Title: The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians
Author: Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Language: English
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INDIANS ***



                     THE ALÓSAKA CULT OF THE HOPI
                                INDIANS

                          By J. WALTER FEWKES

    (From the American Anthropologist (N. S.), Vol. 1, July, 1899)

                               NEW YORK
                          G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
                                 1899



                THE ALÓSAKA CULT OF THE HOPI INDIANS[1]

                          By J. WALTER FEWKES


                             Introduction

A little over ten years ago an Indian living near Keam’s Canyon,
Arizona, informed Mr T. V. Keam, who for several years had been making
a collection of Hopi curiosities, that there were two idols in a
cave near the ruins of the old pueblo of Awatobi. Mr Keam, supposing
these images to be so ancient that they no longer were used in the
Hopi ritual, especially as they were reported from a point ten miles
from the nearest pueblo, visited the place, and brought the idols to
his store, several miles distant. When the removal of these objects
became known, it created great consternation among some of the Hopi,
and a delegation of priests from one of their villages begged Mr Keam
to restore the figurines to them, stating that they were still used
in their ceremonies. This request was immediately granted, and the
two idols were borne away with great reverence by the priests, who
sprinkled a line of meal on the ground along the trail as they returned
home. The images, however, have never been returned to their old shrine
under the Awatobi mesa, but a new fane has been found for them, the
situation of which is known to no white man.[2]

From the late Mr A. M. Stephen’s rough sketches, notes, and
measurements of these images (which the writer has not seen), it
appears that they are made of cottonwood, the larger one about four
feet tall, the other five inches shorter. Mr Stephen thought that they
represented male and female, and his sketches of them show ground for
that belief. Each has a well carved head, from which arise two straight
projections which will be spoken of as horns.

In his studies of the Hopi Indians the author has several times visited
the shrine at Awatobi where these objects were once kept, finding it
a depression in a large bowlder, which was formerly walled up with
masonry, making a shelf upon which the images stood. The entrance to
this shrine faces the east, and the bowlder lies a few feet lower down
on the cliff than the foundation of the old mission church of San
Bernardino de Awatobi. By interrogating Indians regarding the images,
he has found that they represent beings called _Alósakas_, the cult
of which, once practised at Awatobi, still survives in the rites of
the modern Hopi pueblos. Many legends concerning _Alósaka_ have been
collected, but only during the last few years has the author witnessed
ceremonies connected with their cult. As a result of these observations
a suggestion in regard to its significance is offered.

The distinctive symbolic feature of these images is the horns (_ála_)
above referred to, from which they take their name. There is a
priesthood at Walpi called the _Aaltû_ or Horn-men (to whom the name
_Alósaka_ is also given), who are the special guardians of the cult and
who perform rites which throw light on its nature. These _Aaltû_, in
their personifications of _Alósakas_, wear on their heads close-fitting
wicker caps,[3] on which are mounted two large, artificial, curved
projections made of buckskin, painted white, and resembling horns of
the mountain sheep[4] which, in certain of their actions, the _Aaltû_
imitate.

The three Walpi ceremonies in which we find survivals of the _Alósaka_
cult are the Flute, the New-fire, and the Winter Solstice, which are
especially instructive in a study of its significance.


                  Personations of Alósaka as Escorts

In the Flute and New-fire ceremonies the role of the personators of
_Alósaka_ is that of an escort who leads the columns of dancers or
processions of priests.

The personation of _Alósaka_ in the Walpi Flute-dance was by a member
of the _Ása_ clan, who, on the fifth day of the ceremony, drew a
line of ground corn and made rain-cloud symbols along the path by
which altar objects were carried from one place to another. He made
a line of meal across the trail by which one enters Walpi, in order
to symbolically close it to visitors on the seventh day, when the
historic reception of the Flute chief by the Bear and Snake chiefs was
dramatized, and brushed away this meal when the Flute chief was invited
to enter the pueblo at that time. He also “closed” the trail a second
time when the Flute priests marched into the pueblo, and brushed the
meal away as they proceeded. On the last day he led a procession of
priests to the Sun spring (_Táwapa_), where a ceremony of wading into
the water was performed, and escorted it back to Walpi on the afternoon
of the last day, when the public Flute exercises were conducted. He
sprinkled a line of meal over which certain sacred objects were carried
from the Flute altar to the roof of the house, and led the priests as
they bore these objects from place to place. There are only obscure
hints regarding the nature of the _Alósaka_ cult in these acts.

In the New-fire ceremonies we find _Alósaka_ filling the role of
escort, and also that of tyler at the kiva hatches. He escorted the
public dancers, visited the trails, and drew lines of meal across them
to prevent strangers from entering the pueblo. He inspected these
trails from time to time, guarded the ladder while the new fire was
being kindled, and carried it to the other kivas. These duties are
those of warriors, but _Alósaka_ was not armed, nor is the mountain
sheep which he represents a probable personation of a warrior.

It is interesting to note that there is no _Alósaka_ escort of the
Flute priests in their public dances at the Middle Mesa, and, judging
from photographs, it would seem that there is a like absence at Oraibi,
which may be due to the absence of certain clans. Thus, one of the
chiefs of the _Aaltû_ or _Alósaka_ society at Walpi belongs to the
_Ása_ clan of Tanoan extraction limited to the East Mesa. The first
colonists of this clan were essentially warriors, and their performance
of escort duty may be a survival of former times.

