516 INTRODUCTION TO ZUNI CEREMONIALISM 



[ETH, ANN. 47 



Kolowisi is associated with flood, although the familiar Hopi myth of 

 Palulukong has not been recorded for Zuni. He also figrures in myths 

 of magical impregnation. This is m harmony with his role in ritual 

 whei'e he appears at the initiation of small boys, a ceremony designed 

 to impress the yomigsters with the power of the katcinas. At this 

 ceremony he vomits forth water and seeds which are given to the 

 children to take home. The water is sprinkled on their com, and the 

 seed is used for planting. 



The effigy of Kolowisi which is used at this ceremony *^ is kept by 

 the Kolowisi priesthood, a group belonging to the Corn clan which 

 stands ninth in the order of retreats according to Mrs. Stevenson 

 (Zuni Indians, pp. 167, 179). Although this group is invariably 

 called the Kolowisi priesthood, the association with Kolowisi may well 

 be secondary hke the association of the priests of the west with the 

 Koyemci masks, or of the twelfth priesthood with the Kana'kwe. 



The public ceremony of Kolowsi takes place in connection with the 

 initiation of little boys. 



The effigy of Kolowisi enters the village accompanied by the 

 initiating katcinas at sunset on the eighth day of the ceremony.*' 

 He spends the night in Hekapa-wa kiva where he is suckled by Ahe'a, 

 the grandmother of the katcinas. The foUowmg morning the head of 

 the serpent is thrust through the kiva wall, while the katcinas dance 

 for him. In the afternoon he vomits water and corn, fertilizing talis- 

 mans for the novices. 



THE CULT OF THE KATCINAS *' 



During their search for the middle the Zufiis had to ford a stream.*^ 

 The first group of women to cross, seeing their children transformed 

 in midstream into frogs and water snakes, became frightened and 

 dropped them, and they escaped into the water. The bereaved 

 mothers mourned for their lost children, so the twin heroes were sent 

 to see what had become of them. They foimd them in a house 

 beneath the surface of Whispering Waters (hatin kai'akwi). They had 

 been transformed into the katcinas, beautiful with valuable beads 

 and feathers and rich clothing. Here they spent their days singing 

 and dancing in untroubled joyousness. The twin heroes reported 

 what they had seen, and fiu-ther decreed that thereafter the dead 

 should come to this place to join the lost children. 



The identification of the dead with the katcinsis is not complete. 

 When men offer prayer sticks, they oft'er to the ancients and to the 



" Pictured in Stevenson, pis. xrn and xiv. 



<' For abridged description ot ttiis ceremony, see p. 975. Fuller but incomplete account in Stevenson, 

 pp. 65-102, the portion describing the part of the Kolowisi being found on pp. 94-96, 100, and 101. 



*s Katcina is a Uopi word, which has become standardized in the literature of the pueblos. The Zuni 

 term is koko. 



** Origin myth, text, p. 595. 



