Ritual

Regardless of the nature of ceremonials among the Pueblos, their times, places, and purposes, there are certain elements which display a degree of constancy, recurring again and again in household or personal observances as well as in society functions and elaborate communal ceremonies. These elements are ritual practises, following more or less stereotyped forms, varying somewhat from Pueblo to Pueblo, yet everywhere fundamentally the same. They are used over and over again in a bewildering variety of combinations. Ceremonies which at first glance have nothing in common, either in purpose or external appearance, upon analysis reveal an underlying similarity in that each displays a fundamentally similar basic pattern into which these ritual "blocks" have been fitted, often in entirely different order. It is at least theoretically possible to have two entirely different ceremonies in which the details are identical, the differences lying entirely in the different combination of elements. It is this factor alone which renders Pueblo ceremonialism in any degree comprehensible. Without these elements of coherence, the variability would be too great for human comprehension. (Parsons, 1924.)

Fetishes: First of importance in the rituals are the fetishes. The most significant class are the perfect ears of corn which usually represent the Earth Mother. These may be hollowed out and filled with typical seeds of squash, melon, beans, ste., and usually are elaborately dressed with feathers and beads. In this form they will be used by heads of ceremonial groups, clan heads, town chiefs, or may be possessed by individual society members. Plain and unadorned the perfect ear may protect the pregnant woman and the newborn child from witchcraft, or may be placed upon the heart of the dead. There are also stone fetish animals, crude representations of those animals which are considered endowed with supernatural power, particularly mountain lion for hunting, bear for curing. The war gods have stone or wooden images. Carved or uncarved stones of odd shapes or qualities may have fetishistic significance. So, too, may certain masks. All fetishistic articles must be kept carefully wrapped or placed in bundles, should not be looked at by the uninitiated, and should be ritually fed (with corn meal) by their custodians.

Shrines: All the Pueblo make use of shrines which are usually stones set in some particular spot, often in semi-circular form with some of the stones upright, sometimes merely piles of stones. Certain springs and unusual natural formations are also treated as shrines. Many of these shrines have a particular character, i. e., they are used to make offerings for some specific purpose. Others are more general. Many have a "road" leading out from them, a cleared trail by which the spirits are supposed to approach the shrine. Offerings at shrines consist of meal, prayer feathers or prayer sticks, and ritual cigarettes of cane filled with tobacco. (Parsons, 1929b, pp. 238-241, 1925a, p. 104; Dumarest, p. 207; White, 1932, 1932a; Goldfrank, 1927.)

Altar, Road Medicine Bowl: Altars are made by various societies and certain religious functionaries such as the town chief. The altar varies according to the group making it and the occasion. A curing society which was performing weather control ceremonial would make a different type of altar than when it was functioning as a caring society.

Certain ritual patterns and representations are drawn upon the ground by sprinkling colored cornmeal, charcoal, and colored sands. These representations include clouds, lightning representations, or various supernaturals including the Water Serpent or Horned Serpent. Some of these things may be represented on a wooden frame forming a back and sometimes wings to the altar. These altars, usually referred to as slat altars, are limited in the east largely to the western Keres and to rain making ceremonies. Foremost in importance is the laying out of appropriate fetishes and it is their proper arrangement as much as anything which constitutes the altar. Upon the ground altar is also placed a medicine bowl which plays a part in every ceremony, a ritual bowl filled with water in which certain herbs have been steeped according to the formula called for by the occasion. In addition there are feathers, gourds filled with water, from sacred springs, and various offerings such as meal, cooked food, prayer feathers or sticks, perhaps miniature objects such as games which are associated with certain supernatural beings. From the altar leads a meal line, often clear to the door of the room, which is considered the "road" and is believed to be the actual path to be used by the spirits in visiting the altar. The making of the meal line is a distinctive characteristic of many ceremonies; the kachina dancers, for example, may follow a meal line sprinkled before them. (Parsons, 1924, 1929b, (p. 252), 1923d, 1925a, (p. 119), 1920a, (p. 60), 1932; White, 1932, 1932a.)

