present knowledge to be a prayer to the Germ God for fertility of
human beings, animals, and crops. The Germ Gods, earth gods, and fire
gods are to be placated and honored by these rites, and no doubt the
new fire ceremonies of all times and peoples were held with such
intent, for the relation of life and fire was a philosophic
observation of the remote past. With this ceremony the round of the
year has been finished and the Hopi are ready to begin again.[8]
[8] The Naac-nai-ya. By J. Walter Fewkes and A. M. Stephen;
Jour. American Folk-Lore, Vol. 5, 1892. The Tusayan New Fire
Ceremony, by J. Walter Fewkes; Proc. Bost. Society Nat. Hist.,
Vol. 26, 1895. The New Fire Ceremony at Walpi, by J. Walter
Fewkes; Am. Anthropologist (N. S.), Vol. 2, Jan., 1900.
The Yayawimpkia are fire priests who heal by fire. They are experts
in the art of making fire by drilling with a stick on a bit of wood
and they perform this act in the Sumaikoli or Little New Fire
Ceremony. There are few of them remaining, and their services are
sometimes called for when a burn is to be treated, or some such
matter. One woman whose breast had been blistered by a too liberal
application of kerosene was healed by the Yaya, who filled his mouth
with soot and spurted the fluid over the burn, the theory of the Yaya
being that wounds made by fire should be checked by fire or the
products of fire.
The Yaya priests are supposed to be able to bring to life people who
have been killed in accidents. There is a story that a man who was
pushed off the high mesa upon the rocks below was restored to his
friends by the magical power of the Yaya. Other fabulous stories,
always placed among the happenings of the past, tell of the wonderful
doings of the Yaya. The Hopi relate that one Yaya standing at the edge
of the mesa said: "Do you see that butte over yonder [the Giant's
Chair, 30 miles distant]; it is black, is it not? I will paint it
white." So with a lump of kaolin the Yaya made magical passes skyward,
and behold, the mountain was white! A brother Yaya said, "I will make
it black again!" So with soot he made magical passes horizonward, and
behold, the butte resumed again its natural color!
Notwithstanding the style of these stories, of which there are many,
the fire-priests do perform wonderful feats of juggling and
legerdemain, especially in winter when abbreviated ceremonies are
held. On account of these performances of sleight-of-hand and
deception the Hopi are renowned as jugglers and have a reputation
extending far and wide over the Southwest.
Besides the Yaya there are many other medicine men, or shamans, who
relieve persons afflicted by sorcerers.
The sufferer believes that a sorcerer has shot with his span-long
bow an old turquoise bead or arrowhead into some part of his body.
He, therefore, summons one of his shamans to relieve him. A single
shaman is called _Tu hi ky a_, "the one who knows by feeling or
touching." The first treatment adopted to relieve the sufferer is
to pass an eagle feather, held by the shaman in his fingers, over
the body of the afflicted person until the shaman asserts he feels
and locates the missile.
The term applied to more than one of these shamans is Poboctu or
eye seekers. In the concluding part of the conjuring, in which
more than one person usually engages, the shamans move around
peering and gazing everywhere, until they determine the direction
in which the malign influence lies. I have been informed by Mr.
Stephen that he saw them engaged over a victim in Sitcumovi many
years ago and that they cleverly pretended to take out of the
sufferer's breast a stone arrowhead half the size of the hand.[9]
[9] Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Journal of American Ethnology and
Archaeology, Vol. II, Boston, 1892, p. 157.
One may chance to see, even yet, a patient being treated for headache
or some minor ailment. The method is very like massage, the eyebrows,
forehead, temples and root of the nose being rubbed with straight
strokes or passes, with occasional pressure at certain points, while a
preternatural gravity is maintained by the operator.
The Hopi ideas and customs as to animals connected with their
religious observances form an interesting and picturesque feature of
their life. An account of some of the more striking customs in this
regard follows:
A few years ago a story went the rounds about a Hopi and his eagle
which a Navaho had taken. It was related that the Hopi hurried to the
agent with his grievance and secured a written order commanding the
Navaho to restore the bird. With considerable temerity the Hopi
presented the "talk paper" to the lordly Navaho, and as might have
been expected got no satisfaction. This story produced a great deal of
amusement at the time, but no one realized that there was embodied
history, folk-lore, religious custom, tribal organization, archeology,
and a number of other matters recently made clear by Dr. J. Walter
Fewkes.[10]
[10] Property-Right in Eagles among the Hopi; Am.
