katcina

A somewhat similar design is painted on the side of the helmets of some katcina dancers, where the bracts or petals are colored in sequence, with the pigments corresponding to the six directions—north, west, south, east, above, and below.

If, however, it should prove to be an ancient vessel it would carry back to the time of its manufacture the existence of the katcina cult in Tusayan, no actual proof of the existence of which, at a time when Sikyatki was in its prime, has yet been discovered.

It is said that a son of a prominent chief, disguised as a katcina, offered a prayer-stick to a maiden, and as she received it he cut her throat with a stone knife.

They were late arrivals in Tusayan, coming at least after the Flute people, and probably before the Honani or Badger people, who brought, I believe, the katcina cult.

Although we can not definitely assert that this cultus was unknown at Sikyatki, it is significant that in the ruins no ornamental vessel was found with a figure of a katcina mask, although these figures occur on modern bowls.