White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 25a 
society can go to the head of any of the other societies having masks 
and ask for dancers; the nawai would, of course, delegate members of 
his own society to help. Or, the head of the society needing addi- 
tional dancers could go to the head of the singers, or of the sicti—in 
1941 one man was the head of both groups—and ask him for help. 
Members of the singers, or of the sicti, would be delegated to assist. 
Or, the head of the society needing more dancers could go to Tiamunyi, 
War chief, the governor, or fiscale, and ask for more dancers. The 
_ officer in question could call upon anyone in the pueblo, provided, of 
course, that he or she had been initiated into the lore of the katsina. 
Persons who are to take part in a masked dance must observe the 
naowetas’nyi (ritual emesis) each morning for 4 days, and observe the 
taboo of notréwadyac (sexual continence) for a like period. One 
must not even talk to a woman in a sexual or erotic context: 
Once about 150 years ago, a man and a woman who were about to take part 
in a katsina dance had sexual relations with each other during the 4-day period 
before the dance. After the dance was over the dancers went back to their 
ceremonial house. This man and woman found that they could not remove their 
masks; they had stuck to their skin and flesh. When it was discovered that they 
could not take off their masks the other dancers were called to witness this marvel. 
Some of the people tried to take the masks off but found that they had actually 
become the skin and flesh of the man and woman. Then the man and woman 
found that they could no longer talk; they could only utter the cries characteristic 
of the katsina they had been impersonating. They had actually become those 
katsina. The people took them outdoors and then to the hotcanitsa. They 
walked around the pueblo—maybe to say “goodbye.’”’ Then they went down to 
the river and waded in. They sank down out of sight and were never seen again. 
Each day, for 4 days preceding the dance, the men who are to dance 
leave the pueblo and go ‘‘out somewhere” to practice their dancing 
unobserved; in the evening they rehearse their songs in a house, bor- 
rowed for the purpose. Early in the morning of the third day some 
of the katsina dancers go out into the mountains to get spruce for their 
costumes. They take prayer feather bunches (wapanyi) and prayer 
meal (petana) with them. Before they cut any spruce they tie a 
feather bunch to the tree, sprinkle it with meal, and offer a prayer 
and thanks to the tree for its branches. After this ritual for the first 
tree, they may take branches from any tree without more ado. They 
return to the pueblo after dark so that no one will see them: all prep- 
arations for the dance are kept secret from the uninitiated, who 
believe that the masked dancers are really katsina rainmakers from 
Wenima. 
While the men have been in the mountains gathering spruce, the 
members of the society in charge of the dance, assisted by some of 
the dancers, get the masks ready; they must be refurbished with 
flowers, feathers, prayersticks, etc. 
