180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
hole and buries them. All of this time the bear is treated with the 
greatest respect. He is addressed as Grandfather (BaBa). His head 
is spoken of as squash (danyi); the meat, kinati (fresh ear of corn); 
the skin, diskama (cornhusk); the feces, cebo-ta (corn smut). The 
bear is addressed as cottontail rabbit (Lekyu). ‘“This is to avoid 
hurting the bear’s feelings.”’ 
The bear skin and meat are taken back to the pueblo when the 
hunters return. They approach the village as warriors used to do 
when a scalp had been taken. The men of the pueblo go out to meet 
and greet the bear. They all sing scalp songs as the bear is brought 
into the village, but instead of saying ‘‘scalp” in the songs they 
say ‘“‘bear.’”” The men with the bear, followed by those who have 
come to greet him, circle the pueblo first. They then enter by way 
of the north plaza, go through it to the south plaza which they circle, 
then go to the house of the bear’s ‘‘owner,” i.e., the one who touched 
it first, with the skin and the meat. If, however, the bear has been 
killed on a hunt to provide the cacique with meat for hotcanitsa, he 
will be taken to hotcanitsa along with the deer and turkey, the men 
singing as they go. But the bear will not be kept there; after a 
time he will be taken to his owner’s house. The owner is entitled 
to the bear’s skin, apart from the leg skins, of course, and to the meat, 
which is eaten. ‘The best way to cook it is to roast it; it is fat and 
tastes like pork.” 
When the bear is brought into its owner’s house the skin is laid on 
the floor on something to keep it clean. It is dressed like a dancer in 
the corn dance, male or female according to the sex of the bear: 
kilt and white sash, a few necklaces, wabunyi (shell gorget), etc., 
for a male bear; the black, sleeveless dress and many necklaces for 
a female. Almost everyone in the pueblo comes to see the bear, to 
sprinkle it with petana and to welcome it into the pueblo. The 
bear is addressed as BaBa regardless of its sex. 
When everyone has come to welcome the bear, the owner skins 
the head, stretches the hide on a frame, and smears the inside with 
a thick paste of mi‘ck’a‘te (earth used in plastering houses); this 
“sucks the fat out of the skin.” No part of the bear’s skin is tanned. 
After the skin has had time to dry out, the owner calls a meeting 
in his house of all Opi who were involved in any way with the killing; 
the killer, in the event that he was not the one who touched the bear 
first, and the honawai’aiti who removed the maca’inyi, to decide 
when to hold the ceremony which will make him, the owner, an Opi, 
and also to decide which society shall perform the ceremony. Our 
notes do not specify the societies that are qualified to perform this 
ceremony; we would guess that only those which are full honawai’aiti 
are qualified. The owner takes petana to the head of the society 