Offerings: The paramount offering is corn meal. Sometimes ground shell or turquoise is substituted. It is offered on every conceivable occasion, usually sprinkled from the fingers, when prayers are said, on the head and person of individuals, on sacred objects of any sort, or on altars and shrines.

Next in importance, perhaps, are feathers and prayer sticks. Feathers may sometimes be offered loose, but generally they are tied ritually in certain specified fashions for various supernaturals and occasions. They are also a part of the prayer stick. The prayer stick is made in almost infinite variety of forms, each one associated with a particular purpose or supernatural. The prayer stick is cut or carved, usually painted, and has feathers of different kinds attached to it in specified ways. No adequate summary of the types can be given pending the publication of a detailed analysis.

The prayer stick seems closely associated with the masked kachina cult. Its use is most strongly developed where the sacred mask cult is at its greatest efflorescence; it declines in importance as the mask cult declines, and disappears in Taos where there are no masked dances. Prayer feathers, on the other hand, have a distribution beyond that of the masked kachina dances and are probably an earlier form. In some towns the right to make prayer sticks belongs to special ceremonial officials, and a layman wishing a prayer stick to offer for some purpose takes corn meal and materials to the proper person in order to have the prayer stick made. In any case, certain prayer sticks are identified with specific societies and officials, and would not be made by a person not entitled to make them. To do so would, of course, be quite pointless in Indian point of view, for an improper offering would not be received, although it is doubtful if any bad effect is believed to threaten in such a case.

Smoking is frequently, but not always, a form of offering. The smoke is blown as a present to the supernaturals. Offerings of tobacco, particularly in the ritual form of tobacco wrapped in corn husk or cane cigarettes, are important, and offerings of corn meal between individuals have a compulsive character. It is virtually impossible to refuse a legitimate request, whether it be to help with housebuilding, or to bring the medicine society of which one is a member to cure a sick person, if it be accompanied by these ritually important presents. Indeed, the offerings, when made to the supernaturals seem to have a compulsive character and one finds in the literature statements that the spirits "have to help us" because certain offerings have been made.

Food is a customary offering but seems to be restricted to particular occasions. Food is usually offered to the dead or to the earth by throwing a bit into the fire before eating. Food may be placed on shrines or altars on special occasions.

Paint pigments sometimes form sacred offerings. (Parsons, 1923d, 1924, 1929b, 1925a; White, 1932, pp. 125-131, 1932a; Goldfrank, 1927.)

Ritual Actions: Certain widespread and rather stereotyped actions accompany most ceremonials. Offerings, smoking; certain movements of the hands are usually made to the cardinal directions (which usually include zenith and nadir). Water is sprink led or given to drink from the medicine bowl. Feathers are brushed over patients in curing, along house walls to purify houses, dipped in the medicine bowl and people sprinkled with the medicine water. One breathes from a ceremonial or sacrosanct object, obtaining thus some of the virtue inherent in it.

Bathing is a preliminary to many ceremonials. It precedes adoption and initiation rites, and follows ceremonies. Hair washing in particular is practised, the head being bathed in yucca suds by a person who stands in some special social or ceremonial relation to the subject. It is ubiquitous in the west; less so on the Rio Grande. Fasting is observed in connection with ceremonial periods. This varies from merely eating lightly and abstaining from various foods to almost complete fasting. Continence is particularly important before undertaking any action of ceremonial significance. Ceremonialists, impersonators of masked dancers, society members, and a few others, are usually confined to the kiva or to a ceremonial chamber for a period of four days preceding a ceremonial event. (Parsons, 1924, 1925a, 1920, 1920a, 1929b, pp. 254-260, 1932; Goldfrank, 1927; White, 1932, 1932a.)

