On the first of the two brief visits made to Ácoma in the summer of 1922, I was told by a man who spoke English readily that the cacique is “always Antelope,” and that, though his duties are chiefly sacerdotal, it is he who names the officers for the ensuing year at the election in December. On the second visit the same informant referred for the first time to the cacique as his “uncle,” adding, “He is very old and nearly blind.” There was no question that the man with most authority in 1922 was the _hócheni_ or war captain, a situation due very possibly to the physical disability of the cacique. The annual election of officers forms an important part of the winter solstice ceremonies. After a week of commingled pagan and Christian festivities, the installation takes place either on December 30 or January 1, which is known as “King Day.” To inform the pueblo when and where this function will take place, the town crier (_kahera_) makes the circuit of the several roadways (as is the custom at Ácoma) calling out his instructions. When the men have assembled in the long-house (_Komanira_) near the church, the nominations made by the cacique are announced by the outgoing war chiefs; after this a general vote is taken, though a pure formality, for even if a nominee demurs he cannot help himself. We are told of cases when men ran away to avoid office, but were forced to return and serve as chosen. In installing officers, says Dr. Parsons, those going out “kneel on both knees, make the sign of the Cross, say the prayer beginning, ‘Padre santo-spirito. Amen,’ and pass the cane of office to their successors. All present kneel, of course removing their hats. Bandas are not removed.”[157] The election festivities continue through January 10, dances being performed in different houses in honor of the newly elected officers. The governor told Dr. Parsons that the people would stay on for ten days or so: “They have to, we have not given them the rules yet,” he said.[158] One writer[159] describes a ceremony at Ácoma that I have found mentioned nowhere else. He witnessed it on a spring morning in 1864. He describes the “single steep, narrow, winding path” from the plain to the top of the mesa, which “near the top narrows and is flanked on each side by a tall much-worn pillar of the sandstone-rock formation of the mesa, requiring no very vivid imagination to portray them as sentinels keeping watch over the approaches to this citadel.” A dance of purification for a recent victory over the Navajos was to be celebrated that day. The visitors noticed that one of these two stone pillars “appeared to be an object of especial regard; ribbons were hung on it; heads of corn and pieces of cake were flung up with an effort to lodge them on its flattened or concave summit.” The Alcalde of the pueblo joined the Americans and told the story of the pillar, in substance as follows: