March, 1905. Tmi Traditions of the Hopi — Votii. 245 



his hair. One time the Walpi came over also to have a race at 

 Sikyatki. The young man whose hair had been cut was still angry. 

 He took a knife and then went up on the l)luff opposite Sikyatki, 

 where he waited. 



When the dance was in progress he went down and entered the 

 plaza. He wore the mask of the H6msontaka Katcina. Four 

 clowns performed in connection with the Katcina dance. These saw 

 him first and said: "Here a Katcina is coming." "Yes," he said, 

 "we want to race." "Very well," they said. So he raced with them 

 and caught every one of them, cutting a small portion of their side 

 locks off. When they were through with the racing he kept looking 

 through the crowd of people. Soon he detected on top of a house a 

 maiden who had her hair whorls done up nicely. He recognized her 

 as a sister of the one who had Cut his hair, and he was determined 

 to take revenge on her. When the clowns noticed it they said: 

 "There he has found a friend." 



Hereupon he dashed away and ran up the ladder to the top of 

 the house where the maiden was standing with another maiden. 

 The people dispersed as he came upon the roof. He rushed to the 

 place where the two maidens were standing. They rushed down the 

 ladder and entered a house. He followed them and grabbed the 

 sister of his enemy, taking hold of her hair whorls and, jerking a 

 knife from his belt, he cut off her head. He took hold of one of her 

 hair whorls and rushed out, swinging the head where all the people 

 could see it. Hereupon he ran away. The people followed him 

 but could not overtake him. They rushed up the mesa and the 

 dance broke up immediately. 



When the Katcina had reached the top of the mesa he turned 

 back and again waved the head to his pursuers. They were very 

 angry. He turned and went to the village again by another trail, 

 still carrying the head in his hand. The people of the two villages 

 quarreled severely, but the Walpi people withdrew to their village. 

 There was, however, constant wrangling and fighting going on be- 

 tween the two villages after that. The people of Sikyatki, it seems, 

 were very wicked. They were especially wicked towards the women 

 and maidens, and as they did not even spare the chief's wife, .he got 

 very angry and was determined to take revenge upon his own people. 

 He agreed with the chief of Walpi that when his people would be 

 planting for the chief in the valley, the Walpi should come to the 

 village and destroy it. So when the Walpi heard the announcement 

 that the Sikyatki people were going to plant the fields of their chief 

 they made ready. 



