society using that of the Day-Bear-Lizard-Eagle moiety, the Fire
society that of the Geese-Corn-Chaparral-cock-Parrot-moiety.
From this grouping as well as from the moiety clan classification,
it occurs to me that my informant may have been twisted in his
application of the summer and winter terms. It were consistent
with Pueblo Indian classification in general for the Winter People
to consist of the Day-Bear-Lizard-Eagle moiety and to be identified
with the Flint Society, and for the Summer People to consist of the
Geese-Corn-Chaparral-cock-Parrot moiety and to be identified
with the Fire Society.
The altars (geidĕ) of the kaan seem to be quite like those of Laguna or Zuñi. They are ground altars of designs in meal and sand and of painted boards. With the meal and sand, black, white and yellow, cloud designs are drawn. The wooden frame is about ten feet long and four feet high. Faces and lightning symbols are painted on the boards, but not, as at Zuñi, the animals of the directions, nor are there carved figures of birds. In a space of about two feet behind the altar sit the kaan. On the altars stand iamaparu′, those most sacred fetichistic cotton-wrapped ears of corn the Keresans call iyatik‛ or iariko and the Zuñi, mi′we, together with stone figures of lion and bear and the uncarved stones, the Keresans call samahiye and the Isleta people, wadaiyni. The wadaiyni are dressed with feathers and beads, as at Laguna, but instead of the feathers of the s’giti, a large hawk, the feathers used are sparrow-hawk.—The fetich stone animal figure carried by hunters is of the wolf (karnin).
Besides the special ceremony for rain, the kaan regularly officiate at a winter solstice ceremonial and at a summer solstice ceremonial (ibeweyuwe, in Keresan kuashi′wannatia, “they act as rain clouds”). As part of the solstice ceremonials the kaan make prayer-sticks (towai) which are called mapǔtowai (mapu, ear of corn). Each mapǔtowai is accompanied by a crook stick similar to what at Laguna is called hadjamuni kaiuk (prayer-stick broken)
and at Zuñi, the prayer-stick of the pekwin or sun priest.[1] These
- ↑ Details of feathers and pigments I reserve for a general account of prayer-sticks.
