272 TUSAYAN KATCINAS (kth.ann.is 



as swiilldwinj;' tlie sun as in an eclipse. If Soyi'iluna is a propitiatory 

 ceremouy to prevent tlie destruction or (lisai)i)earance of tlie .sun in 

 winter or to oll'set the attacks of liostile malevolent deities upon him, 

 we cau see a possible explanation of the attacks aud defenses of the 

 sun as here dramatized.' The evil inlluences of the great snake are 

 met by the i)rayers to his elligy; the attacks of other less powerful 

 deities are dramatized in the manner indicated. 



The followJM};' contains a few suggestions in regard to the cliarac- 

 ter of the dramatization in the December celebration. In the prayers 

 to the Plumed Snake his hostility was quieted, and the chiefs did what 

 they could to jiropitiate that powerful deity, who was the great cause 

 of their apprehension that the benelicent sun (Tiiwa) would be over- 

 <^(>me. Then followed the dramatization of the conflict of oi)iiosiug 

 powers, possiblj' representing other deities hostile 'to our beneficent 

 father, the sun. Although the struggle involved, so far as the partici- 

 ])aiits were concei'ned, their highest powers of endurance and bodily 

 suffering, the sun shield or symbol of Tawa had the good fortune to 

 resist the many assaults made upon it. 



The introduction of dramatization as an explanation of the warrior 

 celebration is theoretic, therefore not insisted upon, and is at least 

 plausible until a better interpretation is suggested. It has in its sup- 

 ]iort the evidence drawn from a coini)arative study of ceremonials. In 

 the light of this theorj^ the return and departure of the Katcina has a 

 new significance, and may be regarded as a modified sun myth. At the 

 winter solstice the sun and his attendant deities have reached their most 

 distant point, and turned to come back to the pueblos. In the mid- 

 summer the solar deity approached them; he was near them, and in 

 ai)iireciation of this fact, which means blessings, the poor Hopi mode 

 his offering;- danced the Snake dance, asking the snake to bring the 

 rain, believing he was no longer hostile or at enmity with the sun. 

 But the withdrawal of the gods (Farewell Katcinas) could not be 

 delayed by these rites, and the sun each day drew farther from them. 

 The Katcinas (gods) departed; the briglit, beneficent summer gave 

 place to cold, <lreary winter; life was replaced by death. In this most 

 critical epoch the warriors, the most potent human powers of the 

 l)ueblo, performed their ceremony to bring back the beneficent god 

 and his train. The Nahuatl priest called a similar ceremony '• Teotleco," 

 the god comes — "The dead god is reborn," says Duran. The gods 

 (Katcinas) come, say the Flopi (Soyiilnna, all assemblage; derived 

 from CO, all; yunj-a, assetnblage). The Nahuatl priest sjjriukled meal 

 on the th)or of the teocalli, and when he saw in the meal the footprint 



'There are Tiieniliers of tht- American rare living whore the sun disappears at ttie winter siilstice or 

 auccunibs to evil powers. Have the PueblOHi inherited this rite from people who oneo lived far to 

 the north ? 



*Tht^ faet that tlie Snake dance follows the Xinnin may he ex]>lained as follows: The sun begins 

 to b(^ aU'ected Ity the Plunird Snake at the Farewell dance, and tlie growing intlueneeof tliis ilivinity is 

 reecigniz.ed. hence iiis children (reptiles) are gatliered from the tields and intrusted with the prayers 

 of men to eeuse his malign iutlnence. 



