494 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



the men carry in their hands and by empty turtle shells with attached 

 deer hoofs tied under the knees. 



These dances are accompanied by a group of masked men, generally 

 five in number, known as the Clowns, Mud Heads, or Delight Makers. 

 There are three kinds of clowns: the first, those who wear a close 

 fitting cap with long leather horns tipped with bunches of corn 

 husks. These horns, like their bodies, are girt with black and white 

 bands like convicts' garments; the second have their heads encased 

 in close fitting hoods to which are tied little bags like weris, some of 

 which resemble small sausages ; the third group is unmasked and have 

 their faces painted with yellow and red pigments. They wear neck- 

 laces and ear ornaments made of the tails of rabbits stained red. 

 The third group might easily be called gluttons for they practice 

 inordinate eating, sometimes consuming disgusting food. None of 

 these personators wear clothing of any kind save a gee-string. 

 Their function is to amuse the spectators while the public dances are 

 progressing, introducing impersonations and ludicrous episodes, 

 many of which would better not be described. These clowns, espe- 

 cially the last mentioned, represent the very ancient ancestral people 

 (fig. 3). 



The wants of the people are made known to the Katcina personators 

 by prayers of old priests who from time to time pass about the line of 

 dancers sprinkling prayer meal in pinches on their shoulders, ac- 

 companied with prayers. These Katcina personations are supposed 

 by the worshippers to have supernatural powers to bring the rain, 

 and make the crops grow, and the purpose of the prayers is in that 

 direction. The old priests vicariously represent the worshippers, 

 and as they pass from one dancer to another they give them prayer 

 sticks that have been consecrated by songs, prayers, and in other ways 

 sanctified in the sacred rooms before an elaborate altar. 



The one-day public Katcina dances among the Hopi take place 

 in the courts and are performed at intervals from sunrise to sunset, 

 culminating in number of performers and size of the audiences late 

 in the afternoon. The line of dancers is generally led to the dance 

 places by a priest who indicates the trail by throwing a line of sacred 

 meal in front of the leader. These men are priests w T ho pray to the 

 Katcinas either by asperging medicine water on them or sprinkling 

 them with prayer meal. 



The songs of the Katcinas are melodious and rhythmical, the words 

 often incomprehensible, sometimes taken from some other pueblo 

 language. They are often bartered among different Hopi pueblos 

 and it is no unusual thing for a man from one pueblo to teach a foreign 

 Katcina song to men of another pueblo, for a remuneration. To 

 emphasize the value they place on some of these songs attention may 

 be called to the fact that a new Katcina song is sometimes sold for a 