As there are two chiefs of equal standing in the _Aaltû_ priesthood,
one of the _Ása_ and the other of the Bear clan (one of the oldest in
Walpi), it would seem that there are two phases of the cult, and that
the function of _Alósaka_ as an escort is distinct from an older one
common to other Hopi villages.


                Germinative Element in the Alósaka Cult

The germinative element of the _Alósaka_ cult, which we may regard
as an ancient phase, was introduced into Awatobi and the other Hopi
pueblos by a group of clans from the far south. These clans, called
the _Patuñ_, or Squash, founded the pueblo of Micoñinovi,[5] where the
_Alósaka_ cult is now vigorous, and were prominent in Awatobi where it
was important. There is one episode of the elaborated New-fire ceremony
which is traced to these southern clans; this concerns a figurine,
called _Talatumsi_, kept in a shrine under the cliffs of Walpi and
especially reverenced by the _Aaltû_ or _Alósaka_ priests.

In the elaborated New-fire rites, called the _Naácnaiya_, just after
the fire has been kindled by frictional methods in the _Moñkiva_ before
a man personating the Fire-god, one of the _Aaltû_ brought into the
pueblo, from the shrine in which it is kept, the image of _Talatumsi_
wrapped in a white blanket with prayer-sticks in its girdle. This was
set on the kiva hatches, one after another, where it remained several
days; rites were performed about it, during which it was sprinkled
with meal in prayer, and later reverentially carried by the _Aaltû_
back to its shrine, where it was set in position to remain until the
next quadrennial ceremony. This image is supposed to represent, not
_Alósaka_, but the bride of _Alósaka_, the maternal parent of the
_Aaltû_ society about whom cluster so many folktales. She is the cultus
heroine of that society,—one of their ancestors,—and her effigy is
brought into the pueblo in November, every four years, by one of their
number, just as we may suppose the images of _Alósaka_ were brought
into old Awatobi when the New-fire ceremony was celebrated in that
ill-fated pueblo.

The Hopi have another shrine at which they worship in the New-fire
ceremony, but instead of an image this contains a log of silicified
wood called _Tuwapontumsi_, “Earth-altar-woman.” Exactly who this
personage is, the author has not yet discovered, but it is instructive
to know that among the Hopi totems which he obtained, one of the men
gave as his signature a figure of a lizard, a circle representing the
earth, and a horned human figure which was called _Tuwapontumsi_. As
this figure recalls that of _Alósaka_, and as the shrine of the being
it represents is visited at the same time as that of _Talatumsi_ by
priests guided by _Alósaka_, it is not impossible that _Tuwapontumsi_
is connected with the _Alósaka_ cult.

A visit to this shrine was made by the two phallic societies,
_Tataukyamû_ and _Wüwütcimtû_, directly after the kindling of the new
fire in the chief kiva at Walpi. They were led by a man personating
_Alósaka_, and after praying at the shrine they marched in single file
to the site of Old Walpi, on the terrace below the present pueblo, and
encircled the mounds of this old habitation four times, sprinkling
prayer-meal as their leader, _Alósaka_, directed. This place is
called a _sípapû_, and below it are thought to dwell the ancients.
The prayers were addressed to the old men who have died. “Down below
us they dwell,” said an old priest. “There the ancients dwell,” said
he, patting the ground with his foot. “We are now praying to them.”
There are many facts which show the existence of ancestor worship among
the Hopi, but the author never heard it stated more clearly by the
priests than the night he accompanied the phallic societies[6] to the
ancient site of Walpi in the celebration of the New-fire ceremonies in
November, 1898.


                     The Bird-man in the Soyáluña

One of the most striking features of the rites of the Winter Solstice
ceremony in the chief kiva is the personation, before an altar, of
a Bird-man who is thought to represent a solar god. This episode at
Walpi has been elsewhere described,[7] but as at Oraibi it immediately
precedes certain rites directly related to the _Alósaka_ cult, a few
notes on the personation of the Bird-man in the latter pueblo will be
introduced.

About 10 P.M. on the day called _Tótokya_, the chief day of all great
ceremonies, this man, preceded by two others, passed into the kiva,
his entrance being announced by balls of meal thrown through the
hatchway upon the floor, falling near the fireplace. The two men seated
themselves, one on each side of the ladder, which was grasped in one
arm. The Bird-man who followed had his face painted white, and in his
mouth was a whistle with which he continually imitated the call of a
bird, probably the eagle. He first stood on the upraise in the floor,
called the spectators’ part, then squatted on the floor near the right
pole of the ladder. He carried feathers in his hands,[8] and, moving
his arms up and down, imitated the motion of wings, as if flapping them
like a bird.

While he was performing these avian movements, the spectators sang
a stirring song and the Bird-man slowly advanced to the middle of
the room, imitating the gait of a bird and crouching in a squatting
attitude. The motion of the wings and the bird-cries continued, the
personator now and then raising his arms and letting them fall with a
quivering motion. Once in the middle of the room he laid the feathers
on the floor and remained there for a short time without moving. He
then arose and danced for a long time, accompanied by a woman who held
in one hand an ear of corn which she gracefully waved back and forth.
She followed the Bird-man as he moved from place to place, and at the
close of the dance took her seat near the right wall of the kiva where
she sat before the Bird-man entered the room.

