TUSAYAN KATCINAS

BY

JESSE WALTER FEWKES

---

EXTRACT FROM THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1897

INTRODUCTION

In their use of the word Katcina[2] the Hopi or Moki apply the term to supernatural beings impersonated by men wearing masks or by statuettes in imitation of the same. The dances in which the former appear are likewise called by the same name which with the orthography “Cachena” is used in descriptions of these dances in the valley of the upper Rio Grande. The present use of the term among the Tusayan Indians leads me to consider it as almost a synonym of a supernatural being of subordinate rank to the great deities. Ancestral worship plays a not inconspicuous part in the Hopi conception of a Katcina.

When we endeavor to classify the ceremonials which form the ritual practiced by the Tusayan villagers, the subject is found to be so complex that it can be adequately treated only by the help of observations extending through many years. The plan which I have followed in my work, as will be seen in previous publications, has been to gather and record data in regard to the details of individual observances as a basis for generalization.

My former publications on this subject have therefore been simply records of observations.[3] For various reasons it has seemed well to anticipate a final and general account and interpretation, with tentative efforts at a classification to serve as a stepping-stone to a more exhaustive and complete discussion of the relationship of these observances, which would naturally appear in an elaborate memoir necessitating a broader method of treatment than any yet adopted.

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At the present stage of my researches it would be too early to write such an account of the ceremonial calendar of the Tusayan villagers, but it has been deemed well to put on record, with many new observations, this preliminary outline of what may be a portion of a general system, to aid other investigators in kindred fields of study. When I began my work, four years ago, the task of bringing order out of what appeared to be a hopeless confusion seemed well nigh impossible, but as one ceremony after another was studied it was found that the exactness of the ritual as exemplified in ceremonial presentations pertained even to details, and that there was a logical connection running throughout all the religious observances of the Tusayan Indians, the presentations of which were practically little influenced by white races with whom the people had been brought in contact. As these ceremonials were studied more sympathetically I discovered a unity throughout them which, whatever their origin may have been, placed them in marked contrast to those of the nomads by whom they were surrounded. They were found to belong to a type or ceremonial area in which the other Pueblos are embraced, the affinities of which carry us into different geographic regions of the American continent.

But while this type differs or differed in ancient times from those of Athapascan or Shoshonean aborigines, it bears evidence of a composite nature. It had become so by contributions from many sources, and had in turn left its impress on other areas, so that as a type the Pueblo culture was the only one of its kind in aboriginal America. With strong affinities on all sides it was unique, having nearest kinship with those of Mexico and Central America.

The geographic extension of the Pueblo type of culture was no doubt formerly much greater than it is at the present time. What its original boundaries were future investigation will no doubt help us to decide, but the problem at present before us is the determination of its characteristics as a survival in our times. When once this is satisfactorily known, and not until then, can we advance with confidence to wider generalizations as to its past distribution and offer theories regarding its affinities with other ceremonial areas of the American race.

It is doubtless true that we are not progressing beyond what can be claimed to be known when we say that all the Pueblo peoples belong to the same ceremonial type. I am sure that in prehistoric and historic times delegations from the Rio Grande country have settled among the Tusayan villagers, and that many families of the latter have migrated back to the Rio Grande again to make permanent homes in that section. The most western and the most eastern peoples of this Pueblo culture-stock have been repeatedly united in marriage, bringing about a consequent commingling of blood, and the legends of both tell of their common character. It is too early in research to inject into science the idea that the Pueblos are modified Indians of other stocks, and253 we outstrip our knowledge of facts if we ascribe to any one village or group of villages the implication involved in the expression, “Father of the Pueblos.” Part of the Pueblo culture is autochthonal, but its germ may have originated elsewhere, and no one existing Pueblo people is able satisfactorily to support the claim that it is ancestral outside of a very limited area.

In the present article I have tried to present a picture of one of the two great natural groups of ceremonials into which the Tusayan ritual is divided. I have sought also to lay a foundation for comparative studies of the same group as it exists in other pueblos, but have not found sufficient data in regard to these celebrations in other villages to carry this comparative research very far. Notwithstanding these dances occur in most of the pueblos, the published data about them is too meager for comparative uses. No connected description of these ceremonies in other pueblos has been published; of theoretical explanations we have more than are profitable. It is to be hoped that the ever-increasing interest in the ceremonials of the Pueblos of the southwest will lead to didactic, exoteric accounts of the rituals of all these peoples, for a great field for research in this direction is yet to be tilled.

In the use, throughout this article, of the words “gods,” “deities,” and “worship” we undoubtedly endow the subject with conceptions which do not exist in the Indian mind, but spring from philosophic ideas resulting from our higher culture. For the first two the more cumbersome term “supernatural beings”[4] is more expressive, and the word “spirit” is perhaps more convenient, except from the fact that it likewise has come to have a definite meaning unknown to the primitive mind.

Worship, as we understand it, is not a proper term to use in the description of the Indian’s methods of approaching his supernal beings. It involves much which is unknown to him, and implies the existence of that which is foreign to his conceptions. Still, until some better nomenclature, more exactly defining his methods, is suggested, these terms from their convenience will still continue in common use.

The dramatic element which is ascribed to the Katcina[5] ritual is more prominent in the elaborate than in the abbreviated presentations, as would naturally be the case, but even there it is believed to be less striking than in the second group or those in which the performers are without masks.

There exists in Hopi mythology many stories of the old times which form an accompanying body of tradition explaining much of the symbolism and some of the ritual, but nowhere have I found the sequence of the ceremonials to closely correspond with the episodes of the myth. In the Snake or the Flute dramatizations this coincidence of myth and ritual is more striking, but in them it has not gone so far as to be 254comparable with religious dramatizations of more cultured peoples. Among the Katcinas, however, it is more obscure or even very limited. While an abbreviated Katcina may be regarded as a reproduction of the celebrations recounted in legends of times when real supernatural beings visited the pueblos, and thus dramatizes semimythic stories, I fail to see aught else in them of the dramatic element.

The characteristic symbolism is prescribed and strictly conforms to the legends. Explanations of why each Katcina is marked this or that way can be gathered from legends, but the continuous carrying out of the sequence of events in the life of any Katcina, or any story of creation or migration, did not appear in any abbreviated[6] Katcina which was studied. In this subdivision a dramatic element is present, but only in the crudest form. In the elaborate Katcinas, however, we find an advance in the amount of dramatization, or an attempt to represent a story or parts of the same. Thus we can in Soyáluña follow a dramatic presentation of the legend of the conflict of the sun with hostile deities or powers, in which both are personified.

I must plead ignorance of the esoteric aspect of the Tusayan conceptions of the Katcinas when such exists. This want of knowledge is immaterial, for the object of this article is simply to record what has been seen and goes no further. I will not say that a complete account of the Katcinas can be given by such a treatment, and do not know how much or how little of their esoterism has eluded me, but these observations are wholly exoteric records of events rather than esoteric explanations of causes. It is thought that such a treatment of the subject will be an important contribution to the appreciation of explanations which it naturally precedes.

Although it seems probable that the ritual of primitive man contains elements of a more or less perfect dramatization of his mythology, I incline to the opinion that the ritual is the least variable and from it has grown the legend as we now know it. The question, Which came first, myth or ritual? is outside the scope of this article.

Any one who has studied the ceremonial system of the Tusayan Indians will have noticed the predominance of great ceremonials in winter. From harvest time to planting there is a succession of celebrations of most complicated and varied nature, but from planting to harvesting all these rites are much curtailed. The simplest explanation of this condition would be, and probably is, necessity. There is 255not time enough to devote to great and elaborate ceremonials when the corn must be cared for. Time is then too precious, but when the corn is high and the crop is in sight, or during the long winter when the agriculturist is at home unemployed, then the superstitious mind has freedom to carry on elaborate rites and observances, and then naturally he takes part in the complex ceremonies. Hence the spring and early summer religious observances are abbreviated. Although the Pueblo farmer may thoroughly believe in his ceremonial system as efficacious, his human nature is too practical to consume the precious planting time with elaborate ceremonials. But when he sees that the crop is coming and harvest is at hand, then he begins the series of, to him, magnificent pageants which extend from the latter part of August until March of the following year.

It has been proven by repeated observations of the same ceremonials that there is great constancy in the way successive presentations of the ritual are carried out year after year. The inevitable modifications resulting from the death of old priests undoubtedly in course of time affect individual observances, but their ritual is never voluntarily changed. The ceremonials which I have here and elsewhere described were not invented by them to show to me, nor will any religious society of the Hopi at the present day get up a ceremony to please the white man. Each observance is traditional and prescribed for a certain time of the year.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE SEQUENCE OF TUSAYAN CELEBRATIONS[7]

The following tabular view of the sequence of ceremonials may aid in the study of the Hopi calendar, and indicate the ceremonials presented to us for classification:

A[8]		Katcina’s return.
		Powámû.
		Pálülükoñti.

The abbreviated Katcinas commonly come in the interval, and vary somewhat from year to year.

B		Nimán (Katcina’s departure).
		Snake or Flute (alternating).
		Lálakoñti.
		Mamzraúti.
		Wüwütcímti[9] (sometimes Naácnaiya).
		Soyáluña.

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The Katcina chief, Íntiwa, erects his altar every year in the Móñkiva, but different kivas by rotation or otherwise celebrate the dance of the Nimán by their appropriate presentation, thus: The men of the Wikwáliobikiva celebrated the dance in 1891; those of Nacábkiva in 1892; those of the Álkiva in 1893, and probably in 1894 the men of the Tcivatokiva will personate the last Katcina of the summer. It thus will appear that the special supernatural personage represented varies from year to year within certain limits, and the variations mean nothing more than that the members of the different kivas participate in rotation.

NAMES OF MONTHS AND CORRESPONDING CEREMONIALS

The Tusayan names of the months are as follows:

The second part of the October (Ü′⁠cü) is said to be called Tü′hoe. If this is recognized as a lunar period we would have 14 divisions to the ceremonial year. In the Pamü′⁠iyawû, the Snake ceremony, and the Katcina’s return, the same Nüitiwa (struggle of maids for bowls, etc) occurs.

It will be noticed that the five summer moons have the same names as those of the winter; by that I do not mean to discard the divisions “named” and “nameless,” elsewhere used on good authority. The questions regarding the nomenclature of the different moons and their number are very perplexing and not yet satisfactorily answered.

The determination of the number of moons recognized in the year or the interval between the successive reappearance of the sun in his house (Táwaki) at the summer solstitial rising is a most important question, for a satisfactory answer to which my researches thus far are insufficient. Several of the priests have told me that there were 13, as given above; but others say there are 12, and still others, 14. The comparative ethnologist, familiar with Mexican calendars, would be glad to accept the report that there were 13, in which case there would be introduced a remarkable harmony between peoples akin in many ways. Although, however, there is good evidence that 13 is recognized by some priests, the negative evidence must be mentioned, especially as it is derived from men whose knowledge of Hopi lore I have come to respect. I have, however, provisionally followed the opinion of those who hold that the Hopi recognize 13 ceremonial months in their calendar.

If the second part of the Ü′⁠cü moon be called Tü′⁠hoe, we would have 14 moons, which would give 6 between 2 Pówa, or 2 Pa, Kéle, Kyá, and divide the ceremonial year into two parts of 7 moons each. The Katcina’s return (Ükine), or the beginning of the Katcinas, then occurs in the Pa moon; they end in Kyá at the Nimán (last, farewell). The group of unmasked ceremonials (nine days) likewise begins at the Pa moon in the Snake or Flute, and ends at the winter, Kyá, or Soyáluña.

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In endeavoring to find some reason for the similarity of names in the two groups of months which compose the ceremonial year I have this interesting hint, dropped by one of the priests: “When we of the upper world,” he said, “are celebrating the winter Pa moon the people of the under world are engaged in the observance of the Snake or Flute, and vice versa.” The ceremonials in the two worlds are synchronous. “That is the reason,” said my informant, “that we make the Snake or Flute pahos during the winter season, although the dance is not celebrated until the corresponding month of the following summer.”[11]

MEANS OF DETERMINING THE TIME FOR CEREMONIALS

Among the Hopi Indians there are priests (tawawympkiyas) skilled in the lore of the sun, who determine, by observations of the points on the horizon, where the sun rises or sets, the time of the year proper for religious ceremonials. Two of these points are called sun houses, one at tátyüka,[12] which is called the sun house (táwaki) par excellence, another at kwiníwi, which also is called táwaki, or sun house.

The points on the horizon used in the determination of ceremonial events are as follows:

1. Táwaki (hütca, opening). The horizon point properly called savwúwee marks the cardinal point tátyüka or place of sunrise at the winter solstice. The winter ceremony Soyáluña is determined not by sunrise, but by sunset, although, as a general thing, the time of summer ceremonials is determined by observations of sunrise.

2. Másnamüzrü (mási, drab or gray; namüzrü, wooded ridge). This point is the ridge or crest of the mesa, east of Püp′⁠ce.

3. Pavüñ′⁠tcómo (pavüñ, young corn; tcómo, mound). A point on the old wagon trail to Fort Defiance, a little beyond the head of Keams canyon.

4. Hoñwítcomo (derivation obscure; hóñwi, erect).

5. Nüváktcomo (nüvák, snow; tcómo, mound). When the sun reaches here on its northern journey the Honáni or Badger people plant corn; the other Hopi people plant melons, squashes, and gourds.

6. Pülhomotaka (pülü, round, hump; hómo, obscure; táka, man; possibly many hump-back men). When the sun reaches here the Pátki 259or Water people plant corn. When the sun returns here the Snake-Antelope fraternities assemble for the Snake dance.

7. Kwitcála.[13] When the sun rises at this point on his northward journey general planting begins, which continues until the summer solstice. When the sun returns to this point on his southerly journey the Nimánkatcina is celebrated.

8. Taíovi (?).

9. Owátcoki (owa, rock; tcóki, mound house).

10. Wü′⁠nacakabi (wü′⁠na, pole; cáka, ladder).

11. Wakácva, cattle spring, 12 miles north of Keams canyon.

12. Paváukyaki, swallow house.

13. Tüyüka, summer solstice.

We are justified in accepting the theory that sun and moon[14] worship is usual among primitive men. Whether that of the sun or of our satellite was the earlier it is not in the province of this article to discuss, but it is doubtless true that sun worship is a very ancient cult among most primitive peoples. The Pueblos are not exceptions, and while we can not say that their adoration is limited to the sun, it forms an essential element of their ritual, while their anhydrous environment has led them into a rain-cloud worship and other complexities. I think we can safely say, however, that the germ of their astronomy sprang from observations of the sun, and while yet in a most primitive condition they noticed the fact that this celestial body did not always rise or set at the same points on the horizon. The connection between these facts and the seasons of the year must have been noted early in their history, and have led to orientation, which plays such an important part in all their rituals. Thus the approach of the sun to a more vertical position in the sky in summer and its recession in winter led to the association of time when the earth yielded them their crops with its approach, and the time when the earth was barren with its recession. These epochs were noticed, however, not by the position of the sun at midday, but at risings and settings, or the horizon points. The two great epochs, summer and winter, were, it is believed, connected with 260solstitial amplitudes, and the equinoctial, horizontal points, unconnected with important times to agriculturists, were not considered as of much worth. There is every evidence, however, that the time of day was early indicated by the altitude of the sun, although the connection of the altitude at midday with the time of year was subordinated to observations on the horizon.

