BiNZEL] THE WINTER SOLSTICE 931 



"When a woman is in labor they say, "The baby is coming. I think it 

 is at Nutria now, or perhaps a little nearer, at Black Rock." 



That is the story of how Citsulja came to find the village of the 

 katcinas. They needed him there and they made him come. 

 And that is how he comes to bring the New Year. 



(See also Stevenson "Zuni Indians," p. 135.) 



TcAKWENA Oka 



(Plate 22, a) 



Costume. — The mask is a chin mask, painted black with romid 

 yellow eyes and mouth. Her hair is done up behind like a Zuni 

 woman's. 



The drawing shows how she is dressed when she comes to dance 

 with Towa Tcakwena. Then she wears an ordinaiy woman's black 

 dress, with a cotton underdress, and an embroidered white blanket 

 folded and fastened on the right shoulder. White moccasins. Many 

 bead necklaces, back and front, and on both wTists. White downy 

 eagle feather in the hair. She carries a gourd rattle. 



But when she comes at the New Year and for the ceremonial rabbit 

 hunt after the initiation "she looks dangerous." She wears the red 

 feather (the badge of society membership) in her hair. Her dress is 

 the ancient Zuni native garment, black with a dark blue embroidered 

 border. It is fastened on both shoulders and is open dowTi the front. 

 She wears no belt (because of her connection with childbirth?). On 

 her feet she wears sheepskin boots, with strips of rabbit fm* wound 

 around her legs. Otherwise her legs are bare. She carries a gourd 

 rattle and rattles as she goes. 



This is an old mask. It is kept in a Badger house near the bridge 

 (K. 201 ). In 1925 they made a new mask for her, which is kept along 

 with the old one in the same house. The following account of the 

 occasion is not without interest. 



"This spring (1925) they made a new mask for Tcakwena Oka 

 because twenty yeare ago a man died while he was wearing the mask 

 and ever since then we have had much sickness and especially many 

 babies have died.'^ 



"Tcakwena Oka comes at the winter solstice in the evening before 

 i'autiwa brings in the new year. That day the man who is going to 

 be Tcakwena Oka gets his things ready. He gets the old Zuni dress 

 of black native cloth with a blue border and he gets the boots of 

 sheepskin and the rabbit-skin strips to bind around his legs. He gets 

 all his things ready and then he picks out young men to come with 

 him as Salimopiya and he tells them to dress and wait for him on the 

 west side of the village. Then when he has everthing ready he goes 



" From whooping cough during the summer of 1924. 



