wHiTEj CEREMONIES AND CEREMONIALISM 95 



and his mother complete the Ust. K'auBat'", who is blind, carries 

 an antelope head. He wears a buckskm shirt and leggings. His 

 mother is dressed like a go''tcininako; this role is always taken by a 

 man. The people who are to impersonate these k'a-'tsina are chosen 

 in a council of the Com clan at the time the date is set, or shortly 

 afterwards. These roles belong to no special persons. K'auBat'"'s 

 mother carries a bundle of shoulder blades of deer, which she rattles 

 as she walks so that her son may foUow. (See story which tells how 

 K'auBat'" lost liis eyes.) 



Meanwhile other Corn clan people have been busy in the pueblo. 

 Early in the morning before sunrise, while the dancers are away at 

 the spring, some Corn people place a pile of wood that they have pre- 

 viously gathered at each dancing station and also in front of the Corn 

 clan house. 



The dancers eat at midnight. From then until after the ceremony 

 no one may eat or drink, except small children under about 8 years 

 of age. After their supper the dancers set out for k'oana, a spring, 

 some distance west of Acoma. They carry their masks with them. 

 They are accompanied by the head man of the clan, and perhaps 

 some other old men, and some Corn women. About halfway to the 

 spring, they stop and make a camp, where they leave the women and 

 their masks. (The rabbits that have been killed are brought to this 

 camp.) Then they go on to the spring. 



At sunrise the two boys who have gone north to K'awec'Dima 

 build a fire on the mountain top. Then they proceed toward Mc- 

 Carty, westward, building about six fires along the way. When they 

 build their last fire on top of the mesa at McCarty, then all the other 

 fire builders make their fires, and start toward Acoma, building fires 

 along the way. The dancers at the spring build a fire when they see 

 the one at McCarty. They pray at the spring, leave their prayer 

 sticks, and return to the camp. Cura'tca fills his little jar with water 

 and lights his firebrand before leaving the spring. He carries a 

 pottery canteen (cpo'na), hung from his neck, down the back, by a 

 piece of soapweed. He has a firebrand which he has made by stuff'- 

 ing a roll of cedar bark with soft bark shreds. He lights this before 

 leaving the spring; it continues to glow for a long time afterwards. 

 He also carries a piece of charred wood, which he picks up. 



It is about 1 o'clock in the afternoon when the k'atsina impersona- 

 tors return to the camp where the women are waiting with their 

 masks and the rabbits. They put on their masks and set out for 

 Acoma. Cura'tca carries the rabbits hanging on his back. Arriving 

 at the foot of the mesa on the west, they dance a bit, and then ascend 

 the trail southwest of the church and dance at the rear of the church. 

 Then they go to the first dancing station, where they dance, each pair 



