The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child

by Matilda Coxe Stevenson

ZUÑI MASKS AND KŌ-YĒ-MĒ-SHI.

Returning to the house, the paternal grandmother again bathes the child in yucca suds; then, for the first time, the little one is put into the cradle. The baby's arms are placed straight by its sides, and in this position it is so strapped in its cradle that it cannot even move a hand. These cradles have hood-shaped tops, and over the whole thick coverings are placed, so that the wonder is the child does not smother. The cradle is usually deposited in some safe corner, and the baby is left to sleep or amuse itself with its infantine thoughts. The cradle is sometimes attached to two ropes to form a swing, and when the mother becomes conscious of the child's awakening she uncovers its head at times and the tiny thing casts its eyes around. On the tenth morning both parents of the child are bathed in suds of yucca, the whole body of the mother but only the head of the father. This office is also performed by the paternal grandmother. The immediate blood relations (female only) then assemble at the infant's home; that is, all the household of the father's house and those of the mother's house. Each woman from the father's house brings to the baby a gift of a little blanket. This select gathering partakes of a feast, which is presided over by the maternal grandmother. At the close of the feast the infant is carried by the oldest sister of the father to the paternal grandmother's house, where it is presented to the paternal grandfather, who prays to the Sun (Yä-tō tka) to send down blessings upon the child.

INVOLUNTARY INITIATION INTO THE KŌK-KŌ.

The present ceremonials are in direct obedience to the orders and instructions given at the time of the appearance of the Kōk-kō upon the earth, and their masks are counterparts of the original or spiritual Kōk-kō ([Plate XX]). The Käk-lō rides, as of old, upon the backs of the Kō-yē-mē-shi, and he is the heralder for the coming of the Kō-lō-oo-wĭt-si. Arriving at the village in the morning, he divides his time between the kivas, there being six of these religious houses in Zuñi, one for each of the cardinal points, one for the zenith, and one for the nadir. In each of these kivas he issues to the people assembled the commands of the Kōk-kō and gives the history of the Käk-lō and the gathering of the cereals of the earth by the Sä-lä-mō-bī-ya. At sunrise he is gone. The morning after the arrival of the Käk-lō, those who are to represent the Kōk-kō prepare plume sticks, and in the middle of the same day these are planted in the earth. The same night they repair to their respective kivas, where they spend the following eight nights, not looking upon the face of a woman during that period. Each night is spent in smoking and talking and rehearsing for the coming ceremony. The second day all go for wood, bringing it home on their backs, for so the ancients did when beasts of burden were unknown to them. The third day is also spent in gathering wood, and the fourth day likewise. On the same day the ten men who are to personate the Kō-yē-mē-shi, in company with the ^tSī-^tsī-^tki (great-grandfather of the Kō-yē-mē-shi), pass through the village, inquiring for the boys who are to be initiated; before such houses as have boys ready for this ceremonial these men assemble; one of them enters the house and, greeting the mother of the boy with "Good morning," inquires the name of her son. She replies: "He has no name," and requests the Kō-yē-mē-shi to give him one. The man then joins the group, repeating the words of the woman. In passing from the kiva through the village the Indian screens his face with a blanket, so as not to see the women as he passes. On the fifth day they go on a rabbit hunt, the capture of but one rabbit being necessary. The rabbit is carried to the He-i-i-que (or Kiva of the North) by the ^tSī-^tSī ^tki, who, after skinning the rabbit, fills the skin with cedar bark; a pinch of meal is placed for the heart and the eye sockets are filled with mica; a hollow reed is passed through the inside filling to the mouth. The sixth day the inmates of the kivas again go for wood; the seventh day large Tē-līk-tkī-nā-we are made of eagle plumes; the eighth day is consumed in decorating the masks to be worn. As these people have not the art of mixing their pigments so as to be permanent, masks and altars have to be freshly decorated before using; and, when the masks are completely decorated, they, with the other paraphernalia, are carried on the same day by the men and youths who have to wear them to some secluded nooks among the rocks, a distance from the town, where they put them on, returning to the village by early moonlight.

The impressive ceremonial of initiating the youth into the order of the Kōk-kō occurs but once in four years. No male child above the age of four years may, after death, enter the Kiva of the Kōk-kō unless he has received the sacred breath of the Kōk-kō. Those who personate the Kōk-kō are endowed for the time being with their actual breath. Besides the Sä-lä-mō-bī-ya of the North, West, South, East, Heavens, and Earth, and a number of younger brothers who appear on this occasion, there are Pā-oo-tī-wa ([Plate XX]), father of the Sun, ten Kō-yē-mē-shi, and the Kō-lō-oo-wĭt-si.

The Sä-lä-mō-bī-ya of the North wear yellow (hlūp-si-na) masks; those from the West, blue (hli-än-na); those from the South, red (shi-lō-ā); those from the East, white (kō-hān); those from the Heavens, all colors (Ī-tō-pō-nän-ni); those from the Earth, black (quin-nā). ([Plate XXI].) These colors represent the cardinal points, the zenith, and the nadir:

North.	Yellow.	Hlūp-si-na.
West.	Blue.	Hli-än-na.
South.	Red.	Shi-lō-ā.
East.	White.	Kō-hān.
Heavens.	All colors.	Ī-tō-pō-nän-ni.
Earth.	Black.	Quin-nā.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXI.