of both sexes, who are controlled and directed by a council composed of
ancestral gods. These shadow people collect water in vases and gourd
jugs from the six great waters of the world, and pass to and fro over
the middle plane, protected from view of the people below by cloud
masks.”
I find a different conception from this of the rain-making powers
of the dead among the Hopi. Among other ceremonials, when certain
persons die, after the chin has been blackened, the body washed, and
prescribed feathers placed on different parts of it, a thin wad of raw
cotton in which is punched holes for the eyes is laid upon the face.
This is a mask and is called a rain-cloud or “prayer to the dead to
bring the rain.” In general, as many writers have said, the use of the
mask transforms the wearer into a deity designated by the symbolism
of the same,[133] and as a consequence the dead, we may theoretically
suppose, are thereby endowed with supernatural powers to bring rain.
The Ómowûhs, however, are the Rain gods, and so far as I can explain
the significance of the symbolic rain-cloud mask on the face of the
dead and the black color on the chin, it is simply a method of prayer
through the divinized dead to the Rain-cloud deities. Among the Hopi
the earth is watered by the Rain-gods, but the dead are ceremonially
made intercessors to affect them. In this view of the case the Hopi may
be said to believe that the earth is “watered by the deceased of both
sexes.”
The Hopi believe that the breath body of the Zuñi goes to a sacred
place near Saint Johns, called Wénima. There the dead are supposed to
be changed into Katcinas, and the place is reputed to be one of the
homes of these personages. It is likewise specially spoken of as the
house of Cálako, and it is believed that the Zuñi hold the same views
of this mysterious place. In lagoons near it turtles are abundant,
and not far away Mr Hubbell and others discovered sacrificial caverns
in which were large collections of pottery. Tótci, a Hopi resident of
Zuñi, is the authority for the statement that the Cibolans do not use
the raw cotton mortuary mask, although they blacken the face of the
dead chiefs. He says the same idea of divinization of the breath body
into a Katcina seems to be current among the Zuñi as among the Hopi.
According to Mrs Stevenson the father of the Kokko is Kaklo (Kyäklu),
whose servants are the Sälämobiyas. The name of their mother is not
known to me. The Katcinas are said to be the offspring of an Earth
goddess,[134] who figures under many names. Their father’s name on
comparative grounds is supposed to be Táwa, the sun, or Túñwup, their
elder brother.
A study of the group of Katcina ceremonials as compared with the Kóko
brings out in prominence the conclusion that while some of them may be
identical, as a rule there is considerable difference in the ritual of
the Tusayan people and their nearest neighbor, the Zuñi. If variations
exist between these neighbors we are justified in the suspicion,
which observation as far as it has thus far gone supports, that there
are even wider differences between pueblos more distant from each
other. The ethnologist fully cognizant with the ritual in one pueblo
has a general conception of the character of all, but changes due to
suppression of ceremonials, survivals, dying out of societies, and many
other causes have modified the pueblos in different ways. The character
of the ancient system is adulterated in all. We can form an idea of
this modification in no better way than by a minute study of the
existing ritual in every pueblo. Upon such comprehensive study science
is at the very threshold.
The foregoing pages open many considerations of a theoretical nature
which I have not attempted to develop. My greatest solicitude has been
to sketch the outline of the Katcina ceremonials as performed at the
Hopi village of Walpi in Tusayan.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These studies were made while the author was connected with the
Hemenway Expedition from 1890 to 1894, and the memoir, which was
prepared in 1894, includes the results of the observations of the late
A. M. Stephen as well as of those of the author.
[2] The letters used in spelling Indian words in this article have the
following sounds: a, as in far; ă, as in what; ai, as i in pine; e, as
a in fate; i, as in pique; î, as in pin; u, as in rule; û, as in but;
ü, as in the French tu; p, b, v, similar in sound; t and d, like the
same in tare and dare, almost indistinguishable; tc, as ch in chink:
c, as sh in shall; ñ, as n in syncope; s, sibilant; r, obscure rolling
sound; l, m, n, k, h, y, z, as in English.
[3] These observations are confined to three villages on the East mesa,
which has been the field more thoroughly cultivated by the members of
the Hemenway Expedition.
[4] “Souls” in the broadest conception of the believers in Tylor’s
animistic theory.
