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 (33_b_) 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 footprint of 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.
[Illustration: PL. CVI
HAHAÍWÜQTI, NATÁCKA, AND SOYÓKMANA]
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:
-------------+------------------+-----------------+-------------------
_Kiva_ | _Katcina_ | _Points from | _Prayers directed,
| | which prayers | or meal thrown
| | are made_ | toward_—
-------------+------------------+-----------------+-------------------
Moñ | Kütca anák[49] | S. W. Walpi | Nüvátikyaubi
| | |
Wikwaliobi | Coyóhim momoyamu | do. | do.
| | |
Nacab | Tcatca kwaína | do. | do.
| | |
Al | Popkotu | N. E. Walpi | Kicyuba
| | |
Tcivato | Mücaízru | do. |
| | |
Puvüñtcomo | Hüiki | |
| Hehéa | |
| | |
Kwinyáptcomo | Avátchoya mana | N. E. Sitcomovi | do.
| | |
Mónete | Tacáb | N. E. Hano | do.
| | |
Pendíte | Humís | |
-------------+------------------+-----------------+-------------------
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:
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
this 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 deposited
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 and 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.
[Illustration: 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. They returned 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.