Dec. igoi. The Oraibi Powamu Ceremony — Voth. 121 



{l>.) The manas. These are young men and boys who are 

 dressed up as maidens. They wear the regulation woman's dress, 

 sash and moccasins and the ceremonial blanket called atoe. Around 

 the neck they wear beads and in the ears the square mosaic ear 

 pendants {tuoynahkaata). The hair is put up in whorls and to the 

 forehead is fastened an artificial sunflower. They hold a twig of pine 

 in their left, nothing in their right hand. 



The body decoration of the men is the same as that of th^ Aholi 

 Katcina, which has already been described. A little corn-meal is 

 rubbed into the face, which is occasionally repeated later during the 

 dance with corn-meal carried by the manas in corn husks behind 

 their sashes. It is said this is done to absorb the perspiration. 



The manas have their hands and arms painted white with kaolin 

 and their faces with corn-meal, the same as the men. 



Other Katcinmanas, such as the Hano, Takush (Yellow), Tassap 

 (Navajo) and Qotca (White) mana, may also be seen here and there 

 among the Powamu manas, but it is said that formerly the Powamu 

 mana proper only appeared. Besides these participants, certain men 

 are dressed up as old decrepit women. These wear masks which 

 represent wrinkled, ugly faces of old hags. They carry little doll 

 babies, which are generally partly hidden in large pine branches. 

 They are called Powamu-Wuhti-Tiata, and some represent little boys, 

 some girls. They are made in many different styles. (For two 

 samples of these dolls see PI. LXXIII.) Women who are sterile, and 

 also others, throw pinches of corn-meal to these dolls as prayers that 

 they may bear children. The meal is thrown towards the male doll 

 if a boy, to the female doll if a girl baby is desired. 



The dance takes place in all the kivas except the Honani and 

 the Marau kivas. On several occasions, however, several kivas were 

 known to club together, as neither of them could muster enough 

 dancers, or, at least, not as many as the other kivas. The occupants 

 of each kiva dance not only in their own but also in every other par- 

 ticipating kiva. 



The dance is a peculiar one. Upon entering a kiva the dancers 

 file on the east side of the ladder into the deeper portion of the kiva 

 and line up along the banquette on each side and the end of this part 

 of the kiva, thus forming a line having the shape of an inverted V. 

 The manas and old women form the east, the men the west half of 

 the line. When all are in, the two dancers at the apex of the line — a 

 man and a mana — join hands, dance forward in the middle of the 

 kiva, recede, dance forward again and then release each other's hand, 

 the mana joining the line on the east, the man that on the west side. 