[5] The distinction between elaborate and abbreviated Katcinas will be
spoken of later.
[6] It would be interesting to know what relationship exists between
abbreviated and elaborate Katcinas. Are the former, for instance,
remnants of more complicated presentations in which the secret
elements have been dropped in the course of time? Were they formerly
more complicated, or are they in lower stages of evolution, gathering
episodes which if left alone would finally make them more complex?
I incline to the belief that the abbreviated Katcinas are remnants,
and their reduction due to practical reasons. In a general way the
word Katcina may be translated “soul” or “deified ancestor,” and
in this respect affords most valuable data to the upholders of the
animistic theory. But there are other elements in Tusayan mythology
which are not animistic. As Mogk has well shown in Teutonic mythology,
nature elements and the great gods are original, so among the Hopi
the nature elements are not identified with remote ancestors, nor is
there evidence that their worship was derivative. As Saussaye remarks,
“Animism is always and everywhere mixed up with religion; it is never
and nowhere the whole of religion.”
[7] By Gregorian months, which of course the Hopi do not recognize by
these names or limits. Their own “moons” have been given elsewhere.
[8] The months to which the first division roughly corresponds are
January to July. The second division includes, roughly speaking, August
and December (inclusive). More accurately defined, the solar year is
about equally divided into two parts by the Nimán, which is probably
the exact dividing celebration of the ceremonial year.
[9] There is a slight _r_ sound in the first two syllables of
Wüwütcímti.
[10] The word mü′iyawû means “moon,” by which it would seem that our
satellite determines the smaller divisions of the year.
[11] From their many stories of the under world I am led to believe
that the Hopi consider it a counterpart of the earth’s surface, and a
region inhabited by sentient beings. In this under world the seasons
alternate with those in the upper world, and when it is summer in
the above it is winter in the world below, and vice versa. Moreover,
ceremonies are said to be performed there as here, and frequent
references are made to their character. It is believed that these
ceremonies somewhat resemble each other and are complemental. In their
cultus of the dead the under world is also regarded as the abode of the
“breath-body” of the deceased, who enter it through a sípapu, often
spoken of as a lake. I have not detected that they differentiate this
world into two regions, the abode of the blessed and that of the damned.
[12] The Táwaki of tátyüka is the sun house. There is no sun house at
hópoko nor at tévyuña. The names of the four horizon cardinal points
are, kwiníwi, northwest; tevyü′ña, southwest; tatyúka, southeast, and
hopokyüka (syncopated hópoko), northeast.
[13] Note the similarity in sound to the Nahuatl month, Quecholli,
in which the Atamalqualiztli was celebrated. See “A Central American
ceremony which suggests the Snake dance of the Tusayan villagers,”
American Anthropologist, Washington, vol. VI, No. 3. Quecholli,
however, according to both Sahagun and Serna, was in November.
The Snake dance at Walpi is thus celebrated about six months from
Atamalqualiztli, or not far from the time when the people of the under
world celebrate their Snake-Antelope solemnities. In this connection
attention may be called to the fact that the Snake-Antelope priests in
Walpi have a simple gathering in the winter Pa moon (January), when
their sacerdotal kindred of the under world are supposed by them to
be performing their unabbreviated snake rites. This is at most only
about a month from the time Atamalqualiztli was celebrated. Teotlico,
the Nahuatl return of the war god, occurred in November; Soyáluña, the
warriors’ return, in December. There are important comparative data
hearing on the likeness of Hopi and Nahuatl ceremonies hidden in the
resemblance between Kwetcála and Quecholli (Kwetcoli).
[14] Müyiñwûh, the goddess of germs, is preeminently the divinity of
the under world, and has some remarkable similarities to the Nahuatl
Mictlantecutli or his female companion Mictlancihuatl. The name is very
similar to that for moon. This was the ruler of the world of shades
visited by Tiyo, the snake hero. (See the legend of the Snake Youth in
Journal of American Ethnology and Archaeology, vol. IV, Boston, 1894.)
[15] The Soyáluña has been called the Katcina’s return, which name is
not inaccurate. It is, strictly speaking, a warriors’ celebration, and
marks the return of the leader of the Katcinas, as in Teotleco. The
Katcinas appear in force in the Pa celebration.
