* * * * *
The story of the Hopi, who does every important thing in his life
according to a traditional pattern and accompanied by appropriate
religious ceremony, would not be complete without some account of birth,
marriage, and burial. Not having seen these ceremonies, the writer
offers the record of authoritative observers.
=Birth=
Babies are welcomed and well cared for in Hopiland, and now that the
young mothers are learning to discard unripe corn, fruit, and melons as
baby food, the infant mortality, once very high, is decreasing.
Natal ceremonies are considered important. Goddard[33] gives us a brief
picture of the usual proceedings: "The Hopi baby is first washed and
dressed by its paternal grandmother or by one of her sisters. On the day
of its birth she makes four marks with corn meal on the four walls of
the room. She erases one of these on the fifth, tenth, fifteenth, and
twentieth day of the child's life. On each of these days the baby and
its mother have their heads washed with yucca suds. On the twentieth
day, which marks the end of the lying-in period, the grandmother comes
early, bathes the baby and puts some corn meal to its lips. She utters a
prayer in which she requests that the child shall reach old age and in
this prayer gives it a name. A few of the women members of the father's
clan come in one at a time, bathe the baby and give it additional names.
After the names have been given, the paternal grandmother goes with the
mother and the child to the eastern edge of the mesa, starting so as to
arrive about sunrise. Two ears of white corn which have been lying near
the child during the twenty days, are carried with them. The grandmother
touches these ears of corn to the baby's breast and waves them to the
east. She also strews corn meal toward the sun, placing a little on the
child's mouth. As she does this, she prays, uttering in the course of
her prayer the various names which have been given to the child. The
mother goes through a similar ceremony and utters a similar prayer.
"The names given relate in some way to the clan of the one who bestows
them. Of the various names given to the child, one, because it strikes
the fancy of the family, generally sticks ... until the individual is
initiated into some ceremony. At that time a new name is given."
For instance, a Hopi man of middle age, known to the writer as George
(school name), tells her that his adopted father belonged to the Tobacco
Clan, so the name selected for him by the paternal aunts was
"Sackongsie" or "green tobacco plant with the blossoms on." Bessie, born
in the same family, was named "Sackhongeva" or "green tobacco plant
standing straight." The nine month's baby daughter of a Hopi girl once
in the employ of the writer is merrily called "Topsy," although formally
named Christine in honor of the school superintendent's wife. Her mother
explains that the father's clan is Tobacco, and the aunts named this
baby "Topt-si," "the red blossom on top of the tobacco plant," which
sounds so exactly like Topsy that the family sense of humor has
permitted the nickname. One of the writer's Hopi girls was named "two
straight, tall rows of corn," another, "Falling Snow." These pretty
names, too long for convenience, are nevertheless cherished, as a matter
of sentiment, by their owners.
[Footnote 33: Goddard, P.E., Indians of the Southwest: N.Y. Amer. Mus.
Nat. Hist., Handbook Series No. 2, 1921.]
=Marriage=
The following is Hough's[34] description of the wedding ceremony at
Oraibi: "When the young people decide to be married, the girl informs
her mother, who takes her daughter, bearing a tray of meal made from
white corn, to the house of the bridegroom where she is received by his
mother with thanks. During the day the girl must labor at the mealing
stones, grinding the white meal, silent and unnoticed; the next day she
must continue her task.... On the third day of this laborious trial she
grinds the dark blue corn which the Hopi call black, no doubt, glad when
the evening brings a group of friends, laden with trays of meal of
their own grinding as presents, and according to the custom, these
presents are returned in kind, the trays being sent back next day heavy
with choice ears of corn.
"After this three days' probation ... comes the wedding. Upon that day
the mother cuts the bride's front hair at the level of her chin and
dresses the longer locks in two coils, which she must always wear in
token that she is no longer a maiden. At the dawn of the fourth day, the
relatives of both families assemble, each one bringing a small quantity
of water in a vessel. The two mothers pound up roots of the yucca, used
as soap, and prepare two bowls of foaming suds. The young man kneels
before the bowl prepared by his future mother-in-law, and the bride
before the bowl of the young man's mother, and their heads are
thoroughly washed and the relatives take part by pouring handsful of
suds over the bowed heads of the couple. While this ceremonial ... goes
on ... a great deal of jollity ensues. When the head-washing is over,
the visitors rinse the hair of the couple with the water they have
brought, and return home. Then the bridal couple take each a pinch of
corn meal and leaving the house go silently to the eastern side of the
mesa on which the pueblo of Oraibi stands. Holding the meal to their
lips, they cast the meal toward the dawn, breathing a prayer for a long
and prosperous life, and return to the house, husband and wife.
