BDNZELl THE COMING OF THE GODS 959 



There is some association between fire, the office of pekwin, and the 

 Badger clan. Pekwin, in addition to being a sort of "talking chief," 

 is also an officiating priest in charge of the altar. (Possibly he also 

 takes care of the fire?) The katcina J^ekwin must be Badger clan." 

 Fire making is always the prerogative of the Badger clan. Anyone 

 who builds fires easily and quickly is dubbed tonaci-kwe (Badger 

 person). 



On the day preceding the winter solstice the priests select a man of 

 the Badger clan to tend the fire that is kept burning in he'iwa kiva 

 throughout the ten days of the solstice observances. This man is 

 called tsupal'ilona (the one who keeps the blood pudding), and the 

 sacred fire is his "pudding." He in turn selects the impersonator of 

 Cula'witsi from among the young boys of his family. Cula'witsi must 

 be Badger clan one year and child of Badger the next, so tsupal'ilona 

 selects either his sister's son (Badger) or his own son (child of Badger). 

 In selecting a man for the office of tsupal'ilona, the priests must con- 

 sider whether the man has in his family a boy of suitable age, intelli- 

 gence, and character for the role of Cula'witsi. The office of tsupal'- 

 ilona is hard to fill for other reasons. He must spend most of his time 

 during the ten days of the solstice alone in the kiva, where it is cold 

 and cheerless, although he is permitted to return to his home to eat 

 and sleep. For ten days he must abstain from all animal food, and, 

 of course, observe continence. The priests are sometimes comjjclled 

 to appoint a man who has no suitable candidate for Cula'witsi, and 

 in that case the man himself must serve in this capacity. 



A woman whose son had served as Cula"witsi gives the following 

 description of his appointment: "Late at night the bow priest came. 

 We were frightened and asked him what he wanted, and he told us 

 that they wanted to put our boy in to be Cula-witsi. At first I did 

 not want it and I cried. He was so young. He was only ten years 

 old and had only just been initiated. But I was proud, too, that the 

 priests had picked him out. So we said it would be all right. No one 

 would have thought of picking Jack (another son) to be Cula'witsi, 

 because he has no sense. He might talk back to his parents or get 

 into a fight with another boy, and that would never do for Cula'witsi. 

 But everyone knew that Bob was a quiet, sensible boy and would not 

 make any trouble, even if he was so young. 



"So right away his grandfather started working on moccasins for 

 him to wear to the kiva when he went to get his telnan'e. We could 

 not buy him new clothes at the store because we are ciwanni in this 

 house and we can not trade for 10 days during it'iwan'a. So he wore 

 his father's blanket when he went to the kiva. 



"Pete had put him into the Katcina Society, and so he should have 

 come in with him as his 'father,' but Pete had been Ca'lako and had 



*' Among the Hopi the corresponding office, that of fire-maker for the featcina chief, mu.st be filled by a 

 nmn of the Badger clan in villages where that clan exists, otherwise by one of the related clans. 



