mammaries

Updated: May 27, 2025

From me´ ha na comes wo´ ha na, hanging or placed against anything, obviously because the mammaries hang or are placed against the breast; or, possibly, mé ha na may be derived from wó ha na by a reversal of reasoning, which view does not affect the argument in question. A surviving superstition inclines me to this view.

Frank Hamilton Cushing - A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth. : Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 467-522

The proper nourishment of the hunter is the game he kills; hence, the source of his life, like that of the young of this game, is symbolized in the canteen by the mammaries, not of human beings, but of game-animals. A feature in these canteens dependent upon all this brings us nearer to an understanding of the question under discussion.

Frank Hamilton Cushing - A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth. : Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 467-522