554 RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE ZUNI CHILD. 
hard. The eyes of the boys open wide as the Kok ko rajse their masks 
and for the first time familiar faces are recognized. The KOk-k6 leave 
the kiva after revealing their identity to the children, and running 
around the village use their switches indiscriminately, with a few ex- 
ceptional cases. I saw a woman whipped, she taking the babe from 
her back and holding it in her arms. This woman requested the whip- 
ping that she might be rid of the bad dreams that nightly troubled her. 
After the Sai a-hli-a leave the kiva the children are called by the priest 
of the Kok-ko and told to sit in front of him and the other priests, 
including the High Priest of Zuni. This august body sits in the kiva 
throughout the ceremony. The Priest of the Kok-k6 then delivers a 
lecture to the boys, instructing them in some of the secrets of the order, 
when they are told if they betray the secrets confided to them they 
will be punished by death; their heads will be cut off with a stone 
knife; for so the Kok-ko has ordered. They are told how the Kok-ko 
appeared upon the earth and instructed the people to represent them. 
The priest closes by telling the children that in the old some boys be- 
trayed the secret and told that these were not the real gods, but men 
personating the Kok-k6o, and when this reached the gods the Sai-a-hli-a 
appeared upon the earth and inquired for the boys. The people then 
lived upon the mesa t0-wa-yiil-lin-ne. The mothers declared they knew 
not where they had fled. The Kok-ko stamped his feet upon the rocky 
ground and the rocks parted, and away down in the depths of the 
mountain he found the naughty boys. He ordered them to come to him 
and he cut off their heads with his stone knife. This story is sufficient 
to impress the children that there is no escape for them if they betray 
the confidence reposed in them, for the Kok-ko can compel the rocks 
to part and reveal the secrets. 
A repast is now served to the priests and the boys and others in the 
kiva. The food is brought by the wives and sisters of the four Sai-a 
hli-a to the hatchway and carried in by the Kok-k6, who have returned 
to the kiva. The feast opens with a grace said by the priest of the 
Kok-ko, who immediately after collects upon a piece of Hé-wi (a certain 
kind of bread) bits of all the food served. This he rolls up and places 
by his side, and at the conclusion of the feast he carries it to a distance 
from the village over the road to the spirit lake and making a hole in 
the ground he deposits it as an offering to the gods. Each child goes 
to the godfather’s house, where his head and hands are bathed in 
yucca suds by the mother and sisters of the godfather, they repeating 
prayers that the youth may be true to his vows, &c. The boy then 
returning to his own home is tested by his father, who says, ‘‘ You are 
no longer ignorant; you are no longer a little child, but a young man. 
Were you pleased with the words of the Kok-ko? What did the priest 
tell you?” The boy does not forget himself and reveal anything that 
was said, for the terror overhanging him is too great. 
When a youth is selected to personate the KOk-k6 he is instructed 