Ceremonial Organization

Town Chiefs: Head of the ceremonial organization in all Pueblo towns of the east is the town chief. At Isleta the town chief is the source of all ceremonial life; he gives permission for all ceremonies, asks for certain ceremonies, and conducts the winter rain ceremonies. He keeps the sacrosanct supplies, native grown tobacco and cotton, flint-made fire, etc. He may not kill the animals used in his rituals, nor may his assistant. He has a corn mother fetish which is considered the mother of all the fetishes of the town. His land is cultivated for him and his wood chopped. Two women are appointed to care for his ceremonial house and to feed the scalps of which he is custodian. He has two assistant town chiefs who have a distinctive ritual of their own to perform. His first assistant is called the war chief at times. He talks differently, i. e., mentions the corner directions instead of the ritual cardinal directions, refers in prayers to snow, hail, scalps and other unpleasant things which other ceremonialists do not mention. He gets his power from the homed serpent; he handles snakes and is prominent in racing rituals and witchfinding. The second assistant is called the Bow Chief and the guardian of the War Thief. He is custodian of a ritually used blade about one foot long.

This sketch gives an idea of the importance of the town chief and his assistants. There are minor variations but in broad terms the picture might be applied to any of the Pueblos of the Rio Grande so far as the position of the town chief is concerned. Generally it is the town chief who names or nominates all the secular officials and who dictates their actions while they are in office. He is in effect a Priest-Chief from whom springs all authority and all religious ceremonial.

The Tewa have a somewhat similar organization with two assistants who are called right-hand and left-hand men. The principle of succession is for the right-hand man to succeed the town chief, the left-hand man to succeed the right-hand man, and for a new appointee to fill the office of left-hand man, the same principle being followed at Isleta and Jemez. At Jemez, however, the principle of clanship enters the ceremonial picture for the first time, because the town chieftainship group must always be of the Young Corn or of the Sun Clan.

In contrast to the entry of the clan principle at Jemez, the Tewa are governed by the moiety principle, which has no social implications as does the clan. Among the Tewa the moiety looms so importantly that there are two entire sets of town chiefs (and other officials) who belong to the two moieties and are classified as summer and winter people. During a relatively short winter period the Tewa Pueblos are ruled by the winter people and the Winter Chiefs; during the somewhat longer summer period, the villagers are ruled by the summer people. This exchange of functions appear in the ceremonial life in that the ceremonies of transfer are more important among the Tewa than is the solstice, elsewhere the all-important central point of the ceremonial life.

Among the Keres the town chief is not dual as among the Tewa, but another important principle appears. The town chief is frequently associated with the Giant curing society. Often he must be a member of or be named by this society. His two assistants may be distributed among the other important societies, as at San Felipe where his two assistants must be members of Flint and Kwirena (no translation) societies. Among the western Keres, particularly Acoma, the town chief must again be of a particular clan, the Antelope clan.

Another important function of the town chief which does not appear among the Tewa to any great extent, is to "watch the sun". Many of the important ceremonies, especially of the Keresans, are fixed by observation of the rising and setting point of the sun. This is particularly true of the solstice ceremonies which loom importantly in the Keresan ceremonial calendar.

In addition to the town chief there are various other important ceremonial officials. Perhaps next in rank are the heads of the medicine societies. These require extended discussion and will be taken up later. There is generally a hunt chief, often the head of a hunting society, and there is or once was (in many Pueblos it is extinct) a war society, usually composed of men who have slain an enemy and taken a scalp. The chief of the war society was probably once a very important personage, as much priest as war leader. At some Pueblos, notably Cochiti, where the office become extinct since Dumarest's time, i. e., within a generation or so, there is evidence that the war priest or chief was the ranking officer of the village rather than the town chief. The place of the war chief is now filled by the annually appointed war captains, probably originally the police officials of the Spanish secular village government, who now act as the executors of the town chief's orders, police ceremonies, enforce observances of the necessary rituals in conservative towns, and apprehend, try, and punish witches.

At Isleta there are chiefs of the moieties, which means they are also chiefs of the kivas and of the clown societies, all three being identical in membership. There are also the Grandfathers, life-long masked clown performers associated with the moieties, and a male and a female kachina organization chief. Finally there are the ritual corn groups, which are rain making societies, each with a chief and usually some assistants who perform distinctive rituals.

