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.