(Mrs.) Tilly E. (Matilda Coxe Evans) Stevenson - The Religious Life of the Zuni Child
( >>
(Mrs.) Tilly E. (Matilda Coxe Evans) Stevenson >> The Religious Life of the Zuni Child
A repast is now served to the priests and the boys and others in
the kiva. The food is brought by the wives and sisters of the four
Sai-[=a] hli-[=a] to the hatch way and carried in by the K[=o]k-k[=o],
who have returned to the kiva. The feast opens with a grace said by
the priest of the K[=o]k-k[=o], who immediately after collects upon
a piece of H[=e]-wi (a certain kind of bread) bits of all the food
served. This he rolls up and places by his side, and at the conclusion
of the feast he carries it to a distance from, the village over the
road to the spirit lake and making a hole in the ground he deposits it
as an offering to the gods. Each child goes to the godfather's house,
where his head and hands are bathed in yucca suds by the mother and
sisters of the godfather, they repeating prayers that the youth may be
true to his vows, &c. The boy then returning to his own home is tested
by his father, who says, "You are no longer ignorant; you are no
longer a little child, but a young man. Were you pleased with the
words of the K[=o]k-k[=o]? What did the priest tell you?" The boy does
not forget himself and reveal anything that was said, for the terror
overhanging him is too great.
When a youth is selected to personate the K[=o]k-k[=o] he is
instructed in regard to the decorating of the mask he is to wear. When
this is done he goes at night to the proper kiva and seated between
two instructors he learns the song and prayers. In committing songs
and prayers to memory the novice holds a tiny crystal between his
thumb and forefinger for a while, then he puts it into his mouth, and
at the conclusion of the instruction he swallows it. This insures
the remembrance of the prayers and songs, and he awakes the following
morning with them indelibly impressed upon his mind. The pupil is then
struck across each arm and across each ankle with the yucca blades.
There are very few women belonging to the order of the K[=o]k-k[=o].
I think there are now only five in Zuni. When a woman of the order
becomes advanced in age she endeavors to find some maiden who will
take upon herself the vows at her death. Selecting some young woman,
she appeals to her to be received into the order of the K[=o]k-k[=o].
The maiden replies, "I know nothing concerning the mysteries of the
order. You must talk to my father." After the father is spoken to, he
in turn spends the night in explaining the duties of the position to
his daughter and that the gods would be displeased if she should marry
after joining the K[=o]k-k[=o]. Assuming the K[=o]k-k[=o] vows is
entirely optional with the girl. It is never her duty, but a special
privilege which is rarely accepted. If she accepts she passes through
both ceremonials described. She chooses her godfather, who gives her
for the first ceremony a woman's blanket and for the second a woman's
dress, a white blanket, a quantity of blue yarn, a woman's belt, a
buckskin, a sacred blanket, and the mask she is to wear. But even
here in Zuni, where the people are so controlled by the priests and
have such a superstitious dread of disobeying the commands of the
K[=o]k-k[=o], women have been guilty of desecrating their sacred
office and marrying. At present there is a woman of the order of the
K[=o]k-k[=o] married to a Navajo. She is of course forever afterwards
debarred from joining in the ceremonials, but she is permitted to live
among her people with no other punishment than their indignation.
INDEX.
Gilbert, G.K., visit of, to Zuni 540
Kaek-l[=o] of Zuni mythology 544, 547
Kiva, the Zuni religious house 544, 547, 549, 552
K[=o]k-k[=o], the Zuni order of the 540-548
admission of women into the 540-555
involuntary initiation into the 547-553
voluntary initiation into the 553-555
Moseley, H.N., visit of, to Zuni 540
Mythology, brief account of Zuni 539-545
Pueblo of Zuni, location of 539
Religious life of the Zuni child, by Mrs. Tilly E. Stevenson l-liii,
533-555
Stevenson, Mrs. Tilly E., on the religious life of the Zuni child
l-liii, 533-555
Turner, H.L., visit of, to Zuni 542
Tylor, E.B., visit of, to Zuni 540
Yucca blades in Zuni ceremonial 550, 551, 553, 555
Zuni, religious life of children among the, by Mrs. Tilly E. Stevenson
l-liii, 533-555