Anthropologist, N. S., Vol. II, Oct.-Dec., 1900.
It transpired that the Navaho had not bodily and by force seized an
eagle which the Hopi had captured by his craft, though one not knowing
the relations between those desert neighbors might have so thought. On
the contrary, the Navaho had taken the eagle from an eyrie on a
mountain many miles away from the Hopi villages, not dreaming of
poaching on anyone's preserves.
He would probably care as little to know that the Snake clan claims
the eagle nests near their old village of Tokonabi to the north of
Walpi; the Horn clan those to the northeast; the Firewood clan those
at the upper end of Keam's Canyon; the Bear clan those at the mouth of
the same canyon; the Tobacco clan those on the crags of Awatobi; the
Rain Cloud clan the nests in the Moki Buttes; the Reed clan those in
the region of their old town forty miles north of Navajo Springs on
the Santa Fé railroad; the Lizard clan the nests on Bitahuchi or Red
Rocks, about forty miles south of Walpi; or that the eagle nests west
of the pueblos along the Little Colorado and Great Colorado belong to
the Oraibi and Middle Mesa villagers. He would disdain the fact that
one cannot meddle with eagles within forty or fifty miles of the Hopi
towns without trespassing on property rights.
The curious fact comes out that these eagle preserves are near the
place of ancient occupancy of the clans, and show in a most
interesting way the lines of migration by which the several clans
traveled to the villages where they now live. These rights are
jealously guarded by the Hopi and are one of the sore spots in their
relations with the Navaho; they frequently ask to have the Government
define their eagle reservations by survey to establish the boundaries
free from molestation.
It may be well to say here that the eagle is a Hopi sacred bird and
one of the most important. Its feathers, like those of the turkey,
parrot, and other birds, are of especial use in the religious
ceremonies. The downy plumes moving at the faintest breath are thought
to be efficacious in carrying to the nature gods the prayers of their
humble worshippers.
Among the sacred hunts that of the eagle was one of the most ancient
as well as important. Small circular stone towers about four feet in
height were built and across the top were laid beams to which were
tied dead rabbits as a bait. Perhaps the mysterious towers of the
Mancos and of the north in Colorado may be explained in this light.
Within the tower the hunter hid after a ceremonial head washing
symbolic of purification, and the deposit of a prayer-offering at a
shrine. The eagle, attracted by the rabbits, circled around and at
last launched himself upon his prey. When he had fastened his talons
in a rabbit the concealed hunter reached through the beams and grasped
the king of the air by the legs and made him captive, taking him to
the village where a cage was provided for his reception. At each hunt
one eagle was liberated after a prayer-stick had been tied to his
thigh in the belief that the bird would carry the prayer to the mighty
beings with whom he was supposed to be on familiar terms.
This describes the method pursued formerly and which some of the old
men have witnessed. Now the Hopi eagle hunters take upon themselves
the difficult and somewhat hazardous task of visiting the eyries to
seize the eaglets. Not all are taken from the nest, since a wise
prohibition requires that some be left to continue the species. The
eaglets are brought to the pueblo, where their heads are washed with
due ceremony, and they are sprinkled with sacred meal. Then the
feathers are plucked out and the birds are killed by pressure on the
breastbone so as not to shed blood, and they are buried in a special
cemetery in a cleft among the rocks where a few stones are put upon
the bodies after the ritual. At the close of the ceremony of the
departure of the gods, called the Niman, or Farewell ceremony, small
painted wooden dolls and little bows and arrows are placed upon the
eagle graves and liberally sprinkled with sacred meal.
But this does not end the Hopi eagle customs. Near the school at
Dawapa, below Walpi, one may stumble upon a collection of oval objects
of wood, placed among rocks, some weathered and some bearing traces of
spots of white paint and feathers. He may learn also that this is an
eagle shrine and that these wooden eggs are prayers for the increase
of eagles prepared during the Soyaluna or Winter Solstice ceremony.