CLASSIFICATION OF CEREMONIALS

In attempting to make out the annual cycle of ceremonial observances, as determined by observations made during the last three years, I recognize two groups, the differences between which may be more or less arbitrary. These groups are called—

1. The Katcinas.
2. The Nine days’ ceremonials.

The former of these groups, which is the subject of this article, begins with the Katcinas’ return,[15] and ends with their departure (Nimán). It is not my purpose here to do more than refer to the latter group, as a short reference to them may be of value for a proper understanding of the Katcinas.

There are significant likenesses between different members of the series of nine days’ ceremonials, and they may be grouped in several pairs, of which the following may be mentioned:

1. Snake or Flute.[16]
2. Lálakoñti and Mamzraúti.
3. Powámû and Pálülükoñti.
4. Wüwütcímti and Naácnaiya.

The likenesses are built on the similarity of the rites practiced in both members of each pair. The Hopi priests recognize another kinship which does not appear in the nature of the ceremonies as much as in the subordinate parts. Thus, Lálakoñti and Pálülükoñti, Wüwütcímti and Mamzraúti are brother and sister ceremonials, according to their conceptions. This kinship is said to account for certain events in the ceremonials, and friendly feeling manifested between certain societies, but much obscurity envelops this whole subject of relationships.

The term “Nine days’ ceremonies” refers to the active[17] ceremonial days, including those in which the chiefs perform the secret observance and the open dance of the last days. Strictly speaking, the ceremonial smoke to determine the time is a part of the observance, and from 261this date to the final public exhibition there are sixteen days, a multiple of the omnipresent number four.

Some of the Katcinas have nine days of ceremonials, counting the assembly and the final purification.

The inception of the ceremony is called tcótcoñ yüñya, smoking assembly, in which the chiefs (moñ′⁠mowitû) meet together in the evening at a prescribed house. The meeting places are as follows:

On the day following this smoke the speaker chief (tcaákmoñwi) at early sunrise announces to the public that the ceremony is to begin, and to the six direction deities (nananivo moñ′⁠mowitû) that the priests are about to assemble to pray for rain. Eight days after the announcement the chiefs gather in the kiva, and that day is called yüñya, assemblage, but is not counted in the sequence of ceremonial days. The first ceremonial day is Cüctála, after which follow the remaining days as already explained in my account of the Snake ceremonials. Counting the days from the commencement, the Snake, Flute, Nimán, Lálakoñti, and Mamzraúti are always celebrated in extenso sixteen days, or nine days of active ceremonies, as shown in articles elsewhere. When Naácnaiya is not celebrated, Wüwütcímti, Powámû, Soyáluña, and Pálülükoñti are abbreviated to four days of active ceremonials.

The following diagnosis may be made of these great nine days’ ceremonials: Duration of the ceremony, nine consecutive days and nights; no masked dancers in secret or public exhibitions; no Katcinas; no Tcukúwympkiyas.[18] Altars and sand mosaics generally present. Individual ceremonials either annual or biennial, but in either case at approximately the same time of the year; sequence constant. Típoni[19] generally brought out in the public dance. Many páhos,[20] ordinarily of different length (Snake, Flute, Lálakoñti, Mamzraúti), to deposit in shrines at varying distances from the town. Ceremonial racing, generally in the morning of the eighth and ninth days.

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The following are the important nine days’ ceremonies:

1. The Antelope-Snake celebration, alternating biennially with the Lélenti or Flute observance.

2. The Lálakoñti. This ceremony lasts nine days and as many nights, and is celebrated by women. The details of the celebration at Walpi in 1891, together with the altars, fetiches, and the like have already been published.[21] It has some likenesses with the Mamzraúti, which follows it in sequence. There are four priestesses, the chief of whom is Kótcnümsi. Three típonis were laid on the altar in the celebration of 1891, although it is customary for each society to have but one típoni, which, with the other paraphernalia, is in the keeping of the chief priest.

3. The Mamzraúti. This ceremonial has likewise been described.[22] In some celebrations of this festival girls appear with tablets on their heads personifying maids called Palahíkomanas. In 1891 these personages were represented by pictures[23] of the same on slabs carried in the hands of girls. In this way the variations of their celebrations in different years may be explained; sometimes women are dressed to impersonate the Palahíkomanas, at others only pictures of the same are carried.

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2634. The Wüwütcímti. The Naácnaiya, of which this is an abbreviated observance, has been described.[24] One of the most prominent events is the ceremonial making of the new fire; and as this is in a measure distinctive of these two, it is proper to designate them the New Fire ceremonies.

In essentials the Naácnaiya and the Wüwütcímti are the same, but the former appears to be of less constant appearance and more complicated. In it, as elsewhere described, the statuette of Talátumsi is brought into the pueblo, but in the abbreviated form offerings are made at her shrine down the trail. During the making of the new fire Ánawita,[25] personifying Masauwûh, is hidden behind a blanket held by two assistants.

The second group, called the Katcinas, which may be divided into two smaller divisions, known as the elaborate and the abbreviated, fills out the sequence of religious ceremonials between the Soyáluña and the Nimánkatcina. These celebrations are distinguished from those of the former group by the presence of masked personages to whom is given the name of Katcinas. By the use of these masks or helmets the participant is supposed to be transformed into the deity represented, and women and children avoid looking at Katcinas when unmasked. The main symbolism of the deity is depicted on the helmet or head, and varies in different presentations, but the remaining paraphernalia is constant, whatever personage is represented.[26]

The mask (kü′ĭtü, head) is often addressed as íkwatci, “my friend or double.” Prescriptively it must be put on and taken off with the left hand.[27] It is of helmet shape, fitting closely to the head and resting on the shoulders. These masks or helmets are repainted at each presentation with the symbolism of the personage intended to be represented. They are ordinarily made of leather, portions of boot legs or saddles, and in one or two instances I have found on their inside the embossed or incised markings characteristic of Spanish saddles. Old felt hats are sometimes used in the manufacture of the simpler masks and those of the mud-heads are of coarse cloth. Few of the helmets now used give evidence of very great antiquity, although some are made of the skin of the bison. One can seldom purchase these helmets, as their manufacture is difficult, and instead of being discarded after use in one ceremony they are repainted for other presentations.

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There is a similar uniformity year by year in the time of the celebration of the extended or elaborate Katcinas called Nimán, Powámû, Pálülükoñti, Soyáluña, and the Pa or Katcina’s return. Their sequence is always the same, but in the abbreviated Katcinas or masked dances this uniformity is not adhered to. A certain number of these are celebrated each spring and summer, but the particular abbreviated Katcina[28] which is presented varies from year to year, and may or may not be reproduced.

While Katcinas or masked dances do not generally occur during the interval of the nine days’ ceremonials (autumn and early winter), I have notes on one of these which indicate that they sometimes take place in this epoch.

On September 20, 1893, a Katcina called Áñakatcina[29] was performed in Hano after the Nimán had been celebrated in Walpi. Theoretically it would not be expected, as the farewell Katcina is universally said to be a celebration of the departure of these personages to their distant home, an event which does not occur at Hano. It would be strange if later observations should show that Katcinas are celebrated in other villages between the departure and return of these personages.

DISCUSSION OF PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF KATCINAS

Our exact knowledge of the character of the Hopi Katcinas dates back to Schoolcraft’s valuable compilation. While the existence of these dances was known previously to that time, and several references to similar dances among the other Pueblos might be quoted from the writings of Spanish visitors, our information of the Katcina celebrations in Tusayan previously to 1852 is so fragmentary that it is hardly of value in comparative studies. In the year named Dr P. S. G. Ten Broeck visited Tusayan and published a description of what was probably a Katcina dance at Sitcomovi. Although his account is so imperfect that we can not definitely say what Katcina was personated, his description was the first important contribution to our knowledge of the character of these dances among the Hopi Indians. It will be noticed in a general way that the personation differed but slightly from those of the present day. Ten Broeck noted that the male dancers, Katcinas, wore on their heads “large pasteboard towers” 265(náktci?), and “visors[30] made of small willows, with the bark peeled off and dyed a deep brown.” He recognized that the female dancers (Katcinamanas) were men dressed as women and that they wore yellow “visors” and dressed their hair in whorls as at the present time. He described the musical (?) accompaniment of the dance with the scapula of an animal rubbed over a “ground piece of wood.” He likewise noticed the priests who sprinkled the dancers with sacred meal, and speaks of two small boys painted black with white rings who accompanied the dance. The latter may have been personifications of the Little Fire Gods.

The Hopi clowns, Tcukúwympkiyas, were likewise seen by Ten Broeck, who described their comical actions. From his description of the byplay of their “assistants,” I find very little change has taken place since his time. In the Katcina which he observed food was distributed during the dance, as I have elsewhere described is the case today. Although much might be added to Ten Broeck’s description, his observations were the most important which had been made known up to his time, and continued for forty years the most valuable record of this group[31] of dances among the Tusayan Indians.

CLASSIFICATION OF KATCINAS

Before considering the various ceremonials in which the Katcinas appear, it may be well to say something of the nature of these supernatural beings which figure in them as made known by the testimony of some of the best-informed men of the tribe. The various legends which are told about them are numerous and can not be repeated here, but a few notions gathered from them may render it possible for the reader to better understand the character of the ceremonials in which they appear.

These deities are generally regarded as animistic and subordinate to the greater gods.[32] They have been called intercessors between man 266and the highest supernatural beings. There are misty legends that long ago the Katcinas, like men, came from the under world and brought with them various charms or náhü with which the Hopi are familiar. By some it is said that a Honáni (Badger) chief came up from the Átkyaa, or under world, in the center of a square whose four sides were formed of lines of Katcinas, and that he bore in his left hand a buzzard wing feather and a bundle of medicine hats on his back. The Katcinas recognized him as their chief, and became Katcina Honáni, Badger Katcinas.

The legend runs that in ancient times Hahaíwüqti[33] emerged from the under world followed by four sons, who were Katcinas, each bearing in his arms a pet called pálülükoñûh, plumed serpent. Following these four came other Katcinas with pets (pókomatü), of whom the following are mentioned:

One bearing pákwa, frog (water-eagle).

One bearing pátsro, water-bird.

One bearing pawíkya, duck.

One bearing pavákiyuta, water on the backs bearers, aquatic animals.

One bearing yüñ′ocona, turtle.

One bearing zrána, bullfrog.

One bearing pavátiya, young water bearer (tadpole).

The others with kwáhü (eagle), parrot, crow, cooper’s hawk, swallow, and night hawk.

The Súmaíkoli pets for the six directions are:

The first four Katcinas bear a startling yet foreign resemblance to the Navaho Etsuthçle.[34] The word pókomatü is difficult to translate, but “pets” seems a good rendering. Its usage is similar to that of certain Navaho words. A Navaho woman speaks of a favorite child as ciliⁿ; a man calls his pet horse ciliⁿ, and the shaman designates his fetich-emblem of a nature deity bĭliⁿ; a Hopi calls his dog póko. The pet of Tuñwup is depicted on the altar as elsewhere mentioned in my account of the reredos of the farewell Katcina at Walpi.[35]

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267

In the Hopi conception of the All Katcina there seems to be an idea that they dwell in four terrestrial places or world-quarters.[36] This may be looked on as an application of a general idea of world-quarter deities so common among them.

If there is any one feature which distinguishes a Katcina it is the use, by some or all of the participants, of a mask or ceremonial helmet. The Katcinas are divided into two groups, the complete and the abbreviated; the former is constant year by year, the latter varying. Altars are present in the complete, absent in abbreviated presentations. A cloud-charm altar or invocation to the six world-quarter deities is sometimes made. Public announcements are not prescribed. The Tcukúwympkiya or clowns are generally present. Abbreviated Katcinas consist mainly of public dances in which Katcinas, Katcinamanas, and clowns take part. The páhos or prayer offerings are few in number. Ceremony ends with a feast; generally no altars. Típoni[37] is not brought out in public. It is possible that the fox-skin so universally worn by the animistic personifications called Katcinas hanging from the belt behind, is a survival comparable with the skin of the animal in which formerly, as in Nahuatl ceremonials, the whole body was clothed. In the case of Natácka, for instance, a skin is still worn over the shoulders. Conservatism in dress is tenaciously adhered to in religious paraphernalia among all peoples.

Roughly speaking we may say that the Katcina celebrations are characterized by the presence of the Tcukúwympkiyas (Tatcükti, Tcückütû, Paikyamû or clowns), which do not appear in the unmasked or nine days’ ceremonials. The epoch in which they remain among the Hopi is therefore approximately that from the winter to the summer 268solstices; that in which they are absent, from the summer to the winter solstices.[38]

I classify the Katcina celebrations into two large groups, which may be called the elaborate and the abbreviated, and have considered them in the following pages.

ELABORATE KATCINAS

Under the head of elaborate Katcinas[39] may be included:

• Soyáluña.
• Katcina’s return.[40]
• Powámû,
• Pálülükoñti.
• Nimánkacma.

SOYÁLUÑA

The celebration in the December moon has not as yet been described,[41] but a large body of material relating thereto is in my hands. In order to give a general idea of its character a brief outline of a characteristic portion of it is inserted in this place. Soyáluña is distinctly a warriors’ observance, and has been called the Return Katcina. In one sense it may be so designated, but more strictly it is the return of the War god, regarded as a leader of the gods, and in that recalls the Nahuatl Teotleco, as elsewhere pointed out. The singing of the night songs of the warriors is one of the most effective archaic episodes of the ceremonial of the winter solstice.

In the following account a description of a few events in the celebration of 1891 is introduced:

On the 22d of December of that year most of the men of the villages prepared cotton strings, to the end of which they tied feathers and piñon needles. These were given away during the day to different persons, some receiving from one to two dozen, which they tied in their hair. When a maker of these feathered strings presented one to a friend, he said, as translated, “Tomorrow all the Katcinas to you grant your wishes,” holding his bundle vertically and moving it with a horizontal269 motion. At nightfall each man procured a willow wand from 3 to 4 feet long and looped upon it all the strings which he had received. He then carried his stick to the Móñkiva and placed it in the rafters, thus imparting to the ceiling the appearance of a bower of feathers and piñon needles.

