THE PUEBLO DWELLERS. 103 
He holds his office for life and nominates his successor. 
His duties include the active control of the more im- 
portant religious ceremonies. The hunters in earlier 
days were also important since they had the fetishes 
and the ceremonies by which game could be taken. 
The panther was their patron for he was looked upon 
as the most successful hunter. The head priest of the 
hunters was also a most important person. Finally, 
the many societies (among the Sia, the Snake, Spider, 
Ant, ete.) which have the power of healing diseases and 
producing rain have one head shaman according to 
Bandelier, whose office gives him great power, particu- 
larly in the discovery and punishment of witches. 
Then there are two societies or classes of priests, 
the Cuirana, or winter priests, and the Koshare, the 
summer priests, to use the Keresan terms. The former 
by their activities, cause the seeds to germinate, while 
the latter bring the crops, and all animal and human 
life as well to maturity. It is the Koshare who act 
as clowns on all public religious occasions. Each of 
these societies has a leader who with the cacique and the 
head priest of the warriors, hunters, and _ healers, 
constitute a most important sacerdotal group. 
All male adults are expected at some time to partici- 
pate in the kachina dances. Masks and headdresses are 
worn to represent a special class of supernatural beings, 
the greater number of whom at least are the souls of 
the dead. They are the senders of the rain and there- 
fore the bringers of good fortune and happiness. Boys 
go through an initiation which consists of a beating and 
then one of the dancers unmasks that the child may 
see that the gods are not present in person as he has 
formerly supposed. The women in theory are never 
supposed to know that the masked dancers are not in 
reality the gods they appear to be. 
