The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child | Page 7

coming of the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si. Arriving at the village in the morning, he divides his time between the kivas, there being six of these religious houses in Zu?i, one for each of the cardinal points, one for the zenith, and one for the nadir. In each of these kivas he issues to the people assembled the commands of the K[=o]k-k[=o] and gives the history of the K?k-l[=o] and the gathering of the cereals of the earth by the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya. At sunrise he is gone. The morning after the arrival of the K?k-l[=o], those who are to represent the K[=o]k-k[=o] prepare plume sticks, and in the middle of the same day these are planted in the earth. The same night they repair to their respective kivas, where they spend the following eight nights, not looking upon the face of a woman during that period. Each night is spent in smoking and talking and rehearsing for the coming ceremony. The second day all go for wood, bringing it home on their backs, for so the ancients did when beasts of burden were unknown to them. The third day is also spent in gathering wood, and the fourth day likewise. On the same day the ten men who are to personate the K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi, in company with the [t]S[=i]-[t]s[=i]-[t]ki (great-grandfather of the K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi), pass through the village, inquiring for the boys who are to be initiated; before such houses as have boys ready for this ceremonial these men assemble; one of them enters the house and, greeting the mother of the boy with "Good morning," inquires the name of her son. She replies: "He has no name," and requests the K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi to give him one. The man then joins the group, repeating the words of the woman. In passing from the kiva through the village the Indian screens his face with a blanket, so as not to see the women as he passes. On the fifth day they go on a rabbit hunt, the capture of but one rabbit being necessary. The rabbit is carried to the He-i-i-que (or Kiva of the North) by the [t]S[=i]-[t]S[=i] [t]ki, who, after skinning the rabbit, fills the skin with cedar bark; a pinch of meal is placed for the heart and the eye sockets are filled with mica; a hollow reed is passed through the inside filling to the mouth. The sixth day the inmates of the kivas again go for wood; the seventh day large T[=e]-l[=i]k-tk[=i]-n[=a]-we are made of eagle plumes; the eighth day is consumed in decorating the masks to be worn. As these people have not the art of mixing their pigments so as to be permanent, masks and altars have to be freshly decorated before using; and, when the masks are completely decorated, they, with the other paraphernalia, are carried on the same day by the men and youths who have to wear them to some secluded nooks among the rocks, a distance from the town, where they put them on, returning to the village by early moonlight.
The impressive ceremonial of initiating the youth into the order of the K[=o]k-k[=o] occurs but once in four years. No male child above the age of four years may, after death, enter the Kiva of the K[=o]k-k[=o] unless he has received the sacred breath of the K[=o]k-k[=o]. Those who personate the K[=o]k-k[=o] are endowed for the time being with their actual breath. Besides the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya of the North, West, South, East, Heavens, and Earth, and a number of younger brothers who appear on this occasion, there are P[=a]-oo-t[=i]-wa (Plate XX), father of the Sun, ten K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi, and the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si.
The S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya of the North wear yellow (hl[=u]p-si-na) masks; those from the West, blue (hli-?n-na); those from the South, red (shi-l[=o]-[=a]); those from the East, white (k[=o]-h[=a]n); those from the Heavens, all colors ([=I]-t[=o]-p[=o]-n?n-ni); those from the Earth, black (quin-n[=a]). (Plate XXI.) These colors represent the cardinal points, the zenith, and the nadir:
North. Yellow. Hl[=u]p-si-na. West. Blue. Hli-?n-na. South. Red. Shi-l[=o]-[=a]. East. White. K[=o]-h[=a]n. Heavens. All colors. [=I]-t[=o]-p[=o]-n?n-ni. Earth. Black. Quin-n[=a].
[Plate XXI: GROUP OF S?-L?-M[=O]-B[=I]-YA MASKS.
1 NORTH. 2 WEST. 3 SOUTH. 4 EAST. 5 HEAVENS. 6 EARTH.]
They come after sundown to the village. The serpent, made of hide, is about twelve feet long and eighteen inches through the thickest part of the body. The abdomen is painted white, the back black, covered with white stars, which are represented by a kind of semicircle, an entirely conventional design. The neck rests through a finely decorated kind of altar carried by the two Soot-[=i]ke. The tail end of the fetich is held by the priest of the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si, who constantly blows through a large shell, which he carries in the right hand, holding the serpent with the left. The K[=o]k-k[=o] pass through the town and visit each kiva; they put the