The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child | Page 9

at their respective cardinal points. Those for the zenith and nadir are planted to the west, on the road to the spirit lake, the stick of each one having the cardinal color decorations. This done, all retire to their kivas.
The S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya of the North, returning to his kiva, drinks the medicine water prepared by the priest of the great fire order (M[=a]-[t]ke-hl[=a]n-[=a] [=a]-que), who, with some of his people, is now busy in the preparation of a sand altar. The S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya again emerge from the kivas, with long bunches of Spanish bayonet in their hands, in the ends of which grains of corn of the respective colors are placed and wrapped with shreds of the bayonet. Any man or youth desiring to raise yellow corn appeals to the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya of the North, who strikes him a severe blow with his bunch of bayonets. Similar appeals are made to those representing other colors. The sand altar is made in the Kiva of the North. It is first laid in the ordinary yellowish sand, in the center of which the bowl of medicine water is placed. Over the yellow sand a ground of white sand is sprinkled. All the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya and their brothers are represented on the altar (Plate XXII). The altar is circular in form and some twelve feet in diameter. The K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si encircles the whole.
Throughout the day the K[=o]k-k[=o] are running around the village whipping such of the people as appeal to them for a rich harvest, while the curious performances of the K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi carry one back to the primitive drama.
[Plate XXII: ZU?I SAND ALTAR IN KIVA OF THE NORTH.]
Toward evening the ceremony for initiating the children begins. The priest of the Sun, entering the sacred plaza (or square), sprinkles a broad line of sacred meal from the southeast entrance across the south side, thence along the western side to the Kiva of the North, and up the ladderway to the entrance (which is always in the roof), and then passing over the housetops he goes to the Kiva of the Earth and sprinkles the meal upon the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si. He then precedes the K[=o]k-k[=o] to the plaza and deposits a small quantity of yellow meal on the white line of meal near the eastern entrance. By this spot the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya of the North stands, south of the line of meal. The priest, continuing in advance, deposits a quantity of blue meal on the line a short distance from the yellow, which indicates the position for the S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya of the West. In like manner he indicates the position of the respective S?-l?-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya with red meal for the South, white for the East, meal of all colors for the Heavens, and black meal for the Earth. The remainder of the K[=o]k-k[=o] take their positions successively along the line of meal. The K[=o]-y[=e]-m[=e]-shi group in the plaza. The godfathers then pass along the line of meal, each one holding his godchild on his back by a blanket, which he draws tightly around him. In olden times tanned robes of the buffalo were used for this purpose. As he passes the line of K[=o]k-k[=o] each one strikes the child with his large bunch of Spanish bayonets. While the Indian from almost infancy looks upon any exhibition of feeling when undergoing physical suffering as most cowardly and unmanly, the severity of the pain inflicted by the yucca switches in this ceremony is at times such as to force tears from the eyes of the little ones, but a boy over the age of five or six rarely flinches under this ordeal. After passing the line the godparent enters the Kiva of the North, where he is met by a priest of the great fire order, who asks, "Who is your K[=o]k-k[=o]?" When the godfather replies, he is directed to select his boy's plume. The plumes which ornament the heads of the figures have been previously wrapped in corn husks and carried to the priest by the respective godfathers. The godfather attaches the feather, which is a soft, downy feather of the eagle, to the scalp-lock of the child. The godparent is then given a drink of the holy water, which is dipped from the bowl by the medicine man with a shell attached to a long reed. The child also drinks and repeats a prayer after his sponsor. They then leave the kiva, and, taking a position on the north side of the plaza, the child kneels and clasps the bent knee of his godfather, who draws him still closer with the blanket around him. Four new characters of the K[=o]k-k[=o] now appear, the Sai-[=a]-hli-a (see Plate XX). Each one of these strikes the child four times across the back with his yucca blades, having first tested with his foot the thickness of the child's