All the kivas were meeting places of the participants, but the Tátaukyamû met at the Móñkiva, where the principal festivities took place. Their chief wore a head-dress decorated with symbols of rain-clouds (plate CVIII), and carried a shield upon which was depicted the sun (plate CIV). The chief of a second society carried a shield upon which was drawn a star (plate CIV), and a third chief bore a shield with an antelope drawn upon it. The head-dress of the chief of the Aáwympkiya was adorned with glistening triplex horns, and on his shield was represented an unknown Katcina (plate CIV). The fifth society was Kwákwantû, or warrior, whose chief carried in his hand an effigy of the great snake (Pálülükoñûh) which was carved from the woody stalk of the agave (kwan), from which the society was named. He came from the Tcivato-kiva and on his shield was depicted a Kwákwantû in full costume. The sixth society was the Tatcü′⁠kti or “knobbed heads;” their shield-bearer wore a head-dress like a coronet, while on his shield was drawn a black figure with lozenge-shape eyes. The shield of the chief of the seventh society was adorned with a picture of the Táwamoñwi or sun chief.

After the societies had entered the kiva an invocation to the cardinal points was chanted, and the shield-bearers, in turn, standing over the sípapû, stamped on it. At a signal the society arranged itself into two irregular groups, one on the north, the other on the south side of the main floor. All then vehemently burst forth into a song, the shield-bearer making eccentric dashes among his associates, first to one side and then to the other.

While the song lasted the shield-bearer continued these short, swift rushes, and the assembled groups crouched down and met his dashes by rising and driving him back to the sípapû. He madly oscillated from right to left, that is, from the north to the south side of the room, and swung his shield in rhythm, while those near him beat their feet in time. The shield was dashed from face to face, and the groups made many motions as if to seize it, but no one did more than to touch it with outstretched hands. The movements on both sides were highly suggestive of attack and defense.

At 8 p. m. about one dozen men were collected in the Móñkiva, among whom was Lésma playing a flageolet. The hatchway was guarded by a tyler, and for a nátci there was placed there a wicker skullcap ornamented with a pair of imitation mountain-sheep horns (plate CX), Two hours later the room was densely packed with naked men, their bodies undecorated, wearing small eagle plumes attached to the crown of the head. Two women were present. Anawíta, chief270 of the Kwákwantû, sat alone on the southern side of the main floor which was clear in the middle, and twelve chiefs, among them Címo, Súpela, and Tcubéma, sat opposite him.

Ten novices from the other kivas entered gorgeously arrayed in white kilts, brilliant crowns of feathers, white body decorations, bearing an imitation squash blossom, with spruce sprigs in their left hands and corn in their right hands. As the chiefs took their places Lésma sprinkled the floor of the room near the ladder with moist valley sand, about an inch deep. The novices stepped from the ladder upon this sand and passed up in front of the chiefs, then squatted before them facing the south, their kilts having been lifted so that they sat on the cold floor.

Anawíta then crossed over to the south side of the room and seated himself at the east end of the line of chiefs.

At the west wall of the kiva a strange altar had been erected. Lésma had piled against the ledge of this part of the kiva a stack of corn, two or more ears of which had been contributed by the maternal head of each family in the pueblo. At either side and in front of the stack of corn shrubbery had been placed. In the space between the top of the corn pile and the roof wands were placed, and to these wands had been fastened many artificial flowers, 4 or 5 inches in diameter, set close together but in no regular lines. There were over 200 of these flowers of different colors, dark-red and white predominating. Nearly in the center of this artificial shrubbery there was a large gourd shell with the convex side turned toward the audience and having an aperture about 8 inches in diameter in its center. Through this opening had been thrust the head of an effigy[42] of Pálülükoñûh, the plumed-head snake, painted black, with a tongue-like appendage protruding from the mouth. When all the assembled priests were seated a moment of solemn stillness ensued, after which Súpela arose, cast a handful of meal toward the effigy of the snake, and said a short prayer in a reverent tone.[43] Then the head of the snake, which was manipulated by an unseen person behind the altar, was observed to rise slowly to the center of the aperture, and a mellow sounding roar like a blast through a conch appeared to come from the mouth, while the whole head was made to quiver and wave. The sound was of short duration, repeated four times, and then the head reposed again on the lower rim of the ground shell. Presently was heard a sound as of a scapula drawn across a notched stick six times. All the old chiefs in succession cast meal to the effigy and prayed, and in response to each the great snake emitted sounds identical with those mentioned above. The spectators then left the kiva, and a frenzied dance of strange character occurred. The societies from other kivas came in, and the chief of each declaimed in a half-chanting voice which rose to a shriek at the close of a stanza. 271First, he drew back to the fireplace, and then with a shuffling gait approached the symbolic opening in the floor called the sípapû.

Anawíta then shouted at the top of his voice, and the shuffler sprang in the air and vaulted over the sípapû. Then everybody in the room shouted loudly and a song in concert followed. A moment later the visiting societies dashed down the ladder, each bearing a splendid shield ornamented with the figure of the sun and a rim of radiating eagle feathers. Each society had its distinctive sun shield, which on entering was handed to the chief. As he received it he stamped on the sípapú and a fierce song was sung. Meanwhile two members of the society stood apart from their fellows against the southern wall facing each other, each holding a squash flower emblem in a bouquet of spruce twigs and an ear of corn in his left hand.

Suddenly the fifteen or twenty members of the society drew back from their chief, who then sprang upon the sípapû plank, and quickly turning faced them as all burst forth in an ecstatic shouting, with wild flinging of their arms as they approached the shield-bearers. They naturally formed two clusters, and as the shield-bearer dashed his shield in their faces they surged back, to leap again toward him. This seeming assault, wild though it appeared, was maintained in time with the song. The two chieftains joined their men, all in ecstatic frenzy, and one of them, shaking his shield, sprang from right to left, drawing back his assistants in rhythm with the beating of the feet of all on the floor. After a few moments of most exhaustive movements some of the weaker staggered up the ladder, and shortly after one of the chiefs fell fainting to the floor, overcome by exhaustion and the intense heat of the room. One splendid athlete danced with vigor for fully five minutes, and then swept toward the ladder where the assistant was standing in readiness to receive his shield. Another stride and he reached the foot of the ladder and suddenly became as rigid as a corpse. The men who belonged to the Móñkiva took no part in this exhaustive dance but stood in readiness to carry those who fainted up the ladder to the cool air outside.

It has been suggested that this assault of the men on the bearer of the sun shield dramatizes the attack of hostile powers on the sun, and that the object is to offset malign influences or to draw back the sun from a disappearance suggested by its southern declination.[44] In this possible interpretation it is well to consider that immediately preceding it the archaic offerings and prayers to the great snake were made, as described, in the presence of spectators. The idea of hostility of the great snake to the sun is an aboriginal American conception. In the Maya Codex Cortesianus (33b) the plumed snake is represented[45] 272as swallowing the sun as in an eclipse. If Soyáluña is a propitiatory ceremony to prevent the destruction or disappearance of the sun in winter or to offset the attacks of hostile malevolent deities upon him, we can see a possible explanation of the attacks and defenses of the sun as here dramatized.[46] The evil influences of the great snake are met by the prayers to his effigy; the attacks of other less powerful deities are dramatized in the manner indicated.

The following contains a few suggestions in regard to the character of the dramatization in the December celebration. In the prayers to the Plumed Snake his hostility was quieted, and the chiefs did what they could to propitiate that powerful deity, who was the great cause of their apprehension that the beneficent sun (Táwa) would be overcome. Then followed the dramatization of the conflict of opposing powers, possibly representing other deities hostile to our beneficent father, the sun. Although the struggle involved, so far as the participants were concerned, their highest powers of endurance and bodily suffering, the sun-shield or symbol of Táwa had the good fortune to resist the many assaults made upon it.

The introduction of dramatization as an explanation of the warrior celebration is theoretic, therefore not insisted upon, and is at least plausible until a better interpretation is suggested. It has in its support the evidence drawn from a comparative study of ceremonials. In the light of this theory the return and departure of the Katcina has a new significance, and may be regarded as a modified sun myth. At the winter solstice the sun and his attendant deities have reached their most distant point, and turned to come back to the pueblos. In the mid-summer the solar deity approached them; he was near them, and in appreciation of this fact, which means blessings, the poor Hopi made his offering;[47] danced the Snake dance, asking the snake to bring the rain, believing he was no longer hostile or at enmity with the sun. But the withdrawal of the gods (Farewell Katcinas) could not be delayed by these rites, and the sun each day drew farther from them. The Katcinas (gods) departed; the bright, beneficent summer gave place to cold, dreary winter; life was replaced by death. In this most critical epoch the warriors, the most potent human powers of the pueblo, performed their ceremony to bring back the beneficent god and his train. The Nahuatl priest called a similar ceremony “Teotleco,” the god comes—“The dead god is reborn,” says Duran. The gods (Katcinas) come, say the Hopi (Soyáluña, all assemblage; derived from co, all; yuñya, assemblage). The Nahuatl priest sprinkled meal on the floor of the teocalli, and when he saw in the meal the footprint 273of the War god, the leader of the divinities, he announced the fact. The Hopi priest still continues to sprinkle sand on the kiva floor during the ceremony.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.  CVI.

KATCINA’S RETURN

The first celebration of the Katcinas in the spring, several months after their departure,[48] took place in that division of the year called the Pamüyawû,and is known as Mohti Katcínumyüñya, or “First Katcina assembly.” I have called it the Return Katcina. It follows directly after the winter páho making of the Snake-Antelope or Flute societies, which varies in character according to whether the Snake or the Flute society gives the presentation that year. In 1893 it followed the Snake páho making, and in 1894 that of the Flute. It may be called a composite, abbreviated assembly of Katcinas.

During the day Katcina masks were renovated in the kivas of the mesa, and there were visitations at all the kivas by the personators in the coming celebration. Women and children crowded the spectators’ quarters of these rooms, and the performances lasted from 10 oclock in the evening until 2 oclock of the following morning. Previously to the exhibition in the kivas, men personating different Katcinas visited the following points to make hómoya or meal offerings and to say appropriate prayers:

On the 24th of this month (Pa), as after the Snake ceremonials,[50] the Nüitiwa, or struggles of the maids with the men for bowls, etc., took place, except that in this instance it was a struggle with a Katcina and not, as in the Snake observance, between girls and young men.

274

From the foregoing table we learn that in the Return Katcina for 1894 the following[51] were personified:

1. Kütca (white) aña.
2. Coyóhim.
3. Tcakwaína.
4. Pópkotu.
5. Mucaízru.
6. Hü′iki.
7. Hehéa.
8. Avátchoya.
9. Tacáb.
10. Humís.

The accompanying clowns were the Tatcü′kti or knob-head priests. It is an interesting fact that in the celebration of the departure of the Katcinas the clowns took no part, but these priests were important additions to the Síocálako.

The celebration of the Return Katcina, which occurs in the winter Pa moon, is accompanied by elaborate rites performed by either the Snake-Antelope or the Flute fraternity, the society observing it being that which will give its celebration in the summer Pa moon of the same year. A description of these rites naturally falls in an account of the group of unmasked dances. They extend over several days and appear to be wholly distinct from the celebration of the Return Katcina. While these are being performed in the “upper world,” the complemental Flute or Snake observances are supposed to be taking place in the “under world,” where the summer Pa moon then reigns. Precisely the same relationship is thought to exist between the two as that between the seasons of the north and south temperate zones.

POWÁMÛ

This ceremony is one of the most elaborate in which the Katcinas appear, and for want of a better name may be designated a renovation[52] or purification observance. In the year 1893 it took place near the close of January and continued for nine days, and in a previous[53] article I have mentioned and figured the most striking personages, the monsters or Natáckas, who appear in its presentation (plates CV, CVI, CXI). There are, however, certain other personages new to students of Tusayan ceremonials who are introduced, and I have therefore thought it well to describe the presentation in extenso.

The details of this ceremony in 1893 were as follows:[54]

January 20—Early this morning Hoñyi went to all the kivas and formally announced that the ceremony was soon to begin. There was no public announcement, as no Katcina celebration is made known in 275this way, and the Katcinas must not be spoken of in public. Íntiwa and Pauwatíwa began making páhos in the Móñkiva without preliminary ceremony at about 9 a. m., and fifteen other priests removed the masks and redecorated them, after having scraped off the old paint remaining from other ceremonials.

All the masks were finished about 7 p. m., after which Suñoitiwa and the other elders brought fox-skins and other paraphernalia into the kiva, where Kwátcakwa, Kópeli, Tcábi, Kákapti, and four or five other men began to decorate their bodies with pigment, using a pale-red iron oxide (cúta) on their legs, knees, and waists. They daubed the whole upper leg above the knee with a white pigment, and drew two lines across the shins, the fore and upper arms, and on each side of the chest and abdomen. The entrance into the katcínaki, or paraphernalia closet, was open while this took place.

The masks were all ornamented with large clusters of feathers. They were tied to the head with a loose loop across the top which slipped over the crown where the plumage rested, and there were strings at the sides of the mask by which they were attached. The body was ornamented with ribbons, red flannel, and other articles of white man’s make, which are innovations.

Kwátcakwa, who later personated a Tcukúwympkiya, drew a broad band of white clay across his shins, thighs, arms, and body. A great wisp of cornhusks was tied in his hair, which was all brought forward and coiled over the forehead. The others donned their kilts, necklaces, turquoise eardrops, and moccasins. Each one wore a fox-skin hanging tail downward at the loins, and on the left leg below the knee a string of bells, while the majority had garters of blue yarn. Their hair, which was first bound in long cues, wrapped high with strings, was later loosened, hanging in a fine fluffy mass.

Sakwístiwa, who was the púcücütoi or drummer, wore pantaloons held up by a belt of silver disks, and a grotesque mask. All left the kiva immediately after their disguises were completed and assembled in the Móñkiva court.

Íntiwa hurriedly but thoroughly swept the floor of the chamber, during which time a number of women and children came down the ladder, filling the spectators’ part of the room. The assembled group of Katcinas prayed and then went out, but about fifteen minutes later returned to the kiva entrance and shook their rattles at the hatchway. “Yuñya ai,” “come, assemble,” said the old men, and the women invited them to come down, which they did. Kwátcakwa, who personated the Nüvákkatcina, entered, followed by ten others. They assembled in a semicircle, each with a rattle in the right hand and a spruce bough in the left, Íntiwa sprinkled with meal all who came, after which they performed a dance, in which, however, their leader did not join.

Before they finished a band of ten men, disguised as Paiutes, carrying bows and arrows, rabbits, and small game which they wished to trade,276 came to the hatchway. They had a drummer with a Paiute drum, made of a bundle of skins wrapped in an oblong package, on which he beat with a stick held in both hands. The persons performed a dance, which they accompanied with a song. They likewise talked, cracked jokes, and presented the rabbits to the assembled women.