At present figurines of the domestic animals are also offered for the
same purpose. Perhaps we have here a step toward the domestication of
animals which was carried out with the turkey, parrot, and dog. In any
case, however, there is shown the veneration of the Hopi for the birds
of the air and especially the eagle, which is honored in the symbols
of so many peoples.
Among the sacred animals of the Hopi the turkey is of great
importance. In accord with the belief that the markings on the tail
feathers were caused by the foam and slime of an ancient deluge, the
feathers are prescribed for all pahos; since through their mythical
association with water they have great power in bringing rain. The
Spanish Conquerors of the sixteenth century when they visited the
pueblos spoke of "cocks with great hanging chins" they saw there, and
this is the first notice of the bird for which the world is indebted
to America. In the villages turkeys roam around without restraint and
become household pets. Sometimes also they dispute the entrance of a
village by a stranger and put him to a great deal of annoyance by
their attacks, which are usually in the nature of a surprise from the
rear. At present the Hopi keep them for their feathers, which are
plucked as occasion requires, so that the village turkey commonly has
a ragged appearance.
There were ceremonial antelope hunts before cattle and horses
destroyed the grass on the ranges and while these members of the deer
tribe were plentiful. One of the most beautiful flowers of the
Southwest, the scarlet gilia, is thought to be especially liked by the
antelope, and tradition says that for this reason the hunter formerly
ground up the flowers with sacred meal and made offerings with it for
success in hunting that graceful animal. Remains of extensive stake
fences and corrals built by the Navaho for driving the antelope are to
be seen south of the Hopi Reservation. One of these is called the
"Chindi corral," because the Navaho say that in the last great hunt
those who ate of the antelope captured were made sick and many died.
Hence no Navaho will camp in this bewitched corral or use a piece of
the wood for camp fires, no matter how great the necessity.
The Hopi sometimes hunted the antelope by driving, but usually relied
on surprise, fleetness of foot, the bow and arrow, and the boomerang.
No doubt the deer and great elk were ceremonially hunted in the old
days of tradition. There is little reason to believe that the Hopi
vegetarians have for centuries gained more than a flavor of animal
food to vary their diet. Formerly the antelope must have been more
important, though always difficult to capture. Now, the Hopi perforce
hunt rabbits, as the _tabo_ or cottontail and the _sowi_ or jackrabbit
alone of all the game animals survive in this region.
If one chances to see a hunting party set out or to encounter them in
active chase he will have a novel experience and wonder what all the
screaming, barking of dogs, and running hither and thither mean, if he
does not fear that he has met the Peaceful People on the warpath. The
hunters smeared with clay present a strange appearance. In their hands
they carry bow and arrows, boomerangs of oak, and various clubs and
sticks. One of the party is delegated to carry the rabbits, and he
usually rides a burro. In and out among the rocks of the mesa sides
they skirmish like coyotes and with quite as fiendish noise. Rabbits
have little chance unless they take to earth, and even then the Hopi
stop to dig or twist them out. Such a hunt means sixty or seventy
miles, perhaps, of hard work before the hunters dash up the home mesa
with their game to "feed the eagles" or for some other ceremonial
purpose.
Some of the ceremonial hunts bring out as many as a hundred Hopi, and
in such case those on horse or burro or afoot drive the rabbits into a
narrowing circle and close in with an exciting melee that displays
more energy than a football game. If for any reason the rabbits are
scarce and the result of a hunt is small, the Hopi return somewhat
dejected and have little to say, but if the _sowimaktu_ has been a
success they make a triumphant entry with much shouting and exultant
song.
In walking about the pueblos one sees many things connected with the
religious life of the Hopi, especially shrines. An account of the more
notable of these may prove of interest.
It is not often granted one to stand at the center of the world. The
feeling ought not to be different from that occasioned by standing at
any other place on the earth, but in the presence of the shrine by
which the Walpians mark that mysterious spot a number of inquiries
spring up in the mind. At Jerusalem, at Mecca, and at perhaps a
hundred other places are authentic earth centers, each fixed by edicts
of church or the last word of wise men and upheld against all comers.