After the woman had taken her seat, the Bird-man continued the wing
movements with his arms, stretching them at full length and then
drawing them back to his body. He then proceeded to a pile of sand
in a corner near the upraise; taking pointed sticks or reeds in his
hand and halting before this mound of sand, he threw first one, then
another, of the sticks into the sand, all the time imitating a bird in
the movements of his body and simulating the bird-calls with a whistle.
He then went to the _Soyáluña_ woman who had danced with him; squatting
before her, he uttered the strange bird-calls, and, making a pass,
raised the small sticks which he carried from her feet to her head
several times. He then returned to the mound of sand and again shot the
sticks into it, after which he returned to the woman. This was repeated
several times. The bird personator then returned to the middle of the
kiva, before the altar, and, taking a bow and some arrows, danced for
some time, while all the assembled priests sang in chorus. As the
Bird-man danced, he raised the bow, fitted an arrow to it, faced the
north, and drew the bowstring as if to shoot. This was repeated six
times, the performer pointing the arrow to the cardinal directions in
prescribed sinistral sequence.

At the close of this part of the performance the songs ceased and the
Bird-man took a seat before the altar, while a priest at his right
lit a conical pipe and blew through it, on the body of the Bird-man,
clouds of tobacco smoke. This smoke was not taken into the mouth, but
the smoker placed the larger end between his lips, and blew through
the tube, causing the smoke to issue from a small hole at the pointed
end.[9] After prayers by one or more of the priests, the Bird-man again
danced before the altar, at the same time imitating the movements of
wings with his arms and bird-calls with a whistle in his mouth. He then
left the room and the calls could be heard as he went outside.

This proceeding is interpreted as a symbolic dramatization or
representation of the fertilization of the earth, and is an example of
highly complicated sympathetic magic by which nature powers of sky and
earth are supposed to be influenced.[10] The Bird-man, called _Kwátaka_
or _Kwátoka_,[11] is an old war-god, and possibly a sun god, the return
of whom the Winter Solstice ceremony commemorates.

The evidence that the Bird-man personates a sun or sky god is derived
mainly from morphological symbolism, and in support of the theory there
are here introduced a figure of the most common Hopi sun symbol, also
representations of dolls of a sun god, and _Kwátaka_ whom the Bird-man
personates.

The common sun emblem (plate XXV, _a_) is a round disk with a woven
corn-husk margin in which are inserted feathers of the eagle radiating
at all angles. From the four quadrants project sticks—the ends of an
equal-armed cross. This disk has the following design painted upon
it: The upper part is separated from the lower by a horizontal line,
and the space above is divided into two parts by a perpendicular
line, while the mouth is represented in the lower space by an
hourglass-shaped figure. Two marks represent eyes. This disk is worn
on the backs of men personating the sun, in many rites, and is found
painted on the screens used in the _Palülükoñti_ ceremony. It is the
ordinary sun symbol in Hopi pictography.

Many conventional modifications of this symbol are common. The painted
design is often omitted and the disk reduced to a circle, while
the feathers are dropped, or concentrated in clusters in the four
quadrants. In the sand picture of _Powalawû_[12] the sun symbol is
made of concentric zones of sand of different colors with arrow-shaped
extensions in the four quadrants. Again, the circle may be absent, when
the four extensions in its quadrants remain, forming a cross called a
_tokpela_. This highly conventionalized form of the sun is often found
depicted on shields as a warrior’s symbol.

Thus, while the equal-armed cross sometimes becomes a sun symbol, this
by no means implies that the cross may not also have other meanings.
The signification of symbols depends on association, and the simple
emblem described may have an entirely different meaning in other
associations. There is no more constant decoration used in the
ornamentation of ancient Hopi pottery than the cross, yet to interpret
this simple figure as invariably a sun symbol would be absurd, for it
may mean the sky, the four world-quarters, the four winds, the sun, or
a star; or it may be employed simply as an insignificant decorative
motive. Such simple designs as the cross, the circle, or the triangle,
in primitive symbolism, may often be regarded as simply qualitative
and are so used in pictography, their true meaning in specific
cases depending on their association with other figures. In certain
associations a circle is a sun symbol, in others an earth symbol;
an equal-armed cross with a figure of a rapacious bird sometimes
represents the sun, in other instances the four cardinal points, which,
with the Hopi, are purely terrestrial directions or positions on the
horizon.

[Illustration: PL. XXV

  HOPI SUN SYMBOLISM

  _a_, Common Hopi sun symbol. _b_, “Big-head,” a solar god. _c_,
  Kwátaka, bird with sun symbolism. _d_, Ahole.]

Returning to the common symbol of the sun, or the disk with painted
design and radiating peripheral eagle feathers, we find on comparing
it with the symbolism of the head of a sun god (plate XXV, _b_), a
close similarity. Among the features common to both are the markings
on the upper half of the face, the radiating feathers, and the cross
extensions. The marks on the sun disk, indicating eyes, are here
replaced by balls, but of greater importance in future comparison, the
mouth or double triangle is represented by a curving beak. The reason
for the substitution of this form of mouth is apparent in a comparison
with the head of the doll of _Kwátaka_ (plate XXV, _c_), where a bird’s
head, wings, and tail are all represented. The symbolic design on the
body of this bird doll is strictly comparable with those on the two sun
symbols previously mentioned. The radiating feathers are replaced by
tail and wings, while the head is suggested by the curved beak of the
second symbol. A comparison of these three figures leads to the belief
that they are three different sun symbols.

