BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.PL. CV.photoTHE NATACKA CEREMONY AT WALPI
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.PL. CV.
THE NATACKA CEREMONY AT WALPI
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 summersolstices; 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.
Under the head of elaborate Katcinas[39]may be included:
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 the22dof 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 horizontalmotion. 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 (plateCVIII), and carried a shield upon which was depicted the sun (plateCIV). The chief of a second society carried a shield upon which was drawn a star (plateCIV), 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 (plateCIV). 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 (plateCX), 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, chiefof 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.First, 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]as 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 footprintof 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.photoHAHAÍWÜQTI, NATÁCKA, AND SOYÓKMANA
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.CVI.
HAHAÍWÜQTI, NATÁCKA, AND SOYÓKMANA
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.
From the foregoing table we learn that in the Return Katcina for 1894 the following[51]were personified:
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.
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 (platesCV,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 inthis 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,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,upon 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 depositedin 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 hoyianiand 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.paintingA. HOEN & CO. LITH.DOLL OF CÁLAKO MANA.
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FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.PL. CVII.
A. HOEN & CO. LITH.
DOLL OF CÁLAKO MANA.
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. Theyreturned 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 thatshe 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 (platesCVandCVI).
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 oftheir 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.
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 godfatherprompted 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 havelong 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 observationswere 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 northernside 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.