March, 1905. The Traditions of the Hopi — Voth. 257 



and not so strong as they said they were. When he had told him 

 this they retired for the night. 



Early the next morning, before he had eaten a morning meal, the 

 Oraibi youth returned to his village, running very fast. When he 

 arrived there he told the crier to make an announcement. The latter 

 announced that the youths of the village should assemble on the 

 plaza, as a certain youth had something to communicate to them. 

 Hereupon the young men assembled on the plaza and asked the 

 young man what he had to tell them. He said that he had been in 

 Walpi, that they had Katcina races there and practiced running, and 

 that they were going to come over here to race with them, so they 

 should now go and practice running and thus become strong. "Let 

 us race here north of the village," he added. "They were going to 

 come here without informing us, but my friend there told me about 

 it." 



So they assembled at Hohoyahki, north of the village, and there 

 had two races. "Let us stop now," they said to each other; "if we 

 race too long one gets tired and does not recover from his fatigue." 

 Thus they practiced for four days. On the fifth day the W^lpi came. 

 They did not know, however, that the Oraibi had heard about their 

 coming. When the Walpi arrived at the spring Keq6chmovi, east 

 of Oraibi, where there were then no houses, they dressed up at 

 that spring so that the Oraibi should not find out so soon, but the 

 Oraibi had noticed them. When they had dressed up they ran to- 

 wards the village, following a trail straight up towards the Katcin- 

 kihu Kuwawaima. Here they gathered and stopped for a little 

 while and then ran towards the village. 



The people of the village, though they had known of their coming, 

 acted as if they had not seen them. Two of the Katcinas were Koy- 

 emsis who carried gifts in the form of comiviki, roasted sweet com 

 ears, etc. When they had arrived at the plaza one of the older 

 Orafbi went to them and asked: "Have you come? Have you 

 arrived?" "Yes," the K6yemsis replied. "On what account did 

 you come?" they were asked. "Yes," the K6yemsis said, "we have 

 come to contend with your young men in a race." Hereupon the 

 old man asked the Oraibi youths to descend from the houses and 

 race with these Katcinas. Immediately a large number of the young 

 men came down, laid off their clothes, and raced with the Katcinas. 

 As so many entered the race the Katcinas were soon tired. They 

 did not capture one Orafbi racer, did not even get near enough to 

 strike him with their yucca leaf whips. 



When they were through racing they had not caught a single 



