Fig. 17.
The Basket Dance
Fig. 18.
The Basket Dance
Basket Dance o f Cochiti
Enter nine men in Corn Dance costume (see p. I S 2) , rattles in right hand; nine women in Corn Dance costume, in one hand an inverted basket and a stick, in the other a spruce bough.
(a) The women stand in front of the line of men, all facing forward. All do the high back-trot step.
(b) The women face the men, kneel, place baskets on the ground, and go through the motions of grinding corn, in rhythm to the rattles of the men who violently tap the right foot forward in time.
The women rise, face forward, and all repeat (a) . (See Figs. 17 and r8.)
The BASKET DANCE is a fertility rite. Mary Austin, in her Americaia Rhythm, has given the following as the translation of the song of the BASKET DANCE, made to her at San Ildefonso by a young man of the tribe:
"We, the Rain Cloud callers Ancient mothers of the Rain Cloud clan, Basket bearers; We entreat you, O ye Ancients, By the full-shaped womb, That the lightning and the thunder and the rain Shall come upon the earth; Shall fructify the earth; That the great rain clouds shall come upon the earth As the lover to the maid.
"Send your breath to blow the clouds, O ye Ancients, As the wind blows the plumes Of our eagle-feathered prayer sticks, Send, O ye Ancients, To the six Corn Maidens. To the White Corn Maiden, To the Yellow Corn Maiden, To the Red Corn Maiden,
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To the Blue Corn Maiden, To the Many Colored Maiden, To the Black Corn Maiden, That their wombs bear fruit.
`Let the thunder be heard, O ye Ancients! Let the sky be covered with white blossom clouds, That the earth, O ye Ancients, Be covered with many colored flowers. That the seeds come up, That the stalks grow strong, That the people have corn, That happily they eat. Let the people have corn to complete the road of life."
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