words, taken from the clan or people who celebrate it or from whom it was derived.
The only three surviving members of the Buli clan, which is grouped in the Honani or Badger phratry, now live in Sitcomovi, but the elan is always mentioned as living in Awatobi before its destruction. Possibly this observance was once celebrated by this unfortunate pueblo, but my purpose in introducing a mention of it here is to show its close resemblances to the Tablita dance of San Domingo, Acoma, Cochite, and the Tewan pueblos of the Upper Rio Grande. Bulintikibi is of sporadic appearance in Sitcomovi, and has been revived from time to time since my association with the East Mesa people. It is the only dance in my knowledge which the performers can be hired to give, and is, in a way, a harvest home festival. It cannot in its recent celebrations be called a sacred dance, although it once had that significance, and personations of beings which once held an important place in mythology still survive in its presentation.
The close likeness of the Bulintikibi to a dance celebrated by the Rio Grande pueblos and its association with a clan of the Badger phratry is instructive when we remember that this phratry is reputed to have introduced Katcinas which are also found in the same Rio Grande region. The Badger phratry was one of the later additions to the populations of the East Mesa, and is said to have introduced several elements of the Katcina cultus.[1]
The public Bulintikibi is celebrated by both men and women, who alternate with each other in the line of dancers. Neither carry baskets and both are dressed in the same way as the tablita dancers in the Fiesta de San Estevan at Acoma.
The women wear on their heads board tablets with rain-cloud terraces on the upper rim. The symbols on these tablitas represent the sun, moon, and other objects. The men are not masked, but dressed in a Katcina costume almost identical with that in the same tablita dances in the Keresan and Tanoan pueblos.
There is no doubt that Bulintikibi is the same as the tablita dances of the Rio Grande, and it is performed by people who claim that their ancestors came from the Rio Grande pueblos.
The tablita (called among the Hopi the naktci) of the Bulintikibi resembles distantly that of the Palahikomana worn by two women in
- ↑ The Hopi without exception object to my conclusion that the Katcina is a modern incorporation, and call my attention to Katcinas in the Soyahuña. In the oldest ceremonies like the Snake Dance and Flute Observance these beings are certainly not represented, but since its incorporation the term Katcina has come to have a broad application and is often used in this sense. The Katcina cult is of late introduction.
