914 ZUNI KATCINAS [eth. ann.47 



you will start to run.' Then he hnes up the girls facing the east and 

 goes a Uttle way to the east. Then he prays and says, 'Now these 

 corn maids will run. Whoever conies first to Pautiwa will be the 

 first one to come in to Itiwana.' So he says. The girls all watch 

 him and as soon as he thi'ows up the meal they start to run. Who- 

 ever leads will stop when she gets right behind Pautiwa and then all 

 the others must stop right where they are. Then they count them 

 off, and each young man will take the place of the girl who has run 

 for him. Then they get ready. The Com Maids do not wear masks. 

 They paint their faces black and yeUow and they wear bright ribbons 

 on their sleeves and shoidders. After they are all dressed Bitsitsi comes 

 and Pautiwa gets up and they biing in the Corn Maids in the evening." 

 The following myth is told in explanation of the ceremony of the 

 Corn Maids. 



The Corn Maids 



Long ago, the people were starving. The Corn Maids had run away 

 because the people were careless about corn. So the Corn Maids ran 

 away and went to the ^^llage of the masked gods. The people played 

 with corn bread and threw it away, and they threw the corn into the 

 corn rooms any way. They did not pile it up carefully the way we 

 do now. So YeUow Corn Maid went to aU the houses in the night 

 and told the Corn Maids to come with her. They said, "AU right, 

 we shall go." They did not know where to go. fautiwa in the village 

 of the katcinas heard it aud he said to the YeUow Corn, "I have 

 heard that you have decided to nm away and that you do not know 

 where to go. I do not want you to go away. Come with me so that 

 my people wiU not always be punished. They will learn again. 

 Yoin- home is in the village of the katcinas, so that my people may 

 not starve for aU time." He did not want the Corn Maids to go 

 to the Hopi or to some other people. So Pautiwa said, "You will 

 come with me." So all the Corn Maids, Yellow, Blue, Red, \\'liite. 

 Speckled, and Black foUowed liim. The Black Corn went beliind to 

 make the road dark so that the people woidd not find them. There- 

 fore, when anyone is very lonesome for some one who has died, they 

 give him the juice of the black corn to drink to make him forget. 



Pautiwa took the Corn Maids with him and he laid them down in 

 the middle of the lake. He told them, "Now, my cluldren, you wiU 

 lie stUl. When I am tii-ed hidmg you, I shall go and rest. Do not 

 talk, I do not want my people inside to know that you are here." 

 Inside, the people were dancing. Pautiwa stayed outside in the 

 middle of the lake and the people came out and asked him whatever 

 the3^ wanted to loiow and they never noticed that he was hiding the 

 Com Maids. 



Here at Itiwana the people had plenty of corn, but it was not good. 

 There was no meat on it. All the com piled in the corn rooms looked 



