314 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



the chief or his assistant, just as it had to be put on by one of them. 

 Each Father rubs his eyes and makes the gestures of throwing 

 away. . . . Food is distributed as ah-eady described (see pp. 299, 

 309). 



After this ceremony people may begin to work in their fields; for 

 as early as February wheat is to be planted. 



RITUAL FOR EXPELLING GRASSHOPPERS 



The years the grasshoppers are bad, when the crops are coming up 

 there is a ceremony "to condemn the head grasshopper (kauru 

 kabede)." The town chief tells kumpa to instruct the war chief to 

 initiate the ritual which is to be conducted by the medicine societies 

 in the roundhouses, the Towii Fathers in that of the Black Eyes, the 

 Laguna Fathers in that of the shure'. The ritual is performed at 

 night and is in general like that of the cleaning of the fields. Through 

 a cr>'stal the chief locates the grasshopper chief. The chief assistant 

 and another find him and take him away. Like bees, the grasshoppers 

 will follow their chief. 



KACHINA BASKET DANCE 



Any night in winter a man may ask for this dance, Hwa hcha por, 

 kachina basket dance, the men who are giving the dance asking per- 

 mission of the town chief. There are in town five houses which con- 

 tain the old time grinding stones, five or six in a row, and in one of 

 these houses the dance will be performed, as the women grind the 

 meal which is needed to give to the Fathers. In other words, it is 

 ceremonial meal which is groimd on these occasions. 



In the dance there are four male figures, and tkree female imper- 

 sonations by men, with a man, as they say at Zuiii, to beat the bundle. 

 Sitting on a folded blanket, he beats with a stick on a bundled 

 sheep pelt. He is called hwa; he wears little deer horns. This part is 

 taken by the man who asked for the dance. The male dancers wear 

 a buckskin mantle, no kilt, at the back of the head a fan of turkey 

 tail feathers; their face painted white \vith red lines across the cheeks; 

 in the left hand, bow and arrow; in the right, a gourd rattle. The 

 female impersonators carry an arrow in the right hand, a shallow 

 basket in the left. They wear the white Hopi blanket or manta 

 and women's moccasins; their hair hangs loose; their face is red all 

 over except a white horizontal line across each cheek. 



People come in to see the dance, and after the dancers leave these 

 visitors themselves dance the Mexican quadriUe (Mex., hanchi, 

 Isleta, kurpor'). 



