests that the child shall reach old age and in
this prayer gives it a name. A few of the women members of the father's
clan come in one at a time, bathe the baby and give it additional names.
After the names have been given, the paternal grandmother goes with the
mother and the child to the eastern edge of the mesa, starting so as to
arrive about sunrise. Two ears of white corn which have been lying near
the child during the twenty days, are carried with them. The grandmother
touches these ears of corn to the baby's breast and waves them to the
east. She also strews corn meal toward the sun, placing a little on the
child's mouth. As she does this, she prays, uttering in the course of
her prayer the various names which have been given to the child. The
mother goes through a similar ceremony and utters a similar prayer.
"The names given relate in some way to the clan of the one who bestows
them. Of the various names given to the child, one, because it strikes
the fancy of the family, generally sticks ... until the individual is
initiated into some ceremony. At that time a new name is given."
For instance, a Hopi man of middle age, known to the writer as George
(school name), tells her that his adopted father belonged to the Tobacco
Clan, so the name selected for him by the paternal aunts was
"Sackongsie" or "green tobacco plant with the blossoms on." Bessie, born
in the same family, was named "Sackhongeva" or "green tobacco plant
standing straight." The nine month's baby daughter of a Hopi girl once
in the employ of the writer is merrily called "Topsy," although formally
named Christine in honor of the school superintendent's wife. Her mother
explains that t
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