The fact that the last is called _Kwátaka_, and that the Bird-man in
_Soyáluña_ was given the same name, supports the theory that the
latter is a solar god. In his performance he does not, to be sure,
wear a mask with solar symbols, but he imitates a bird in action and
voice. He is a patron of warriors, like the sun; he is the first god to
return, and the _Soyáluña_ is a celebration to cause the sun to return.
The eagle or a raptorial bird is the sun bird; the sun fertilizes the
earth, and the ceremonial acts of the Bird-man at the Winter Solstice
dramatize fertilization. In short, the conclusion to which studies of
the ceremonial acts of the Bird-man, reinforced by those of comparative
symbolism, have led me, is that the Bird-man personates the sun or a
solar deity.


                   Ceremony with the Alósaka Screen

After the bird personator had retired, a short interval elapsed, all
the spectators of the previous rites remaining seated. A screen was
then handed through the kiva hatchway and propped upright near the
fireplace with blocks of clay and stones. This screen (plate XXVI) was
estimated to be between four and five feet long, by about three feet
wide, and was decorated on the side turned toward the fireplace and the
raised floor of the kiva. The entire middle of the screen was occupied
by a picture of _Alósaka_, identical with that on the sun-shield used
in the Walpi _Soyáluña_.[13] The head of this figure bore two curved
horns, with two fan-shaped lateral attachments; the chin was painted
black; in the right hand an ear of corn was represented, and in the
left a _moñkohu_ or whitened slab of wood with attached feathers.

A triple rain-cloud symbol was depicted on the screen above the head
of the _Alósaka_ figure, and to the left were four parallel bars with
a vertical row of four dots. In the lower left-hand corner there was
a symbolic picture of the sun, and on the right side of _Alósaka_
appeared an elongated figure which possibly may have represented
a sprouting seed. To each side of the screen were attached four
artificial flowers, and to the upper edge a number of hoops covered
with raw cotton, possibly representing snow. A conventional symbol
of corn was drawn on the lower part of the screen, and the surface was
covered with various seeds, as corn, beans, etc., fastened with clay.

[Illustration: PL. XXVI

  Drawn by Mary M. Leighter

  SCREEN OF THE ALÓSAKA]

The rites performed before this screen were of a very simple nature,
and one of the most important was the scraping of the seeds from the
lower part into a tray after certain prayers and other observances. To
the seeds in the basket was added a small quantity of raw cotton taken
from the top of the screen, which was then carried out of the kiva.

The ceremony before the screen is interpreted as a prayer to _Alósaka_
for rain, snow, fertilization of seed, and abundant harvests,
symbolized by the figures on it and the rites performed before it.
These ceremonies are very appropriately introduced in connection with
those of the Rain-cloud people, since both came from the south and were
brought by related clans.[14]


                   Ceremony with the Alósaka Shield

In the Walpi variant of the _Soyáluña_ or Winter Solstice ceremony,
we have not as yet observed a ceremony with the _Alósaka_ figure
comparable with that with the screen just described; but there
is a shield upon which is painted an almost identical figure of
_Alósaka_.[15] The nature of the rites in which this shield is used is
imperfectly known, and the character of the _Alósaka_ worship in the
pueblos of the Middle Mesa is yet to be investigated.


                          Pictures of Alósaka

The symbolism of _Alósaka_ is shown in a rude drawing made by one of
the Hopi to illustrate a legend, and it represents this being on a
rainbow, on which he is said to have traveled from his home in the
San Francisco mountains to meet an Awatobi maid. Above the figure of
_Alósaka_ is represented the sun, which is drawn also on the screen
above described, for _Alósaka_ is intimately associated with the sun,
as are all the other horned gods, _Ahole_, _Calako_, _Tuñwup_, and the
_Natackas_. An interesting detail of the symbolism of this picture of
the sun is the crescents under the eyes, which are found also on dolls
representing the mother of the gods, _Hahaiwüqti_, an Earth-goddess of
first importance. The personators of _Alósaka_ paint a white crescent
under the left eye.

There is good authority for the belief that the conventional symbol
of _Alósaka_ is a profile view of a budding squash-blossom—a
central bud and two lateral leaves. When this symbol becomes highly
conventionalized, or made of rectangular instead of curved lines, it
consists of a straight line with a triangle on each side, and is then
the same symbol of generation that is painted with red iron oxide on
the breast, arms, and thighs of the two phallic societies in the public
New-fire ceremony.

As an idea of the nature of _Alósaka_ may be discovered from
morphological symbolism, let us examine the figures of a few of the
horned “gods” in the Hopi Olympus.

The first group of horn-headed gods to which reference may be
made are the pictures found on altars in the ceremonies called
_Nimán_ and _Powamû_. At Walpi these pictures are said to represent
_Tuñwupkatcina_,[16] a name which may be of Tanoan origin. Figures
of _Tuñwup_ have two lateral horns on the head, to the tips of which
representations of feathers are sometimes appended. On the top of
the head, between these two horns, there is represented a crest of
radiating feathers, and on the forehead a broadheaded arrow which is
sometimes modified to resemble the symbolism on the face of the figures
of the sun painted on disks.