The Tewa have in addition the chiefs of the clown societies and their assistants as ceremonial leaders.

The Jemez likewise have chiefs of the clown societies who perform rituals along with the old men of the societies.

Some of the Keresans also have additional ceremonial officers. San Felipe has heads for the kivas connected with the kachina organization. At Cochiti there are three "managing" societies which have special functions in connection with the ceremonial life, generally taking care of the more esoteric societies. (Parsons, 1920, 1920a, 1923c, 1923d, 1924, 1925a, 1929b, 1932; White, 1932, 1932a; Goldfrank, 1927.)

Kachina Cult and Societies: The kachina cult in all the well known Pueblos, except possibly Taos, is always a tribal society; that is, all the men belong to it. Usually there is a chief to the kachina group or groups. Tewa kachina groups seem vaguely formulated and the data are not clear whether it is a real tribal society, although an initiation ritual with whipping is reported. For Jemez, data are similarly unsatisfactory; possibly the kachina group is the same as the two men's societies of all-inclusive membership. Cochiti has a single kachina society to which all men belong. The head of the kachina was formerly the war priest. San Felipe has three groups of kachina, two associated with the two kivas, the third with a mask house. Laguna organization again is obscure. At Acoma the kachina are associated with the kivas, and kiva initiation is initiation into the secrets of the kachina.

The kachina are divided into many classes, as expressed in the masks and costumes worn by impersonators. Of some of the classes there are believed to be only one or two. Others are in "sets" of fixed number. Of other types of kachina there are believed to be an unlimited number and there is no limit to the number which may appear at a dance. The masks are usually of hide, formerly of buckskin or buffalo hide, but now usually made of cow hide. A collar of spruce, foxskin, or other material is worn with most masks and there are varying and elaborate details in the costume. The kachina are also divided into dancing kachinas and non-dancing, the latter being usually of those classes which are limited in number and which more or less police the dances.

The function of the kachina is to produce rain by dancing. On the Rio Grande, the kachinas dance for one day after any rain ceremony, but most particularly after the rain retreats of the medicine societies. At Acoma there is an exception, the great occasion of the kachina being a four-day summer rain dance with no dances after society retreats. (Parsons, 1920a, 1923c, 1923d, 1925a, 1929b, 1932; Dumarest; White, 1932, 1932a.)

Medicine Societies: The medicine societies are secret organizations of medicine men or shamans, the chief function of which is curing disease. In addition they are important as rain makers and among the Keresans play an indispensable part in the solstice ceremonies. They play a part at birth and death usually, and political control is largely in their hands through their function of advising the town chief.

There is apparently considerable variation in the various towns, but if one considers the societies which are sub-orders of other societies in certain towns, the two virtually universal societies in all the Pueblos are Flint and Fire. In addition nearly all the Keresan villages have Giant and Shikame (no translation). Another universal society is the Snake society, but this is so specialized in nature that it is not a true curing society. Other widely occurring, but not universal societies are Eagle, Ant, and, among the Keresans, Lightning or Thunder Cloud and K'apina (no translation).

The various societies may be divided into "schools" of medical practise. Most important are those which specialize in witch-caused diseases. The Snake group specializes in the curing of snake bite and at some of the Pueblos is not a formally organized medicine society, but merely a loose aggregation of individuals who have bean snake bitten and thereafter are believed to be able to cure snake bite. Lightning, among the Keresans, cures lightning shock, broken bones, and "bad smells in the stomach." The Ant school is based on the idea that ants cause such ailments as certain skin diseases, sore throat, etc., by entering the body, and must be extracted, usually by brushing with eagle plumes.

