A. HOEN & CO. LITH.
KATCINA MASK WITH SQUASH BLOSSOM APPENDAGE AND RAIN CLOUD SYMBOLISM.
Immediately after this presentation the delegation from the Móñkiva, led by a masked person, entered. The bodily decorations of these were not uniform; one had a figure of a gourd drawn on his breast, another zigzag lines, and still another parallel bars. The males carried a gourd rattle in the right hand; they wore no fillets on the head but allowed the hair to hang loosely. The female personators held a bunch of straw[76] and a sprig of spruce in the left hand, carrying it high up before the face. They sang the same song and executed the same figure as that already mentioned in the account of the presentation by the men from the village of Hano. The groups finished their visits at about midday.
February 5—At earliest dawn (5 a. m.) either the chief or one of his elders roused all the sleepers in the kiva, and each spread his blanket beside his basin of growing plants. He then carefully plucked the plants, one by one, so as not to bruise either stalk or roots. He laid them on the blanket in an orderly pile, the leaves together. The sand which remained in the basin was carried to some place where children would not see it, and the vessels were dried before the kiva fire and hidden away in the houses out of sight of the prying eyes of the young ones.
Nearly all the plants were tied with a yucca shred and a sprig of spruce (symbol of a Katcina), in neat bundles, leaving loose bights of the yucca by which to hold them. Each priest also tied up the dolls which he had made. All traces of the soil in which the corn had been forced to sprout had disappeared long before dawn.
The presents (dolls) which were made in the Tcivatoki were then distributed by a man personifying Pawíkkatcina, under the instruction of those who had fashioned them. The distributing Katcinas of the Nacabki were two Nüváktcinas,[77] and the same did this duty with the dolls in the Móñkiva. For the Álkiva two Tcoshühüwûh performed this duty. These Katcinas and two persons called Kawaíka (Keres) from Sitcomovi bustled about the pueblo on their errands and the distribution was finished about sunrise. The men did not speak when they approached a house with their gifts, but hooted after the customary manner of Katcinas.
Almost half an hour before sunrise the Soyókmana passed around the kivas, holding a dialogue at the hatchways with the chiefs inside. She wore a black conical mask with red mouth and white teeth, and was costumed as an old woman. In the right hand she bore a crook 7 feet long, at the end of which were tied many shells. In the left hand she carried a knife smeared with rabbit blood. Hü′hüwûh also held a dialogue with the kiva chiefs and made gifts of watermelons and squashes to various persons.
At 11.30 a. m. Soyókmana, Hahaíwüqti, and the Natáckas (plate [CVI]) made a visit to all the houses. They were followed by two Hehéakatcinas[78] with bags and pouches of food recently received, and after them followed three black and two white Natáckas. These five went together and were constantly in motion, moving or beating time with their feet.
The strange company went to each house demanding food, and when it was refused or poor quality offered the Natáckas uttered a hoot like an owl, and at the same time Soyókmana whistled. They refused to leave a house until proper food had been given them, and if a child who had not been ceremonially flogged appeared with the mother its eyes were shaded by the mother’s hand while she presented food to the Natáckas.