[1] A report on the field work at Sikyatki will be found in the
_Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, part 2.
[2] Traces of the ancient village of Walpi at this point are still to be
seen, and certain ancestral ceremonies are still performed here, in the
New-fire rites, as elsewhere described.
[3] Pottery making is a woman’s industry, and as among the Pueblo the
woman determines the clan, so she determines the symbolism of the
pottery. Consequently symbolism of pottery is related to that of the clan.
[4] Many of the illustrations appearing in this paper are taken from the
author’s memoir on the results of the Sikyatki excavations in the _17th
Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol._, part 2.
[5] Hopi maidens dress their hair in two whorls, one above each ear,
which on marriage are taken down and braided in two coils. There are
differences in the style of putting up the hair, as appear in different
ceremonial personages, but the custom of wearing it in whorls was
probably general among ancient Pueblo maidens and is still followed in
certain ceremonial dances in which women are personated by men. For
the difference in the style of the whorls, see the author’s series of
pictures of Hopi kachinas in the _Twenty-first Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer.
Ethn._
[6] The best idol of this god known to the author appears on one of the
Flute altars at Oraibi. It has a single horn (representing the serpent
horn) on the head, two wings, and two legs with lightning symbols their
whole length. The horned plumed Lightning god of the Kwakwantû at Walpi
is represented by plumed serpent effigies in the March ceremony or
dramatization elsewhere described.
[7] In the Antelope dance at Walpi, a stalk of corn instead of a snake is
carried in the mouth on the day before the Snake dance. (Fewkes, Snake
Ceremonials at Walpi, pp. 73-74.)
[8] For descriptions of similar objects see Fewkes, Hopi Ceremonial
Frames from Cañon de Chelly, Arizona, pp. 664-670; Fewkes, The Lesser
New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, p. 438, pl. XI; also _Twenty-first Ann. Rept.
Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pls. XXXIV, XXXV.
[9] As a matter of history, the Snake people of Walpi may have been
hostile to the Kokop of Sikyatki on account of linguistic or tribal
differences which culminated in the destruction of the latter pueblo in
prehistoric times.
[10] The pueblo of Sichomovi, called by the Hopi Sioki, or Zuñi pueblo,
was settled by Asa clans, who were apparently of exotic origin but who
went to Sichomovi from Zuñi, in which pueblo the Asa people are known
as Aiyahokwe. The Sichomovi people still preserve Zuñi ceremonies and
Zuñi kachinas, although they now speak the Hopi language—an example of a
pueblo in which alien ceremonies and personations have survived or been
incorporated, although its language has been superseded by another.
[11] Thus the Heyamashikwe may be supposed to have originally come from
Jemez. The Zuñi Sumaikoli, like that of the Hopi, is practically Tewa in
origin.
[12] See Fewkes, The Butterfly in Hopi Myth and Ritual, pp. 576-594.
[13] The clay images representing the Tewa plumed serpent on the Winter
Solstice altar at Hano have rows of feathers inserted along their backs
(as in the case of the reptile shown in figure 22) as well as rudimentary
horns, teeth made of corn kernels, and necklaces of the same. (Fewkes,
Winter solstice altars at Hano pueblo, pp. 269-270.) A mosaic of corn
kernels on a clay base (_kaetukwi_) is known in ceremonies derived from
Sikyatki and Awatobi.
[14] The hoot of the owl portends disaster among the Hopi, as among the
ancient Greeks.
[15] Every priest has a box in which his feathers are preserved until
needed.
[16] Compare with feathers, pl. 90, _d_.
[17] Probably the serrated circle to which the headdress is attached was
not designed as the outline of the head, but the headband turned out of
perspective.
[18] See _Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pt. 2, pl. CXLI, _a_.
A circle is here drawn on each side of the bird.
[19] It is, of course, only a coincidence that so many of the Sikyatki
bird designs have three tail feathers like Egyptian representations.
[20] Feathers are among the most important objects employed in Pueblo
ceremonies, and among the modern Hopi feathers of different birds are
regarded as efficacious for different specific purposes. Thus the turkey
feather symbol is efficacious to bring rain, and the hawk and eagle
feathers are potent in war. The specific feather used ceremonially by
modern Hopi priests is regarded by them as of great importance, and the
same doubtless was true of the priests of ancient Sikyatki and Awatobi.
Belief in a difference in the magic power of certain feathers was deeply
rooted in the primitive mind, and was regarded as of great importance by
the ancient as well as the modern Hopi.
[21] Compare the sand-mosaic of the sun associated with the Powalawû
altar of Oraibi, and the sun emblem shown in fig. 98.
[22] Mallery (_Fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn._, p. 47, fig. 12) illustrates
two clusters of characteristic Hopi feathers copied by Mr. G. K. Gilbert
from petroglyphs at Oakley Springs, Arizona. The first cluster belongs
to the type shown in our fig. 57 as eagle tails, the second to that
illustrated in fig. 31. They were identified by the Oraibi chief, Tuba,
and so far as known have not been subsequently figured.