The _Tuñwup_ type of horned gods includes the _Calako-taka_, _Natacka_,
and one or two others. The mask of _Ahole_, who flogs the children
during the _Powamû_ celebration, has the same two lateral horns and
representation of radiating feathers over the crown of the head, but
instead of sagittaform marks on the forehead there is a colored band
from ear to ear across the face, as shown in plate XXVI, _d._

It is probable that these horned gods have close kinship and are
possibly identical, _Ahole_ being simply a name of the personification
by a masked man, and _Tuñwup_ that of the picture of the same on the
altar. The horned _Alósaka_ does not belong to this type of horned
“gods,” although it has two horns on the head both in graven images and
in pictures.


                           Myths of Alósaka

It will be seen from the preceding account that the _Alósaka_ rites
are well developed in the ceremonies of the New-fire and Winter
Solstice, in which the clans from the south who joined the Hopi are
well represented, or in which religious societies and ceremonial
paraphernalia brought by the _Patuñ_, _Píba_, _Pátki_, and related
clans have preeminence. Study of the _Alósaka_ myths reveals an
explanation of the meaning of this relationship.

During his valuable studies among the Hopi, the late A. M. Stephen
obtained an _Alósaka_ legend which is recorded in his notes on the Keam
collection, and is here quoted with explanations obtained by the author
since Mr Stephen’s death.

“At the Red House in the south[17] internecine wars prevailed, and the
two branches of the _Pátki_[18] people separated from the other Hopi
and determined to return to the fatherland in the north.[19] But these
two branches were not on the best of terms, and they traveled northward
by separate routes, the [later settlers of] Micoñinovi[20] holding to
the east of the [later settlers of] Walpi.

“The _Pátki_ traveled north until they came to Little Colorado river,
and built houses on both its banks.[21] After living there many years
the factional dissensions, which seem to have ever haunted these
people, again broke out, and the greater portion of them withdrew still
farther north and built villages the ruins[22] of which are still
discernible not far from the site of the villages their descendants
inhabit at present.

“The Squash [Micoñinovi] also trended slowly northward, occupying,
like all their legendary movements, a protracted period of indefinite
length—years during which they planted and built homes alternating with
years of devious travel. They grew lax in the observance of festivals,
and _Muinwû_ inflicted punishment upon them. He caused the water to
turn red, and the color of the people also turned red; he then changed
the water to blue, and the people changed to a similar color. The Snow
_katcina_ appeared and urged them to return to their religion, but
they gave no heed to him, so he left them and took away corn. _Muinwû_
then sent _Palülükoñ_,[23] who killed rabbits and poured their blood
in the springs and streams, and all the water was changed to blood and
the people were stricken with a plague. They now returned to their
religious observances, and danced and sang, but none of the deities
would listen to them.

“A horned _katcina_[24] appeared to the oldest woman and told her that
on the following morning the oldest man should go out and procure a
root, and that she and a young virgin of her clan should eat it. After
a time she (the old woman) would give birth to a son who would marry
the virgin, and their offspring would redeem the people. The old woman
and the virgin obeyed the _katcina_, and the former gave birth to a son
who had two horns upon his head. The people would not believe that the
child was of divine origin; they called it a monster and killed it.

“After this all manner of distressing punishments were inflicted upon
them, and wherever they halted the grass immediately withered and
dried. Their wanderings brought them to the foot of the San Francisco
mountains, where they dwelt for a long time, and at that place the
virgin gave birth to a daughter who had a little knob on each side of
her forehead. They preserved this child, and when she had grown to be a
woman, the horned _katcina_[25] appeared and announced to her that she
would give birth to horned twins, who would bring rain and remove the
punishment from their people. This woman was married, and the twins,
a boy and a girl, were born; but she concealed their divine origin,
fearing they would be destroyed.

“The _Patuñ_ [Squash][26] now moved to the Little Colorado where they
built houses and met some of the _Pátki_ people to whom they related
their distresses. A wise man of the _Pátki_ came over to them, and on
seeing the twins at once pronounced them to be the _Alósaka_. They had
no horns up to this time, but as soon as this announcement was made,
their horns became visible and the twins then spoke to the people and
said that it had been ordained that they were to be unable to help
their people until the people themselves discovered who they were.
The _Patuñ_ were so enraged to think that the _Alósaka_ had been with
them, unknown so many years, that they killed them, and still greater
sufferings ensued.

“They again repented, and carved two stone images of the _Alósaka_
which they painted and decked with feathers and sought to propitiate
the mother. She was full of pity for her people, and prayed to the
Sky-god[27] to relieve them. A period elapsed in which their sufferings
were in great measure abated.

“The _Patuñ_ then sought to join the _Pátki_ clans, but the _Pátki_
would not permit this, and compelled them to keep east of Awatobi.

“Many ruins of phratry and family houses of the _Patuñ_ people exist
on the small watercourses north of the Puerco at various distances
eastward from the present village of Walpi. The nearest are almost
fifteen miles, the farthest about fifty miles.[28]

“Their wandering course was now stayed. When they essayed to move
farther eastward, a nomadic hunting race who occupied that region
besought them not to advance farther. Their evil notoriety had
preceded them, and the nomads feared the malificent influence of
their neighborhood. It would seem, however, that instead of hostile
demonstrations the nomads entered into a treaty with them, offering to
pay tribute of venison, roots, and grass-seeds, if they would abstain
from traversing and blighting their land, to which the _Patuñ_ agreed.