The disputes over the center of the world in the times before men knew
that the world was round are amusing to enlightened nineteenth century
people.
The Hopi felt the need of an earth center just as other benighted
folks did in early times, so beneath the mesa cliffs among the rocks
they placed their shrine and bestowed their offerings. Just what the
Hopi believe about this particular shrine no doubt would be very
interesting.
Other shrines abound near each pueblo and are likely to be happened
upon in out-of-the-way places among the rocks where the offerings are
scattered about, some new with fresh paint and feathers and some much
weather-worn. Near the Sun Spring at Walpi there is a spot where many
rounded blocks of wood lie on the ground. This is the Eagle Shrine and
the bits of wood represent eagle eggs; the green paint and cotton
string with the prayer feather decorating them soon disappear in the
sun and wind.
While it is not good policy to pry around these sacred places,
knowing that the keen eyes of the Hopi watch from the mesa top, yet
casually some of the more interesting shrines may be visited.
At the point of the Walpi mesa where the old town stood several
centuries ago, are several shrines, to one of which the _kachinas_
after the ceremonies go in order to deposit their wreaths of pine
brought from the San Francisco Mountains and to make "breath-feather"
offerings of paint and meal. Here also they make offerings of food to
the dead. At another spot the bushes are hung with little disks of
painted gourd, each with a feather representing the squash flower.
A heap of small stones is a Mas a uah shrine, and a stone is added by
each one who passes as an offering to the terrible god of the earth,
death, and fire. No orthodox Hopi would dare to omit throwing a stone
accompanied with a prayer to Masauah, of whom all speak in fear and
with bated breath. For a good reason, then, many shrines to this god
may be seen in Hopiland, as it is necessary to appease this avenging
being.
Everyone who goes to Walpi sees the great shrine in the gap which is
called the "shrine of the end of the trail." The base and sides are
large slabs of stone, and within are various odd-shaped stones
surrounding a coiled fossil believed by the Hopi to be a stone
serpent. During the winter Sun ceremony this whole stone box blossoms
with feathered prayer-sticks, almost hiding the shrine, and converting
it into a thing of beauty.
Other holy places, most of them ruins of abandoned towns, are visited
at times by this people, who cheerfully make long journeys to
mountains and running streams for sacred water, pine boughs, or herbs.
They carry with them feather prayer-sticks and sacred meal as
offerings to the gods of the place. One of the streams from which holy
water is brought is Clear Creek near the town of Winslow, seventy-five
miles south of Walpi.
Each field has a shrine and _pahos_ are often seen there; this is also
the custom among the Zuñi and other of the Pueblos. In the center of
the main plaza of each pueblo may be seen a stone box with a slab of
stone for a door which opens to the east. This is called the _pahoki_,
or "house of the pahos," the central shrine of the village, and it is
carefully sealed up when not in use.
It is to be expected that the shrines of the ancient pueblos would
have vanished, and it is true that such remains are the rarest
encountered in exploring ruins. Still a few traces reward a careful
search in the outskirts of many of the ruins. A shrine made of slabs
of stone painted with symbolic designs of the rain cloud was found at
the ancient town of Awatobi, and is now in the National Museum.
In caves and rock recesses of the mesas are deposits of the sacred
belongings of the societies. These places, while not shrines perhaps,
are kept inviolably sacred, and no curious white visitors have peered
into them, even those highest in the good graces of the priests.
Once by chance two explorers came upon such a treasure house and with
some trepidation took a photograph of it. In a dark cleft under the
rocks were the jars in which the "snake medicine" is carried. These
were arranged without much order near a most remarkable carved stone
figure of _Talatumsi_, the "dawn goddess" painted and arrayed in the
costume of that deity. In truth, this little cavern had a gruesome
look, and knowing also the prohibition against prying, one breathed
more freely on getting away from the neighborhood.
Though the Hopi may have no house shrines, and this is said with
caution, because not much is known of their domestic life, yet in some
of the houses are rude stone images which are venerated. These images
may be household gods like the Lares and Penates of the ancients. No
one would be surprised to know that the Hopi hold the fireplace sacred
and make sacrifice to it as the shrine of Masauah, the dread ruler of
the underworld.
