bunzel] 



THE WINTER SOLSTICE 917 



home to your wives, but you will wait for me here. I shall go for 

 four years, and perhaps I shall find them." So he said to them, and 

 then they asked one another if they would do all he had said. Then 

 the chief priest said, "Yes, my son, we want the Corn Maids to come 

 back. No matter how tired and hungry and thirsty we may be, we 

 shall sit here and wait for you for four years. We really want the 

 Corn Maids to come." So he said, "I am going now. Make your 

 thoughts clean and make your hearts clean that I may bring the Corn 

 Maids." Then he took ashes from the fireplace and went out. 



When he got outside he threw up the ashes and right away there 

 was a milky way in the sky. It came down to him and he jumped 

 on it and sat down. It took him to the south and around to the east. 

 At dawTi he came down at his home at Ashes Spring.'* The priests 

 were in retreat. They thought he would be gone for four years, but 

 he always came home at night. It takes a person twenty days to go 

 to the south ocean, but he was wise and went in one day to the south 

 and came back. He went to the north and the east and the west. 

 He went to the west last, and there he dropped down from the Milky 

 Way. Then he said to the Milky Way, " I have made you to protect 

 my people. You will stay in the sky so that everyone will see you 

 and watch yoa." That is why the Ne'we'kwe have the Milky Way 

 in their ceremonial room and they sit on it. 



He came down in the west and dropped into the Sacred Lake. 

 There Pautiwa was hiding the Corn Maids. He just walked through 

 the lake and never got wet. He came to him and he said, "How are 

 you, my father? Are the Corn Maids here?" Then Pautiwa was 

 glad that he had come. Now he could rest, so he was glad he had 

 come. Then he said to the Corn Maids, "Now we shall go back to 

 Itiwan'a. They want you. They will treat you well because they 

 want you badly. They have nothing to eat. Let us go." 



So then Ne'we'kwe went first and the Corn Maids followed him. 

 Then Pautiwa got up and dipped his water gourd into the lake and 

 followed them. "Now I shall go with you and take this sacred 

 water so that when my people plant the com the rain will always 

 come." So they came here to Itiwana and went into the ceremonial 

 room of the priests, first Ne'wekwe and then the Corn Maids and 

 Pautiwa. That is why Ne'we'kwe always brings the Corn Maids after 

 Ca'lako and Pautiwa brings in the water in his water gourd so that 

 they may have good luck with the summer rains. We call Ne'we'kwe 

 Bitsitsi when he brings the corn maids, and we call Pautiwa Mo'la'- 

 kwatokia and A''?owakwatokia. 



w A spring near Ojo Caliente, sacred to the Ne'we'kwe. 