“But these unfortunate wretches were soon again embroiled in factional
warfare which finally involved all the Hopi, and the stone images of
the _Alósaka_ were lost or destroyed. Famine and pestilence again
decimated them, until finally the _Alósaka katcina_ appeared to them
and instructed them to carve[29] two wooden images, but threatening
them that if these should be lost or destroyed all the people would
die.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Many other but widely divergent legends exist regarding _Alósaka_, a
number of which are associated with the pueblo of Awatobi, which was
formerly one of the most populous Hopi towns. At one time this village
experienced drouth and famine, and _Alósaka_, from his home in the San
Francisco mountains, observed the trouble of the people. Disguised as
a youth he visited Awatobi and became enamored with a maiden of that
town. Several times he visited her, but no one knew whence he came or
whither he went, for his trail no one could follow. The parents of the
girl at last discovered that he came on the rainbow, and recognized him
as a divine being. The children of this maid were horned beings, or
_Alósakas_, but their identity was not at first recognized.

Like all the cultus heroes, _Alósaka_ is said, in legends, to have been
miraculously born of a virgin. His father was the Sun, his mother an
Earth-goddess, sometimes called a maiden. Like many gods, he traveled
on the rainbow; he lived at Tawaki, the house of his father, the Sun,
or the San Francisco mountains.

It would seem from all these stories that the _Alósaka_ cult was
vigorous in Awatobi, the ill-fated pueblo where the zealous Padre
Porras lost his life in 1633, and that it was of southern origin,
having been introduced into Awatobi by one of the phratries from the
south which lived in the now ruined pueblos on the Little Colorado. The
most complicated survival of the _Alósaka_ cultus is to be expected
in the Middle Mesa pueblos, because the phratry which introduced it
founded some of these pueblos[30] and still survives there. The result
of an examination of many _Alósaka_ myths would seem to be a conclusion
that he is a cultus hero of clans which came from the south.


                       Totemic Aspect of Alósaka

The _Alósaka_ cult may be regarded as another form of that totemic
ancestor worship which appears in all Hopi mythology and ritual. The
male and female _Alósakas_ are supposed to be ancestors of a cult
society called the _Aaltû_, and are represented symbolically in the
ritual by graven images, pictures, or personations by men. The name
_Alósaka_ is simply a sacerdotal name used in this society, but it is
applied to a similar conception found in the worship of other societies
under other names.

In the Snake-Antelope societies of the Hopi the male and female parents
are called _Tcüa-tiyo_ (Snake-youth) and _Tcüa-mana_ (Snake-maid),
which beings are personated in the secret exercises of the Snake dance
by a boy and a girl appropriately clothed.

In the Flute ceremony the cult society ancestors are called the
_Leñya-tiyo_ (Flute-youth) and _Leñya-mana_ (Flute-maid), who are
represented symbolically by images on the altars and by a boy and two
girls in the public exhibition.

In the _Lalakonti_ ceremony these two ancestral personages are
represented in a symbolic way by images on the altar and by sand
pictures on the floor, and by a man and two girls in the public
dance. These personages are called by the _Lalakonti_ society the
_Lakone-taka_ and the _Lakone-manas_ respectively.

In the _Mamzrautû_ society they are called the _Marau-taka_ and
the _Marau-manas_, and are symbolically represented on the altar
by figurines and in the public dance by a boy and a maid called
the _Palahiko-mana_ whose headdress with symbolic clouds and
squash blossoms so closely resembles that of _Calako-mana_, or the
Corn-maid,[31] that it is difficult to distinguish the two.

In the great _katcina_ cult these two personages are called
_Anwucnoshotaka_ and _Hahaiwuqti_, or “Man of all the Crow clans,” and
“Mother of _katcinas_,” respectively; but as this cult is very complex
in the East Mesa towns, and is celebrated by many amalgamated cult
societies, there are various other names for these two ancestors.

It is instructive to consider somewhat more in detail this aspect of
the Hopi _katcina_ cult in the two great characteristic festivals
called _Powamû_ and _Nimán_.

Reviewing the Hopi calendar it is found that _katcina_ worship appears
in ceremonies from December to July, inclusive, and while none of the
festivals between July and December is a true _katcina_, the majority
of those during the remainder of the year bear this name. As expressed
by the Hopi priests, the _Nimán_ ceremony celebrates the departure of
the _katcinas_ from the pueblos, to which they do not return for about
six months. This _Nimán_ (“Departure”) ceremony of the _katcinas_
is celebrated in July, and no _katcinas_ are personated in the Hopi
pueblos until December. The time of the return of these supernaturals
is not as distinct as that of their departure, and they may be said to
straggle back in the December and January rites; but their return in
force takes place in the February ceremony called _Powamû_ which is
made up wholly of characteristic _katcina_ exhibitions.

It is of some interest to determine the month of the return, for there
are _katcina_ personations in December (_Soyáluña_) and during the
January moon, and it may be held that their appearance in the former
proves that the advent of these worthies occurs in the month named. The
chief participants in the December rite (and the same may be said of
the January ceremony) are not distinctive _katcinas_, or rather there
are other ceremonies not belonging to this cult in their composition,
and no special distinctive _katcina_ altars are erected. In the
_Powamû_, however, there is a true _katcina_ altar which is essentially
the same as that set up in the _Nimán_ when the _katcinas_ leave the
pueblo. _Powamû_ may thus be regarded as the official celebration of
the return, and from that time to July these personages dominate the
ritual. But the rites of intervening moons are not all necessarily pure
_katcinas_, even if _katcinas_ participate in them. Thus, in the March
ceremony, _Palülükoñti_ (_Unkwanti_), they are again subordinate. This
is not a pure _katcina_, but that of another cult into which they have
straggled or to which they have been added in the course of evolution.
There are only two great _katcina_ celebrations, _Powamû_ and _Nimán_,
both controlled by the _katcina_ chief, both with a true _katcina_
altar, both free from other Hopi cults.

