Wanderings, Part XIII

WANDERINGS, PART XIII

The people lived at Washpashuka a long time. The katsina, used to come and dance for them. After a time, some of the men began to mock the katsina again. They found out who these mockers were; the War chief found out their names. He remembered how the katsina had come and beaten and killed the people when they had mocked them before, so he thought that the best way to punish these people was to dramatize this battle of the katsina. ⁶⁰ So Country Chief called a council of all the people who knew about the katsina, Antelope Man, and the chaianyi. At this meeting Country Chief told them they were to do this even if it meant the lives of some of their relatives or

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friends. It took a long time to get the consent of all, as they knew some of the mockers. Even if a man had a son who was a mocker, he had to assist. So they called council after council and picked out the men who were to represent two Gomaiowish messengers, and the man who was to represent Tsitsanits, the leader of the katsina. They decided also to have every member of the Antelope clan, even women and children, to guard against the katsina coming at the people, and they were all furnished with long staffs.

This is what they were to do. Everyone knew the katsina were to regard them [i. e., members of the Antelope clan] as their fathers. So if they held out their staff horizontally in front of a katsina, he should not run over them and not run against the staff. (The katsina must respect this staff. If a katsina touches a staff and another katsina sees him, the second katsina will jump at the first and beat him.) Antelope Man also made an i'chini' ⁶¹ (a wall made of skins of buffalo). This was to represent the pueblo. It was understood that the katsina were to whip this ichini and thus symbolically to whip the people. They were not actually to strike the people themselves at all. The ichini was to be set up outside the pueblo where the katsina were to come. (It was set up as a "wall" or "fort" to protect the pueblo.) The katsina were to approach it and strike it with their clubs and weapons.--They took care that those who had mocked the katsina should know nothing of these plans as these mockers were to be killed.

The Corn clan was also asked to call all its members to help at this time. They were to carry the ichini, to set it up, and hold it. The ones who were to impersonate the katsina killed deer ⁶² and took some of the blood into the kiva and distributed it among the members who were to act as katsina. They filled with blood the intestine of a deer which they were to wear around the neck. (All this was planned in kiva.) The twins Masewi and Oyoyewi were asked to take part. They were to stand on each side of the ichini and when the katsina attempted to strike them, one of the Twins would knock down the katsina and cut the blood-filled intestine on his throat. Antelope Man was to be told, just before the katsina came in, to ask these guilty ones to come with him to the plaza to pray. The katsina were to come. The men [i. e., the mockers], of course, did not know what was to happen. When Antelope Man took them out, the katsina were to spring out and jump on them and catch the guilty ones. They were to chase them around the plaza, catch them, and kill them with clubs. (Originally the real katsina would catch a man and pull him apart; nowadays the impersonators seize him and club him to death.) Then the twins were to come into the plaza and knock down katsina right and left, cutting their "throats."

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The ichini was to stand facing west and all the drama was to take place in front of it. The Antelope clan was to stand on each side, winging out from the ichini.

Members of the Katsina society that were to take part in the ceremony went into the mountain, got branches from a hardy oak, made tea, and purified themselves for 4 days. The night of the third day, they made prayer sticks of hard wood.

It was understood that the katsina were to act enraged as they entered the village and were to fight among themselves. If anyone fell or was killed in this fighting, they were not to be brought into the pueblo but were to be buried with their masks on in the wilderness. (This fighting among the katsina as they approach the village is real; they work themselves up into a frenzy. Here grudges and personal disagreements are worked out and several are killed in this fighting. ⁶³ Men who are killed are never mentioned again by anyone. They are just forgotten. In the plaza only the heretics are killed, and while now and then a katsina gratifies a personal grudge against a heretic, these cases are exceptional.)

(Every year, ⁶⁴ at the season the katsina were killed, katsina are believed to die for three 10's (30 days) and then come to life. At this time the Antelope clan set their altar on the 28th day and say prayers for the Katsina to come alive, and that night they have a dance in kiva.)

When the time came, the men who regarded themselves as manly got together in kiva. It was planned that they should not put on their full costume or make up pretty. (They were to leave off certain feathers from their masks.) They painted their bodies white all over. Early the next morning they went further out into the country and all hid in one place (4 or 5 miles distant from the town). In the pueblo, too, the people were making preparations. They made prayer sticks and painted up, both men and women of the Antelope clan, and put feather down on their heads. They were painted "strawberry" ⁶⁵ all over but the face. Then the ichini was brought out. The women of Antelope clan were given each a staff (yapi) (pl. 14, fig. 1, c). Masewi blessed the ichini, giving it power. When the time came they also called Shuracha, katsina of the Corn clan.

About noon, two Gomaiowish brought messages to the village from Wenimats. They told Country Chief that the katsina were coming to visit them and bring them gifts and that they would arrive a little after midday. So Antelope Man went and got all the mockers and brought them into his altar and spoke to them and gave them advice.

