BUNZEL] PREPARATION OF DANCES 895 



homes for breakfast and to have their hair washed. If the hair is to 

 be worn open, after washing it is plaited to make it wavy. Other- 

 wise, if long, it is done up in two plaits which are wound around the 

 neck under the mask. 



The hours of the morning are spent in assembling the last odds and 

 ends of clothing. The dancers come out for the first time shortly 

 before noon and dance in all four plazas. They should make the 

 rounds of the plaza four times before retiring for their noonday meal 

 (in the first dance of the season, they actually do), but usually on 

 the last three rounds they dance only in tsia'awa and tehwitolana. On 

 the last romid they dance also before the house where the priests are 

 in retreat, and one of the priests comes out and sprinkles each of the 

 dancers with meal, and takes from one of them a branch of spruce. 

 After finishmg their morning dancing the men retire to the kiva where 

 food of all kinds is brought by their wives or sisters. Members of 

 the kiva who are not taking part in the dance are privileged to share 

 the meal in the kiva. 



The dancers come out again to dance between three and four in 

 the afternoon. This time they dance four times in ts'ia'awa, retiring 

 for short rest periods to the street east of the plaza. The actual 

 visits to the plazas are longer than in the morning. There is a definite 

 sequence of songs and an apportionment of songs between the morn- 

 ing and afternoon sessions, but I was imable to discover the system 

 of sequence. This can not be done imtil the songs are recorded on 

 the phonograph. The attendance at dances always increases as the 

 afternoon progresses — the morning dances are perfonned to empty 

 housetops — and the best and newest songs are saved for these hours. 

 There is always a special farewell song for the last appearance of the 

 katcinas in the evening. When muhewa kiva danced Upikaiapona in 

 September, 1927, they introduced an innovation in melodic structure 

 and dance step in their farewell song, and each day this song had to 

 be repeated two or three times. (Anyone in the audience may re- 

 quest the repetition of any song, and the dancers must comply.) 

 The dance was performed for eight days " because everyone liked their 

 songs," amid drenching rains and a rotting wheat harvest, and it 

 was undoubtedly this song that was responsible for the popularity. 

 The dance terminated the last day with the appearance of 01olo\vicka 

 and the grinding ritual. 



Theoretically anj'one may request the repetition of a dance the 

 following day.'^" Practically this privilege is restricted to priests and 

 society chiefs. " 'Poor people' would be too bashful to ask them 

 to dance again." During the last song the unmasked leader sprinkles 

 meal on the Koyemci. A little later some priest in the audience de- 

 scends from the housetop to sprinkle meal on the katcinas. He 



*o Mrs. Stevenson reports that the summer dances of the Kokokci were never repeated. Katcina dancing 

 is at present an ascendant cult. 