Some of the differences between the _Powamû_ at Walpi and the other
Hopi pueblos are due to the introduction of masked personifications at
Walpi which are absent elsewhere. This may be explained as follows:
Near Walpi there are two other pueblos—one Tanoan, the other peopled by
descendants of Tanoan clans, neither of which has exerted an influence
on the other pueblos. These Tanoan colonists have brought their own
_katcinas_ to the East Mesa of Tusayan, and while they possess no
altar of this cult they contribute their distinctive _katcinas_ to the
Walpi _Powamû_. In the January ceremony they do the same, and while
the Walpi priests are celebrating in that month a true Hopi Flute or
Snake rite, Hano and Sitcomovi contribute masked _katcinas_ which
complicate the ceremony.[32] Hence the _Powamû_ rites at Walpi became
more complicated than those performed elsewhere at the same time,
because of the proximity of two pueblos in which there are variations
in the _katcina_ cult that are peculiar to them; and as it is probable
that the _katcina_ rites in other pueblos have not been affected by
_Ása_ and Hano clans, we should expect to find in them a less complex
presentation of the rites of the _katcina_ cult.

This is also in accordance with tradition, for the _Honani_ clans,
which introduced the _katcina_ cult from Kicuba, went first to Oraibi,
from which pueblo the cult was distributed to the other pueblos. The
Walpi _katcina_ altar is simple as compared with that at Oraibi; it has
no figurines because it is derivative, and the same fact may explain
why Walpi has but one _Powamû_ altar while Oraibi has several. The
Walpi _katcina_ altar is simpler than that of Oraibi,[33] because
derivative, but the _katcina_ personations in this pueblo are more
numerous and varied because the _Ása_ and other Tanoan clans have
contributed many new forms.

If we separate from the Walpi _Powamû_ the elements introduced by _Ása_
and Hano clans, we find in it the same personages as in the Oraibi
celebration—_Ahole_, a Sun-god who flogs the children; the _katcina_
cultus hero; _Hahaiwuqti_, the old woman, and _Eototo_. The last
mentioned, a cultus hero of the _Kokop_ people and a tutelary god of
Sikyatki,[34] was an early addition to the Walpi ritual before the
_Powamû_ was celebrated. He was historically the first _katcina_ to
come to the pueblo, as he now leads the procession of masked priests in
their dramatization of their advent and exit. Under the name _Masauuh_
he invaded the Snake rites, and as _Eototo_ he became a masked
personage in the _Powamû_ and the _Nimán_ when these ceremonies were
added to the Walpi ritual.


                             _Conclusions_

1. There survives in the Hopi ritual a worship of horned beings called
_Alósakas_, which once existed at the now ruined pueblo of Awatobi.

2. The purpose of the rites performed in this cult is to cause seeds,
especially corn, to germinate and grow, and to bring rain to water the
farms.

3. The _Aaltû_ priesthood at Walpi, who personate _Alósakas_, perform
duties suggestive of those of warriors.

4. The intimate relationship of _Alósaka_ rites with those of the
Rain-cloud clans supports legends that they were at one time associated
and brought from southern Arizona by the Squash people who formerly
lived with or near the Rain-cloud people along Little Colorado river.

5. The _Alósaka_ cult is a highly modified form of animal totemism, and
the _Alósaka_ represents the mountain sheep.


                   The Knickerbocker Press, New York



                              FOOTNOTES:

[1] These studies were made under the auspices of the Bureau of
American Ethnology.

[2] The author has been told that they were deposited among the
foothills of the coffin-shaped mesa southwest of Awatobi.

[3] See _Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_,
plate CX.

[4] The mountain sheep or mountain “goat” was formerly abundant in the
mountains which form the watershed between Gila and Little Colorado
rivers, and Castañeda speaks of seeing and following them after
leaving Chichilticalli, probably in the White mountains. This animal
was no doubt well known to the clans who lived in the southern parts
of Arizona, before they migrated northward, and worship of it was the
original form of the _Alósaka_ cult.

[5] They also founded the pueblo of Tcukubi, the ruins of which are
still to be seen on the Middle Mesa.

[6] The two societies called the _Tataukyamû_ and _Wüwütcimtû_
are termed phallic because they wear on their breasts, arms, and
legs, figures of human phalli, and carry in their hands realistic
representations of the external female organ of generation cut out
of wood or watermelon rind. The former society was introduced from
Awatobi by Tapolo, the chief of the Tobacco clan; the latter by the
Squash clans, now extinct in Walpi. Both these clans originally came
from the banks of Little Colorado river near Winslow; the Tobacco
from Cakwabaiyaki, now in ruins at the mouth of Chevlon Fork. See
_Smithsonian Report_ for 1896.

[7] See _American Anthropologist_, vol. XI, p. 20; also _American
Anthropologist_, N. S., April, 1899.

[8] At Walpi he has a line of feathers tied along his arm.