[23] Compare feathers, pl. 90, _wf_.
[24] The only design in modern Hopi symbolism comparable with the
sky-band occurs on a wooden slab on the altar of the Owakülti, a
society priestess whose ancestors are said to have formerly lived at
the historic pueblo of Awatobi. This slab is attached to the uprights
of an altar, by means of flat slabs of wood, some arranged vertically,
others horizontally. On it is depicted, among other symbolic figures, a
representation of a bird.
[25] The author has seen in the American Museum of Natural History, New
York, a single specimen of doubtful provenance, bearing a similar design.
[26] For convenience this may be designated the anterior in distinction
to that on the other side of the sky-band which may be termed the
posterior semicircle.
[27] See also _Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pl. CL, _a_, and
CXLVI, _d_.
[28] The Kokyan, or Spider, clan is not made much of in Hopi legends
gathered at Walpi, but Kokyanwügti, the Spider woman, is an important
supernatural in the earliest mythologies, especially those of the Snake
people. She was the mentor of the Snake youth in his journey to the
underworld and an offering at her shrine is made in the Oraibi Snake
dance. The picture of the spider with that of the sun suggests that the
Spider woman is a form of the earth goddess. No personation of Spider
woman has been seen by the author in the various ceremonies he has
witnessed.
[29] Except that the head bears a jointed antenna this figure might be
identified as a bird, the long extension representing the bird’s bill.
[30] The figures of serpents on the sand mosaic of the Antelope altar at
Walpi bear similar crosses or diagonals, crossing each other at right
angles. The Antelope priests interpret this marking as a sign of the
female.
[31] Rain, lightning, animals, plants, sky, and earth, in the modern Hopi
conception, are supposed to have sex.
[32] The Butterfly in Hopi Myth and Ritual, fig. 61, _f_.
[33] Ibid., p. 586.
[34] Introduced into the Hopi pueblos by colonists from the Rio Grande;
its most conspicuous variant can be seen on the tablets worn in a masked
dance called Humis (Jemez) Kachina.
[35] One symbol of the Sky god has the form of a Lightning god. It has
a single curved horn on the head, lightning symbols on the legs, and
carries a wooden framework in one hand and a bull-roarer in the other.
[36] _Twenty-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn._, pt. 1, fig. 74.
[37] In modern Hopi symbolism the sun is a disk with representations of
eagle feathers around the periphery and radial lines at each quadrant,
symbolic of the sun’s rays. In disks worn on the back where real feathers
are used the radial lines, or the sun’s rays, are represented by
horsehair stained red. In ceremonials the Sky god is personated by a bird
whose figure occurs on Sikyatki pottery.
[38] In the Hopi ceremony, Powatawu, as performed at Oraibi, a picture
representing the sun composed of a number of concentric circles of four
different colors is made of sand on the kiva floor.
[39] If we interpret the sky-band as the path of the sun in the zenith
the solar emblem hanging to it is significant.
[40] Some of the significant sun masks used by the Hopi have the mouth
indicated by a triangle, others by hourglass designs.
[41] Pictures made by prehistoric man embody, first, when possible,
the power of the animal or thing represented, or its essential
characteristics; and second, the realistic form, shape, or outline.
[42] Several Hopi clans celebrate in a slightly different way the return
of their Sun god, which is known by different names among them. The
return of the Sun god of the Kachina clan at Walpi, commonly called Ahül,
is elsewhere described. Shalako, the Sun god of the Patki clans, was
derived from the Little Colorado region, the same source from which the
Zuñi obtained their personage of the same name. His return is celebrated
on the East Mesa of the Hopi at Sichomovi, the “Zuñi pueblo among the
Hopi.” Pautiwa is a Sun god of Zuñi clans at Sichomovi and is personated
as at Zuñi pueblo. Kwataka, or the Sun god whose return is celebrated
at Walpi in the winter solstice, Soyaluna, is associated with the great
plumed serpent, a personation derived from the peoples of the Gila or
some other river who practice irrigation. Eototo is a Sikyatki Sun god,
derived from near Jemez, and is celebrated by Keres colonists.
[43] Fewkes, Hopi Shrines Near the East Mesa, Arizona, pp. 346-375.
[44] The sand picture made by the Antelope priest is regarded as a house
of the rain gods depicted upon it.
[45] _Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pt. 2.
[46] The author has a drawing of the Snake altar at Mishongnovi by
an Indian, in which these crooks are not represented vertically but
horizontally, a position illustrating a common method of drawing among
primitive people who often represent vertical objects on a horizontal
plane. An illustration of this is seen in pictures of a medicine bowl
where the terraces on the rim normally vertical are drawn horizontally.
[47] In using this term the author refers to an extreme area in one
corner of which still survive pueblos, the inhabitants of which speak
Keres.
[48] There is no published evidence in Zuñi legends that Sikyatki
received increments from that pueblo.
[49] Since the author’s work at Sikyatki, excavations have been made
by the Field Columbian Museum at this ruin, but nothing bearing on the
relations of symbols has been published so far as known to the writer.
