bunzel] 



PRAYERS AND CHANTS 703 



long prayers are offered. The impersonators of Sayataca recite the 

 prayer, the others joining in according to the extent of their knowl- 

 edge. Toward sunset the party approaches the village, marching in 

 regular order across the plains, singing songs of the masked dancers. 



Throughout the year each group of impersonators must work for 

 the household which is to entertain them at the great public festival. 

 From midsummer on every day is spent in labor for their hosts. 

 They do all the work of the fields and build the new home in which 

 the gods are to be received. 



On the morning of the tenth planting, which takes place early in 

 October, the impersonators of Sayataca and Molanhakto receive from 

 the priest the two day counts — cotton strings containing 49 knots. 

 One knot is untied each morning until the day of the great public 

 ceremony. During this period there are plantings at intervals of 10 

 days at rock shrines to the southwest of the village. 



The public ceremonies start on the fortieth day,^ with the arrival of 

 the Koyemci in the evening. They come masked, visiting each of the 

 four plazas to announce the coming of the gods in eight days. They 

 then go into retreat in the house of their father, where they remain 

 in seclusion, with the e.xception of appearances in the plaza, until the 

 festival is concluded fifteen days later. 



Four days after the appearance of the Koyemci the Sayataca party 

 come in in the evening and go into retreat in the house of the im- 

 personator of Sayataca. On the same night the Ca'lako impersonators 

 go into retreat in their respective houses. 



On the eighth day there is another planting of prayer sticks with 

 elaborate ceremonies at which the gods are summoned from the village 

 of the masked gods. 



After they are clothed and masked they approach the village. The 

 giant Ca'lako gods wait on the south bank of the river but the priests 

 of the masked gods — Cula'witsi, Sayataca, Hututu, two Yamuhakto, 

 and two Salimopia — enter the village in mid afternoon. After plant- 

 ing prayer sticks in six excavations in the streets of the village they 

 repair to the house where they are to be entertained for the night. 

 This is alwaj^s a new or at least a renovated house, and the visit of 

 the gods is a blessing, a dedication. Prayer sticks are planted inside 

 the threshold (formerly under the outside ladder) and in a decorated 

 box suspended from the center of the ceiling. The walls of the house 

 are marked with com meal. In all excavations m the center of the 

 floor seeds of all kinds are deposited. Similar rites are performed 

 later in the evening by the six Ca'lako and the Koyemci in the houses 

 where they are to be entertained. 



* That is, if the ceremony is not postponed. However, almost without exception, a postponement of 10 

 days is necessary. 