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[paragraph continues] He showed them how to make prayer sticks with which to pray to the katsina. He told them not to leave there but to wait at the altar and he would lead them out when the katsina came, to pray to them. The Gomaiowish did not accept any of the offerings of Country Chief-tobacco, corn, or meal. They offered them food which they did not accept. They had with them bows and arrows which Country Chief asked for as a gift. They acted like the real Gomaiowish. Antelope chief and the people held them and took away their bows and arrows forcibly. The Gomaiowish then ran away, back to the men who were to impersonate the katsina. The Gomaiowish told them of the incident, exaggerating it, saying they had been almost killed and told them they should fight as hard as they could to kill as many people as

Click to enlarge
FIGURE 6.--Diagram of ichini and people in front.

they could. So the men put on their masks and started toward the village. There were many of them. On their way they picked up sticks and tore off branches to use as clubs. They selected the strongest they could find. The man acting as Tsitsanits was trying to keep them back.

The village was all prepared and the ichini was set up in place (fig. 6). The Antelope clan (men, women, and children) were told to stand out in front, holding the staffs to guard the village. (Men and women alternated.) Tsitsanits was ahead and was first to reach the ichini. The men in front lot him through and he leaned against the ichini and rubbed his back against it to gain strength and courage. (Compare pp. 41, 63.)

At first the men were in front. Then, after Tsitsanits came in, they fell back into the "wings," or lines of women. The katsina rushed up to the ichini, striking it four times, then they turned around

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and ran away. Then anyone could come and strike the ichini; there was a race to see who would be first. The Antelope clan watched to see that no one struck it more than four times. The katsina tried to pass the people but the Antelope clan held their staffs horizontally and barred the way. The ichini was propped up behind by three sticks. As the katsina approached, the Shuracha katsina were behind the ichini (which had been erected by them and the War Twins), When the ichini was set up, the Shuracha started to dance and kept it up during all the time the katsina were striking the ichini, leaving only Masewi and Oyoyewi at the ichini.

After all the katsina had struck the ichini four times, they ran around striking themselves. The Shuracha and the War Twins took down the ichini and carried it into the plaza, where they set it up on the north side. After the ichini was taken down, the line closed in the gap that was left, and the katsina were held back by the Antelope clan.

The mockers were now brought from the altar to the front of the ichini. They did not know there were to be killed. They came out to pray to the katsina and they thought this was to be done in order that they might be forgiven. But the katsina knew what they were to do. When the ichini was moved, the Antelope women were sent ahead with it to form wings and the men held back the katsina. When all was set up, Antelope Man shouted that all was ready. The Antelope Men guarding the katsina turned and ran to the plaza, followed by the katsina; the men took their place in the wings with the women. The katsina rushed in and clubbed to death all the mockers, who were waiting in front of the ichini with their prayer sticks expecting to pray for forgiveness.

Now was the turn of the twins, Masewi and Oyoyewi. They caught the two Gomaiowish and castrated them. The Gomaiowish were the leaders in the killing. They wore their blood bladder in their crotch. Tsitsanits was not killed. He had been stationed well back of the ichini where they could not get at him. Masewi and Oyoyewi then attacked the katsina and cut their throats. Their heads sank down and they fell to earth blood-soaked, simulating death. While lying on the ground they prayed that the blood give new strength to the earth, ⁶⁶ that the earth produce more.

After Masewi and Oyoyewi had killed all the katsina they took out their staff and arrowhead, the medicine Sun had given them and, going back to the katsina, brought them all back to life. Antelope nawai had prayer sticks with him with which to pray after the katsina had come to life. They prayed that the real katsina would not come again to kill the people. The katsina impersonators acted as if brought to life. This was all dramatization but the guilty ones were

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really killed, probably 8 or 10. After the Antelope men had made this prayer, the katsina got up and taking the dead mockers with them, left the village. They buried them out in the desert. They did this to make the people believe more strictly in the katsina. The Antelope people then took down the ichini, took it apart, and put it away. The Shuracha, who were dancing all this time, were dismissed and left. 67--This is the way they passed their time at Washpashuka.

Footnotes

70:56 Cf. White, 1932, p. 79; 1942.

70:57 Cf. White, 1922, pp. 94-96, pl. 2, b.

70:58 For K’o·muDina, see White, 1932, pp. 94-96.

70:59 The Keresan term is kokwi'mα. Gunn speaks of the Storoka as "koquima, or hermaphrodite" (Gunn, 1917,p.173). In the Kyanakwe ceremony of Zuñi, which has been equated with the Storoka, the kachina transvestite, Kothlama, appears. (See White, 1942.)

70:60 Cf. White, 1932, pp. 88-94. No other Keresan pueblo has this ceremony so far as is known.

71:61 House. See p. 73.

71:62 A sheep, today (see White, 1932, p. 89).

72:63 I am reminded of the interbarrio or interhacienda fiesta fighting of Mexico or Ecuador.--E. C.

72:64 This ceremony was not held every year, but every 5 or 6 years (White, 1922, p. 88.)

72:65 The Antelope people paint themselves pink all over their bodies; their faces are painted with ya‘katca (reddish brown) and with stcamu·n (black, sparkling) put on over the red under their eyes. The house of Antelope clan (or cacique's house) at Acoma is pink, too (White, 1932, pp. 42-43, 91).

74:66 "This [blood] is a sacrifice to the earth" (White, 1932, p. 92). Compare the belief that rooster blood, spilled in the "chicken pull," is "good for rain" (White, 1932, p. 106).