After them there came others from the Nacabkiva, each with a crook in the left hand and a rattle in the right. These wore grotesque masks, one representing an old woman with a long crooked staff in her hand. Their bodies were whitened and they wore saddle-mat kilts around their loins and tortoise rattles on the right leg. They sang a very spirited song, shaking their rattles as they advanced. These were six in number and were called the Powámûkatcinas. Directly after them there came a band of Tatcü′kti, who sang and danced on the roof of the kiva. The old men within repeatedly invited them to enter the room, and a dialogue of some length ensued. Their leader carried a large basket tray in which were four cones made of wood and each mud-head had in his hand a wooden rod and an eagle leather. The leader placed the cones in the middle of the floor in a pile, one above the other, near the fireplace. The others danced around the pile, roaring a song with much dramatic action, and heaped up ears of corn in the tray.

They then brought a young married woman from those assembled to the middle of the floor, where she knelt and tried without success to lift the cones as high as the staff which the leader held beside them. Four or five other women tried in turn, and all failed. The mud-heads then divided the cones into two piles and one of the women lifted them the required height. All the Tatcü′kti[55] then fell down on the floor and kicked their heels in the air, while certain of them stood on their heads for a minute or two. The woman who was successful in lifting the cones received the contents of the tray. The Tatcü′kti then left the room and the Katcinas returned and unmasked, indicating that this part of the ceremony was over.

January 21—During last night there were ceremonials which were not seen in the Móñkiva, in which it was said the Ahü′⁠lkatcina made parallel marks in meal on the four sides of the kiva and upon the ceiling and floor as in the Mamzraúti and other ceremonials. A basin with sprouting beans, which had been planted at the full of the Pamüiya or Pa moon (January 2) and which were about a foot high, was brought from one of the houses opposite the Tcívatokiva. The beans, which were growing in a basin, were plucked from the sand, tied into a separate bundle, and given to Ahü′⁠lkatcina. A large squirrel-skin was filled with meal and given to him, and he was handed also a wooden staff (móñkohu). The large discoidal mask characteristic of this personage had a pouch-like attachment of buckskin which was pulled over the head, 277upon which was a large cluster of feathers. A white kilt was worn as a cape and the skin of a gray fox hung from the girdle at his loins.

At daylight Ahü′lktacina and Íntiwa returned, passing the gap (Wala) and halting at the pahóki (shrine[56]) to deposit certain nakwákwocis and páhos. Just as the sun rose the two visited a kiva in Hano. Stooping down in front of it, Ahü′l drew a vertical mark with meal on the inside of the front of the hatchway, on the side of the entrance opposite the ladder. He turned to the sun and made six silent inclinations, after which, standing erect, he bent his head backward and began a low rumbling growl, and as he bent, his head forward, raised his voice to a high falsetto. The sound he emitted was one long expiration, and continued as long as he had breath. This act he repeated four times and, turning toward the hatchway, made four silent inclinations, emitting the same four characteristic expiratory calls. The first two of these calls began with a low growl, the other two were in the same high falsetto from beginning to end.

The kiva chief and two or three other principal members, each carrying a handful of meal, then advanced, bearing short nakwákwoci hotomni, which they placed in his left hand while they muttered low, reverent prayers. They received in return a few stems of the corn and bean plants which Ahü′l carried.

Ahü′l and Íntiwa next proceeded to the house of Tetapobi,[57] who is the only representative of the Bear clan in Hano. Here at the right-hand side of the door Ahü′l pressed his hand full of meal against the wall at about the height of his chest and moved his hand upward.[58] He then, as at the kiva, turned around and faced the sun, holding his staff vertically at arm’s length with one end on the ground, and made six silent inclinations and four calls. Turning then to the doorway he made four inclinations and four calls. He then went to the house of Nampíyo’s mother, where the same ceremony was performed, and so on to the houses of each man or woman of the pueblo who owns a típoni or other principal wími (fetich).

He repeated the same ceremony in houses in Sitcomovi and in Walpi, where Íntiwa left him. Ahü′l entered this pueblo by the north street and passed through the passageway to the Móñkiva. He proceeded to the houses of Kwumawumsi, Nasyúñwewe, Samiwiki, and to all the kivas and the houses of all the leading chiefs.

After visiting all the kivas and appropriate houses mentioned above, Ahü′l went to Kowawainovi (the ledge under Talatryuku) and deposited278 in the pahóki all the offerings that he had received, after which he returned to the Móñkiva, divested himself of his ceremonial disguises, and went home.

At 2 p. m. the Nüvák (snow) Katcinas came from the Nacabki, led by Soyóko. They were nine in number and were accompanied by a drummer. All wore bright plumage on their heads and their masks were painted green and white, but that of the drummer was pink. They were adorned with many necklaces, and wore white kilts and gray fox-skins. Yellow stripes were painted on the shoulders, the forearm, on each breast and the abdomen, and the bodies of all were stained red.

After singing and dancing for about five minutes, nine clowns (Tatcü′kti) came from the Álkiva and danced madly around the court, at first independently, but finally keeping step with the Katcinas. They joined in line one behind the other, each grasping the uplifted leg of the man in front of him, and then tumbled pell-mell over one another, shouting and laughing as they did so.[59]

At 2.20 a personification of Tcavaíyo, arrayed in a conical black mask with globular eyes and great teeth, entered the kiva. He carried a bow and arrows in his left hand and a saw in his right. His forearms and legs were painted black with white spots. This monster dispersed the clowns, during which many Zuñi words were uttered.

At 2.50 the Katcinas again returned and repeated their former dance in the same way as described. The antics of the Tatcü′kti continued, and the Katcinas appeared again at 4.20 p. m.; then later at 5, when they all departed, not to return. When the Katcinas retired to Wikyátiwa’s house at 4 oclock the clowns went down into the Álkiva and returned in their characteristic procession, the drummer in front, the other eight in two lines of four persons. Each carried on his back a large bundle composed of a fine blanket, cotton cloth, yarn, and all kinds of textile articles of value. One also had the four cones which they had used the night before and a tray of shelled corn of all colors, mixed with various kinds of seeds. They laid the tray in the center of the court and spread a blanket beside it, on which they placed all their bundles. One of their number then piled the cones, one on top of another, and while he was doing this the drummer rapidly beat his drum, while the others shook their rattles and sung vigorously. When the cones had been set up one of the men sought out a girl and brought her to them and told her if she would take hold of the lowest cone with both hands, raise the pile, and set it back in place without letting any of the cones fall she should have all the wealth piled on the blanket. But the least jar tumbled the cones down, and each one of the half dozen or more girls to whom they made the same offer failed in turn. Then they invited the youths to try, and several essayed, but none were able to perform the feat. So the prize, doubtless designedly, was left in the original owner’s hands. They then brought a blanket full of hoyiani 279and placed the cones in two piles, but even then none of the girls succeeded in carrying it. No one was allowed a second trial. Finally one youth, Macakwáptiwa, carried them around safely and won the prize. He was closely followed around the pillar by the Tatcü′kti shaking their rattles, singing and crying, “Don’t fall, don’t fall,” and when he laid them safely down in their original place all the Tatcü′kti fell down as if dead. Íntiwa then ran and obtained ashes from a cooking pit and placed them on a private part of their bodies. Then all the clowns got up and danced around with their usual pranks.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.  PL. CVII.

A. HOEN & CO. LITH.

A tray full of corn and other seeds which was set beside the cones was obtained by the Tatcü′kti from Nakwaíyumsi, the chief priestess of the Katcina clan. At the close of the ceremony Íntiwa distributed these seeds in small handfuls to all the women spectators, to be planted the coming season. It was not learned that these seeds were consecrated by the priestess, but they were part of those planted in the kivas on the night of the 21st.

January 22—The younger men brought sand from a mound[60] and threw it down in a pile at the east of the kiva, and each man, as he came into the room with his basin, box, or other receptacle, filled it with this sand. He then thickly sprinkled the surface of the sand with seeds of every kind. Some had several vessels which they thus planted, and the old wife of Soyóko gave her grandson a bag of large white beans to plant for her.[61] The basins were well watered, a hot fire was kept in the kiva, and the hatch or entrance was entirely covered with a straw mat to retain the heat in the chamber, making it a veritable hothouse.

January 24—No ceremonies occurred today, but constant fires were maintained in the kivas, from the heat of which the beans soon sprouted. It was understood that children must not be told that beans were growing in the kivas nor be allowed to look into the room.

January 25—The Tatcü′kti went out from the Álkiva this morning for wood, making their way northward, past Wala and along the mesa to the cedar grove. They returned at evening, but left the wood they had gathered at the gap.[62] There was no singing nor dancing in the kivas during the night.

January 26—During the morning the Tatcü′kti went to Wala to bring in the wood they had collected yesterday. Before their departure they covered their bodies with pinkish clay, put on an old kilt (kwáca),[63] blue leggings, and masks with knobs. Each carried an eagle-tail feather in the left and a small gourd in the right hand. They 280returned along the trail, marching in single file, with the loads of wood on their backs, stamping their feet as they came. They likewise shook their rattles and occasionally turned and walked backward.

They first assembled around each of the kiva hatchways in Hano, singing and chaffing one another, and were sprinkled with meal by the kiva chiefs. Proceeding onward to Sitcomovi, they went to the entrances of the kivas of this pueblo and were there sprinkled with meal by the chiefs as they sang their curious songs, accompanying them with a stamping of the feet and a rotating movement of the body. It was after 1 oclock when they arrived at Walpi, for they halted a short time at the neck of the mesa to arrange their loads. As they entered the pueblo they advanced along the south street singing as they went.

At the entrance to Tcívatokiva they stopped and told Pauwatíwa a facetious story of their wood-gathering. He sprinkled them with meal, and they then went on to the dance court and set down their bundles, all the time making a droll byplay. They then separated into parties of two or three members and visited the houses of several women, with whom they left one or more bundles of wood. These women had previously prepared nakwákwocis, which they gave to the clowns with a handful of meal.

After all the wood had been distributed, with much rollicking fun, several women gave them food, and the small parties of Tatcü′kti resumed their songs and marched through the dance court, where they all assembled. One of them was a drummer, who sat in the middle of the court, and the others danced about him in a circle, singing a Zuñi song. Pauwatíwa, Íntiwa, Tcósra, and Soyóko sprinkled them with meal, and the first-mentioned invited the women who had been given wood to approach, which they did, sprinkling the individual Tatcü′ktis with meal. Their masks were then harshly removed and thrust into a bag, tied up in a bundle, and carried to the house of Wikyátiwa. Most of the food which they had received was carried down into the Álkiva, which was the assemblage place of the Tatcü′kti in this ceremony.

In all the kivas the beans had sprouted and were now called házrü (angular), possibly so named from the angle formed by the cotyledons with the stem. When they had grown somewhat higher they were called wupáhazrü (great or long, angular).

January 28—No ceremonials were observed on this day.

January 29—This was called the first ceremonial day of the Powámuh. About 11 oclock last night the Natácka donned their masks in the Álkiva, and the man who took the part of Hahaíwüqti, the mother of the Natáckas, put on her disguise and took her long juniper bough. Háhawe went up the ladder, standing on it with his shoulders just above the hatchway, while the mother of the monsters stood at the foot of the same in the room. Assuming a hollow falsetto voice, in which the mother of the Natáckas always speaks, she announced that281 she was ready to visit the children. Háhawe shouted his replies to her in a voice audible through the pueblo that the children were all asleep and that she had better put off her visit to them until the morning. A dialogue, the real object of which was to announce to the children that the Natáckas had arrived, was maintained for five minutes, and Háhawe then went down the ladder; the Natáckas and Hahaíwüqti took off their masks and all laid down to sleep.

About 4.20 p. m. the Tewa personification of Hahaíwüqti, accompanied by one Natácka, came to Walpi and went to Kókyanwü′qti’s and Kele’s houses, giving to the little girls a few seeds and a snare of yucca shred. They dressed the Walpi Hahaíwüqti, Natáckas, and Soyókmana in the Álkiva at 4.25 p. m. Hahaíwüqti carried, besides a whitened gourd ladle, a basket (póota) containing two ears of corn, and two boiled hoyíani, some squash seeds, and a small bundle of sticks, of which she gave one to each little girl, who will later redeem it by presenting Hahaíwüqti with some hótomni. She gave each little boy, who will also redeem it with some kinds of game, a shred of yucca looped to a stick at the butt end (a rude snare). Natácka and Náamû wore cloth shirts, trousers and buckskin leggings, and two buckskins hung as loose mantles over their shoulders. The former carried a tortoise-shell rattle on his right leg, and had a bow and arrows in his left hand and an arrow in the right. Soyókmana had the hair smeared with white clay. She wore a loose mantle and whistled as Natácka hooted. Hahaíwüqti wore a fox-skin around the neck. The hands of all were whitened. Soyókmana wore a hideous black mask and was dressed in dilapidated clothing. She had a large knife in her left hand and a crook in her right (plates CV and CVI).

The Natácka helmets had turkey-tail feathers[64] closely radiating vertically at the crown, and they wore a cloth shirt and trousers, with belt with silver disks. Each had buckskin leggings and wore a fox-skin around the base of the mask; two large buckskins hung as mantles over the right shoulder. He carried a bow and arrows[65] in the left hand and with his right hand he received the food and placed it in the tozrúki[66] slung over his right shoulder. Soyókmana was personified by a lad of 12 years, wearing a woman’s blanket (kwáca) and a buckskin mantle. He had a nakwákwoci, stained red, tied to the scalp lock.

A similar group, all costumed identically, was prepared in each of the three villages. The group of Tewa personifications went to every house in that pueblo and then to the houses in other villages where men from Hano have married. The groups of the other towns go first to the houses of their own pueblo and then to the houses in the other villages where men have transferred themselves by marriage.

When the Walpi group had finished their exercises at Hano and Sitcomovi they went back to Walpi and proceeded along the front side of 282their pueblo to their own kiva, where they disrobed about dark. The object of the exhibition was to frighten children who exhibited fear of them, but children 6 years of age or thereabouts were somewhat familiar with them, and while it was evident they held the monsters in considerable awe they tried to assume a bold front when receiving the seeds and snares.[67]

At 8.30 a man personifying Tümáckatcina ran through Walpi from the Móñkiva toward Wala, emitting hoots as he went. A full half hour after, about 9 oclock, a group of masked but uncostumed men wrapped in blankets went to the kiva hatches and uttered most ferocious groans for four or five minutes. This was done in an informal manner, but was said to be prescribed ceremonially.

January 30—Between 7 and 8 oclock Wikokuitkatcina emerged from the Álkiva, passed around Walpi to the east end of the pueblo, and then down through the north lane, past Íntiwa’s house, under the passageways back to the Álkiva. His body was painted white and he wore a blanket tied with a girdle (wukokwena), a fox-skin dangling at his loins. Nothing was elicited in relation to this event.

