That element of pueblo worship known as the Katcina forms fully one-half of the Hopi ritual, beginning with the arrival of the Katcinas or masked dancers in January or February, and lasting until their departure in July, inclusive. It is distinguished from other components by the presence of masked participants called Katcinas, supposed to be personators of the ancients, or “others.” The yearly departure of these worthies from the villages is celebrated in July by a great religious observance called the Niman or Farewell Katcina ceremony; their arrival by several rites, one of the most striking of which is called Powamu, or “Bean Planting.” At the times of their arrival and departure there are erected in the kiva of each of the four villages which celebrate them, the same altars, about which certain secret rites are performed. Our knowledge thus far is limited to four of the five Katcina altars,[1] and there still remains the altar of Cuñopavi, regarding which nothing has yet been recorded.[2]
Explanation of Plate 2—Katcina Altar at Oraibi
a, Tunwup, or Sun Katcina; as, Aspergill; b, Tcuelawu; c, Corn mound; co, Cotokinungwu; g, Gourd; h, Planting stick; l, Lightning symbols; m, Ears of maize; mb, Medicine bowl; p, Prayer sticks; ph, God of war; pm, Prayer meal; ps, Prayer sticks in basket; pt, Gourd (netted) for sacred water; r, Rattles; rc, Rain clouds; sc, Sun emblems; t, Tiponi.
Plate 2
Katcina Altar at Oraibi
Our knowledge of Katcina altars of the Rio Grande in the other pueblos is very scanty, owing largely to the exclusion of ethnologists from the kivas. Katcina dances in the open plazas are repeatedly figured but the secret rites and accompanying altars, if any, are not known.
In the following pages the author presents a morphological study of the four known Katcina altars of Hopi. The illustrations of the most complex, that of Oraibi, have been taken from the excellent memoir of Voth on the Powamu of that pueblo; the others are from personal studies made in 1890-1895.
The structure of the Oraibi Katcina altar is as follows: The reredos consists of two upright wooden slats united above by a crosspiece which in the illustration (pl. 2) is surmounted by a row of four segments of circles with rain cloud pictures representing the four directions, and colored with appropriate pigments, beginning with yellow or north at the right. The decoration of the crosspiece is obscure, but on the uprights there are figures recalling sprouting vegetation, and circles with differently colored quadrants.