[31] During that time our knowledge of the Snake dance had been enlarged by Stephen, Bourke, and others.
[32] The Katcinas, sometimes spelt Cachinas, are believed to be the same as the Zuñi Kókos and possibly the Nahuatl teotls. The derivation is obscure; possibly it is from kátci, spread out, horizontal, the surface of the earth, náa, father, abbreviated na, surface of land, father. The Tusayan Indians say that their Katcinas are the same as the Zuñi Kóko, pronouncing the word as here spelled. Cushing insists, however, that the proper name of the organization is Kâ′kâ. I find Mrs Stevenson, in her valuable article on the Religious Life of a Zuñi Child, has used the spelling Kok′ko, which introduces the o sound which the Tusayan people distinctly use in speaking of the Katcinas of their nearest Pueblo neighbors. This variation in spelling of one of the more common words by conscientious observers shows one of the difficulties which besets the path of those who attempt etymologic dissection of Pueblo words. Many Zuñi words in the mouths of the Hopi suffer strange modifications, so that I am not greatly surprised to find idiomatic differences between the Hopi dialect of the East mesa and that of Oraibi. How much may result after years of separation no one can tell, but the linguist must be prepared to find these differences very considerable.
[33] This person is said to have been the mother of the Katcinas. She also was the mother of the monsters, the slaughter of whom by the cultus hero, Pü′ükoñhoya, and his twin brother is a constant theme in Tusayan folklore.
[34] Stevenson, Navaho Sand Paintings, in Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
[35] Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. II, No. 1.
[36] The Hopi report that the Zuñi believe that the dead are changed into Katcinas and go to a Sípapû, which they descend and tell the “chiefs” to send the rain. The Hopi believe that the dead become divinized (Katcinas in a loose meaning) and intercede for rain. (See discussion of Mrs Stevenson’s statement that the dead send rain.) It seems to me that students of primitive myth and ritual have hardly begun to realize the important part which orientation plays in early religions. As research progresses it will be found to be of primary importance. The idea of world-quarter deities sprang from astronomical conceptions and was derived from a primitive sun worship in which the lesser deities naturally came to be associated with the four horizon points of solstitial sunrise and sunset.
[37] I have elsewhere pointed out that the típoni is called the mother, and this usage seems to hold among the other Pueblos. As a badge of chieftaincy it is carried by the chiefs on certain occasions of initiation and public exhibitions, as can be seen by consulting my memoir of the Snake Ceremonials at Walpi. Címo, the old Flute chief (obit 1893), once made the following remark about his típoni: “This is my mother; the outer wrapping is her garment; the string of shells is her necklace; the feathers typify the birds, and within it are all the desirable seeds. When I go to sleep she watches over me, and when I die one of the feathers will be placed upon my heart, and I hope the típoni will take care of me.” From these words we learn how much the típoni is venerated, and it is not remarkable, considering the benefits which are thought to come from it, that it is designated “the mother.”
[38] I mention this fact since, following Bandolier’s studios among the Rio Grande Pueblos, we have something different. The Koshare, which appear to correspond with a group of the Tcukúwympkiya, the Paiakyamû, are regarded by him as the summer and autumn men, while the Cuirana are the spring men. During the late summer and autumn the Tcukúwympkiya take no part in the ceremonials at the East mesa of Tusayan. No Tcukúwympkiyas appear in the Snake, Flute, Lálakoñti, Mamzraúti, Wüwütcímti, or in certain minor festivals. They appear to be almost universal accompaniments of the Katcina observances.
[39] The elaboration is of course along different lines of growth, and its characteristics are treated in the several already published articles devoted to these subjects. In none of the abbreviated Katcinas described was there an altar or complicated kiva performance, but on the other hand, in the elaborate Katcinas such secret observances always existed. Síocalako, described in this article, affords an interesting abbreviated ceremonial with kiva rites.
[40] This might better be called a composite, abbreviated Katcina.