Kokopelli, of the Prehistoric South-western Pueblo Pantheon

HE age of the masked spirit or katcina concept among the South-T western Pueblos is as difficult to determine as is the related problem of what type of spirits was believed in by the prehistoric Pueblo people.The seventeen super-imposed layers of colored mural drawings discovered on the interior of a Pueblo IV kiva at Kuaua,I near Bernalillo, New Mexico, were marked as pre-Spanish by the absence of late types of Rio Grande glaze wares within the kiva.The heads on the most prominent of these figures appear to represent the bodies of fish and suggest no parallel with known modern Pueblo religion except in reminding us of Parsons' brief note on the Tewa ceremonialists being referred to as the "fish people," but neither she nor Harrington was able to find the significance or origin of the term.2A well known modern figure whose existence can be traced back over a thousand years is Kokopelli, the hunch-backed figure anciently depicted as playing a flute but now without his instrument.FewkesS gave a short description to accompany his Hopi painting of a modern Kokopelli, and in the summer of 1936 a t Shipaulovi, I purchased a katcina doll representing Kokopelli, the picture and the doll being very similar in details.He has a long pointed snout, a black head with a single feather on the top, and black and white segmented circles on the side of the head, The hump is always apparent on the back.The figure is dressed in buckskin leggings and embroidered sash but with the male genetalia uncovered and prominent, an unusual feature in katcina dolls.This katcina doll and the pictured katcina of Fewkes' report are without a flute.To my inquiries among the Hopi concerning the function of Kokopelli in religious observances, it was explained only that "he comes in [to dance] from the spring with the dancers.''Fewkes was told that in olden times many of these appeared together, but he never saw one represented.Evidently this is no longer a spirit of major consequence.The appearance of the uncovered figure may have some connection with fertility, but why is Kokopelli always humped?And what was the significance of the ancient flute?Kokopelli does not appear in the modern Hopi Flute cermony.The Kokopelli girl or mana has a slender snout similar to that of the male.Otherwise she is not distinctive from other katcina manas

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