[50] The Tanoan people (clans) also introduced a horned snake, but
different in symbolism from that of the Patki clans.
[51] The oldest pottery in the Zuñi Valley belongs to the same group as
that of the oldest Little Colorado ruins and shows marked Gila Valley
symbolism. The modern pottery of Zuñi is strongly influenced by Tanoan
characters. As these have been transmitted to Hopi they are considered
under the term “Tanoan epoch,” derived from Little Colorado settlements
to which Zuñi culturally belongs.
[52] Pakatcomo in the plain below Walpi was their first Hopi settlement.
[53] As has been pointed out, the designs on ancient Zuñi ware are
closely related to those of ruins farther down the Little Colorado, and
are not Hopi. Modern Zuñi as well as modern Hopi pueblos were influenced
by Keres and Tewa culture superimposed on the preexisting culture, which
largely came from the Gila.
[54] No invariable connection was found in the relative position of
this break and figures of birds or other animals inclosed by the broken
band. The gaps in different encircling bands on the same bowl are either
diametrically opposite each other or separated by a quadrant, a variation
that would appear to indicate that they were not made use of in a
determination of the orientation of the vessel while in ceremonial use,
as is true of certain baskets of modern Navaho.
[55] The author has the following evidence that the inhabitants of the
village at Chevlon were the historic Chipias. The Hopi have a legend
that the large ruin called Tcipiaiya by the Zuñi was also situated on a
river midway between Walpi and Zuñi. The Hopi also say that the Chevlon
pueblo was inhabited by the Piba (Tobacco) clan and that the Awatobi
chief, Tapolo, who brought the Tataukyamû fraternity to Walpi from
Awatobi, belonged to the Tobacco clan. The Tewa name of the Tataukyamû is
Tcipiaiyu, or “men from Tcipia.”
[56] It is known from an inscription on El Morro that a punitive
expedition to avenge the death of Father Letrado was sent out under Lujan
in the spring of 1632, hence the guilty inhabitants may have abandoned
their settlement and departed for Hopi at about that time.
[57] The Buli (Poli) clan is probably Tewa, as the word indicates, which
would show that Tewa as well as Keres clans lived at Awatobi. No legend
mentions Buli clans at Sikyatki, but several traditions locate them at
Awatobi.
[58] A unification of names of these gods would have resulted when the
languages of the many different clans had been fused in religions, as the
language was in secular usage. The survival of component names of Hopi
gods is paralleled in the many ancient religions.
[59] _Twenty-first Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._
[60] Ibid., p. 76. Eototo, also called Masauû, was the tutelary of
Sikyatki, as Alosaka or Muyinwû was of Awatobi.
[61] A somewhat similar personage to Shalako mana in Aztec ceremonies was
called Xalaquia (Shalakia).
[62] An account of this dance with details of the nine days’ ceremony as
presented in the major or October variant will be found in the _American
Anthropologist_, July, 1892. The minor or Winter ceremony, in which the
Corn maids are personated by girls, is published in the same journal for
1900. The Corn maid has several aliases in this ceremony, among which are
Shalako mana, Palahiko mana, and Marau mana.
[63] This Corn maid is one of the most common figures represented by
dolls.
[64] The two parallel lines on the two outside tail feathers recall the
markings on the face of the War god Puükoñghoya.
[65] A personation of Shalako mana at Oraibi, according to Mr. H. R.
Voth, came from Mishongnovi. This conforms exactly with the legends
that state the Mamzrauti may have been introduced into Mishongnovi from
Awatobi, for at the division of the captive women at Maski many of the
women went to that pueblo.
[66] See Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, pp. 80-138. The New-fire
rites at Walpi are celebrated in November, when four societies, Aaltû,
Wüwütcimtû, Tataukyamû, and Kwakwantû, take part. As in all new-fire
ceremonies, phallic or generative rites are prominent, the Wüwütcimtû and
Tataukyamû who kindle the fire being conspicuous in these rites. Their
bodies have phallic emblems painted on them and the latter bear Zuñi
symbols.
[67] The designs on the wooden slats carried by women in the dance known
as the Marau ceremony are remarkably like some of those on Awatobi and
Sikyatki pottery.
[68] Much of the pottery offered for sale by Harvey and other dealers
in Indian objects along the Santa Fe Railroad in Arizona and New Mexico
is imitation prehistoric Hopi ware made by Nampeo. The origin of this
transformation was due partly to the author, who in the year named was
excavating the Sikyatki ruins and graves. Nampeo and her husband, Lesou,
came to his camp, borrowed paper and pencil, and copied many of the
ancient symbols found on the pottery vessels unearthed, and these she has
reproduced on pottery of her own manufacture many times since that date.
It is therefore necessary, at the very threshold of our study, to urge
discrimination between modern and ancient pottery in the study of Hopi
ware, and careful elimination of imitations. The modern pottery referred
to is easily distinguished from the prehistoric, inasmuch as the modern
is not made with as much care or attention to detail as the ancient.
Also the surface of the modern pottery is coated with a thin slip which
crackles in firing.