"The ceremony over, the mother of the bride (Note: All other authorities
say groom, H.G.L.) builds a fire under the baking stone, while the
daughter prepares the batter and begins to bake a large quantity of
paper bread.... The wedding breakfast follows closely on the heels of
the wedding ceremony and the father of the young man must run through
the pueblo with a bag of cotton, handsful of which he gives to the
relatives and friends, who pick out the seeds and return the cotton to
him. This cotton is for the wedding blankets and sash which are to be
the trousseau of the bride....
"A few days later the crier announces the time for the spinning of the
cotton for the bride's blanket. This takes place in the kivas, where
usually all the weaving is done by the men, and with jollity and many a
story the task is soon finished. The spun cotton is handed over to the
bridegroom as a contribution from the village, to be paid for like
everything else Hopi, by a sumptuous feast, which has been prepared by
the women for the spinners. Perhaps ten sage-brush-fed sheep and goats,
tough beyond reason, are being softened in a stew, consisting mainly of
corn; stacks of paper bread have been baked, various other dishes have
been concocted, and all is ready when the crier calls in the hungry
multitude....
"With the spun cotton, serious work begins for the bridegroom and his
male relatives, lasting several weeks. A large white blanket ... and a
smaller one must be woven and a reed mat in which the blankets are to be
rolled. A white sash with long fringe and a pair of mocassins, each
having half a deerskin for leggings, like those worn by the women of the
Rio Grande pueblos, complete the costume. The blankets must have
elaborate tassels at the four corners. (Note: Representing rain falling
from the white cloud blanket. H.G.L.)
"Shortly before sunrise, the bride, arrayed in her finery, performs the
last act in the drama, called 'going home.' Up to this time the bride
has remained in the house of her husband's people. Wearing the large
white blanket, picturesquely disposed over her head, and carrying the
small blanket wrapped in the reed mat in her hands, she walks to her
mother's house ... and the long ceremony is over ... for in this land of
women's rights the husband must live with his wife's relatives."
[Footnote 34: Hough, Walter, Op. cit, p. 123.]
The bride may not appear at a public ceremonial dance until the
following July, at the Kachina Farewell ceremony, when all the brides of
the year turn out in their lovely wedding blankets and white leggings,
the only time this blanket is ever worn after the wedding (during life),
save one the naming ceremony of her first child.
It becomes her winding sheet when at death she wears it in her grave,
then after four days, she takes it from her shoulders and uses it as a
magic carpet when, having reached the edge of the Grand Canyon, she
steps out upon her ceremonial blanket, and like a white cloud it
descends with her to Maski, the underworld paradise of the Hopi.
Are the Hopi married in this way today? Most certainly. Figure 12 shows
a Hopi girl who worked for the writer for three summers. She is a fine,
intelligent girl, having gone more than halfway through high school
before she returned to her home on Second Mesa to live. This is her
wedding picture taken last year at the moment of her "going home," after
just such a wedding ceremonial as described above.
[Illustration: Figure 12.--A Hopi Bride.
--Photo by Colton.]
A letter from friends of the writer states that her baby is just now
going through his natal ceremonies in the good old Hopi way. If the
Snake Dance is continued till he grows up--it makes one shudder to think
of it--he is in line to be a Snake priest!
=Burial=
Here we have the account of Goddard:[35] "When an adult dies, the
nearest relatives by blood wash the head, tie a feather offering to the
hair so that it will hang over the forehead, wrap the body in a good
robe and carry it to one of the graveyards which are in the valleys near
the mesas. The body is buried in a sitting position so that it faces
east. This is done within a few hours after death has occurred. The
third night, a bowl containing some food, a prayer-stick offering, and a
feather and string, are carried to the grave. The string is placed so
that it points from the grave to the west. The next morning, the fourth,
the soul is supposed to rise from the grave and proceed in the direction
indicated by the string, where it enters the 'skeleton house.' This is
believed to be situated somewhere near the Canyon of the Colorado."
[Footnote 35: Goddard, P.E., Op. cit.]
Any bodies of young children who have not yet been initiated into any
fraternity are not buried in the ground, but in a crevice of rock
somewhere near the mother's home and covered with stones. A string is
left hanging out, pointing to the home of the family. The spirit of the
child is believed to return and to be re-born in the next child born in
the family, or to linger about till the mother dies and then to go with
her to the underworld.
If the adult spirit has led a good life, it goes to the abode where the
ancestral spirits feast and hold ceremonies as on earth, but if evil it
must be tried by fire and, if too bad for purification, it is
destroyed.