^2^f^^'^.;f/jy'ro°™^'l ETHlSrOBOTANY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 43 



PRBIEB-MAREECO J 



'squash blossom.' The female performers carried sprigs of spruce in 

 their right hands, concealing their wooden rasps, yivxmp'e. On the 

 afternoon of the day preceding the dance the five cajntanes went to 

 the forest, cut eight young spruce trees, and brought them, unob- 

 served, to the village; and after midnight these were planted in the 

 plazas, two at each dancing place. These were referred to in the ^owg- 

 ])hr2ise,jag.iwQ'qndiisdywse^in(mq, {jagkvo'ondi., archaic form of mgi- 

 wo^on^'i, beautiful; tsqywseH^ greenness, green thing; na^ it; nq, to be 

 present). Spruce branches worn or carried by dancers at Santa Clara 

 are always thrown into the Santa Clara River when the dance is over. 



Certain clouds are ritually called 'spruce clouds', Vse'oJcuwa^ and 

 their personifications are called 'spruce-cloud boys', tse^oh\Lwa^e'^imij^ 

 and 'spruce-cloud girls', thebaic uwa'' a'' Hmij. 



At Hano the Douglas spruce, fsele, is used in almost all the winter 

 dances; the dancers wear spruce twigs made up with yucca fiber into 

 compact neck-wreaths (called Hjnbifselekefo, ' their spruce neckwear,' 

 or figuratively katsina Hmbi7)7na''ay 'kachinas' necklaces'), and also 

 carry branches in their left hands, called merely HvihlFsele, 'their 

 spruce.' As no Douglas spruce grows near Hano, it is procured from 

 the mountains some miles southeast or east of First Mesa. A horse- 

 man leaving Hano at daybreak to fetch it returns after nightfall. 

 Occasionally the Navaho bring it to Hano and barter it for corn and 

 meal; thus, before the Ivitcle k'awofo in March, 1913, the Corn clan 

 bought a quantity of spruce branches for the use of all the members 

 of the estufa/ munate^ ^, which this clan controls. As a rule, however, 

 when spruce is needed for a dance, a fast runner is sent to the hills to 

 fetch it. Returning after dark, he carries it to the estufa, where 

 feathers, />d^(5, are put on it; then he is asked to choose one branch, 

 which is carried to the spring early next morning. During the night 

 one or more large branches are planted in the plaza where the dance 

 is to take place, and in the morning the children are astonished to see 

 trees growing there. Spruce branches used in the dances are thrown 

 from the edge of the mesa when the dance is over, or dropped in some 

 appropriate place among the rocks, for instance behind the Hajete^ 

 'fetish house,' at Tdbafsana,, 'the Gap.' 



Occasionally juniper twigs and branches (hvkala; see p. 40) are 

 substituted for spruce.^ 



The New Mexican Tewa say that mankind first climbed into this 

 world by means of a tree of this species, at Sipoj/e in the far north. 

 The Tewa of Hano say that when the chiefs wished to make a way for 



1 Estufa, the name given by the Spanish explorers to the sunken dance-houses or club-houses of the 

 Pueblo Indians and the name current at the present time in New Mexico: Hopi k'dsa: Tewa te'e, and 

 Po'^te'e, the latter probably meaning 'old-time house,' etc. 



2Cf. \V. Matthews, The Mountain Chant, Fi/tli Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 464. Tlie Navaho 

 ritual requires spruce saplings (Pseudutsuga Douglasii), but as the spruce does not grow plentifully 

 at a height of less than 8,000 feet, pinon saplings are sometimes substituted. 



