BUNZEL] RELIGIOUS LIFE 537 



departed blossom vnth a hundred piles of glowing embers. The 

 masked gods return to the Idya where they dance imtil day. Any- 

 one, man, woman, or child, who desires good luck, may go to the 

 Idva at this time to receive the blessing of the presence of the gods. 



The day is one of great festivity and rejoicing. All day the gods 

 from the east dance on the roof of the kiva, throwing food and other 

 articles to the populace. Meanwhile the bow priests summon to the 

 Idva the men chosen to impersonate the gods during the coming year. 

 When they have all arrived the wands of ofEce are distributed by the 

 pekwm. 



The meriymaldng continues in the plaza until sundown, when 

 Pautiwa appears. He visits all the Idvas. On the roof of each he 

 lays down the crook of office for the Ca'lako god to be chosen from that 

 kiva. The bar of the hatchway he marks with four lines of corn meal, 

 to indicate that the masked gods wdll visit the village. Then using 

 a twig to represent a scalp, he performs a brief ritual symbolizing the 

 taking of an enemy scalp. Thus he brings the new year. After 

 visiting all the Idvas he departs for the west, taking Ci'tsuka and 

 Kwe'lele with him. 



After dark each house in the village is visited by Tcakwenaoka, 

 a female masked impersonation and the special guardian of women in 

 childbu'th.'- She is accompanied by other masked gods. As the 

 group reaches each door hve coals are thrown out of the house as a 

 rite of purification. Tcakwenaoka comes only once to bring the 

 blessing of fecundity. The other gods return for four consecutive 

 nights, in accordance with the promise of Pautiwa. In early days the 

 first dance of the winter series took place four days after the departure 

 of the exorcising divinities (Stevenson, p. 141). Now it takes place any 

 time the leaders wish. This closes the celebration of the solstice, imless 

 the retreat and dance of the lewekwe which follow 10 days after the 

 coming of Pautiwa be considered as part of the solstice ceremonies. 



Theoretically the second half of the Zufii year repeats the ceremonial 

 calendar of the first six months. As in December, the summer 

 solstice is marked by a ceremonial period called i'tiwana, the middle. 

 As in the winter, this is a synchronization of independent cults. But 

 here the resemblance ceases. The actual ceremonies, and above aU 

 the relative weight of various elements, are quite different. 



Before the summer solstice the pekwin makes daily observations of 

 the sunsets from a shrine at Ma'tsaka, a ruin a few miles east of Zuiii. 

 When the sun sets behind a certain point on the mesa to the northwest 

 the pekwin begins his plantings to the sun and to the ancestors. On 

 the morning after his fourth planting he announces that in eight days 

 everyone shall make prayer sticks for the sun, the moon, the ancients, 



*' In 1927 the visit of TcakwenaoTja was omitted. The man who owns her mask, a verj' dangerous one, 

 and knows her ritual, was in prison for burglary. No one else dared touch the mask. (See p. 931.) 



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