STEVENSON.| VOLUNTARY INITIATION INTO THE KOK-KO. 555 
in regard to the decorating of the mask he is to wear. When this is 
done he goes at night to the proper kiva and seated between two in- 
structors he learns the song and prayers. In committing songs and 
prayers to memory the novice holds a tiny crystal between his thumb 
and forefinger for a while, then he puts it into his mouth, and at the 
conclusion of the instruction he swallows it. This insures the remem- 
brance of the prayers and songs, and he awakes the following morning 
with them indelibly impressed upon his mind. The pupil is then struck 
across each arm and across each ankle with the yucea blades. 
There are very few women belonging to the order of the Kok-k6. I think 
there are now only five in Zuni. When a woman of the order becomes 
advanced in age she endeavors to find some maiden who will take upon 
herself the vows at her death. Selecting some young woman, she appeals 
to her to be received into the order of the KOk-k6. The maiden replies, 
“T know nothing concerning the mysteries of the order. You must 
talk to my father.” After the father is spoken to, hein turn spends the 
night in explaining the duties of the position to his daughter and that 
the gods would be displeased if she should marry after joining the 
Kok-k6. Assuming the Kok-k6 vows is entirely optional with the girl. 
It is never her duty, but a special privilege which is rarely accepted. 
If she accepts she passes through both ceremonials described. She 
chooses her godfather, who gives her for the first ceremony a woman’s 
blanket and for the second a woman’s dress, a white blanket, a quantity 
of blue yarn, a woman’s belt, a buckskin, a sacred blanket, and the mask 
she is to wear. But even here in Zuni, where the people are so con- 
trolled by the priests and have such a superstitious dread of disobey- 
ing the commands of the Kok-k6, women have been guilty of desecrat- 
ing their sacred office and marrying. At present there is a woman of 
the order of the KOk-k6 married to a Navajo. She is of course forever 
afterwards debarred from joining in the ceremonials, but she is permit- 
ted to live among her people with no other punishment than their indig- 
nation. 