[16] I have elsewhere pointed out the similarity between the
dramatizations of the Snake-Antelope and the Flute societies, but the
members of the former scout the idea that they are related. Evidently
the similarity in their ceremonials, which can not be denied, are not
akin to the relationships which they recognize between brother and
sister societies.
[17] Strictly speaking, eight active, since the first day is not
regarded as a ceremonial day. See Journal of American Ethnology and
Archæology, vol. IV, p. 13, 1894.
[18] Clowns, called likewise “mudheads” and “gluttons.”
[19] The típoni is supposed to be the mother or the palladium, the
sacred badge of office of the society. It is one of the wími or sacred
objects in the keeping of a chief, and is the insignium of his official
standing. The character of this object varies with different societies,
and, in a simple form, is an ear of corn surrounded by sticks and
bright-colored feathers bound by a buckskin string. For the contents of
the more elaborate forms, see my description of the Lálakoñti típoni
(called bundles of páhos).
[20] Páhos or prayer-sticks are prayer-bearers of different forms
conceived to be male and female when double. Their common form is
figured in my memoir on the Snake Ceremonials at Walpi; Jour. Am. Eth.
and Arch., vol. IV, p. 27. Prescribed forms vary with different deities.
[21] The American Anthropologist, Washington, April, 1892.
[22] Ibid., July, 1892.
[23] Erroneously identified as Cálako in my description and plates of
the presentation of the Mamzraúti in 1891.
[24] The four societies who celebrate the Wüwütcímti are the
Aálwympkiya, Wüwütcímwympkiya, Tataükyamû, and Kwákwantû.
[25] Chief of the Kwákwantû, a powerful warrior society. Among various
attributes Másaüwûh is the Fire God.
[26] The body, save for a kilt, is uncovered. This kilt is white or
green in color, with embroidered rain-cloud symbols. This is tied by a
sash, with dependent fox-skin behind. Rattles made of a turtle shell
and sheep or antelope hoofs are tied to one leg back of the knee, and
moccasins are ordinarily worn. Spruce twigs are inserted in the girdle,
and the Katcina carries a rattle in one hand. This rattle is a gourd
shell with stones within and with a short wooden handle.
[27] The left hand is always used to receive meal offerings and
nakwákwocis, and is spoken of as kyakyauĭna, desirable. The right hand
is called tünúcmahtu, food hand.
[28] The word Katcina, as already stated, is applied to a ceremonial
dance and to a personator in the same. The symbolism of each is
best expressed by the carved wooden statuettes or dolls, tíhus,
many examples of which I have described in my article on “Dolls of
the Tusayan Indians” in Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie,
1894. Profitable sources of information in regard to the symbolic
characteristics of the Katcinas are ceramic objects, photographs, clay
tiles, clay images, pictures on altars, etc. All pictorial or glyptic
representations of the same Katcina are in the main identical, with
slight variations in detail, due to technique.
[29] For a description of the Áñakatcina see Journal of American
Ethnology and Archæology, vol. II, No. 1.
[30] I have also seen visors of this kind, and an old priest of my
acquaintance on secular occasions sometimes wore a huge eye shade or
visor made of basketware. The helmet of the Humískatcina bears a willow
framework which forms a kind of visor, and if, as I suspect from the
“large pasteboard [skin over framework or wooden board] tower,” it was
a tablet or nákci, the personification mentioned by Ten Broeck may have
been a Humískatcina. In May, 1891, I observed a Humís, but there is no
reason from the theory of the time of abbreviated Katcinas to limit
it to May. It might have been performed in April equally well. The
Katcinamanas were not observed by me to wear such visors as Ten Broeck
observed.
[31] During that time our knowledge of the Snake dance had been
enlarged by Stephen, Bourke, and others.
[32] The Katcinas, sometimes spelt Cachinas, are believed to be the
same as the Zuñi Kókos and possibly the Nahuatl teotls. The derivation
is obscure; possibly it is from kátci, spread out, horizontal, the
surface of the earth, náa, father, abbreviated na, surface of land,
father. The Tusayan Indians say that their Katcinas are the same as
the Zuñi Kóko, pronouncing the word as here spelled. Cushing insists,
however, that the proper name of the organization is Kâ′kâ. I find Mrs
Stevenson, in her valuable article on the Religious Life of a Zuñi
Child, has used the spelling Kok′ko, which introduces the o sound which
the Tusayan people distinctly use in speaking of the Katcinas of their
nearest Pueblo neighbors. This variation in spelling of one of the more
common words by conscientious observers shows one of the difficulties
which besets the path of those who attempt etymologic dissection of
Pueblo words. Many Zuñi words in the mouths of the Hopi suffer strange
modifications, so that I am not greatly surprised to find idiomatic
differences between the Hopi dialect of the East mesa and that of
Oraibi. How much may result after years of separation no one can tell,
but the linguist must be prepared to find these differences very
considerable.