Between 8 and 9 oclock uncostumed groups of Tatcü′kti went to the entrances of the kivas and laid themselves prone upon the hatch, their heads projecting over its edges. Several of them uttered their characteristic growls and pretended to snarl at and worry one another, possibly imitating ferocious animals or monsters. One of them carried on a dialogue with some one in the kiva.

At 9 oclock Tümac and two Tuñwúpkatcina (masked but uncostumed) made the tour of the pueblos, emitting peculiar hoots. Between 9 and 10 oclock Owana zrozrokatcina and Wupámokatcina appeared separately, each making a solitary tour of the village. They were not masked, but so wrapped in blankets that their masks were not visible.

At 10 oclock the Hano clowns and Natácka group came to Walpi and performed the same ceremony as the Walpi group, which has been described. There was informal singing in all the kivas.

January 31—During this day the masks of Hililikatcina and Soyókmana were painted. After dark a masked man (Katcina not known) rushed through the pueblo, and shortly after Tümac and her two sons (Tuñwúpkatcina), unmasked, ran through the pueblo hooting. About 9 oclock delegates from Sitcomovi, with a drum and rattles, made the rounds of Walpi and carried on a dialogue with the kiva chief.

At 10 oclock 18 Tcakwaínakatcinas came to the Móñkiva from Hano. They were naked, save a breechcloth, but their bodies and limbs were ornamented with white zigzag markings. They wore fillets of a dozen or more yucca bands around the head, and necklaces in profusion on their necks. They passed in succession into the kivas, dancing a few minutes in each, and returned home shortly before midnight.

283

February 1—Several tíhus (dolls) were carved in the kivas, to be distributed to the children as in the Nimánkatcina. Tumac and her sons went around the pueblo about half past 7 oclock, as on former evenings.

In the Tcivatokiva 14 men and a boy about 10 years of age, with Pauwatíwa as chief, whitened their faces, bound a fillet around their foreheads, and made curious crescentic marks on their cheeks. They afterward danced and sang. Sitcomovi priests, beginning at the Móñkiva, made formal visits to each kiva in Walpi. There were 12 of these men and they were decorated like those of the Tcivatokiva. They sang Síohúmiskatcina songs, but wore no masks. They later visited the Sitcomovi kivas. The Tcivatokiva people then put on their kilts, tied on their turtle-shell rattles, took their juniper staffs and gourd rattles, and, led by Pauwatíwa, went to the Álkiva, and later to all the other kivas, where they danced and sang Pawik (duck) Katcina songs. Pauwatíwa sprinkled meal on the Katcinas from Sitcomovi before they began, and the chiefs of the other kivas did the same to those who visited them before they opened their dance.

February 2—This afternoon 8 girls, assisted by the men, washed the walls of the Móñkiva with a thin mud made of valley sand. The following girls took part in this work: Kaiyónsi, Humisi, Humíta, Lénho (a woman), Leúnaisi, Tuvéwaisi, Hokwáti, and Hónka. The girls also made mud designs, lightning symbols, and hand-prints on the rafters of the room.

Tuñwúpkatcina[68] (personified by Takála) arrayed himself as follows: He donned trousers made of cotton cloth and wrapped himself in a blanket, under which he concealed all his paraphernalia. He received two bunches of yucca with about twelve or fifteen leaves in each bunch, and concealing them under his blanket hastened off to the northeastern end of the village. There he arrayed himself, and at 5 p. m. he returned, running back and hooting as he came, until he halted at the court, where he kept trotting up and down, marking time. He wore a mud-head helmet with a black band across the eyes, and parrakeet feathers on the top of the head. Turkey-tail feathers were arranged radiating horizontally from the crown to the back of the head. He wore also a cotton shirt and a kilt girded with a white belt (wukókwena). He had yellow clay on his legs and a tortoise-shell rattle below each knee. His moccasins were painted black. A whip or bunch of yucca with the butts in front was held in each hand.

The children who were flogged were brought to Tuñwup in the following way: The mother, sometimes accompanied by the father, led the child to the court, and if it were a boy the godfather took him in charge. He gave the lad an ear of corn, his tcótcnunwa, and a handful of prayer meal, and led the frightened child close up to Tuñwup. The godfather 284prompted the boy, who cast his handful of meal on or toward Tuñwup. The godfather also cast meal on the same personage and then divested the boy of all his clothing and presented the lad with his back toward Tuñwup, who all this time had maintained his trotting motion but without advancing. Tuñwup then plied one of his yucca wands vigorously, giving the boy five or six forcible lashes on the back. After this was over the godfather withdrew the screaming boy and tied a nakwákwoci to his scalplock. The mother was standing by and hurriedly covered her son, frightened with his punishment, and led him home, but the mother was careful to see that he carried his tcótcnunwa in his hand.

If the child were a girl, her godmother led her up to Tuñwup, but her little gown was not taken off; only the mantle was removed for the flogging. Notwithstanding this, however, the blows were delivered with enough force to cause considerable pain, but her crying probably resulted as much from fright as from physical suffering. The godmother led the little girl back to her home, after having cast meal on Tuñwup, and was very careful that the child carried her tcótcnunwa.

There were five children of age varying from about eight to ten years who were thus flagellated. After each boy was flogged the godfather cast meal toward Tuñwup and then held out his own bared arms and legs successively, which Tuñwup lashed four or five times with all his might; but no women were submitted to this flagellation. Several men who had some ailment also went up to Tuñwup, and casting meal upon him received lashes on their bare arms and legs.

The man who personified Tuñwup exercised considerable discretion in performing his duty. In the case of a little girl who showed more than ordinary fear, he simply whirled his yucca whip over her head without touching her, and then motioned her away; but on the arms and legs of the adults he laid his whip without restraint. When all had been flagellated, Pauwatíwa came up from his kiva and gave Tuñwup a handful of meal and a nakwákwoci, who then trotted off, going outside the pueblo, possibly to preserve the illusion among the children that he was a real Katcina who had visited the pueblo from afar.

For four successive mornings the flagellated child was taken to a point on the mesa called Talatiyuka and there deposited a nakwákwoci in a shrine and cast meal toward the sun. During this time the child was not permitted to eat salt nor flesh, but on the fourth day a little before sunset this abstinence ceased, and the child might henceforth look upon Katcinas and sacred objects in the kivas without harm.

The primary significance of the flogging seems to be that until children have acquired sufficient intelligence or are eight or ten years of age, they are made to believe that the Katcinas, appearing at each dance, are superhuman visitors, and they are never permitted to see an unmasked Katcina. When they have matured enough or have sufficient understanding, they are instructed that the real[69] Katcinas have 285long since ceased their visits to mankind and are merely impersonated by men; but they acquire that knowledge at the expense of a sound flogging, such as I have just described.

At 10 oclock six Tcü′tckütü (clowns), accompanied by Píptuku, who was dressed as an old woman and wore an old mask, passed about the pueblo from one kiva to another. These six persons entered the Móñkiva, and Píptuku, after some urging, followed them. One of the Tcü′tckütü was sent out, and the other five in succession took a pinch of ashes in the left hand from the fireplace, and poising it as if taking aim at something through the hatch struck off the ashes with the right hand.

A few minutes later four Wuwíyomokatcinas wearing characteristic masks appeared at the kiva hatch with turkey feathers radiating vertically around the upper part. They carried móñkohus[70] and an undressed skin pouch. Their leader, Silánktiwa, was without costume, and Cálako, Kwátcakwa, and seven other unmasked persons followed. Their faces and bodies were whitened, the hair hanging loose, and limbs bare. They wore plumes of gaudy feathers on their heads, were arrayed in white kilts, and held crooks in their hands. A personage called Eótoto[71] preceded them, and Hahaíwüqti, continually talking, followed. The procession was closed by a warrior (Kaléktaka),[72] who carried a bundle of arrows in one hand and a bow and arrows in the other, and frequently hooted. The uncostumed chorus, composed of about twelve persons, accompanied by a drummer, followed in a cluster.

When the leading Wuwíyomo came to the Móñkiva he threw down the hatchway a ball of moist meal, which struck the middle of the floor. After this announcement he was clamorously invited by those within the chamber to enter, which he did, followed by the others. Each Wuwíyomo bore a bundle of deer scapulæ, which he clanked as a rattle, and all were sprinkled with meal by Íntiwa as they entered the kiva. They afterward filed to the western side of the room where the plants were growing; they sang for about five minutes, all standing.

When Eótoto entered the chamber he made on the floor with meal four symbols of the rain cloud, one in advance of the other, and each of the Cálakos squatted on one of these symbols. The chorus, remaining outside, continued their song for a few minutes, while the Wuwíyomos were singing. Those who had last entered the kiva then passed out in the same order, and as they did so were sprinkled with meal, and each of the four Wuwíyomos was handed a nakwákwoci. They then visited the other Walpi kivas, where no observations 286were made, but the same ceremonials were probably repeated. After this they went off to perform the same ceremonies in the kivas of other villages on the mesa.

At 11 oclock a group of 12 men and a boy from Hano, costumed but accompanied by an uncostumed fiddler,[73] visited all the kivas in succession. Their bodies were painted white and they had plumes in their hair, but were unmasked. Each wore a fox skin depending from the loins, was barefoot, and carried a gourd rattle in the right hand and a sprig of spruce in the left hand. Their visits were expected, but they personated no especial Katcina and after their departure, the men in the Móñkiva rehearsed a song.

February 3—No ceremonial took place throughout the day. The walls of the kivas were renovated by the girls with a wash of mud, and every kiva on the mesa was replastered in this way during the festival.

February 4—This day the manufacture of tíhus (dolls) went on in all the kivas, and there was a continuation of the replastering and decoration of the walls of these chambers.

At 9 oclock a dialogue similar to that above recorded on the 29th of January took place between Hahaíwüqti and the kiva chief. The former wished to go among the children, but was told that it was very dark and the children were asleep. She was finally prevailed on to wait until the morrow.

At 10 p. m. 20 unmasked persons,[74] men and women with flowing hair, from Sitcomovi visited all the Walpi kivas. Each of the male personators carried a narrow green tablet (pavaíyikaci),[75] fringed with long red hair and decorated with a symbol of the sun painted in colors. Each had a gourd rattle, and a stick about 2 feet long, to the end of which was attached half a gourd painted to represent a squash blossom, was held in the right hand. The 10 men personating women were not costumed. The leader carried a large Oraibi basket tray with a broad, brightly colored handle. In this was an effigy of a bird.

He set this tray on the floor near the fireplace, and after the chief of the kiva had sprinkled the visitors with meal a male and a female personator advanced from the western end of the kiva to the fireplace. The man picked up the basket on the butt end of his stick and presented it to the woman, who held it in both hands and danced a few moments, while all the others sang. She then laid the tray down and passed to the northern side of the chamber, the man retiring to the southern side. After the other couples had performed the same ceremony they left the kivas.

Immediately after their departure 28 personators from Hano entered. These consisted of male and female deities, the latter personated by men. The former passed to the southern, the latter to the northern 287side of the kiva. Each of the male personages wore a yucca fillet on his head and his legs were decorated with clay streaks; he wore white kilts and girdles, with dependent fox-skins. They also had tortoise rattles on the legs and carried a gourd rattle in the right hand. Their costume was as follows: They were without masks; the hair was loose and an imitation of a squash blossom was tied therein. The face was not colored, but on the right shoulder curving to the breast was daubed a mass of blue and green pigment. On the left shoulder and over the breast they were painted with yellow, and bright red streaks were drawn from the neck down the center of the breast and middle of the back. The upper part of the right arm was colored yellow, the left forearm green, the upper part of the left arm green. These colors were reversed on the right arm. The right leg also was yellow and the left leg was green with two contrasting bands below the knee. The hands, waist, and upper portion of the thighs were whitened. They likewise wore white kilts tied with girdles (wukokwéna and nanelkwéna). A gray fox-skin depended from the loins. Each had a tortoise shell rattle on the right leg and on the left leg generally a garter to which small sleigh-bells were attached. Their moccasins were blue or green. In his right hand each carried a blue or green painted rattle, and in the left a sprig or small branch of spruce. Those personating females neither wore fox-skins nor held anything in the left hand. The female personators carried in the left hand a bundle of straw held well up before the face. After they had been sprinkled with meal they began to sing, and the couple in the center on the west side joined hands, holding them above the head—the female with the palm turned up, the male with the palm down and fingers imbricated. They advanced close to the fireplace and then returned to their respective places. The personators executed this figure four times in sequence and then went out.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.  PL. CVIII.

A. HOEN & CO. LITH.

Immediately after this presentation the delegation from the Móñkiva, led by a masked person, entered. The bodily decorations of these were not uniform; one had a figure of a gourd drawn on his breast, another zigzag lines, and still another parallel bars. The males carried a gourd rattle in the right hand; they wore no fillets on the head but allowed the hair to hang loosely. The female personators held a bunch of straw[76] and a sprig of spruce in the left hand, carrying it high up before the face. They sang the same song and executed the same figure as that already mentioned in the account of the presentation by the men from the village of Hano. The groups finished their visits at about midday.

288

February 5—At earliest dawn (5 a. m.) either the chief or one of his elders roused all the sleepers in the kiva, and each spread his blanket beside his basin of growing plants. He then carefully plucked the plants, one by one, so as not to bruise either stalk or roots. He laid them on the blanket in an orderly pile, the leaves together. The sand which remained in the basin was carried to some place where children would not see it, and the vessels were dried before the kiva fire and hidden away in the houses out of sight of the prying eyes of the young ones.

Nearly all the plants were tied with a yucca shred and a sprig of spruce (symbol of a Katcina), in neat bundles, leaving loose bights of the yucca by which to hold them. Each priest also tied up the dolls which he had made. All traces of the soil in which the corn had been forced to sprout had disappeared long before dawn.

The presents (dolls) which were made in the Tcivatoki were then distributed by a man personifying Pawíkkatcina, under the instruction of those who had fashioned them. The distributing Katcinas of the Nacabki were two Nüváktcinas,[77] and the same did this duty with the dolls in the Móñkiva. For the Álkiva two Tcoshühüwûh performed this duty. These Katcinas and two persons called Kawaíka (Keres) from Sitcomovi bustled about the pueblo on their errands and the distribution was finished about sunrise. The men did not speak when they approached a house with their gifts, but hooted after the customary manner of Katcinas.

Almost half an hour before sunrise the Soyókmana passed around the kivas, holding a dialogue at the hatchways with the chiefs inside. She wore a black conical mask with red mouth and white teeth, and was costumed as an old woman. In the right hand she bore a crook 7 feet long, at the end of which were tied many shells. In the left hand she carried a knife smeared with rabbit blood. Hü′hüwûh also held a dialogue with the kiva chiefs and made gifts of watermelons and squashes to various persons.