The majority of illnesses are caused by witches sending foreign objects into the victim or stealing his heart. If a person is ill, the father or a relative of the patient takes a handful of meal to the medicine man desired, or to the head of a society if the illness is serious and the presence of the entire society is desired. If only one doctor comes, he smokes, sings, mixes medicines in a bowl of water, puts ashes on his hands and massages the patient, and sucks out any foreign object located. If a society is summoned, it usually spends four days in retreat in the society house, fasting, using emetics, and exercising continence. Should the case be serious, of course this preparatory period will be omitted. Then it spends three nights smoking, singing and praying over the patient in his house, performing the final curing ceremony the fourth night.

The paraphernalia are elaborate. A meal altar or meal painting is made, upon which, and before which, are laid the corn-ear fetishes each member usually possesses, stone figures of the war gods, of Paiyatymo, (a sun spirit), of lions, bears, badgers, etc., and, among Keresans, images of the Kobishtaiya, a group of ill-defined spirits dwelling in the east. Medicine bowls, skins of the forelegs of bears, flints, eagle plumes, rattles, and other objects are used. A rock crystal is usually employed by the head doctor, and sometimes the others gaze into it to gain second sight, being able to see witches, etc. Roads of meal are drawn on the floor from the door to the fetish animals on the altar, for it is from the spirits of these animals that the medicine men gain their curing power. Their ritual is in large measure the summoning of these animal spirits to their assistance in the curing.

The medicine men wear only a breechcloth. Their faces are painted red and they wear a line of white bird-down over the head from ear to ear. Songs are sung, people are exhorted to believe in the medicine men, water is poured into the medicine bowl from the six directions, and each doctor puts some herbs in the bowl. They rub their hands with ashes and massage the patient. They suck out objects from the patient's body and, by gazing in the crystal or the medicine bowl, they see witches. During a curing ceremony witches are believed to gather about the house to thwart the success of the cure and they are even asserted to sometimes rap on the door. Consequently the war captain and his assistant guard the house, standing outside the door during the curing rituals, because, they have power over witches. They carry a bow and arrow, because a rifle would not injure a witch.

If the doctors decide the heart has been stolen by a witch, they try to bring it back. This usually means fighting with the witches. They go armed with flint knives, wear a bear paw on the left forearm, a bear claw necklace, and a whistle of bear bone. The war chief and his guards attempt to follow the doctors to protect them but often it is impossible, for the doctors have been known to leave the ground and fly through the air. The fights with the witches are strenuous and realistic. Sometimes the witches tie the hair of two or three of the doctors together or a doctor will be found on the ground tied up with wire. The witches attempt to overcome the doctors by blowing their breath, which has an unbearable odor, at them.

Sometimes the doctors capture a witch. It is usually man like in shape and about a foot and a half high or higher, or it may be in the shape of some animal. Often it looks like a koshare clown. The witch is brought into the house, placed before the fireplace, and the war chief shoots it with bow and arrow, after which the body is burned. The doctors frequently return smeared with blood or "black" after a fight and also fall in trances or spasms upon their return.

Even though the witch is not captured, the medicine men usually return with the heart, a ball of rags within which are one or four grains of corn. The patient is given the grain to swallow. When the ceremony is over, and all present have been given medicine to drink, food is brought out and eaten, first by the medicine men, then by the others present. The medicine men are given baskets of meal and flour in payment for their services.

Most of the Rio Grande Pueblos hold a comnunal curing ceremony in February or March in which all the medicine societies of each Pueblo participate. They are held at the direction of the town chief or the war chief and each society meets in its own chamber at the same time. The paraphernalia and ritual are the same as for ordinary curing ceremonies. Most of the inhabitants of the Pueblo visit one or another of the ceremonial chambers and are "cured" indiscriminately. Objects are extracted from their bodies and they are given medicine to drink. Witch fighting and the recovery of a communal heart sometimes occur.

Membership in the societies is for life. Both men and women become members but only the men perform cures. Children also may join if thought old enough to keep the secrets. There is a head man or "father" of the society, usually the oldest and most experienced member, who calls meetings, directs ceremonies, and performs some special duties. Doctors have their power entirely as the result of their membership in the society; medicine power is never the possession of individuals as such.

