856 ZUNI KATCINAS [eth. anx. 47 



perhaps. Then he puts down his bundle of prayer sticks and a roll of 

 paper bread. Then the men who have been dancing in the plaza 

 come there cjuickly and each takes off his mask and holds it in his 

 hand while he prays. Then they deposit prayer sticks and paper 

 bread in the holes. The men who have been dancing come last and 

 the others all wait until they come. Then after they have all prayed 

 each man takes his own mask out and wraps it in his blanket and 

 comes home. Everyone comes home but the wowe, who stay behind 

 and fill up the holes. '^ Then they come home, too, and only Pautiwa 

 and Bitsitsi are left there." 



AYhen a man dies, for four days someone in his family will work on 

 feathers for his mask. He will make four prayer sticks, one blue one 

 for the sun, two black ones for the dead, and one black one with the 

 turn-around feather for the koko. Then on the fourth day after the 

 man has died his son or some man in his family will work on his 

 mask. He wiW remove all the feathers and scrape off all the paint. 

 Then he will take the mask and the four prayer sticks and bury them 

 at Wide River. 



PARAPHERNALIA 



The most conspicuous and characteristic objects used in katcina 

 ceremonies are, of course, the masks. These are made of leather, 

 formerly of elkskin or buffalo hide, now of commercial dressed 

 leather, painted with characteristic designs, and fancifully adorned 

 with feathers, hair, fur, yarn, ribbons, and spruce boughs. The 

 mask, in addition to being a sacred object, is a work of art, and like 

 any other work of art conforms to certain rules of style. New kat- 

 cinas may be invented from time to time and there is nothing in the 

 nature of katcinas that would necessarily limit the new impersona- 

 tion to traditional forms. There is, in fact, a very noticeable tendency 

 for the newer masks to be both more varied and realistic than the more 

 ancient impersonations. However, once a katcina has been admitted 

 to the roster, he is given a name and, rarely, a personality, and all 

 details of bis mask and costume and behavior become definitive. 

 Everything is considered characteristic, the form and decoration of 

 the mask, the kind and arrangement of feathers and other ornaments 

 on the mask, body paint, all details of costume, including even the 

 arrangement of the bead necklaces, the objects he carries in his hands, 

 posture, gait, behavior, and his call. When any of these features 

 is varied beyond very narrow limits we have a new katcina. This 

 does not mean, of course, that changes do not occur in the get-up of 

 any katcina, especially in the katcinas recently introduced. In gen- 

 eral variabihty increases in inverse ratio to the antiquity and sanctity 



18 In 1927 and 1928 the writer visited this place the day after the ceremony, and, although the ground was 

 covered with snow, she could find no trace of the six holes, so carefully had they been concealed. Yet she 

 saw all the men of the village go out with their masks and prayer sticks and paper bread. 



