250 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
to distinguish it from C. maxima, which is grown at Sia but is not 
indigenous and is therefore called mérikana (‘Américan’) Danyi. The 
seeds are chewed thoroughly. Then, keeping them in the mouth, 
the mouth is filled with water and mixed well with the seeds. The 
mixture is then drained through a cloth into a bow]; it has the color 
and consistency of milk. This liquid is sprayed from the mouth 
onto the mo-ckai; it is said to make it look darker and greener (cf. 
White, 1948, pp. 368-369). 
A yellow paint for katsina masks is made from a collected, but 
unidentified, plant, called cko-maik’® specimen 23915, Museum of 
Anthropology, University of Michigan. It has a conspicuous four- 
petaled flower (White, 1945, pp. 564-565). 
Gypsum (CaSo,), a variety of selenite, commonly called mica, is 
also used to make a paint for masks. The Sia name is ropina ha’ack- 
anyl; white mica is called howaka, ‘sky,’ ha’ackanyi. The latter is 
rubbed on a hard stone to reduce it to powder and is then mixed 
with water to make a white paint (White, 1948, p. 370). 
INITIATION INTO KATSINA LORE 
In all Keresan pueblos small children are led to believe that the 
katsina impersonators are real supernatural beings. In some of the 
Keresan pueblos the women are supposed to be ignorant of the true 
identity of the masked dancers. My data are conflicting on this 
point. One informant stated emphatically that women never wear 
katsina masks; another said that they wore the Kotcininako and 
Merinako—the Yellow and Green Women—masks. Stevenson (1894, 
p. 116) reports that women do take part in masked impersonations. 
It may be that my informant who said that women do not wear 
masks did not count Yellow and Green Women as katsina. 
It is up to the parents of a child to decide when he or she is old 
enough to be entrusted with the secrets of the katsina. When that 
time has come they will tell the head of Koshairi or Kwiraina, which- 
ever one will have charge of the next masked dance, that they wish 
to have their child initiated. The initiation will take place on the 
day the dance is held. The parents or grandparents (either pair) 
will take the child to the house where the masked dancers gather 
between dances; this will be the ceremonial house of the society 
which has charge of the dance. They may go in the forenoon, right 
after the first dance, but they usually go in the afternoon. 
The head of the society in charge of the dance will have been noti- 
fied, of course, and Koshairi or Kwiraina nawai will ask the War 
chief to be present also, and he, in turn, will ask Tiamunyi to be 
there. The society in charge of the dance will have its meal painting 
(fig. 35) laid out and its slat altar erected “unless it is too crowded.” 