So while our towns have interesting churches and historical buildings,
none of them can compete with the high houses of the Hopi surrounded
by primitive shrines to the nature gods, who, in their simple belief,
protect the people and send the rains which insure abundant harvests.
VIII
MYTHS
As yet the myths of the Hopi have not been systematically collected,
hence our view of the deeper workings of the Hopi mind is a limited
one. No observer familiar with the language has lived with the Good
People in order to hear from the wrinkled sages the tales of
beginnings and the explanations of things that must be stored in their
minds, if the fragmentary utterances that are extant may give
indication. A few myths collated principally from the writings of Dr.
J. Walter Fewkes are given as examples, displaying the range and depth
of the imagination of these Indians.[11]
[11] Since writing this Rev. H. R. Voth has published a valuable
collection of folk-tales and myths. Field Mus. Pub. 96.
In the early days when the world was young, many monsters, most of
whom were hostile to man, roamed the earth or infested the sky, and
particularly harassed the Hopi. These monsters were gigantic in size
and possessed special weapons of tremendous power to assist them in
their supernatural craft. Long the people groaned under the ravages of
the monsters, and the time and manner of their deliverance they
delight to recount in many weird stories during the winter nights by
their flickering fires of piñon wood.
In the earth lived the Spider Woman, ancient of days, full of wisdom,
and having a tender regard for her people, the Hopi. Born to her from
a light-ray and a drop of rain were the Twins; one, the son of light,
was the little war-god called the Youth; the other was Echo, the son
of the cloud.
The Youth became the savior of the people; his heroic deeds of the old
times in slaying the monsters cause him still to be held in reverence
by the Hopi and remembered in their ceremonies.
The conquests of the Twins gave rise to many strange adventures. The
transformation of the man-eagle by the Twins is a favorite legend of
the Hopi.
In the above, in the heart of the sky, lived the Man-Eagle. On the
people of the whole earth he swooped down, carrying aloft women and
maidens to his house, where after four days he devoured them. The
Youth, journeying to the San Francisco Mountains, met at the
foot-hills the Piñon maids dressed in mantles of piñon bark and grass,
and here likewise he met the Spider Woman and the Mole. "You have
come," said they in greeting; "sit down; whence go you?" Then said the
Youth, "Man-Eagle has carried away my bride and I seek to bring her
back." "I will aid you," said the Spider Woman.
She bade the Piñon maids to gather piñon gum, wash it, and make a
garment in exact imitation of the flint arrow head armor which
rendered Man-Eagle invulnerable. So did they, and the Spider Woman
gave it, with charm flour, to the Youth. As a spider, then, so small
as to be invisible, she perched on the right ear of the Youth that she
might whisper advice. Mole led the way to the top of the mountains,
but the Piñon maids remained behind.
When they reached the summit, Eagle swooped down; they got on his back
and he soared aloft with them till he was tired. Hawk came close by,
and on his back he carried them still higher in the sky. When he was
weary, Gray Hawk took them and mounted to the heavens with them till
he could go no farther, and Red Hawk received the burden; thus, for an
immense distance, upward they flew, until the adventurers reached a
chasm in the sky through which the Youth, Spider Woman, and Mole
passed, and saw the great white house in which Man-Eagle lived.
The ladder which led into the house had for rungs sharp flint knives.
The Spider Woman advised the Youth, before mounting the ladder, to
gather a handful of sumach berries and give them to Lizard, who
received them with thanks, chewed them and gave him back the cud. The
Youth rubbed the sharp rungs with the chewed berries and they became
dull at once, and he was able to climb the ladder without cutting
himself. When he entered the house of Man-Eagle he saw hanging the
monster's flint arrow head armor, on a peg in a recess, and he at once
exchanged it for the false armor the Piñon maids had given him. In
another recess he saw Man-Eagle and his lost wife. He called out to
her that he had come to rescue her from the monster, and she replied
that she was glad, but that he could not do so, as no one ever left
the place alive. The Youth replied, "Have no fear; you will soon be
mine again."