320 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



arms up and do\\'n. In the plaza there will be other women and chil- 

 dren to thi'ow meal on the crops bmidles. Before the ceremonial 

 house of the town chief the procession stops and the war chief calls 

 out to the people to gaze on the crops bundles. Each moiety chief 

 removes the cover from the bundle which he holds in both hands in 

 front of his chest. The town chief steps up to look, saying yayu, 

 yayu (a ceremonial term). Kumpa follows, then all in turn, everj^- 

 body saying yayu, yayu. The town chief, kumpa, the war chief, and 

 the moiety chiefs withdraw into the house of the towai chief to per- 

 form ritual of which none knows anything but themselves. The 

 people remain outside smging. . . . 



The moiety chiefs reappear, each standing in front of his moiety 

 group, to thank them and give each a drink from their bowl of medi- 

 cine water. Sometimes a member of one moiety will ^^sit the other 

 moiety, in wliich case the chief will sprinkle water on hiin from his 

 mouth; but a diink he would not give him. Only a member of the 

 moiety may drink the moiety's medicine water. The moiety chiefs 

 now dismiss the people, saying they may proceed to perform the 

 uwepore, fertility dance (uwe' I'efers to a woman who has many 

 children). 



This dance, referred to in English as ditch dance or round dance, 

 is danced in a circle, antisunwise, men and women alternating.'* 

 Each moiety forms its owti circle,'* both dancing at the same time. 

 In one connection I was told that the k'apyo '^ come out at this time. 



RITUAL OF FETCHING RED PAINT 



Red paint (pari') is to be found '" "in a rock" on Nahorai, the 

 highest peak of the Manzano Mountains, the range east of Isleta. 

 Youths are appointed by the moiety chiefs to get the paint, which 

 is used ritualistically by racers and ditch workers. They are given 

 prayer feathers to deposit in the mountain spring where the wahtamin 

 live of whom they are asking the pigment. The water of the spring- 

 is "boiling," '* i. e., bubbling, and the prayer feathers, after they 

 are put in, disappear. The pigment lies in rock which is hard, but 

 after you have asked properly, i. e., with the prayer feathei's, for the 

 pigment, it becomes soft enough to take out with your fingers. You 

 should not take much, only what you need. The story goes that 

 once a boy was about to take too nuich and the pigment began to 



'" Compare Jemez, Parsons, 16: 77. 



" liecently on this occasion the moiety chiefs were drunk and the moiety circles intermingled, for which 

 ritual transgression the dancers were whipped. Con.setiuently, in 1926, "these boys" refused to dance 

 pinitu. 



» See pp 333 fl. 



'■ The Supai (Isletan, Kawia) of Arizona are also said to have this red pigment. 



ss This is a stock description of our informant who is referring to the motion of the water of a spring 

 rather than to its temperature. 



