Tusayan katcinas

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

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 name 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 and 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.

Fig. 40—The Áñakatcina.

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 the 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.

Fig. 41—Maskette of Áñakatcinamana.

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 belt 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 crinoline 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.

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.

Fig. 42—Position of celebrants in the court of Sitcomovi in Síocálako.[102]

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

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.

Fig. 43—Mask of Pawíkkatcina (front view).

This dance differed very little from that of other Katcinas, to which attention has hitherto been directed.[104] There were twenty-three Katcinas 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.

Fig. 44—Mask of Pawíkkatcina (side view).

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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.

Fig. 45—Mask of Pawíkkatcinamana.

Fig. 46—Staff of Pawíkkatcina.

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 it 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.

Fig. 47—Helmets, ear of corn, and spruce bough arranged for reception ceremony.

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.

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 shrines 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].