The most approved method of joining a society is by becoming a member after having been cured of an illness. Occasionally someone may apply for membership. A third way, used only in a few towns, is by "trapping". A person who violates some ceremonial rule, e. g., building a fire outdoors during the initiation period, is forcibly initiated.

Little is known about initiations as they are entirely secret. No member of a medicine society has ever consented to act as an informant or reveal the secrets of his society. There is a term of training, usually through a period of years, in which the novice is trained in prayers, songs, ritual, feats of magic, medicines, etc. Some non-members think novices are subjected to physical torture and possibly filthy rites. The final episode in the initiation is a public ritual in the ceremonial chamber of the society in which the new member shows off his powers. At this time he is presented with the corn ear fetish which makes him a full-fledged member of the society. Even in the public ceremony there may be mistreatment; at Santo Domingo the novice is beaten. At Acoma the fire society throws its initiate on a bed of live coals. The Sia snake society requires initiates to handle live snakes.

During the summer the medicine societies exercise rain functions, going into a "retreat", that is, retiring to their chambers for four days during which they perform rituals to produce rain. These ceremonies are highly esoteric and little known. Slat altars are usually employed in addition to the sand or meal paintings. Fetishes are laid out, suds of yucca root mixed in a cloud bowl, and sprinkled to the ritual directions and over the altar and the medicine men. There are prayers and songs for rain and sometimes prayer sticks are deposited. The societies retreat at regular intervals, one at a time, often performing several series during the season. Each retreat should be followed by a one-day dance of the kachina. Where the kachina are masked, they are usually led in by the medicine men.

At each solstice the medicine societies usually hold ceremonies which are supposed to reverse the course of the sun. Usually the masks, if any are owned by the society, are repainted and renovated at this time. Offerings are deposited for the sun.

Phallic Clown Groups: With one exception, Taos, the Rio Grande Pueblos all have two clown groups which in many cases have some association with the ceremonial moieties. They wear distinctive paint and headdresses but no masks, and the group more markedly clownish in behavior is usually associated with summer ceremonies, while the other is associated with winter ceremonies, although either may appear, if ordered to do so by the officials. Some of the groups indulge in contrary behavior, that is, they speak the opposite of what they actually mean. They are sometimes associated with war, participating in the scalp or war society performances, and are also associated with the rain and more particularly with the kachina dances. Usually one of the clown groups introduces the kachina dancers to the Pueblo. When the kachina dances begin, the clowns cease their clowning and burlesques and act as policemen, preventing people from coming too close to the dancers, clearing the dance place of pebbles, and helping the dancers should any of their costumes become disarranged.

Hunting Societies: In some cases the hunting societies are also curing societies, but this seems a late modification of their functions. In some towns, particularly Tigua and Tewa, there appears to be only a hunt chief who performs the functions elsewhere assigned to the hunting society. These functions are the presiding at and performing of necessary rituals in connection with communal hunts, and providing individual hunters with the necessary charms, fetishes, and offerings.

Jemez and Cochiti also have eagle societies, the members of which hunt eagles to secure the necessary eagle feathers used extensively in all rituals and in the decoration of prayer sticks of certain types.

War Societies: Evidently all the Pueblos once had war or scalp takers' societies, although at present they are virtually or entirely extinct in many Pueblos. Sometimes those who have killed a bear or mountain lion are also admitted to membership. Their functions are, or were, extensive. They seem frequently to have performed regular scalp ceremonials, regardless of whether a new scalp had been taken. These may be regarded as a method of appeasing the spirits associated with the scalps and also as rain ceremonies, for the scalps are believed to have influence as rain makers. The scalps are usually kept in a covered jar and are regularly "fed" corn meal or other ritual food. They also sometimes had associations with ritual foot races and with storm control, particularly the damaging spring wind storms.

Of other societies with sporadic occurrence, only the women's societies may be mentioned here. These societies admit men to membership, usually, just as men's societies sometimes admit women, so that often the only real way of distinguishing the societies is to find whether it is regarded by the natives as a man's or a woman's society. Their ceremonies are usually associated with the production of abundant crops. (White, 1928, 1932, 1932a; Parsons, 1920, 1920a, 1923c, 1923d, 1925a, 1929b, 1932; Goldfrank, 1923; M. C. Stevenson, 1884; Beals and Parsons, MS, Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Clowns.)