At 11.30 a. m. Soyókmana, Hahaíwüqti, and the Natáckas (plate CVI) made a visit to all the houses. They were followed by two Hehéakatcinas[78] with bags and pouches of food recently received, and after them followed three black and two white Natáckas. These five went together and were constantly in motion, moving or beating time with their feet.

The strange company went to each house demanding food, and when it was refused or poor quality offered the Natáckas uttered a hoot like an owl, and at the same time Soyókmana whistled. They refused to leave a house until proper food had been given them, and if a child who had not been ceremonially flogged appeared with the mother its eyes were shaded by the mother’s hand while she presented food to the Natáckas.

289

Between 12 and 1 oclock Íntiwa, assisted by Hoñyi and Letaiyo, finished making twelve sets of cákwa (blue) páhos, most of which were composed of two sticks of uniform diameter, and only one set showed the flat face characteristic of the female. They likewise made twelve nakwákwoci hotomni, consisting of a twig about 2 feet long from which four nakwákwocis depended at intervals, and twelve simple feathered strings. When these were finished Íntiwa placed them in a tray of meal beside the sípapû and brought from the paraphernalia closet of the kiva six ears of corn of different colors, his típoni, two nákwipis and as many aspergills, two or more rattles, and other bundles containing the remaining paraphernalia of the cloud-charm altar.

At 1.30 p. m. he placed a small hillock of sand back of the sípapû and deposited his típoni upright upon it; he then made the cloud-charm altar,[79] arranging the corn at the ends of six radial lines of meal in a sinistral circuit, placing two crystals upon each ear of corn except that corresponding to the nadir. The aspergills (makwámpis) also were laid down beside each ear of corn except that which was symbolic of the nadir. The sequence of ceremonials which then took place about this altar was as follows:

1. Ceremonial smoke.
2. Prayers.
3. Liquid poured into the crenelated vessel or nákwipi.
4. Songs.
   Synopsis of ceremonial events during the songs:
   1. Meal shaken from the six aspergills into the liquid.
   2. Whistling into the liquid through a turkey bone, and asperging to the cardinal points with the same, six times in all.
   3. Meal cast into liquid, on tray of páhos and over the típoni in ceremonial circuit.
   4. Pollen cast on the same objects in sequence.
5. Prayers.
6. Ceremonial smoke into the liquid with two pipes.

At the close of this observance Hahaíwüqti and the Natáckas came to the kiva hatch and a comic dialogue ensued. She demanded meat and other food, and the elders went up the ladder and refused to grant her wishes. Natácka hooted and Soyókmana whistled back, and then the Hehéakatcinas threw down the end of their lariat, and those in the kiva below hung a piece of sheepskin and horns of goats to it.

Íntiwa then called two youths, and without anointing them[80] gave them instructions where to deposit the offerings which had been consecrated290 on the cloud-charm altar.[81] One youth was told to deposit his at shrines in a circuit, beginning with Tawapa (Sun spring), and the other at Kokyanba (Spider spring) and Tuveskyabi. Two sets of offerings were left, and these with Katcinas were placed on the southwest point of the mesa. This closed the ceremony, for Íntiwa then replaced the plug of the sípapû and tied up his típoni and other paraphernalia.

The Natácka group went to the Wikwaliobikiva, and there Sóyoko gave each of them and the Hehéakatcina a handful of meal and a nakwákwoci. Taláhoya blew puffs of smoke over them. They then marched around the houses to the Nacabki, along the plaza to Tcivatoki, and then to Álkiva, where they begged for meat and held comic dialogues with different chiefs. At the last-mentioned place there came from the kiva six men arrayed and costumed as the Mamzraúti tcatumakaa, who, singing as they went, marched to the dance court and halted close to the edge of the cliff, facing the houses. The Natácka group accompanied them, and two men personifying Hehéakatcinas assumed erotic paroxysms and lay down on their backs on the ground close to the disguised Mamzraúti personages, endeavoring to lift up their kilts and performing obscene actions. Then they rolled on the ground in assumed fits. The Natáckas, as usual, maintained their prancing step around them, and occasionally Soyókmana thumped them with the butt end of her crook. After about five minutes of this exhibition the Hehéa seized the Mamzraúti personators and tumbled them into an indiscriminate heap, fell on top of them, and did other acts which need not be mentioned. The Natácka then retired for food, and, unmasking in the kiva, did not again appear.

February 6—Food was carried to all the kivas yesterday morning, but there was neither dancing nor ceremonials.

February 7—No ceremony took place on this day, but the kiva chief and the Hehéakatcinas played a curious game of ball called sunwuwinpa, in which the ball is attached to a looped string. The player lay on his back and, passing the loop over the great toe, projected the ball back over his head. Two groups of these players were noted.

The following Katcinas were personated in the Powámû of 1893:[82]

• Hahaíwüqti, Ancient Woman, Mother of Monsters.
• Natácka, Monster.
• Soyókmana, Attendant of Natácka.
• Tuñwúp, Flogging Katcina.
• Ahü′l.
• Tümác, Mother of Ahü′l.
• Wuyókwati.
• Tcakwaína.
• Wuwíyomo.
• Pawík, Duck.
• Nüvák, Snow.
• Hehéa.
• Mamzraúti tcatumakaa.
• Tcavaíyo, Giant Elk.
• Wupámo, Great Cloud.
• Owanazrozro, Stone Devourer.

291

PÁLÜLÜKOÑTI

The screen drama of the Pálülükoñti ceremonial as performed in 1893 has already been described.[83]

The following personifications of Katcinas appeared in the Pálülükoñti in 1893:

• Coyóhim, All.
• Pawík, Duck.
• Tacáb, Navaho.
• Hokyaña.
• Húhian, Barter.
• Cálako, Cálako.

Its presentation in other years differs very materially from the description given.

In the celebration of 1891 a wooden figure representing Cálako was introduced with two carved marionettes, which were manipulated as if grinding corn, and serpent effigies were thrust through the sun opening of the screen. These were likewise used in the presentation in 1894.[84]

The celebration of Pálülükoñti in 1894 was controlled by the Badger people, and the exhibition of the screen drama occurred March 16. A number of slabs with symbolic figures of Táwa (the sun), and Cótükinuñwa (the heart of all the sky), and two small effigies of Pálülükoñûh (plumed snake) were introduced. The two mechanical figurines, which were so manipulated as to appear to be in the act of grinding corn on metates, represented Cálakomanas, and were made by Tótci of the Badger people.

This variation from year to year, it will be observed, preserves without change the various deities introduced and recalls what I have already written about the variations in altars of the Nimán in different villages. In stage effects latitude is permissible, but there is no change in the deities represented. Something similar occurs in the Mamzraúti, where, in 1891, tablets with Palahíkomana symbols were used, while in 1893 women represented that personage.

So far as I know the essential personages[85] to be represented by symbolism or by men in disguise, are:

• Táwa, Sun.
• Mü′iyawû, Moon.
• Cótokinuñwa, Heart of the Sky.
• Hahaíwüqti, Ancient Mother.
• Pálülükoñti, Plumed Snake.
• Cálako taka or mana, Corn Man or Maid.
• Various Katcinas, mentioned above, but these may vary year by year.
• Másauwûh, Fire God.
• Various Tcukúwympkiyas, Clowns.

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NIMÁNKATCINA

An outline of the ceremonials attending the departure of the Katcinas from three of the Tusayan villages has already been given elsewhere.[86] From new observations it is found that much remains to complete this account, but the main events have already been described. While the dance resembles the abbreviated Katcinas, from which it should not be widely separated, the altar and kiva ceremonials place it in the group of elaborate Katcinas or those with complicated secret usages. It is only in those villages in which are preserved the wími of the Kachina móñwi that this celebration can occur, although, as we shall later see, abbreviated Katcinas are not so limited. It will probably be found that any abbreviated Katcina may be used for the public dance of the Nimán, but no abbreviated Katcina can have the secret ceremonials of the Nimán without becoming the same. When the Katcina chief, Íntiwa, sets up his altar it is but natural that any set of Katcinas may give the public dance, which, while a necessary accompaniment, is far from being prescribed as to kind.

ABBREVIATED KATCINAS

CHARACTERISTICS

This group includes a large number of simple ceremonials in which a masked dance in public is the most significant part. The general character of these observances may be seen by a consultation of my article, “A few summer ceremonials at the Tusayan pueblos.”[87] The distinctive name is determined by the characters personified as indicated by the symbolic markings of the masks or by other paraphernalia. No elaborate kiva ceremonials are performed.[88]

All the abbreviated presentations have certain common features which run through them. These characteristics may be learned from my description in the article on “The summer ceremonials,”[89] but in order to make them more prominent I have mentioned them in an appended footnote.[87]

The special Katcina celebrated is designated by the symbolism depicted on the mask, which is repainted and redecorated according to the Katcina which it is intended to represent. For the special 293name and the accompanying symbolism a study of the dolls will give as good an idea as can yet be obtained from published articles.[90]

The participants in the abbreviated Katcinas may be divided into two groups: (1) The Katcinas, male and female, with related masked personages, and the priests who pray to them and sprinkle meal upon them, and (2) the accompanying clowns and masked or other persons who participate in their antics and presentation. The details of the proceedings of the second or possibly subordinate group vary in different dances more than those of the first.

The participants of the first group are:

1. Masked personages (always men) called Katcinas.

2. Masked men, personifying women, called Katcinamanas.

3. One or more masked persons, who vary in symbolic characters in different Katcinas. These are often absent.

4. Priests (unmasked), directors of the dance, who sprinkle the Katcinas with sacred meal. These priests are vehicles of prayers to the Katcinas and masked participants, and are generally few in number.

The presentation is accompanied with a feast[91] (generally at noon) limited to Katcinas and Katcinamanas. The Katcinas dance in line, sing, distribute gifts, but never utter any continuous sentence or prayer. The Katcinamanas dance in line facing the Katcinas, or kneel in front of the same, accompanying their songs with a rasping noise made by rubbing a scapula over a notched stick. Ordinarily their mask is identical in all Katcinas of the abbreviated form, and they generally have their hair in two whorls on the sides of the head, and wear white blankets and other feminine apparel. The second group of personifications are the Tcukúwympkiyas (Tatcü′kti, knob-head priests; Tcü′ckütû, gluttons; or Paiakaíamû, horned clowns). Their representation consists of a series of antics and dramatizations, story telling, gluttony, obscene gestures or bawdy remarks, and flogging and other indignities heaped upon each other or upon accompanying masked persons. These representations and the personifications who carry on their portion of the observance vary in different reproductions of the same drama.

The Tcukúwympkyia do not dance or sing with the Katcinas, but sprinkle them with meal and pray to them. While an essential feature in certain abbreviated Katcinas, they are not always present, and their exhibition has many secular or temporal characteristics or innovations more or less dependent on the invention of the participants. The masked persons who assist them are representatives of semimythologic beings, called Píptuka, Ü′tci (Apache), Tacáb (Navaho), Kése, and others. A description of the various modifications of their performances would mean special account of each presentation 294and would vary in details for each exhibition, but except in a very general way these variations are quite unimportant in the study of the characteristics of the abbreviated Katcinas. The following are some of the episodes introduced:

1. Inordinate eating and begging, urine drinking, gluttony, and obscenity.

2. Flogging of one another, stripping off breechcloths, drenching with foul water, ribald remarks to spectators, and comical episodes with donkeys and dogs.

3. Story telling for pieces of corn under severe flogging by masked persons, races, smearing one another with blood, urinating upon one another, tormenting with cactus branches, etc.

The Katcina dance ordinarily lasts from daybreak to sunset, with intermissions, during which the participants unmask under an overhanging cliff on the southern side of the mesa. Here likewise they have their feast at midday. The dances in the forenoon are slimly attended by spectators, but in the afternoon all the terraces and roofs of the houses surrounding the plaza[92] in which the pillar mound is situated are occupied by natives and visitors. The line of Katcinas is led by an uncostumed chief, who sprinkles meal on the ground as he enters and leaves the dance court, and who from time to time shouts to 295the dancers (figure 40). The leader of the Katcinas stands midway in the line, and by a rapid movement of his rattle as a signal changes the song and directs the termination. To him[93] as a representative the prayers are addressed. The dance is a rhythmic stamping movement of one foot on the ground, and all keep in line, elbowing their neighbors, turning now to one side, then to another, as directed. The female Katcinas face the male and stand about midway in the line. They use the serrated stick and scapula as an accompaniment to the song.

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It is common for both male and female Katcinas to bring gifts to the plaza for spectators, especially children, as they return to the dance.[94] These gifts are ordinarily corn, bread, or tortillas. It is customary for priests to sprinkle the Katcinas with sacred meal, and the Tcukúwympkiyas, or clowns, also perform this function. The típoni or Katcina badge of office is not carried in every celebration, nor does the Katcina chief, Íntiwa, always lead the line.

The one garment worn by the male Katcinas is the ceremonial kilt. This is not confined to them, but is likewise worn in other ceremonials, as in the Snake-Antelope observance and in minor celebrations. Every male Katcina, whatever his helmet, has one of these about his loins. It is made of coarse cotton, on the ends of which are embroidered symbolic figures of rain-clouds, falling rain, and lightning. Ordinarily half of the width is painted green, and the lower edge is black, with nine square blocks of the same color at regular intervals. This kilt is represented on many dolls of the Katcinas figured in my article on that subject.[95]

The Katcinas, irrespective of the special personage depicted, wear a broad cotton sash with knotted strings at the proximal end. In this 296belt spruce branches are held. A fox-skin depends from the belt, and turtle-shell rattles on the leg are invariably part of a Katcina’s costume. Moccasins and heel bands are prescribed and bodily decoration with pigments is common, but none of the above are characteristic of special kinds of Katcinas. The mask is in general the one distinctive characteristic of a definite personification.

SÍOCÁLAKO

The Shálako is one of the most important observances at Zuñi, and is partially described by Cushing in an article on his life in Zuñi.[96] An exhaustive account, however, has never been published. The Hopi occasionally celebrate a Cálako, which from its name and other reasons is undoubtedly an incorporated modification of this ceremonial, as the Tusayan legends distinctly state.[97] The following pages give an outline of the Hopi presentation as a contribution to the comparative study of Pueblo ritual. A complete account of the Shálako at Zuñi is a great desideratum before it is possible to undertake close comparisons.

The presentation of Cálako is not an annual event at the East mesa of Tusayan, but occurs after long intervals of time. The paraphernalia are kept in a house in Sitcomovi and belong to the Badger clan. The house in which they are deposited is the property of Koĭkáamü, the daughter of Masiúmtiwa’s eldest sister, now deceased, and the wími likewise belong to her by descent.

The chiefs of all the gentes in Walpi and Sitcomovi, the chief of the Katcinas, and one or two others from Hano assembled in this house on the 16th of July, 1893, and made a large number (over two hundred) of páhos for use in the ceremonials to be described.

