Bulitikibi, Butterfly Dance
The Butterfly festival, which is occasionally celebrated in Sichumovi, differs from the Lalakoñti, Mamzrauti, and Owakülti by the absence of secret rites, altar, tiponi, or other fetishes. While these three festivals are nine days' long, with many elaborate secret rites, Bulitikibi is a one-day's public dance, without secret rites.
The artist has figured two Buli manas or Butterfly girls as they are dressed when taking part in this dance, and a leader bearing a pole with attached streamers (see plate LVII). Many men and girls participate in this dance, their dress and paraphernalia corresponding very closely with that of the Tablita dancers of the Rio Grande pueblos.
Lalakoñti
This festival is one of the most regular in the Hopi calendar, occurring each year in September. It is a woman's dance, with many secret rites, an elaborate altar, and a public exhibition, during which baskets and other objects are thrown to the assembled spectators. Most of the women who take part in this dance carry baskets, which they move in cadence with their songs. There are two maids called the Lakone girls, who throw the baskets and other objects to the spectators.
The Hopi artist has represented the latter dressed in their customary paraphernalia (plate LV), but there is a slight difference in the dress of these girls in the Lalakoñti at Walpi and at the other pueblos.[1]
Owakülti
This is likewise a woman's basket dance, which is occasionally celebrated at Sichumovi, but is not an annual festival at that pueblo. Like the Lalakoñti it has an elaborate altar which, however, differs very widely from that of other basket dances.
The Lalakoñti was introduced into Tusayan by the Patki or Rain-cloud clans; the Owakülti was brought from Awatobi by the Pakab and Buli clans.
Mamzrauti[2]
This festival is likewise a woman's dance, but the participants, instead of carrying baskets in their hands, as in the Lalakoñti and Owakülti, carry slats of wood bearing appropriate symbols.
Two girls called Mamzrau manas (Mamzrau maids) appear in this dance, and throw objects on the ground. The Hopi artist has made two pictures of these girls, which show the style of their dress and paraphernalia (see plate LV).
- ↑ See article on the Lalakoñti, American Anthropologist, vol. V, 1892, p. 105.
- ↑ For description of Mamzrauti see American Anthropologist, July 1892. Many ceremonies are named from the society which celebrates them and the termination pakit, to go down into the kiva; thus we have Maraupaki, Leñpaki, etc.