Ceremonies

Calendar: The Pueblo calendar of ceremonies is a flexible arrangement. Certain ceremonies are annually recurrent at regular intervals and times. These are, in the main, the more important rituals and ceremonies. Others recur at fairly regular but longer intervals, some as much as five years apart. Finally, there are ceremonies and rituals which are fixed by circumstances. Of this latter class are to be considered the individual curing rites already described, certain types of war and scalp ceremonies, and drought ceremonies.

The backbone of the calendar is the solstice, winter and summer, among the Keres and also in the west. Among the Tewa, while the solstices are observed, the seasonal transfer of ceremonies from the winter ceremonial moiety to the summer, and vice versa, takes the place of the solstices in importance. The sequence of ceremonies is arranged by the time at which the chiefs of various organizations take their turns in an esoteric retreat at which they perform their ceremonies or else cooperate with a dance or other group to give a public dance or other ritualistic performance.

The fairly regular series begins with the winter solstice (or winter transfer), continues with snow making and wind control ceremonies, pre-spring ground cleansing; ritual growth in prophecy of the coming season, initiations, foot races or ball games for rain or fertility, summer solstice (or summer transfer), summer rain retreats and pilgrimages to springs, lakes, or mountain tops, harvest feasting and dancing, autumn hunt ceremonies or war society initiation. In the Rio Grande region the Catholic saint's calendar has been included with Christmas, King's Day (January 6), Easter, All Soul's Day, and observances for the patron saint of each town. On these occasions dances of a non-esoteric nature may be observed. It is this part of the calendar alone which may be viewed in the east by the general public.

A good example is the Tewa calendar for the Pueblo of San Juan:

Early November, seasonal transfer, summer to winter.

December, about a month after the transfer, "winter cloud people come", a kachina dance.

December, sporadic, Winter People (ceremonial moiety) holds adoption ceremony.

December 24, matachina dance. Parade of the Saint. Outdoor fires, night visiting by the turtle dancers.

December 25, Turtle Dance; house visiting by one set each of Turtle and Navaho dancers.

December 26, Okusha. House visiting by two hoop or bow dancers, one Ute dancer with a choir of three.

New Year, little boys visit houses, given presents of bread. Installation of civil officers in house of outgoing governor.

January 6. Little boys visit houses again for presents; Buffalo dance; male dancers visit house of governor and two lieutenants for presents of bread.

January 7, winter solstice ceremony.

January 19, Hopi buffalo dance.

January-February. Basket dance, with or without kachina the night preceding. Bear kachina exocism outside or "Three Times Dance" performed.

February, irrigation ditch ritually opened.

February-March. Ti'i Share Dance, dance by women's society.

March 2 or 3, seasonal transfer ceremony. Ceremonial shinny.

Before planting, sporadic. Summer people's adoption ceremony; two day retreat by summer men, followed by coming of "Summer Cloud People" (kachina).

Wheat planting, rain dance.

Corn planting, rain dance.

After planting, rain pilgrimage to Mt. Tsikomo.

Spring (in case of general sickness), medicine society night ceremony with society kachinas.

Easter. Buffalo or Deer dance and Captive dance.

Spring (sporadic), Eagle dance or ceremonial.

May (1927), initiation into woman's war group begun.

June 13, San Antonio day, dance.

June 24, San Juan day, relay race or "French" war dance.

August, rain retreats of societies.

September (1927), Kossa (clown society) initiation, outside dance.

September-November. Harvest dance.

October (sporadic), kachina initiation.

November 2, All Souls; fiscal takes baskets of corn collected to priest; candles in homes, etc. (Parsons, 1923d, 1924, 1925a, 1929b, 1932; Goldfrank, 1927, p. 72; White, 1932, p. 67, 1932a, p. 50.)