312 



TUSAYAN KATCINAS 



[ETIl. ANN 15 



was able by his ])rayers to bring tlie rain. These visits were made hmg 

 ago, but even now tliere are p:ihos strewn about tlie chamber, and 

 devout jiersoiis visit tlie place at the present day with a nakw;ik woci and 

 pray for rain. Altliougli the liaiu chief no longer ]iasscs the sixteen 

 days there, it is a holy place for the purposes mentioned. 



"The earth," says Mrs Stevenson,' "is watered by the deceased Zuni 

 of both sexes, who are coiitrollcil and directed by a council coniijoscd of 

 ancestral gods. These shadow peojilc collect water in vases and gourd 

 jugs from the six great waters of the world, and i)ass to and fro over the 

 iiiiddlc |)lanc. protected from view of I he people below by cloud masks." 



1 lind a (lill'ercnt conception fVoin this of the raiiiinaking powers of 

 the dead among the Ilopi. Among other ceremonials, when certain per- 

 sons die, after the chin has been blackened, the bo<ly washed, and i)re- 

 scribed feathers placed on ditlerent i)artsof it, a thin wad of raw cotton 

 in which is punched holes for the eyes is laid upon the face. This is a 

 mask and is called a rain-cloud or "i)rayerto the dead to bring the rain." 

 In general, as mauy writers have said, the use of the mask transforms 

 the wearer into a deity designated by the symbolism of the same,' and 

 as a consequence the dead, we maj' theoretically suppose, are tliercby 

 endowed with su])ernatural jiowers to bring rain. The Omowiihs, how- 

 ever, are the Eain gods, and so far as I can explain the significance of 

 the symbolic raiu-cloud mask on the face of the dead and the black 

 color on the chin, it is simply a method of prayer through the divinized 

 dead to the Itain-cloud deities. Among the Ilopi the earth is watered 

 by the Eain gods, but tlic dead are ceremonially made intercessors to 

 aifect them. In this view of the case the Hopi may be said to believe 

 tiiat the earth is " watered by the deceased of both sexes." 



The Hopi believe that the breath body of the Zuni goes to a sacred 

 place near Saint Johns, called Wenima. There the dead are supposed 

 to be changed into Katcinas, and the jilace is reputed to be one of the 

 homes of these personages. It is likewise si)ecially si)oken of as the 

 house of Calako, and it is believed that the Zuni hold the same views 

 of this mysterious place. In lagoons near it turtles are abundant, and 

 not far away Mr llubbell and otliers discovered sacrificial caverns in 

 which were large collections of ])ottery. Ti')tci, a Hopi resident of 

 Zuni, is the authority for the statement that the (Jibolans do not use 

 the raw cotton mortuary mask, although they blacken the face of the 

 dead chiefs. He says the same idea of divinizatioii of the breath body 

 into a Katcina seems to be current among the Zuni as among the Hopi. 



According to Mrs Stevenson the father of the Kokko is Kaklo (Kyiiklu), 

 whose servants are the Siiliimobiyns. The name of their mother is not 

 known to me. The Katcinas are said to be the otfspring of an Earth 



*0p. cit., p. 314. I believe many facts might be marshaled to prove that ancestor worship is a most 

 vital i)artof the Tusayau religious system. 



'Sco "The Gratf collection of Greek portraits," New England Magazine, January, 1894. Mr J. G-. 

 Frazer (Jour. Anth. Inst, of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. xv, p. 73) from comparative stndies of 

 burial customs suggests tliat tlio habit of m.isking the dead is "to keep the way to the grave a secret 

 from the dead man. " Thi.-* ex])laiiation .teems to me nuu-h more labored th.iu that given above. 