[9] A similar method of smoking has previously been described in an
account of the sixteen songs sung by the Antelope priests in their kiva
on each day of the Snake dance at Walpi.

[10] A pantomimic prayer or symbolic representation by which man
shows his wishes to the gods by acting out what he desires instead
of verbally petitioning them. This ceremony comes fairly within a
definition of religious rites found in Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_ (p.
363): “In part they [religious rites] are expressions and symbolic
performances, the dramatic utterance of religious thought, the gesture
language of theology.” The interpretation of savage rites as a sign
language to the gods, and the relation of the altar to primitive
ceremony have been ably discussed by Major Powell, to whom the writer
is greatly indebted for a proper understanding of the significance of
primitive altars. (See _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. I, p. 26
et seq.)

[11] The word _Kwátaka_ admits of the following derivation: _Kwáhu_,
eagle; _táka_, man, = Eagle-man; or, more probably, _kwáhu_, eagle;
_tokpela_, the cross, symbol of the sky. This cross or four-pointed
star appears on many ancient pictures of _Kwátaka_. (See _Smithsonian
Report_, 1896, pl. xlviii.)

[12] _Powalawû_ is a part of the Oraibi _Powamû_ ceremony which has
never been described.

[13] _American Anthropologist_, vol. XI, 1898, pl. ii.

[14] This relationship is yet to be determined at Oraibi, and the
statement is derived from studies of the sociology of the East Mesa
pueblos.

[15] _American Anthropologist_, vol. XI, 1898, p. 23.

[16] _Tuñ_ (Tewa), sun; _wupo_ (Hopi), great = “great sun _katcina_.”

[17] Palátkwabi, a legendary home on the Gila.

[18] Probably the Squash and Rain-cloud clans.

[19] Even the southern clans are supposed to have originally emerged
from the underworld through the Grand canyon, but after their emergence
drifted into the south, just as the white men, who are said to have
emerged from the same place, went to the far east.

[20] This indicates that the two groups referred to were the Squash and
Rain-cloud clans, for the former later settled on the Middle Mesa and
the latter joined the Snake people at Walpi.

[21] Homolobi, near Winslow, Arizona. The several pueblos which these
clans built and inhabited in their migration to Walpi were Kuñchalpi,
Utcevaca, Kwiñapa, Jettypehika (Navaho name of Chaves Pass and also the
two ruins at that place called Tcubkwitcalobi by the Hopi), Homolobi,
Sipabi (near one of the Hopi or Moki buttes), and Pakatcomo.

[22] The last pueblo inhabited by the _Pátki_ people before they joined
the Walpi is now a ruin called Pakatcomo in the valley south of the
East Mesa near the wash. It is a small ruin, not more than four miles
away, and its mounds are easily seen from the mesa top.

[23] The Great Serpent.

[24] This was possibly the personation of the Sun or other solar deity.

[25] The horned _katcina_ is supposed to be either the Sun or other
solar deity. The term katcina is often used in a very general way
to mean any divine personage, but at Walpi this is believed to be
a secondary use of the name. Originally it was applied to certain
personifications introduced by clans from the east, and later came to
have a general application.

[26] Throughout the legend these are called the Micoñinovi people, but
from the fact that the original settlers of the pueblo were of the
Squash clans, the name of these clans is substituted in the remainder
of the legend for the name of the pueblo which they founded.

[27] That is, to the Sun, their father.

[28] There is here such marked contradiction of other legends that this
account must not be accepted as final. Probably Awatobi, and possibly
other pueblos on the same mesa, had _Patuñ_ clans in their populations.

[29] These are the two images found at Awatobi which this account
considers in the opening pages, and the principal reason why the people
from the Middle Mesa were so solicitous concerning them is shown in the
closing paragraphs of the legend above quoted.

[30] The Squash clan is extinct at Walpi.

[31] In the horrible rites of the Aztec at their midsummer ceremony,
Hueytecuilhuitl, a girl personating the Corn-mother, was sacrificed
before the hideous idol of Chicomehuatl and her heart offered to the
image. In the dances preceding her death this unfortunate girl wore
on her head an _amalli_ or “pasteboard” miter, surrounded by waving
plumes, and her face was painted yellow and red, symbolic of the colors
of corn. She was called _Xalaquia_ (pronounced _Shalakia_). The Hopi
Corn-maid, represented by a girl with a rain-cloud tablet on her head
and a symbol of an ear of corn on her forehead, is called _Calako-mana_
(pronounced _Shalako-mana_).

[32] The kiva rites are complicated at Walpi by the visits of these
personifications from the two neighboring pueblos.

[33] It is much to be hoped that the very elaborate _Powamû_ of Oraibi
will be accurately described in detail. The indications are that it
will be found to be the most instructive of all presentations of this
ceremony.

[34] Sikyatki was probably a flourishing pueblo when the Snake people
first settled Walpi. The tutelary god was _Eototo_, or _Masauuh_, whom
the early Walpians overthrew and who gave them the site for their
pueblo. At the destruction of Sikyatki by the combined Horn-Snake
and Horn-Flute people, some of the survivors settled at Walpi, and
their descendants are intimately connected with the _Eototo_ cult
which is incorporated in the _katcinas_. In the celebration of the
Snake-Antelope ceremony he is known by the name of _Masauuh_, and a
prayer-stick is made and consecrated to him at that time.


Transcriber’s Notes:

  - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
  - Blank pages have been removed.
  - Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.



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