[33] This person is said to have been the mother of the Katcinas. She
also was the mother of the monsters, the slaughter of whom by the
cultus hero, Pü′ükoñhoya, and his twin brother is a constant theme in
Tusayan folklore.
[34] Stevenson, Navaho Sand Paintings, in Eighth Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology.
[35] Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. II, No. 1.
[36] The Hopi report that the Zuñi believe that the dead are changed
into Katcinas and go to a Sípapû, which they descend and tell the
“chiefs” to send the rain. The Hopi believe that the dead become
divinized (Katcinas in a loose meaning) and intercede for rain. (See
discussion of Mrs Stevenson’s statement that the dead send rain.) It
seems to me that students of primitive myth and ritual have hardly
begun to realize the important part which orientation plays in early
religions. As research progresses it will be found to be of primary
importance. The idea of world-quarter deities sprang from astronomical
conceptions and was derived from a primitive sun worship in which the
lesser deities naturally came to be associated with the four horizon
points of solstitial sunrise and sunset.
[37] I have elsewhere pointed out that the típoni is called the
mother, and this usage seems to hold among the other Pueblos. As a
badge of chieftaincy it is carried by the chiefs on certain occasions
of initiation and public exhibitions, as can be seen by consulting my
memoir of the Snake Ceremonials at Walpi. Címo, the old Flute chief
(obit 1893), once made the following remark about his típoni: “This is
my mother; the outer wrapping is her garment; the string of shells is
her necklace; the feathers typify the birds, and within it are all the
desirable seeds. When I go to sleep she watches over me, and when I die
one of the feathers will be placed upon my heart, and I hope the típoni
will take care of me.” From these words we learn how much the típoni is
venerated, and it is not remarkable, considering the benefits which are
thought to come from it, that it is designated “the mother.”
[38] I mention this fact since, following Bandolier’s studios among the
Rio Grande Pueblos, we have something different. The Koshare, which
appear to correspond with a group of the Tcukúwympkiya, the Paiakyamû,
are regarded by him as the summer and autumn men, while the Cuirana are
the spring men. During the late summer and autumn the Tcukúwympkiya
take no part in the ceremonials at the East mesa of Tusayan. No
Tcukúwympkiyas appear in the Snake, Flute, Lálakoñti, Mamzraúti,
Wüwütcímti, or in certain minor festivals. They appear to be almost
universal accompaniments of the Katcina observances.
[39] The elaboration is of course along different lines of growth,
and its characteristics are treated in the several already published
articles devoted to these subjects. In none of the abbreviated Katcinas
described was there an altar or complicated kiva performance, but on
the other hand, in the elaborate Katcinas such secret observances
always existed. Síocalako, described in this article, affords an
interesting abbreviated ceremonial with kiva rites.
[40] This might better be called a composite, abbreviated Katcina.
[41] The late Mr Stephen made extended studies of this presentation
in 1892, but his fatal illness prevented his being in the kiva the
following winter. It is necessary that a continued study of this
dramatization be made before a complete account of the ceremonial
calendar can be attempted.
The following men are distinctly called chiefs: Moñ′mowitû of Soyáluña,
Kwátcakwa, Sakwístiwa Anawíta, Nasímoki, Kwáa, Sikyáustiwa, and Súpela.
[42] See figures of this effigy in my account of the Pálülükoñti,
Journal of American Folk-lore, Oct.-Dec., 1893.
[43] Here evidently we have a prayer to the deity symbolized by the
effigy and not an invocation to the effigy itself.
[44] The dance with the sun-shield remotely resembles certain so-called
“sun dances,” which have been described among the nomads, in which
physical exhaustion and suffering are common features. This dance,
it must be borne in mind, took place when the sun was at the winter
solstice, and the dramatization of attack and defense may have some
meaning in connection with this fact.
