150 THE ACOMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 47 



"We have made a terrible mistake," he said, "but from now on we 

 must do the best we can." The friendly k'a-'tsina were present in 

 the pueblo when the masks arrived. War chief told the people 

 that they were to regard these k'a-'tsina as ho'tceni (chiefs) and that 

 they must respect them. War chief proposed having Tsitsunits 

 whip all the children four days from that time. (In summoning 

 the people to the estufa he had admitted only adults.) In four 

 days all the cliildren were brought to the estufa, where they were 

 whipped by Tsitsunits. Four days after the whipping the men 

 put on their masks for the first time and danced in the plaza. When 

 they had finished dancing they retired to the estufa. Here the 

 war chief caused all the children over eight years of age to assemble. 

 They were told the secret of the masks and the k'a-'tsina dancers. 

 They were told to beheve in the k'a-'tsina and to treat them with 

 great respect. They were forbidden to tell the younger children. 



In the evening the dancers pretended to return to Wenimats'. 

 Then they went out west, waited until nightfall, when they removed 

 their masks and returned to the village. This is the way they must 

 do even to this day. Dahama tcaitc. (This is the way it happened.) 



Masewi Abandons Iatik 



Mic"Hama Gong ago), when the Acoma people were still living 

 at Kacikatcutia (\Miite House), Masewi and his brother Oyoyewi 

 lived in the same house with Iatik. Iatik had an altar (yaBaicini) 

 in her room with a medicine bowl (waiititcani) sitting in front of it. 

 Masewi and his brother used to go into latik's room every night and 

 dance for her until morning. They would dance in front of the 

 altar so that the water in the medicine bowl would not di-y up. 

 Clouds arose from the water in the medicine bowl and spread all 

 over the world, thus insuring a sufficient supply of rain. 



After a time, however, Iatik appeared to tire of the nightly visits 

 of the two brothers. At last she showed it so plainly that they 

 decided not to return, so one night they stayed away. Instead of 

 dancing before the altar they went to each house in the village and 

 got some corn; they collected corn of all kinds and colors. The 

 next mornmg early they left the village, traveling toward the north. 

 After journeying some distance they selected a spot and dug a hole 

 in the ground, a deep hole, leading down into another world. Before 

 descending into the lower world they found a horned toad (taainock"). 

 They told him that Iatik had tired of them and their dancing and 

 that they had decided to leave the village for 10 years; it was their 

 way of maldng the people reahze that it was they and not Iatik who 

 brought the rain. The toad was to guard the hole during the ab- 

 sence of the two brothers; he was to sit on the entrance to the hole. 

 Masewa caused some flowers to grow about the hole so that the toad 



