| OCR Text |
Show The film then documents a "Rain Dance" (Korkokshi) at the village dance plaza. The masked participants, headed by the priest of the dance, enter one of the plazas of Zuni. The hair of the dancers has been washed with amole; downy eagle feathers are fastened to the hair; fox skins dangle from their waists; quantities of turquoise and sheU necklaces are worn; they hold gourd rattles in their hands, and wear embroidered cotton kilts of Hopi weave; their bodies are faintly painted, and decorated with spruce branches; the masks represent sacred personages. Some of the men personate women. The entire ceremony is an appeal for rain, of which the Zunis never have enough. The captions in the film report the fact that Zuni dances such as this continue day after day until rain falls in the summer. War priests, dancers representing women, and Koyemshi ("Mudheads") participate in the dance. The film follows the dancers, while the Koyemshi, whose masks and paint are designed to represent the "unformed beings" of the underworld, perform their duties, and as the dancers rotate between the various dance plazas in the village. Food that has been gathered by the Koyemshi is placed in the plaza where it can be blessed. Stacks of corn can be seen behind the dancing Koyemshi. Blessing the food, the Koyemshi dance and shake their gourd rattles. Following the blessing of the food, the foodgivers sprinkle offerings of cornmeal on the Koyemshi and the food is bundled back up to be taken home.151 Because of the religious subject and at the wishes of the Zuni Tribe the 150. Ibid. 151. Ibid. The author has viewed the dance of the Kiva groups on returning from the sacred pilgrimage of 1985 and the dance in the village following the off-year pilgrimage to the sacred springs at Ojo Caliente in 1986. - 99 - |