Early on the morning of the next day the masks and effigies of Siocálako were renovated and carried to the spring called Kwañwába (sweet water), which is situated on the Zuñi trail southward from the mesa. In a modern house owned by a Sitcomovi family[98] at this spring the masks were repainted and the hoops which were used to make a framework for the bodies were set around with eagle feathers.

The effigies which were used in personifications were made up of masks or helmets of the ordinary size for the heads and a crinoline-like[99] framework of willow hoops for the bodies. These masks were made from narrow shreds of leaves of the agave plaited together diagonally, and this plaited frame was covered with a painted buckskin upon which the symbolism of the Síocálako was delineated. The projecting beak of the face had a movable under jaw, which was hinged and manipulated with a string. The helmet was attached to a staff forming a backbone, 3½ feet long, by which it was carried. The series of 297crinoline hoops or supports of the blankets which formed the body were about fifteen in number, the upper being about the size of the helmet, the lower 4½ feet in diameter. A tü′ihi or large white embroidered mantle was draped about the upper hoops or the shoulders, and a gray fox-skin was hung around the neck, which was likewise profusely decorated with shell necklaces.

The man who acted the part of bearer walked inside the crinoline, freely supporting the effigy by the staff or backbone, holding it at such a height as to permit the lowest hoop with its attached feathers to reach to his knees. Each effigy bearer was bareheaded, and although hidden from view, was decorated with the white kilt of a typical Katcina.

An uncostumed chief led the four giants in single file toward the mesa, followed by a large number of men dressed as mud-heads or Tatcü′kti, who were called “Koyímse,” a term adapted from their Zuñi name.[100] All who had sufficient knowledge of the idiom spoke Zuñi, and the procession reached the Sun spring (Tawápa) at about sunset. It was there met by two priests, Taláhoya and a nephew of Masiúmtiwa, who were to act as conductors. All were welcomed and homoya (prayers) were recited and much sacred meal was sprinkled. Headed by the two conductors the procession climbed the trail to the top of the mesa, and from thence marched into the main court of Sitcomovi by the northeastern entrance, near which the men bearing the four giant effigies, together with the mud-heads, halted. The latter were closely huddled together in four groups, drumming with deafening noise on as many drums.

The Katcina chief, Íntiwa, and a man personifying Eótoto[101] then drew four circles with intersecting lines of meal on the ground at the north side of the court in the positions indicated. This was followed by a command of Hahaíwüqti, who signaled with an ear of corn for the first (kwiníwi, north) Cálako effigy to advance. He did so with a short, rapid step, and halted over the first circle of meal. The “bearer” bobbed the effigy up and down so that the feathers which had been fastened to the lower hoop of the crinoline touched the ground. The bearer then stooped and rested the end of his staff on the ground, holding it upright. The other three giant impersonators were then brought up, one at a time, by Hahaíwüqti. As each settled to its position the bearer cried “Ho!” six times in a shrill falsetto, and rapidly snapped the beak of the effigy he bore by means of a string. The Cálakos were then sprinkled with meal by the chiefs and others, after which the effigies were moved one by one to circles of meal on the southern side of the plaza. Six times this removal was repeated, each time attended by ceremonials similar to those mentioned above.

298

At the conclusion of this observance in the plaza the four giants were conducted by the chiefs of the Lizard, Ása, Badger, and Water gentes to the houses of the elder sisters of the respective clans. The Cálako effigies were suspended by the mask from the rafters of each room, and as the length of each was 7 feet 6 inches the tips of the radiating feathers on the head and those on the last hoop of the framework of the body just touched the roof and floor of the chamber. The same ceremony look place in each house and there were prayers by the elders, dancing by the effigy bearers, and singing and drumming by the “Koyímse.” At sunrise—for the exhibitions in the houses lasted all night—a final presentation in the court similar to that which opened the ceremonies took place, after which the Cálakos and mud-heads went to the cliff and unmasked at the Kachinaki. There they performed purification ceremonies (navótciwa) and dismantled the effigies. They donned their ordinary habiliments and smuggled the paraphernalia back into the chamber in Sitcomovi, where it is ordinarily kept.

On the 8th and 9th of the month, following the demise of the Cálakos, a most elaborate Wáwac or Racing Katcina was performed.[103]

299

PAWÍKKATCINA

The Pawíkkatcina, which I observed at Sitcomovi in 1892, had certain differences from any abbreviated Katcina dance which I have yet described, and illustrated the ceremonial reception of these personages after they had visited another pueblo. A priest of Sitcomovi suggested that his fellow villagers should send a delegation of young men to Cipaulovi to return a dance with which they had previously been honored by the latter pueblo. Accordingly the masks were painted and the preliminary ceremonials took place in one of the Sitcomovi kivas, those who were to participate in the ceremonial beginning their work on the 25th of June. The visitors danced all day of the 27th at Cipaulovi, rested on the 28th, and continued their dance on the 29th at Sitcomovi. The ceremonials on their return at the trail approaching Sitcomovi took place on June 28th, an hour before sunset.

This dance differed very little from that of other Katcinas, to which attention has hitherto been directed.[104] There were twenty-three Katcinas300 and five[105] Katcinamanas, and the masks of both are illustrated in figures 43, 44, and 45, while one of the staffs which they bore is represented in figure 46. They sang five songs called Ómowûh (cloud), Yoivíkka (swift), Pakwa (frog), Pawykia (duck), and Patzro (quail). An interesting feature which I had never before seen in Tusayan abbreviated Katcinas was the unmasked dance in the kiva.[106]

The secret ceremonials in the kiva were as follows: The three priests, who had previously bathed their heads in their own houses, made the páhos and nakwákwocis. Two of these men made four prayer sticks similar to those described in the Walpi ceremonial, and one made a long single páho. These were deposited in a flat basket tray and smoked upon by those present. Before beginning the manufacture of the páhos the makers prepared themselves by a ceremonial smoke.[107] At the same time that the páhos were made twenty-three nakwákwocis for the Katcinas and five for the Katcinamanas were likewise manufactured.

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301

At midday food was passed down into the kiva, but before partaking of it one of the priests took a pinch of each kind of food (dunópna) and went with it to a cleft in the mesa on the north side of Sitcomovi. He there deposited it with a páho, a pinch of each kind of pigment used in painting the paraphernalia, a little tobacco,[108] but no sacred meal. This was an offering, it was said, to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado sípapû. He then went to the southern side of the mesa and placed in a similar cleft a nakwákwoci, said to be an offering to Másauwûh.

At sunrise on the 29th two offerings were deposited, and each of the twenty-three Katcinas placed his nakwákwoci in a shrine.

Ceremonials attending visits of people from adjacent or remote pueblos are simple but interesting. The following reception ceremony of visitors from a distant pueblo not of their own people was noted: In the progress of the summer dances of Walpi in 1892 I observed the ceremonial reception of several Zuñis who came over to assist in the Húmiskatcina. They were formally “received” in the Wikwaliobi kiva by Íntiwa,[109] Kópeli, Hóñyi, Pauatíwa, and Lésma. Íntiwa gave their headman a twig of spruce, to which Lésma tied four nakwákwocis.[110] Íntiwa sprinkled it with sacred meal and laid 302it in front of the Zuñis, and finally all smoked together. This was said to be a formal act of reception.[111]

The reception ceremony of the Pawíkkatcinas when they returned from Cipaulovi was as follows: At 4 p. m. Pauatíwa’s father, a very old man, sat on the edge of the mesa looking west and north toward Cipaulovi. He called my attention to a line of men coming along the trail. When the line halted on the last rise before the trail ascends to the top of the mesa we went down to welcome them.

Each Katcina placed his helmet in one of two parallel lines arranged along the trail, and in front of the two lines he laid the spruce bough which he carried. In front of this pile of spruce boughs an ear of corn was placed in the trail not far from the helmets. All the Katcinas then marched around the line in a sinistral circuit, sprinkling sacred meal upon the masks, corn, and spruce boughs and throwing a pinch along the trail in advance of the ear of corn. The circuit around the line of helmets was sinistral, as in all Hopi ceremonials.

Nine old men then formed a circle at the left of the corn and smoked, sitting in a squatting posture.[112] No one was allowed to go up the trail before this ceremony was completed, and one who attempted to do so was warned back. A short address of welcome was spoken by the priests to the leader of the Katcinas, and at sunset they put on their masks and marched to the plaza of Sitcomovi. They first danced on the southern, then on the eastern, and lastly on the western sides of the plaza, omitting the northern side. The priests sprinkled the Katcinas with sacred meal, observing the sinistral ceremonial circuit as they passed around the line. A small spruce tree, upon which nakwákwocis were tied, had been placed near the middle of the plaza.

303

The Katcinas and Katcinamanas then adjourned to the kiva, where they unmasked, placing their helmets in a row and the spruce boughs in the middle of the kiva.[113] The two priests seated themselves on the uprise, one on each side of the ladder.

On the following day the dance was continued from sunrise to sunset. In the afternoon there appeared the Tcúkuwympkiya, Muñ′we (Owl Katcina), two Tcósbüci, Pü′ükoñhoya (the Little War God), and a Navaho Katcina.

ÁÑAKATCINA

The celebration of the Áñakatcina at Hano, in the Nimán of 1892, gave me the following additional data to that already mentioned in the description[114] of the Áña of 1891. These are due in part to the variations in ceremonial customs, and are not regarded as essentials.

The Hopi Áñakatcina was invited to Hano by Kálakwai, and its public presentation was identical with that of 1891 and that of the Zuñi Kókokci. The antics of the gluttons were very much more complicated. This I ascribe to two causes—the rarity with which Katcinas are celebrated in Hano, and the great need of rain at the time.

One interesting but highly disgusting part of the show of these priests was the slaughter of a huge dog and the use of his entrails and blood in distinguishing one of their number as Másauwûh,[115] the Death god. The details of this may be had by consultation with the author.

About 4 oclock on the morning of the public dance of the Áña the participants danced in the Hano plaza, destitute of all clothing or helmets and accompanied by the clowns, also without masks. This feature I had not previously observed. After this early dance páhos were deposited at the shrine situated in the middle of the dance plaza.

As no account of the ceremonial deposit of offerings to the winds has ever been published, the following observations are given to fill this gap in our knowledge. Probably the object of the wind offerings is propitiatory, for high wind, it is believed, blows away the rain, to produce which is the main object of the observance. Kwálakwa took for this purpose in a blanket the following objects: Nakwákwocis, native tobacco, paper bread, píkami (pudding mush), sugar, and peaches. He deposited a packet containing a pinch of each of these in six 304shrines situated at cardinal points, beginning at the east.[116] The Hopi begin their ceremonial circuit ordinarily at the north, but the Tewa, it would seem, place their offerings in the following order: East, northwest, southwest by south, southwest, southeast by east, southeast.

In the interval between two of the dances, while the Katcinas were unmasked, and had halted under an overhanging rock on the trail a few feet below Hano, I observed a test of endurance which I had never before seen. Kópeli, the Snake chief, took a bundle of yucca branches, and different volunteers from the Katcinas, stepping up to him, first held out one arm, then the other; Kópeli struck the outstretched limb with more or less force, and at the conclusion presented his own arm and naked body for this trying ordeal. The Áñakatcina is illustrated in figure 40.

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KATCINA DANCES IN CIBOLA AND TUSAYAN

The published material which can be used as a basis of comparison in the study of Katcinas in other villages is meager and insufficient. Even of the nearest pueblo, Zuñi, which has been more studied than many of the others, and in which Katcina observances closely akin to those of Tusayan are performed, the published accounts are very limited. In a general way it seems to me that the Tusayan ceremonials are more showy and elaborate than those at Zuñi. There is, however, one marked exception;[117] the powerful war society, called the Priesthood of the Bow, has more elaborate ceremonials in Zuñi than in Walpi, where this organization is weak. It is not possible from my limited knowledge of Zuñi ceremonials to declare that it is less complicated than that of Tusayan, but I believe that the powerful organization mentioned has had much to do with many of the differences between the two.

One source of information in regard to the differences and likenesses between the Zuñi and Hopi ceremonials is the testimony of the chiefs themselves. This does not hold in regard to modified ceremonials primarily the same or derived from a common source, and is only hearsay, not science.

All the Hopi priests say that the Siotü (Zuñis) have no knowledge of the Tcütcübwimi (Snake-Antelope mysteries). The same chiefs likewise claim that the Zuñis have no Mamzraúti, Lálakoñti,[118] Wüwütcímti, and no societies corresponding to the Tátaukyamû, Áaltû, or Kwákwantû.

305

Although they may not reproduce some of these ceremonials in the form celebrated by the Hopi, it is not clear to me that some of those which they observe may not be differentiations of the same ceremony, as I have shown in my accounts of the women’s dances.[119] There is a marked similarity in many of the myths, which would seem to imply resemblances in ritualistic dramatizations of the same.

It is possible to verify historical data and legendary history by a study of the same ceremony. For instance, the five oldest Tusayan pueblos of which we have accounts in the earliest records are Awatobi, Walpi, Micoñinovi, Cuñopavi, and Oraibi.[120] Awatobi was destroyed in 1700, so that but four original communities of the time of Vargas still remain. It is in these four and at Cipaulovi that the Snake ceremony is still celebrated, and Sitcomovi and Hano are ascribed by Hopi legends to a much later time than the first appearance of the Spaniards; their names do not appear in the early descriptions of the province.

It is a mistaken idea, and one which has led to many misconceptions, to suppose that what is true of one group of pueblos is true of all. While in a general way the mythology and ritual of all may be said to have general resemblances, there is far from an identity between the ceremonials, for instance, of the Hopi and the Zuñi, or those of the Rio Grande pueblos and Tusayan. It is not a question of knowing all by an intimate knowledge of one; but each branch, even individual pueblos, must be investigated separately before by comparative knowledge we can obtain an adequate conception of the character of the pueblo type of mythology and ritual. Moreover, there is evidence that this difference existed in ancient times, and while the differentiation of the manners and customs of different pueblos may have been less rapid in the past than today they were far from being identical. It does not follow, except in certain limits, that the most primitive pueblos today show in their survivals a better picture of the character of life in another pueblo than the existing state of things in the latter. To reconstruct the probable character of the ancient culture we must trace similarities by comparative studies.