[45] On the authority of Cyrus Thomas, “Are the Maya hieroglyphs
phonetic?” American Anthropologist, Washington, July, 1893, p. 266.
His reasoning that the scribe of the codex intended to represent this
astronomical event is plausible but not conclusive.
[46] There are members of the American race living where the sun
disappears at the winter solstice or succumbs to evil powers. Have the
Pueblos inherited this rite from people who once lived far to the north?
[47] The fact that the Snake dance follows the Nimán may be explained
as follows: The sun begins to be affected by the Plumed Snake at
the Farewell dance, and the growing influence of this divinity is
recognized, hence his children (reptiles) are gathered from the fields
and intrusted with the prayers of men to cease his malign influence.
[48] At the Nimán in the preceding July.
[49] With Tatcü′kti (Mud-heads).
[50] Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. IV.
[51] Numbers 1, 2, 7, 9 and 10 of this list have been described as
abbreviated Katcinas. The symbolism of 3 and 8 is shown in my figures
of dolls; of the remainder my information is as yet very limited.
[52] Comparable with the Nahuatl Ochpanitzli. The points of similarity
between the two are the predominance of the Earth goddess and the
ceremonial renovation of the sacred gathering places.
[53] American Anthropologist, Washington, January, 1894.
[54] The accompanying observations on the Powámû were made by the late
A. M. Stephen in his work for the Hemenway Expedition.
[55] These men were from the Álkiva. They wore the knob-head helmets
and their bodies were stained red. Each carried a rattle in the right
and an eagle feather in the left hand, and had a pouch of skin or other
material slung over the right shoulder. This held corn, beans, and
other seeds, which they gave to the women and elders.
[56] With the coiled stone, which resembles the cast of some large
fossil shell. I venture to suggest that the reason we find petrified
wood in some shrines can be explained in the following manner: In times
long past trees were believed by the Hopi to have souls and these
breath bodies were powerful agents in obtaining blessings or answering
prayers. The fossilized logs now put in shrines date back to the times
of which I speak, consequently they are efficacious in the prayers of
the present people. This is but the expression of an animistic belief
in the souls of trees.
[57] She has the Bear típoni and other fetiches.
[58] The name given for this marking by Ahü′l is ómowûh moñwitûpeadta.
It is an appeal to all the gods of the six regions to bless these Kivas
and houses.
[59] The performances with the clowns were not unlike others in which
they appear.
[60] The mound from which it was obtained is close to the base of the
foothills eastward from Walpi, and all the sand for all the kivas was
obtained from this particular mound.
[61] During the festival the women clip the hair of their children. The
hair is cut over the entire cranium of the little boys, but in the case
of the girls a fringe is left around the base of the head, especially
on each side, for the characteristic whorls worn by maidens.
[62] The gap in the East mesa, known as Wala, whence the name of the
pueblo of Walpi at the western end of the same height.
[63] Woman’s blanket without decoration.
[64] At the tip of the lowest tail feather on each side a nakwákwoci
stained with cúta was hung.
[65] Natácka carried a handsaw in the left hand.
[66] Bandoleer.
[67] Hahaíwüqti did not enter any of the houses, but merely went up the
ladder two or three rungs and stood there just high enough to bring
her helmet on a level with the first terrace. She then gave her shrill
hoot, and when the women had brought out their children spoke to them
in high falsetto.
[68] A figure of Tuñwúpkachina with his pet (pókema) appears on the
reredos of the altar of the Nimánkatcina. (See Journal of American
Ethnology and Archæology, vol. II, No. 1.) The sprig which he is
depicted as bearing in the hand was supposed to represent a cornstalk,
but from the new observations of the personification of Tuñwup there is
no doubt that a yucca whip was intended.
[69] As I have already pointed out, the youth who dons the mask of a
Katcina is believed to be for the time transformed into a deity (soul).
[70] Moñ, chief; kohu, wood—a chieftain’s badge.
[71] Eótoto (“Aiwótoto”), has been described in my account of the
daybreak ceremonials of the Farewell Katcina (Journal of American
Ethnology and Archæology, vol. II, No. 1). Hahaíwüqti has been figured
and described in my article on Certain Personages who Appear in a
Tusayan Ceremony (American Anthropologist, January, 1894).