136 INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. 
The pueblo peoples spend much time in performing 
a great number and variety of ceremonies. The Papago, 
as far as we are informed, have only three important 
ceremonies. In mid-spring a ceremony is held to pro- 
cure good crops of giant cactus fruit during the coming 
season. In July, when the giant cactus fruit is ripe, 
a festival of wine drinking is held. If the crops are 
bountiful a harvest festival is sometimes celebrated 
in the Santa Rosa Valley, Arizona. 
This ceremony, called Vigita, is the joint perform- 
ance of the five villages of the valley. The exact date is 
fixed at the meeting of a council held at one of the 
villages. Preparations are immediately begun for the 
festival. On the eve of the tenth day before the main 
celebration a large bundle of feathered sticks which have 
been made for the occasion is placed in the center of the 
feast ground. The men gather around this bundle and 
listen to two formulated speeches which recite the 
origin and previous celebrations of the Vigita. Ten 
tally sticks are stuck in the ground, one of which is 
pulled up and carried away each evening, that the 
number of days may be accurately kept. The next 
night messengers are sent to the various villages to 
announce the date of the festival. Songs are composed 
and practised for the coming celebration. Each village 
has eight chief singers, each one of whom composes a 
song. These are taught to the other singers of that 
village and to those composing the village chorus who 
are not composers of songs. The masks of the singers 
are made of gourds which are painted in colors with de- 
signs representing lightning, clouds, and grains of corn. 
A second set of performers have large masks of cloth 
to which tin disks and turkey feathers are fastened. 
There are designs on the masks representing clouds. 
They carry crude bows and arrows and long poles with 
bg Ween 5 . 
oe 
