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.