In a comparative study of the ceremonials of different pueblos, it is important to decide which are most primitive or nearest the aboriginal condition and which are least affected by foreign influences. The purer the present aboriginal culture, the greater worth will it have 306in our approximation to a true conception of the primitive pueblo culture. Many of the Pueblos practice a religious system which may be rightly called aboriginal, but in some it has been modified by outside influences. I think no one, for instance, would say that the present Zuñi custom of burial in a churchyard was not due in part to the influence of Catholic priests, for Spanish narratives of three and a half centuries ago are quite explicit in their statement that the Zuñi burned their dead. If one custom has been changed, how are we to distinguish the modified from the primitive? It can be shown that strong influences have been used for the direct purpose of destroying the Katcina worship. Take, for instance, Zuñi, the least changed of all the pueblos except those of Tusayan. It is pagan today, and probably never was profoundly modified by Christianity, but Roman Catholic fathers, with the avowed determination to Christianize it, could not have lived there continuously for over a century and caused the great missions to be built without modifying the religious customs of the Zuñians. It is said that after the priests were driven out the Pueblos returned to their ancient practices, but it must be admitted that no one has yet shown how the pure Katcina practices were preserved over three generations. They returned to an old worship, but who has evidence to say that it was the same as that of their great-great-grandfathers?

In some instances the natives have very willingly adopted Christian teachings and the Christian God, believing that by so doing their own religion would necessarily become strengthened by an addition to their pantheon. Such adoption, however, no matter how regarded by them, made a permanent impression on their primitive condition by changing their mode of thought and life.

They apparently may have abandoned all that the church taught; but what means could have been used to restore the pure worship of pre-Columbian times? The culture which was revived was aboriginal, but could never be identical[121] with that of the times before Coronado.

The question then resolves itself into a historical one—which pueblos were the home of Catholic priests for the shortest time, and in which were their influences least powerful? The historian will of course answer the Tusayan pueblos, and ethnology contributes her quota of facts to indicate that the purest form of Pueblo ceremonials are now practiced by these villagers.

Although there are several ceremonials which the Hopi claim are not performed at Zuñi, and conversely others performed at Zuñi which are not observed in Tusayan, there is a similarity, differing in details, between the Kóko and Katcina dances close enough to show their identity. The Hopi recognize this fact, and to prove it I need only mention that the Áñakatcina in 1891 was danced at Zuñi by some of the Hopi as a Kóko. I have already pointed out the identity of the masks, paraphernalia, and songs of the Kókokshi, performed by the Zuñians, and 307the Áñakatcina at Walpi. There is no doubt in my mind that they are the same, but I can not accept the dictum that what is observed in one is identical with what exists in the other. There are slight modifications which exist likewise in different Hopi villages, as will be seen by a comparison of my descriptions of the two. One marked difference is that several Kókokshi dances were performed in the summer I spent at Zuñi, and that this identical Katcina (the Áña) is performed but once each summer in any one Hopi village.

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The only other Kóko[122] dance which I know of from personal observation is the tablet dance, which is in many respects homologous with the Húmiskatcina. The symbolism of the mask and tablet, however, differs from the Húmis, and while in a speculative way I regard them the same we must await more research to prove them identical. The subject is still more complicated by the fact that the Hopi have a tablet mask with still a third symbolic character, which they call the Zuñi or Síohúmiskatcina.

I think we need have no hesitation in supposing that the so-called Sío (Zuñi) Katcina, which I have elsewhere described, is a Zuñi celebration derived from that pueblo. I do not know whether it is ever performed there in the same way as at Walpi, since it has not been described by any of the students of the Zuñians.

We have, however, as before mentioned, a partial description by Cushing of the Zuñi Shálako, and from his account we can gather a 308few of the main points of difference between it and the Síocálako performed at Walpi and described in the preceding pages. The Hopi, however, have a Cálako of their own. They distinguish it from the Síocálako, which they not only recognize as of Zuñi origin, but are also able to designate the family which brought it from the Zuñians. The name of the celebration and the use of Zuñi words in it both point to this conclusion.

The correspondence between the Héemashikwi, or last[123] dance—the tablet dance described by me elsewhere as occurring at the close of the series of Kókos—is probably the same as the Nimánkatcina. There are many similarities to indicate this fact, and, although as yet we know nothing of the secret observances connected with it, I suspect that a similarity between them and those described in the Móñkiva will later be made known.

Dolls in imitation of the Héemashikwi are reported in the catalogue of Colonel James Stevenson’s collection from Zuñi in 1881, and I have no doubt it will be found that there formerly was, and possibly still survives, at the celebration of this dance at Zuñi the characteristic habit in Tusayan of distributing dolls as presents at the departure of the Katcinas.

Mrs Stevenson has given short descriptions of some of the Zuñi Kókos and figures of the masks of the same. While it is not possible for me to use them in a comparison with Katcina celebrations, they are interesting in studies of symbolism. The “flogging Kókos,” for instance, seem to function the same as Túñwup among the Hopi, but as the symbolism of the mask of the floggers, Saiāhlias, is not given by Mrs Stevenson I am not able to express an opinion whether the same personage is intended or not. The time of year when the flagellation is inflicted by the Saiāhlia of Zuñi would be an interesting observation, and the accompanying ceremonials would also be of great interest for comparison with the Powámû.

I have not been able to find the equivalents of the Sälämobias among the Hopi, but the symbolism of Pooatíwa agrees almost exactly with that of the Hopi Paútiwa.

The Sälämobias of the different world-quarters agree in color with those assigned by the Hopi to the same points, with the exception of those for the above and below. In Zuñi, according to Cushing and Mrs Stevenson, the above is all colors, the below black. Among the Hopi the above was found to be black and the below all colors. This discrepancy in observations is recommended as a good subject for future students, both in Tusayan and Zuñi.

In reviewing the Hopi ceremonial personages I have been unable to find any homology with the Sälämobias. The views of the masks[124] 309given by Mrs Stevenson afford little information on this subject, but in her sand picture, surrounded by the Plumed Snake, I find some of the figures of Sälämobias with indication of a connecting band between the eyes, which recalls Paútiwa’s[125] symbolism. There does not seem to be a wide difference between the profile views of the masks of Paútiwa and Sälämobia of the different world-quarters.

The environment of the pueblos of Tusayan and of Cibola is so similar and the rain-cloud worship so imperative in both that, a priori, we should expect the rain-cloud symbol to be as frequent in Zuñi as in Walpi. I am much surprised therefore in studying the description of Zuñi ceremonials to find nothing said of the characteristic Hopi symbols of the rain clouds, the semicircles and the parallel lines of falling rain (plate CVIII). If the rain clouds at Zuñi are limited to the terraced[126] figures found on the prayer-meal bowls and the same made in sacred meal we certainly have a significant difference between the symbolism of these two peoples. In Tusayan there is not one of the great religious festivals where the semicircular clouds and falling rain do not appear as symbols. Thus far students of the Zuñi ceremonials have not figured one instance in which they are used.[127]

The short account of the effigy of the Plumed Snake (Kólowisi) with attendant ceremonials at Zuñi, by Mrs Stevenson, shows the existence of archaic rites with the Plumed Serpent which have been observed in a different form (Pálülükoñti) at Tusayan. The time of the year when the Zuñi effigy is brought to the kivas on a rude altar is not given; nor is the special name of the ceremony. The conch shell is similarly used to imitate the voice of the Plumed Serpent at Zuñi, as at Walpi, in the Soyáluña and the Pálülükoñti. In neither of these ceremonials, however, have the effigies been observed to be carried ceremonially about the pueblos of the Tusayan mesas. The symbolism of Pálülükoñti and Kólowisi seems to differ, judging from published accounts and symbolism on Zuñi and Hopi pottery. I find no intimation of the horn on the head of Zuñi pictures of the Plumed Snake, and the arrowhead decoration fails on the body. The two crescents which are common on the body of the Zuñi figures have not been observed in Hopi pictographs or effigies.

It would seem both from legendary and other reasons that there has not been the warmest friendship between the inhabitants of Tusayan and Cibola. This is not to be wondered at, for only on rare occasions has there been good feeling between two pueblos even of the same 310speech. The massacre of Awatobi at the hands of the other Hopi has been told elsewhere, and even at the present day Oraibi is not on the best of terms with the other Hopi towns. The legends of the Hopi are full of quarrels of one pueblo with another, and bitter hatred sometimes developing into bloody wars in which their own kindred were attacked and pueblos destroyed.

In her article, “A chapter of Zuñi mythology,”[128] Mrs Stevenson says: “The Ahshiwanni,[129] a priesthood of fourteen men who fast and pray for rain; the Kokko, an organization bearing the name of anthropomorphic beings (principally ancestral) whom they personate, and thirteen esoteric societies are the three fundamental religious bodies of Zuñi.... The society of the Kokko personate anthropomorphic gods by wearing masks and other paraphernalia. There are six estufas or chambers of the Kokko for the six regions, the north, west, south, east, zenith, and nadir, and these rooms present fantastic scenes when the primitive drama is enacted by the personators of these anthropomorphic gods.... The esoteric societies, with but one or two exceptions, have nothing to do with anthropomorphic beings, this category of gods being zoomorphic.”

Accepting these statements as a correct idea of the “three fundamental religious bodies of Zuñi” I find great difficulty in tracing an intimate relation between them and those of the Hopi system. A large number of the Katcinas are anthropomorphic and likewise ancestral. They bear the names of animals, and in that sense may be called in some instances zoomorphic. Walpi, however, has but five kivas, the members of each of which in the Powámû personify different Katcinas. I have not yet discovered that each of these kivas is associated with a different cardinal world-quarter, as Mrs Stevenson finds to be the case in Zuñi. The esoteric societies of the Zuñi, according to Mrs Stevenson, “with but one or two exceptions have nothing to do with anthropomorphic beings.” I am not able to harmonize my observations of the secret societies in Tusayan with the definition given of the esoteric societies in Zuñi, and must await some clearer insight into the character of the latter before offering any discussion of several resemblances which can be detected. From an examination of Cushing’s article in the Century Magazine, in which the esoteric societies of Zuñi are briefly defined, I am led to believe that the so-called esoteric societies in that pueblo differ a good deal from those in Walpi. The Hopi testify that while some of their secret fraternities are represented in Zuñi several of them are not identical.[130]

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Mrs Stevenson does not make it clear who these fourteen (six) so-called Ahshiwanni are, but calls them “rain priests.” She intimates that they appeal directly to the Sun father, their supreme deity, and to the rain makers, while the “societies” address “the beast gods of their worship to intercede with the Sun father and rain makers.” There is apparently no parallelism between these conditions and those at Tusayan, but I can readily find truth in the statement when applied to the Hopi that “no society convenes without giving much time to invocations for rain.” I am sure that some of the societies at Tusayan do not appeal to the beast gods to intercede with the Sun father and rain makers, but address the latter directly in their prayers. In this particular there is certainly a marked difference between the conceptions back of the rites in Tusayan and those ascribed to the Cibolans.[131]

The custom of the Yókimoñwi, or rain chief, retiring alone to a cell to pray for rain was practiced in Tusayan. One of these retreats is to be seen at the Middle mesa. Among the foothills there is a block of sandstone, 15 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 feet thick. Its flat face is about horizontal or slightly tilted toward the northeast. Portions of a rough wall are still in place under the block, confirming the story that there was here formerly a chamber of which the block was the roof. An aperture on the northeastern corner, about 20 inches square, is usually closed with loose stones, but the chamber is now filled in with sand to within about 2 feet of the roof or lower surface of the slab. The interior of the chamber was about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. On the roof, which was painted white, are figures of yellow, green, red, and white rain clouds with parallel lines of falling rain and zigzag lightning symbols in conventional patterns. To this chamber, it is said, the Rain chief of the Water people retired at planting time and lived there sixteen days, his food being brought to him by a girl during his vigils. He 312was able by his prayers to bring the rain. These visits were made long ago, but even now there are páhos strewn about the chamber, and devout persons visit the place at the present day with a nakwákwoci and pray for rain. Although the Rain chief no longer passes the sixteen days there, it is a holy place for the purposes mentioned.

“The earth,” says Mrs Stevenson,[132] “is watered by the deceased Zuñi of both sexes, who are controlled and directed by a council composed of ancestral gods. These shadow people collect water in vases and gourd jugs from the six great waters of the world, and pass to and fro over the middle plane, protected from view of the people below by cloud masks.”

I find a different conception from this of the rain-making powers of the dead among the Hopi. Among other ceremonials, when certain persons die, after the chin has been blackened, the body washed, and prescribed feathers placed on different parts of it, a thin wad of raw cotton in which is punched holes for the eyes is laid upon the face. This is a mask and is called a rain-cloud or “prayer to the dead to bring the rain.” In general, as many writers have said, the use of the mask transforms the wearer into a deity designated by the symbolism of the same,[133] and as a consequence the dead, we may theoretically suppose, are thereby endowed with supernatural powers to bring rain. The Ómowûhs, however, are the Rain gods, and so far as I can explain the significance of the symbolic rain-cloud mask on the face of the dead and the black color on the chin, it is simply a method of prayer through the divinized dead to the Rain-cloud deities. Among the Hopi the earth is watered by the Rain-gods, but the dead are ceremonially made intercessors to affect them. In this view of the case the Hopi may be said to believe that the earth is “watered by the deceased of both sexes.”

The Hopi believe that the breath body of the Zuñi goes to a sacred place near Saint Johns, called Wénima. There the dead are supposed to be changed into Katcinas, and the place is reputed to be one of the homes of these personages. It is likewise specially spoken of as the house of Cálako, and it is believed that the Zuñi hold the same views of this mysterious place. In lagoons near it turtles are abundant, and not far away Mr Hubbell and others discovered sacrificial caverns in which were large collections of pottery. Tótci, a Hopi resident of Zuñi, is the authority for the statement that the Cibolans do not use the raw cotton mortuary mask, although they blacken the face of the dead chiefs. He says the same idea of divinization of the breath body into a Katcina seems to be current among the Zuñi as among the Hopi.

According to Mrs Stevenson the father of the Kokko is Kaklo (Kyäklu), whose servants are the Sälämobiyas. The name of their mother is not known to me. The Katcinas are said to be the offspring of an Earth 313goddess,[134] who figures under many names. Their father’s name on comparative grounds is supposed to be Táwa, the sun, or Túñwup, their elder brother.

A study of the group of Katcina ceremonials as compared with the Kóko brings out in prominence the conclusion that while some of them may be identical, as a rule there is considerable difference in the ritual of the Tusayan people and their nearest neighbor, the Zuñi. If variations exist between these neighbors we are justified in the suspicion, which observation as far as it has thus far gone supports, that there are even wider differences between pueblos more distant from each other. The ethnologist fully cognizant with the ritual in one pueblo has a general conception of the character of all, but changes due to suppression of ceremonials, survivals, dying out of societies, and many other causes have modified the pueblos in different ways. The character of the ancient system is adulterated in all. We can form an idea of this modification in no better way than by a minute study of the existing ritual in every pueblo. Upon such comprehensive study science is at the very threshold.

The foregoing pages open many considerations of a theoretical nature which I have not attempted to develop. My greatest solicitude has been to sketch the outline of the Katcina ceremonials as performed at the Hopi village of Walpi in Tusayan.