Page 170 - TheHopiIndians

162 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

is a harvest dance, and fortunate are the Hopi when
they can celebrate it with joyful heart and abund
ant feasting. The Mamzrau resembles in many points
the Lalakonti, but the differences are more import
ant. A sand picture is made, a frame of painted
slabs erected back of it, and fetiches placed around the
medicine bowl and sand picture. Novices are initi
ated in a tedious ceremony lasting through several
days, and messengers are sent to springs and shrines to
deposit prayer-stick. There are ceremonial head
washings as in other ceremonies, and various secret
rites are performed in the kiva. On the fourth day
the final initiation of the novices takes place, and the
priestesses dance around a pile of peaches on the kiva
floor, and, what is more, enjoy a good feast of this
prized fruit. On the sixth day a public dance is held
by actors who imitate certain kachinas, and on the sev
enth day, just at sunset, the priestesses, some disguised
as men, dance the spirited buffalo dance. On the
eighth day, disguised as clowns, they parade around
the pueblo and are attacked by the men who throw
water none too clean and various unpleasant things
upon them, and after much noise and fun, the women
run home.
There is no dawn race on the morning of the ninth
day, but early the priestesses have donned their cos
tumes and assemble in the court where they dance and
throw green cornstalks among the men who crowd
around. Later in the day comes the concluding dance,