He set this tray on the floor near the fireplace, and after the chief
of the kiva had sprinkled the visitors with meal a male and a female
personator advanced from the western end of the kiva to the fireplace.
The man picked up the basket on the butt end of his stick and presented
it to the woman, who held it in both hands and danced a few moments,
while all the others sang. She then laid the tray down and passed to
the northern side of the chamber, the man retiring to the southern
side. After the other couples had performed the same ceremony they left
the kivas.
Immediately after their departure 28 personators from Hano entered.
These consisted of male and female deities, the latter personated by
men. The former passed to the southern, the latter to the northern
side of the kiva. Each of the male personages wore a yucca fillet on
his head and his legs were decorated with clay streaks; he wore white
kilts and girdles, with dependent fox-skins. They also had tortoise
rattles on the legs and carried a gourd rattle in the right hand. Their
costume was as follows: They were without masks; the hair was loose and
an imitation of a squash blossom was tied therein. The face was not
colored, but on the right shoulder curving to the breast was daubed
a mass of blue and green pigment. On the left shoulder and over the
breast they were painted with yellow, and bright red streaks were drawn
from the neck down the center of the breast and middle of the back.
The upper part of the right arm was colored yellow, the left forearm
green, the upper part of the left arm green. These colors were reversed
on the right arm. The right leg also was yellow and the left leg was
green with two contrasting bands below the knee. The hands, waist, and
upper portion of the thighs were whitened. They likewise wore white
kilts tied with girdles (wukokwéna and nanelkwéna). A gray fox-skin
depended from the loins. Each had a tortoise shell rattle on the right
leg and on the left leg generally a garter to which small sleigh-bells
were attached. Their moccasins were blue or green. In his right hand
each carried a blue or green painted rattle, and in the left a sprig
or small branch of spruce. Those personating females neither wore
fox-skins nor held anything in the left hand. The female personators
carried in the left hand a bundle of straw held well up before the
face. After they had been sprinkled with meal they began to sing, and
the couple in the center on the west side joined hands, holding them
above the head—the female with the palm turned up, the male with the
palm down and fingers imbricated. They advanced close to the fireplace
and then returned to their respective places. The personators executed
this figure four times in sequence and then went out.
[Illustration: PL. CVIII.
A. HOEN & CO. LITH.
KATCINA MASK WITH SQUASH BLOSSOM APPENDAGE AND RAIN CLOUD SYMBOLISM.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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