846 ZUNI KATCINAS [eth. ann. 47 



even stop to turn off the tap when summoned for prayer.^ The 

 particular situations in which katcinas prove helpful and their special 

 techniques differ, of course, from those of saints and angels. Medi- 

 eval saints do not ordinarily humble proud maids by contriving in 

 spite of impossible tests to sleep \vith them and so instruct them in 

 the delights of normal human association and the advantages of 

 humility. But in spite of these differences the popular attitudes and 

 feeling for the role of supernaturals in commonplace human affairs 

 are curiously similar. Undoubtedly this modern folklore concerning 

 katcinas has been strongly colored by Catholic influences. 



But for all their generally amiable and benign character, there is 

 a certain sinister undertone to all katcina ceremonies. It is said more 

 often of the katcinas than of other supernaturals that they are 

 "dangerous." The katcinas inflict the most direct and dramatic 

 punishments for violation of their sanctity. If a priest fails in his 

 duties, he does not get rain during his retreat, he may suffer from 

 general bad luck, he may become sick and may even die if he does 

 nothing to "save his life." But the katcina impersonator who fails in 

 his trust may be choked to death by his mask during the ceremony. 

 There is always a certain feeling of danger in wearing a mask. In 

 putting on a mask the wearer always addresses it in prayer: "Do 

 not cause me any serious trouble." A man wearing a mask or, in 

 katcina dances without mask, one wearing katcina body paint, is 

 untouchable. He is dangerous to others until his paint has been 

 washed off. Zunis watching katcinas dance shrink from them as they 

 pass through narrow passages, in order not to touch their bodies. 



The first katcinas were children sacrificed to the water to atone for 

 sin; afterwards when they came to dance, bringing their blessing of 

 rain and fertility, "they took some one with them"; that is, they 

 exacted a human life from the village.' It was only when masks were 

 substituted for the actual presence of the katcinas that this heavy toll 

 ^was lightened. 



There are liints in ritual that ideas of human sacrifice may lie but a 

 little way beneath the surface in the concept of masked impersona- 

 tion. The great ceremony of the Ca'lako opens with the appointment 

 of a group of impersonators of the gods. For a year they are set 

 apart. They do no work of their own. In the case of the Saiyataca 

 party they even assume the names of the gods whom they are to 

 impersonate. At the end of their term of office they have elaborate 

 ceremonies in which they appear in mask; that is, in the regalia of 

 death. After all-night ceremonies they depart for the home of the 

 dead. "Everyone cries when they go," as a Zufli informant says. 

 "It is very sad to see them go, because we always think that we shall 



Saints also are the blessed dead. 



' Cf. this with the myth of the origin of death, where a child is sacrificed to the first sorcerer in return 

 tor the gift of seeds. 



