BUNZELj THE COMING OF THE GODS 971 



who "belong to this ceremony," and the wives of all the men who 

 "belong" to it, bring gifts of food to the house for the mask. Every 

 one who has ever witnessed the ceremony of the taking out of the mask 

 and sprinl-ded meal on it at this time must return for the ceremony 

 every year, or at least send an offering to the mask, on pain of meeting 

 with disaster. He will fall off a ladder or cut himself with a knife (the 

 two usual punishments for failure in ceremonial observation; falling 

 into the fire and being lacked by a horse are others). The women 

 remain in the house all day to grind and cook. 



After dark the back room is swept and a fire is lighted in the hearth. 

 Embroidered blankets and other valuable articles are hung on the 

 walls, and a white buckskin is spread on the floor on the side of the 

 room away from the door (usually the west end). Then the people 

 wait for the men who will come for the mask. Or if the men of the 

 household are priests, they will bring out the mask before the wo'le 

 comes. The Ca'lako masks are "dangerous." No one but a priest 

 and the Ca'lako wo'le would dare touch them.^-' The head of the 

 priesthood removes his shoes and enters the inner room where the 

 mask is kept hanging on the wall. He sprinldes corn meal and takes 

 up the mask. His associates take the body and other paraphernalia, 

 and they brmg them into the outer room. He prays, presents the 

 mask to the six directions, and finally sets it down on a cross of corn 

 meal on the buckskin. The body is laid beside it, and the whole 

 covered with another buckskin, to protect it from the eyes of the unini- 

 tiated. Only Ca'lako's long snout sticks out from under its white 

 coverings. Then all members of the household and visitors who 

 "belong" to Ca'lako are admitted. They remove their shoes before 

 entering the room. Each one prays and offers corn meal, even the 

 smallest children being taken to receive the blessing of the god." 



Late at night when Cu'la-witsi lights his signal fires on Grease Hill, 

 the two impersonators of Ca'lako and two wo'we come for their mask. 

 Long prayers are recited by the chief wo'le and the head of the house- 

 hold. Then food is brought by the women to the visitors. After 

 they have eaten, they get their mask out of the inner room and bundle 

 it in blankets. The two wowe carry the mask and the body, and the 

 Ca'lako carry large bowls of stew and baskets of bread given them by 

 the house (because they have worked for the house during the year). 

 All this they take to the house of the elder brother Ca'lako where the 

 two impersonators and their wo'we go into retreat that night. After 



" When the people who keep the muhe'kwe Ca'lako moved out of town they sent for the wo'le of muhewa 

 to transport the mask. 



M When the writer witnessed this ceremony in the house of he'lwa Ca'lako she was taken in to see Calako 

 at this point. She was injudicious enough to offer a pinch of corn meal on the altar. When the report of 

 this got around to the katcina chief he was very indignant. "For," as my informant explained, "one 

 doesn't give corn meal away for nothing. One always asks for something in one's thoughts, and the 

 people are afraid you will take all their good luck with you when you go, because of your corn meal." 



