BONZEL] THE WINTER SOLSTICE 933 



shine Place '^ and she came to oiir house. The people in the next 

 house got their ashes ready to throw out and they had the com meal 

 ready to sprinkle with a prayer as they threw out their ashes. She 

 came to our door and we threw out our ashes and sprinkled meal. 

 So she went on. But she went just a few steps and suddenly she 

 groaned and fell down. I thought that it was all part of her perform- 

 ance and I laughed. But all the Siihmopiya ran up to her and 

 picked her up. She was trembling aU over. They were going to 

 bring her into our house, but someone said, 'Don't take her there. 

 There are children in that house. Better bring her in here.' And so 

 they took her into the next house. They brought her in and laid 

 her down, for they thought she was fainting. They rubbed her 

 stomach for they thought perhaps she had a chill. But after about 

 fifteen minutes they saw that she was not getting any better, so 

 someone said, 'Take off her mask.' So the man's son tried to take off 

 the mask, but it was stuck fast to his face. So they pulled it and 

 finally they got it off and his skin came off from his face with it. 

 Then the people saw that he was already dead and they all cried. 

 Then they called in all his people and many people went in there and 

 tried to ciu"e him, but he never came back to life. The Salimopiya 

 were all in there. They still had their masks with them, but they 

 were afraid to go out and finish up. Way late at night the katcina 

 chief heard that they had not been to all the houses of the village, so 

 he went there and he said, 'Our child is dead, but you must finish up 

 your work, no matter how sorrowful you feel. You must finish, 

 because misfortune will surely come to oiu- people if we do not go 

 through with eveiything.' So then the dead man's young son put on 

 the mask and went out and went to all the houses of the village. He 

 finished it up. He never thought that the mask was dangerous and 

 might kill him also. 



"It was an old mask, and no one thought of burying it with the 

 dead man. It had his flesh on it, for it had stuck to his face when 

 they tried to take it off, but in spite of this they never thought of 

 burying it. But ever since then we have had misfortune. We have 

 had much sickness, dysenterj^, and tuberculosis, and many bad sick- 

 nesses. So after a while the people began to think that perhaps it 

 was on account of this mask, for Tcakwena Oka comes to bless the 

 people with children, and to have itsuma'wa ^* for them. Last 

 spring the bow priest decided that they would have the ceremonial 

 rabbit hunt, although there was to be no initiation. They wanted 

 Tcakwena Oka to come with the rabbit hunt so that all their bad 



'* South of the village along the river. 



" A ceremonial term for planting, applied to certain type of fertility magic practiced at the winter solstice 

 and in connection with the rabbit hunt. Images of clay are placed on an altar and later planted as the seed 

 from which the real object shall grow. For description of the rabbit hunt, see Stevenson, p. 88; Benedict , 



