104 THE ACOMA INDIANS 



[ETH. ANN. 47 



It is now about noon. The dancers are getting ready. The priest 

 remains in the church after the saint leaves to talk to anyone who 

 wishes to see him and to marry couples who have waited for this 

 occasion. Sometimes a couple that has been "married"- — i. e., lived 

 as man and wife — come at this time to have their union receive the 

 sanction of the Catholic Church. Sometimes the dancers come out 

 and dance once before noon. 



After dinner the dance begins. There is great hospitality shown 

 at this fiesta. Ordinarily, strangers are received at old Acoma with 

 suspicion, distrust, and surliness — in addition to charging all visitors 

 $1 per head for the privilege of inspecting the pueblo, but at the feast 

 of St. Stephen, Acoma is hostess to everyone. Indians from other 

 villages and Navahos are housed and fed. Even wliite people are 

 treated with .some kindness and hospitality. Several people who had 

 never before shown any inclination to be kind to me invited me to 

 have dinner with them during the fiesta. 



There are two groups of dancere, each coming from its own kiva. 

 They file into the plaza, dancing; men and women alternate in the 

 line. A group of men, usually old men, follow, singing. One man 

 carries a great dnim which is beaten very loudly. At the head of 

 the fine of dancers is a man carrying a long pole which is "dressed 

 just like the dancers." It is called ocatc paiyatyamo (sun youth). 

 At the top of the pole is a bunch of colored parrot feathers like the 

 headdress of the men dancers. Then there is usually a bulb of wood 

 (resembling in size and shape an "Indian club") painted green with 

 a band of white and black. Then comes a ceremonial sash, made of 

 cotton and embroidered with colored yam, which is also worn by the 

 dancers. A fox skin hangs dowai from the point where the sash is 

 fastened (just as a fox skin hangs down from the waist of the men 

 dancei"s, in the back). The man who carries this standard moves 

 about in the plaza during the dance, sometimes at one end of the 

 line of dancers, sometimes in front of them at the middle. 



The costume of the dancers is quite like that of all fiesta dancers 

 in the eastern pueblos.*' The men wear parrot feathers in their hair 

 at the crown of the head. Their hair, wliich is freshly washed, hangs 

 down theii- back. They are nude to the waist. Theii- bodies are 

 painted (sometimes one group will be painted blue green and the 

 other a sort of reddish brown). They wear the usual dance kilt, or 

 skirt, with the cloud and weather symbols on the side. They wear 

 beUs around their legs below the knee, or at the ankle. Sometimes 

 they tie hanks of colored yarn around the leg below the knee. They 

 wear moccasins topped with skunk fur. They carry a gourd rattle 

 in the right hand and a bunch of spruce twigs in the left. 



f There is an eicellent photograph of flesta dancers in Kidder's Southwestern Archaeology, p. 40. 



