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.